Jesus talks about being worried
Tuesday night at our Family Dinner six rambunctious kids made their presence known with squeals and chips on the floor and also with significant conversation about contentment and worry. It’s the worry piece that’s sticking with me today. Maybe it’s sticking with you, too. I’m hearing many of us are weighed down by the state of the world. Maybe we all need the challenge we gave to the kids this week.
Jesus has wisdom for us in these communal moments of overwhelm: LOOK and SEEK. We read through Matthew 6:19-34. When Jesus saw the worry the crowds were carrying, he called them to LOOK at some micro-level observation. Do you see the birds? How about the flowers? Are they worried?
Jesus seems to be saying: when you LOOK at the world, remember who God is. Remember his love for you and for the world - love that came to the point of the sacrifice of his own life. His death and resurrection means that God’s resurrection power is unleashed in the world and God is united with us once again. Remember God’s commitment to hold the whole world together and to relentlessly bring us toward the moment of the renewal of all things.
Now, I’m not calling for denial or escapism. But I am inviting you to meditate as much on how God sees the world from his eternal perspective– at least as much as you’re looking at what’s going on in the world from our earthly perspective.
Then SEEK the Kingdom. Pray and act with the perspective that the Spirit can bring. We’re active as a community according to the influence God has given us, parenting and grandparenting, working at the schools and the shipyard, volunteering at World’s Relief’s welcome van at the detention center and rebuilding a safe community space.
I found it profound last night to consider the way of Jesus in the language of kids. After going over Matthew 6:19-34, Maddy wrote out a challenge for the kids to create a “Content List”-- it’s like a wish list, but instead of “more, more, more” we are saying, “that’s enough, that’s enough, that’s enough.” I imagine holding the weight of all I cannot change in one hand and inviting God to offer a substantive, balancing weight of contentment in the other.
I hold, “that is totally overwhelming on the right,” and on the left I hold, “you God are enough.” Then I offer both outstretched to God in prayer, as he holds all things together.
Allow me to take the lead as we take this contentment challenge. God, you have provided enough, enough, enough:
Stories of you, God, moving in the lives of our people.
Ways to worship and places to meet for us to grow together.
Neighbors to cover bus stop pick up and friendship.
May you experience a wave of gratitude and trust as I have in making this list.
“Keeping our courage and remaining confident in our hope in Christ” (Hebrews 3:6) is feeling especially bold and courageous in this cultural moment. We’re not turning away – we’re LOOKING right in front of us and SEEKING God’s way forward. We’re trusting God’s power of redemption and the eternal perspective of his story. We’re activated in our areas of influence to seek justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8)
We’re looking out to the next two years with a deep sense of trust that God has enough for us to provide for the ministry and the building restoration projects he is calling us into. I invite you to ask the Spirit to show you more of God’s joyful, generous heart at work in your own life and in our life as a community. Ask God if there’s a specific hope he’s inviting you to carry with us as we look out two years during TIME TO RESTORE. Our guides and the accompanying commitment cards can be good prompts for prayer.
Sunday, February 8th, we’ll be celebrating the Feast of New Beginnings and bringing our commitments together for this new, two year focus on the restoration of a people and a place. May God build up in us over the next two weeks an accompanying weight of hope to all the weariness we also carry.
Megan
PS Maddy says the bonus is if you can list 10 things on your “Content List” and bring it back next week. What do you think? Pause. Can you write 10 “that’s enough, that’s enough, that’s enough”?
