Swarming Bee's In My Head

As I experienced the Lord this weekend, I began to churn swarming thoughts much like bees on the loose.  At first it felt crowded and quite overwhelming because I had so many and so much churning.  Today my quiet time with Jesus began by praying for those invisible souls we often overlook or just don’t have the eyesight to see.  I began thinking of building plans, ministries of our well-intentioned communities of faith, our well-intentioned meetings and planning processes...if we aren’t cautious, we become those who plan, meet and discuss.  As we read Jesus we see He rarely calls a meeting, he was into the “doing” part of ministry.  Now hear me clearly, you and I can have a nervous breakdown from “doing” the work; so there’s boundaries of when to rest, when to serve, when to say “yes.”  If the yes involves your lack of trust that someone called will rise up; you should still say no.  The work of Jesus isn’t continued on our wornoutness.  Even Jesus himself needed rest after dealing with the enemy; imagine Christ needing care?  

Back to my churning...social justice and basic needs being provided for all humans...that isn’t earned.  It seems to be an inappropriate focus.  Why dwell on this point?  There will always be those who test the system, take advantage of the system and even misuse it.  I hear Christians in opposition to health services because they  themselves want choices and they don’t want to pay for someone else’s care.   I am all for choices and hard work usually pays off so that the worker can see the fruit of his/her labor.  But as I intersect that thought with Jesus’ example, we as a society are missing the mark.  Our learning curve is very linear and predictable.  

The church is in a position to be prophetic...listening to the Samuels of our day.  They often lead us, if we are willing to step in faith.  But our lifestyles and increasing debt to keep the life we want, interferes and provides a dark shadow over this vision.  So what would Jesus do, as so many ask and wear on their sleeves?  He clearly promised we would have the poor and the widows and the orphans...was that just so we could give to them at Christmas?  No the day-day is where faith, life and conviction intersect.

Yes, I think it means adjusting our expectations.  It means doing without; do we really need all we have?  I think it’s a dangerous place because when we are more interested in protecting our “stuff” or “money”, we miss the person.  If this philosophy held true, we wouldn’t have seen Jesus meet the woman at the well and visit with her.  Nor would we find him stopping by the pool of Bethesda and seeing deep within a man’s heart  and being concerned with “Do you want to be made well?”  The man I am sure had excuses of why he couldn’t get to the pool and probably took advantage of the whole system.  What about those who interrupted Jesus and lowered their friend through the roof?  Interrupting Jesus in faith that He could make a difference.  It’s a revolutionary way to think.  It takes courage and clear thinking.  Others may not like you or may “kick you to the curb” ~  I pray we aren’t that simple minded.  But to stand means to face the furnace, even if death follows.

The voices I hear voices among Christians making sure no one gets more than they deserve.  We make sure they know to go through the process before we can help; we can’t help everyone don’t you know.  And then we throw a Bible verse in for support “those who don’t work, don’t eat.”  I know the Bible says this but it’s not ammunition to throw around as our litmus test to serving those near/far.  God is the final judge.  Don’t we believe that vengeance is HIS, not ours.  Don’t we trust that the one who wrote in the sand as freedom for the woman, can see the hearts of people?  I pray as He sees my heart, he sees one that is willing to give beyond.  Don’t I trust God to provide for me?  So therefore I cannot stop giving.  I think the answer always ends in more questions.  It’s never going to be easy but I fear we empower our own strength and reasoning, we miss the blessings of giving.  And by the way, giving means freely.  Once we give, we let it go.  If we have strings, we simply want control.


Pray this summer season that God will let your eyesight change.  Maybe you need glasses; maybe you need to take your glasses off...let us not be like the world.  “Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointed fingers; not judging the wounded but allowing our hearts be led by mercy.”    We say we love the sinner and hate sin; that’s ultimately God’s job.  I think we would see transformation if we focused on the loving part; God is big enough, smart enough to handle the rest.

Wendy