Deuteronomy 30:15-16
Moses said to the people:
”Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.”
“It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.” Cover your own hide because you’re taking care of yourself. Your well-being and security are entirely in your hands.
Except... None of that is true. Perhaps it’s better said, any amount of that that is true is an unfortunate product of our fallen nature.
Many (probably most) of us who consider ourselves to be Christians would agree that we have a God who loves us. We might even refer to him as the “Lord of our lives.” Yet, when it comes down to the brass tax, do our lives really reflect this truth?
Why do so many of us fall prey to anxieties derived from finances, work, or relationships? Was St. Paul teasing us - maybe being hyperbolic - when he said “Have NO anxiety about ANYTHING” in his letter to the Philippians? He couldn’t literally mean NO anxiety about ANYTHING... could he?
Well, why not?
If we truly understood that the supreme being, the unmoved mover, the all-powerful God and very source of existence, chose to adopt us and become our Father, chose to descend into humanity and literally become one of us, chose to suffer brutally at our hands to save us, and finally to reboot all of creation in the resurrection... if we truly understood that THAT God is our Father and our Shephard, then what the hell are we so worried about? Why are we ever anxious about anything?
What are the fears or anxieties we are still clinging on to?
What if we allowed God to even be the Lord of THOSE things?
What if we trusted him completely?
It’s not to say that God won’t let any suffering or misfortune come to you. Nor does any of this message encourage an abdication of your own active cooperation with God’s will. Rather, when you face challenges - and, you definitely will - pick up your cross and continue to walk with the Lord faithfully and earnestly.
Your brother on the journey,
Nick