"As they were going along the road, someone said to
him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' And
Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the
air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' To another he said, 'Follow me.' But he said, 'Lord, let me first
go and bury my father.'
And Jesus said to him, 'Leave
the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of
God.' Yet
another said, 'I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those
at my home.' Jesus said to him, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God.'" (Luke 9:57-62).
There are some morning when I wake up that I just cannot shut my brain off. Sometimes, my thoughts are focused on one particular thing, even one particular Scripture. It is at these times, I know God is speaking, even shouting, to me about it.
This morning that Scripture is, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God." My first fear is, "Have I taken my hand off the plow?" That is surely a frightening thought. At his point, laid off almost two months ago, I have felt a whirlwind of emotions. Desperation, fear, anger, pain, betrayal, etc. have come and gone. Some of the emotions I have felt are valid. Others are just the ripples of the shock I felt when I was first told. I remember coming home that day after getting the news. I was literally in shock, and everything felt surreal for the first day or so. I never thought I would have such a reaction, but you can never understand unless you are laid off from the job that is supporting your family, the one you cannot pay the bills without. However, in this time, I have learned more about trusting God to provide, and He certainly is. I don't have a job, yet, but I do have some good prospects. I try to remember that God often enjoys delivering us from falling at the very last second. I think it reveals to us (He already knows) how much we are really trusting Him.
The question then comes, have I taken my hand off the plow? I'm now involved and active in a different church, and I am leading a small group. It certainly does not look like I have on the outside. What about the inside? You have to ask this question. Where is your heart? Think about all those pastors that Satan or the world as gotten a hold on. On the outside, they probably looked just fine, or at least they didn't look like they were having affairs or embezzling money or whatever. It was long before that when their hearts ran away from God. No, I don't think that my heart has run away like that, but it is a reminder and a warning to me, and I hope by writing this it will be a reminder and a warning to you as well not to "forsake your first love." If you look at your heart and realize that you have, the blood of Jesus was shed for that sin, too. Turn back to God now!
Maybe that verse goes deeper still. What if the very slightest appetite of the heart turns us from the work of God in this world. Laziness wants to watch the game as opposed to doing some real beneficial Kingdom work. I watched a documentary this morning on the Hundred Years War. Yes, I'm a medieval history nerd. A decree by Edward III forbade the watching of "idle games" in which football made the list because these things detracted from the more important business to do. For Edward III and his son, The Black Prince, this was the Second Scottish War of Independence and the Hundred Years' War with France. Today, while we do need our times to relax, do we take too much? Do we focus on other things so much that we forget the work that is really important? Edward III said that watching idle games made unworthy of the Kingdom of England, but Jesus said that turning back after you begin working for Him makes you unworthy of the Kingdom of God.
Press on, saints. Do not be idle and lazy. You are working for the King of Kings, the Great I AM, the One True and Living God! Be renewed in Him and soldier on.
