John 12:24-24 “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Why do we worry? Why are we anxious? Why do we rob our eyes of sleep and destroy the lining of our stomach with stress-induced ulcers? Isn’t it because we don’t trust God? Isn’t it because we believe that somehow we will not be taken care of? Isn’t it because we feel that we deserve more and so we make decisions that put us in financial debt and in danger of losing all that God has given to us?
It seems that a day does not go by that I don’t talk with someone who is trying to overcome their life challenge with earthly temporal answers. It is as if God does not exist. So many people live their lives thinking there is a God, but feeling that there isn’t one.
In our reading today from Job 23 we find Job concerned not so much with what God is doing, but with what God is not doing. Job can’t seem to find God and doesn’t know where to find Him. Job is terrified by the seeming absence of God. And so are many of the people I talk with everyday.
Of course the reality of it is that God is there. God is here. God is everywhere. He is omni-present.
The question then does not fall on God, but on us. The question is not “where is God?” The real question is “where are we?” Where are we in our faith? Where are we in our hope? Where are we in our devotion to God?
God always provides for His people. He cares for them and guides them for His name’s sake. God has put His name on us and our lives are a reflection on Him. The problem is we want God to care for us and guide us for OUR name’s sake. We want God to do things our way for our glory.
Until we stop looking to make our own way in life and start looking to God to show us the way, we will live frustrated lives. Luke 9:23-24 “Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.’” Jesus said that we are to die to ourselves. He said that we are to lose our life. What does this mean? It means what baptism pictures (Romans 6:4). We are dead and buried in Christ and we now live in a new life under the authority of and in the blessing of Christ.
Unless we die to ourselves and trust Christ completely releasing all the outcomes of our life into His hands, we will continue to live miserably. We will try and get by with new relationships, new materialistic things, and fleeting physical pleasures, all the while creating stress and frustration in our hearts, minds, and souls.
We must let go and let God be Lord of our lives, if we want to truly live.
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