Faith in God is based on his love and grace, and so we often have this ideal in our minds, where we become a follower of Jesus and everything falls into place. I mean Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burden is light, so this believing, following, being a Christian business should be dead easy.
But the reality often hits us hard in the spiritual face, when things don't go as we planned. God doesn't answer, we don't get what we asked for, illness hits, death rears its ugly head, and all we hear is the clock ticking in the silence. Then when we fail to comprehend the complexity of this reality, that pain and faith can co-exist, we stumble and grind to a halt. No more moving forward, just confusion and struggle, hidden by a smile and a raised hand singing worship songs that we're not 100% sure that we believe.
The reality of this confusing struggle of the unanswered prayers, and the pain, is that we won't fully understand until we see him as he is, when God reveals to us his plan for our lives, the beauty of hindsight in its fullness. But in the mean time, maybe we just need to shift our understanding ever so slightly, to take in a wider view of what Jesus said and who he is.
You see alongside talk of 'my burden is easy and my yoke is light', comes commands such as 'pick up your cross and follow me'. Jesus did not give us false illusions, just often we cherry pick the verses that inspire, that go nicely on a fridge magnet. Recently I was looking at Luke 17. In verses 7-10, Jesus describes us as servants of God who once they finish one job, are called on to the next task rather than having a nice break while God waits upon us.
Jesus is telling us the way of things, that we are to serve God, not the other way around. Ironically Jesus came to show that God is not above serving, like some pompous ruler. When it comes to servanthood we model what Jesus modelled for us. This parable of Jesus in Luke 17 tells us that we are not to be above hard work, not just in the secular arena, but in our spiritual walk too.
In fact it often works that God gives us the tools, but the job is ours to perform. I heard someone recently describe it like this; God has never made a chair. Or a table. God makes trees. And yet many of us in our prayers, pray and pray and pray for God to give us a chair, when he has already given us what we need to have a chair - a tree. We need to add hard work to our prayer life. For others of us, we craft a chair out of the tree, and because we have never prayed, puff up with pride at what we've achieved and fail to see God at work in our lives. We need a balance of the two.
In the parable of the sower, told by Jesus, the only limiting factor for the growth of the harvest was the soil. The seed in every instance Jesus gives has the same unlimited potential, to grow and produce plant after plant and seed after seed. The soil is us, it's people's hearts, their attitudes and condition. Sometimes we can look at what God has given us, and feel as if it is inadequate, seeds are small. But they have unlimited potential. One acorn can lead to thousands of acorns, and thousands of oak trees, it just depends on what you do with it.
I know in my life, God is calling me to a season of hard work, of taking the seemingly small amount he has given me, feeding it and watering it, so that I can see it grow. I sometimes feel ill equipped, I often think that God is silent, and distant, and failing to live up to my expectations. But I must remember he has given me all that I need, it's just going to take hard work.
Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash
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