Staying On Task Or Missing the Mark?

The older I get the more difficulty I have staying on task.  I am easily distracted and my mind is prone to wander from project to project. Perhaps I worry more? Heaven knows that there is a LOT to worry about these days.  I know lots of parents worry about their kids when they are small but I really didn't...however, now that my kids are at a critical point in life--I worry about them more than ever. I worry about our church...which in a way is worry about my own situation. When I sit at my desk or computer to study or plan my mind goes in a million different directions because there are SO MANY things that need attention. I watch the news...I worry about our world...Russia, Muslim extremism, Human rights, gender, race, the economy, what it means to be "an American," poverty, evangelism, education, the zombie apocalypse (which now...fundamentalist will say is a certainty because they are adding an openly gay character to "The Walking Dead")..the list is never ending.

I would NEVER want to go back in time to try and redo what has been done. It is over. Unlike many Arminianist who are really closet Calvinist, I do not believe that God has a plan for everything AND in the notion of free-will. If we have free will we play a part in directing the course of our lives and of human history. If we do not...then we are simply puppets dancing at the end of God's strings....as much as people want their "cake and to eat it to"--you cannot have it both ways. But I must confess that life was simpler back then...there was MUCH less to worry about (not in the world just in my life..naivete is a WONDERFUL thing). Not that am I old enough (I guess) to think of those times as the "good ole days." Every day is what we make of it...get over the past and yourself. The "good ole days"---without electricity, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, hot showers, and pop tarts (without those things NOTHING could be called "good")---instead what we mean is "days where we felt more comfortable" with ourselves and our surroundings.  The older we get the less "native" (to borrow a phrase from Len Sweet) we are because as the world quickly changes we become slower to adapt to the change--when it overwhelms us we begin to yearn for "the good ole days" when life was _______________________ (fill in the blank). Truth be told they were no better or worse...just different.  My church says...we want to sing the "old" songs...so I plan hymns from the 18th century--strangely...they don't know them...so I ask...what do you mean by "old?" I come to understand it means songs that they grew up with...songs that they are "comfortable" with.

But I don't want to be too hard on them...or me.  We were not the first to make comfort a priority. In Mark 10 Jesus teaches the "rich young ruler" that he cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless he sells all that he has and gives it to the poor.  The rule cannot accept Jesus' teaching because he is overly reliant on his material possessions for security.  Likewise, Jesus then teaches his own disciples how difficult it is for the wealthy to enter into the Kingdom. The clearly understand his teaching...being of good Jewish stock they realized that being wealthy and socially prominent were signs of God's blessings...however if the rich and well connected could not enter the Kingdom, Peter asks on behalf of the twelve, "then who CAN be saved?"

Jesus' reply is quite simple...salvation is the work of God (for us through the blood of Jesus) and He doesn't need any help...rather, he needs only one thing...a commitment.

It is at this point in the narrative that the disciples become all too human (and comfortable). "We have left everything to follow you!" (a.k.a. "what's in it for us?")--Jesus was making them uncomfortable! The threefold promise that Jesus makes SHOULD have helped, at least encouraged, but as far as we know it did neither...I believe it leaves the disciples DUMBFOUNDED (because that is the way that it leaves me). (1) to receive back in their life a hundredfold of what they have lost.  [Some will attempt to twist this to make it sound like material gain.  But how could that be when Jesus just taught them not to be reliant on material things? It is a promise...but not for material wealth on earth...but for something better.] (2) to be the object of suffering and persecution (now I am even MORE uncomfortable--suffering is the gift that no one wants!) and (3) to have eternal life in the age to come. FINALLY...some good news...but wait, the "age to come" sounds distant and not really relevant to the "here-and-now" (how will I pay my bills THIS MONTH???).

At another point, in the not too distant past (cf Mark 8:34-35) Jesus had given his disciples the requirements for being a follower of Jesus, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever want to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it." (I guess it didn't sink in too well??).

Discipleship (following Jesus) is about staying on a single task and not wandering (or wondering!) from it. Discipleship, by design, entails service and suffering (NOT comfort). We must enter into discipleship based on one thing...a radical commitment to love God and others through Jesus Christ...we cannot follow Jesus because of some hope that we will be rewarded (either in this life or in the next)--if we do---we will be disappointed EVERY time--it is the WRONG motivation to chose to follow Jesus simply to avoid hell or to get to heaven. What makes hell...hell is that God is not present there; and what makes heaven...heavenly is that we will dwell with God in perfection (all the things that make life here difficult [sin, death, tears, pain, temptation, suffering, etc...] will be done away with--the things that were "cursed" by the Fall [cf Gen 3] will be reversed and humanity will be restored to perfect fellowship with God and his Son--MUCH like life in Genesis chapters 1-2). These are the wrong things to motivate our relationship with Jesus.  We must enter into the relationship with our eyes open knowing the demands that will be put upon us (it was never intended to be easy!)...but we also enter with two VERY important promises. We will NEVER be alone, and we will be given the power of the Holy Spirit to allow us to overcome. "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well" (Jesus in Matt 6:33).

I believe...help me in my unbelief.