The Best Laid Plans

Tina Lips led the discussion on Matthew 6:19-34 today at Evergreen as we continue to go through the Sermon on the Mount.  There was a lot of good discussion on the whole passage, talking about what treasures we set our hearts on and where we leave our priorities.  The section of the passage that got me thinking the most was this:

²⁵ Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? . . . ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? . . . ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matt 6:25, 27, 30-34).

I am not a worrier really.  I tend not to worry about problems in the future, though that fact may not be so much from godliness and doing a great job of living by this passage so much as it is from mental necessity.  If I worry about things in the future that I have no solution for and at this point have no way of fixing, I stress and freak out.  So in order not to meltdown, I mostly don’t think about such things until I have to.  Unfortunately, I don’t know that that really falls in line with what this passage is saying either.

Someone pointed out that the point of this passage isn’t so much to chastise people who worry and say, “Stop doing that!” and leave it at that.  The point is that we should be trusting in God to meet our needs.  We don’t have to worry about tomorrow because God already has it figured out for us.  In light of that more complete picture, my method of ignoring future problems is not really the same thing as trusting God with my future.  That’s something I need to work on, but I think it isn’t too much of a stretch to move from where I am the trust aspect.  It’s mostly a matter of thinking intentionally and approaching it through a filter of faith rather than emotional expediency.

Where I do encounter more difficulty is in trusting God with my future when I’m not worried about it.  While this point isn’t explicitly dealt with in the passage, I think the underlying idea is there.  I don’t worry about things in the future much of the time because I have my plans in place.  The problem is that if my security about the future is grounded in life going according to my plan, I’m in trouble.  I’ve experienced many times before the fact that life just doesn’t respect the fact that I have certain expectations.  The universe is quite rude, in fact, totally disregarding the work and mental effort I have put into figuring how I want to structure the course of my life. 

Since the universe centers on me so much less than I would like, I have to trust God.  When those moments come where something shatteringly big changes the course of my life when I liked it just fine how it was going, I have to realize maybe God knows what he is doing, and taking this detour is way better than the route I had mapped out.  When I plan a big change and shift that I think will totally enhance where I’m headed, and the bottom falls out of my plans and I’m stuck right back where I was, I have to acknowledge maybe I’m getting ahead of God, and he has a purpose for keeping me right where I am.  Sometimes life, and God, foiling our plans is really frustrating, even devastating.  I have to believe that he knows better than I do though.  Maybe he knows a much more effective (if radically different) approach to achieving what I was trying to do.  Maybe he knows a much better goal to try to achieve.

Plans have a way of changing, and if God’s plans never fail, and if he always grants us his precious and very great promises, even though it may be anything but comfortable, I have to trust that his ends are better than my means. 

Love and Rejection, A Tale of Missional Living

This morning I went to church early to rehearse with the band, and Chrissy went to do homework at a nearby coffee shop until it was time to join us at the Lab.  While she was there she overheard a conversation involving the two baristas and a patron that came in for a few minutes.  If you don't know anything about our church community, here are some of the salient aspects that have relevance for their conversation:

• The Evergreen Community is self described as a "missional, holistic, Christian community"
• We meet in the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub at two locations before the pubs open on Sunday mornings
• We are a church community that seeks to guide people in a relationship with Jesus that leads to growth and transformation, from whatever stage of their spiritual journey they may currently occupy
• One of the key goals is to be a place that is safe particularly for people who may be wary of attending a more traditional church in a church building, whether because they have never been part of a church body before, they have had previous bad experiences with other churches, or any other reason

The conversation Chrissy overheard was disappointing to say the least.  The third member, the patron of the coffee shop, as it turned out was a staff member of the Lucky Lab. He was telling the baristas about the ridiculous situation he had to put up with, namely working in a pub that hosted church that morning.  The baristas were incredulous, and they all shared a good laugh at the stupidity of such a phenomenon.  They even joked about checking it out, much the same way one would talk about wearing a frying pan as a hat. 

This painful conversation was disappointing for a number of reasons.  First of all, it seems that people of the very group we most desire to reach find us not only unappealing but even laughable.  Second, one of the people involved in the conversation was a member of the pub's staff, in which our gatherings have been happening for years, and though we knew they were never excited about our presence, we would have at least hoped they might have become less hostile through direct observation and some personal contact with us.  Finally, if a church like ours that is designed to be gentle and welcoming to those who might normally feel like outsiders, how is it that we seem to have failed so miserably with these three people, and is it even possible for any church community to accomplish this goal?

Chrissy told me about her experience just before the gathering started, so I had it running through my mind as Dustin began to preach about the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 5:38-48.  Particularly relevant was when he began talking about loving one's enemy and praying for those who persecute us.  He pointed out that if we are not supposed to hate, but love, our enemies, what makes them enemies is not how we feel about or treat them, but how they feel about us.  He told us about a previous church where he had ministered.  They had been the first church in their area to meet in a public school, and there was some serious hostility.  The lead pastor was on the school board and was faced with one other board member in particular who simply hated him and the church, but the pastor always treated the other man like a friend.  What a perfect example of obedience to Jesus' words, and it seemed effortless for him!

While this story is encouraging, it didn't end with him winning over the hostile board member.  He simply obeyed and loved the man because that was the Christlike, loving thing to do.  God doesn't promise us that living like Jesus will make everything better, and everyone will love us for it.  On the contrary, he promises that people will hate us for it and treat us badly.  But what makes it worth it is pleasing Jesus and being able to show Jesus' love to everyone, some of whom just might accept it and turn to Jesus because of it!

I will begin and continue to pray for those who work at the Lucky Lab and have to put up with our admittedly strange customs each week, as well as for the baristas and everyone else in our sphere of influence who may love us, hate us, or fall somewhere in between.  I hope that our whole church community, including me, grows so much like Jesus that loving everyone around us, including those who think we are ridiculous, becomes our natural response.