Continuing When God Interrupts
Still reading the book by M. Craig Barnes, WHEN GOD INTERRUPTS, A Place You’d Rather Not Go. The danger of loving Jesus is that it is really tempting to help others recover their well-ordered lives. When they are in crises that might be exactly where God wants them. It is always tempting to return to something we count on when the Savior gets unpredictable.
Just as Jesus asked Peter “Do you love me?” He asks us “Do we love him?” We ask him, “Can’t we just feed the sheep? He says “No when sheep get ugly, and they will, we’ll quit if we are doing it for any reason other than our love for Jesus. ” We say, ” Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” But really he does know everything, even how hesitant we are to abandon, or to be abandoned, to his love. We are hungry for meaning and purpose, for comfort and understanding.
Life is not goting to be easy, and it should not be easy. It ought to be hard. It ought to be radical; it ought to be restless; it out to leand you to places you’d rather not go. (Nouwen)
Why do we have to abandon the life we know, just to love Jesus? Maybe the answer to these questions have less to do with either the place to which we are carried or the place we leave. Maybe it has more to do with what happens to us along the way. I like that. It is all about the journey.
In Hebrews 3 in the Message, it says, “Take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everthing God gave him to do. It also warns us , “So watch your step firends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. And at the end of the chapter it says, “They never got there because they never listened, never believed.”
God has given us a purpose, something to live for. If we do not listen or believe we miss out on feeling the passion that he calls us too. Yes life is hard. Yes he calls us to take care of his sheep. And that gives us purpose as we experience the hard. It makes it all worth it.