Matthew 10:34-39
“Don’t think I’ve come to make
life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and
father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these
cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family
members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over
me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you
don’t deserve me.
“If you don’t go all the way with me, through
thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look
after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about
yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me."
Scripture
quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002
by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs,
CO. All rights reserved.
Regional sections of our state
newspaper carried a front-page article about young man from El
Paso/Vilonia, Arkansas, who is beginning his freshman year of college.
He is pictured wearing a green jacket and shirt, and the headline is
“4-H is My Life.” Now I don’t know this young man, so I have no idea
what he truly thinks or feels.
I don’t know if he really said these exact words…and if he did, I’m not sure that he meant them literally.
But
I know several people who truly have made something or someone the most
important focus of their lives. They have put this interest or person
above everything else…even Jesus. I know people who are obsessed with
work or a hobby…their own self-interests…or a significant other. There
are people who live and breathe for their children or another family
member…to the detriment of others around them. There are people who are
obsessed with a particular sport or hobby – either as a spectator or a
participant. Some people are so focused on their physical diet,
exercise, and appearance that everything else is secondary.
I
know people who have been told by their family members…it’s me or
Jesus. I know spouses and children who have had to make this difficult
decision…knowing that to choose Jesus might end their marriage or family
relationship. And sadly, there are some people who are so focused on
“church” or the activities and causes that they think define their
Christian faith that they have totally left Jesus out of the mix.
Some
or all of these situations – and countless others – could describe you
and me on any given day. And in each instance, we have failed to keep
the main thing the main thing! So look at the first verse of
this passage again…the one where Jesus says “Don’t think I’ve come to
make things cozy.” In other translations, it says, “I came to bring
trouble, not peace.”(CEV)
Why would Jesus come to bring
trouble? Let’s realize that this is not the typical “trouble” we envision.
Jesus wants to “shake things up” a bit…to “rattle our cages” and make us
think about Who He truly is…and where our priorities lie. He
wants us to discover the depths of His love…and our loyalty. He wants
us to be so devoted to Him that we are willing to strip away everything
and everyone else…even parents, children, siblings, significant others,
careers, possessions, hobbies, and personal desires of every kind.
We
must be willing to put aside those things that we think define our
Christian faith…the campaigns we wage to make a point about this
commandment or that one…our efforts to sway lawmakers and the general
public to “put God back” into XYZ…and focus on truly putting God back into our lives – at the very center of our every breath!
This
is HARD STUFF! But it is critical. What – or who – is your “life”
today? If we are not willing to let go of our own agendas and desires
in order to focus totally on Jesus, then He is exactly right – we don’t
deserve Him! And that’s just not an option for me…what about you?
©2015 Debbie Robus
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