Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
(Psalm 37:1-2 NIV)
I love plants. I love landscaping. Working in the yard for me is therapeutic and relaxing. However, with my love of landscaping and plants, I must also admit that there are two things that can be frustrating about the whole process. The first thing is the sad reality that plants die. The second thing is that, before they die, they require a lot of maintenance. An untended lawn or garden will become overran with weeds very quickly.
We have two apple trees in our backyard that I do not take very good care of. They require a lot of work to remain healthy and produce good apples. They need to be pruned periodically. They also need to be treated to keep the bugs off, and if that is not enough, the birds also wreak havoc on them as well.
Nature has a way of reminding us of the brevity and frailty of our human life. How old were you when you first realized that your dearly loved pet dog or cat had a short life span? Most of us have probably participated in the sad childhood funeral of the pet dog, cat, or bird being buried in the backyard in a shoebox, or something of that nature. We have experienced the death of a beloved grandparent, or some other significant family member or friend. In the middle of that process, we are awakened to the reality of our own mortality. It also reminds us of the necessity of taking good care of that life while we have it. An untended life, like an untended garden, will quickly be overran with things that are of no eternal significance. We let our attention get too focused on the wrong things. As Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?” An untended life will also get overran with the deluge of lies that is constantly being cranked out by man’s lost system of things.
The psalm reminds us to not focus too much on what the world system defines as “success”. There are a lot of very large, expensive houses around the area where I work. Many of them look like they could be worth several million dollars. Often on my lunch break I go out walking around the lake, and see these houses. I have found myself wondering, “What does the person who lives there do for a living to be able to afford a house like that?”
Wealth, or the lack of wealth does not define the quality of a person’s life. Please do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not anti-wealth. There are many very wealthy people in the world who have made their money honestly, and do a lot of good with their money in benefitting others. There are also wealthy people in the world who are selfish and egotistical. There are also poor people in the world with good hearts who are a blessing to those around them, just as there are poor people whose lives are dominated by bitterness and resentment. Money, or the lack of money is not the issue. The issue is the condition of your heart.
Having said that, however, it must also be noted that wealth can be deceiving if you find your sense of security in money, which many people do. The scripture applies to all, rich or poor:
“for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.”
I remember when our daughter and son were babies, and we went through the diaper stage with them. We had the minivan with the car seats, the diaper genie, the strollers, and all the paraphernalia that comes with having small children. During the time we were going through this stage of life, it seemed like it would last forever. It seemed like there would be no end to stinky diapers, getting up in the middle of the night sitting with a sick kid and having to go to work in the morning, sorting through school issues with them, etc. Then one day I felt like I had blinked and they were both grown. Where did the time go? Then I found myself wanting that time back.
I think one of the things we tend to do as humans is to be so forward focused that we lose sight of the moment. We are not fully engaged in the here and now because we are looking ahead to the next thing. We can miss out on a lot of the significant small things when we live like this. We sort of sleep walk through life. We can also get too focused on some goal that we have set for ourselves. I am all for setting goals and making plans. As the saying goes, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” However, we should not allow our ambitions to prevent us from being engaged in what is going on right in front of us.
I think that this is the issue Jesus is addressing in the 11th chapter of Matthew. John the Baptist had been thrown into prison for rebuking Herod for an inappropriate relationship he was involved in. John was probably in a low state, and he had doubts about what was going on. John sent his disciples back to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one to come (in other words, the Messiah) or should we expect someone else?” (John had already announced that Jesus was the expected Messiah.)
Jesus, as was often His method, did not answer the question directly. His answer, like that to many questions asked of Him was simply something to the effect of, “Look at the evidence and make up your own mind.” “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Jesus then goes on to explain to the crowd the significance of John and his message, then He says something interesting:
“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others, ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.” What did He mean by this?
You must know about the historical significance of these times for the Jewish people. The Jewish people had waited many years for the appearing of the Messiah that had been promised in the Old Testament prophesies. The problem is that they had been conditioned, through the teaching and interpretations of the rabbis to expect a different kind of Messiah. Their interpretation of the advent of the Messiah involved the deliverance of the nation of Israel from political oppression. Jesus’ mission involved much more than that. Jesus’ mission involved freeing mankind from the curse of sin and death. Jesus came for a world-wide deliverance, not a deliverance confined to the tiny nation of Israel from the oppression of the Romans. The “pipes” had been played for the people, they did not dance. (In other words, they did not respond in the manner that would have opened their eyes to what was really going on, instead of being stuck in an inadequate and flawed interpretation of how they thought things were supposed to unfold. The dirge had been sang, (the warning of coming judgement), and still, no mournful response.
The point to all this is that sometimes we can get so caught up in looking for a certain outcome to something, that we become blinded to the reality of what is really unfolding right in front of our eyes. Look at the evidence and make up your own mind. “Go back and report to John (EVERYONE) what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
I want to talk about reality. I am here right now, in this moment. I am alive. You are obviously alive also if you are reading this. Did you choose your existence? Did you choose when you would be born, where you were born, what kind of family you would be born into, what your genetic make-up would be? Of course not. All of the things that make you, you are things over which you had no control. Now, I said that these things are what make you, you. In one sense, this is so, in another, it is not. These things are how we identify one another, but it is not really who we are.
I saw something that someone I know wrote that said, “I did not choose to be born.” This made me sad when I read these words, because what it said to me was, “I would prefer not to exist.” That may not have been what she meant by writing these words. I did not ask. However, that is how I interpreted them. If my interpretation is correct, it is a sad thought that someone would value the miracle of their existence so lowly. I believe that the reason people get in this frame of mind is because they identify themselves by the external, uncontrollable things that I have just mentioned.
For example, a person may have been born into a poor family. They may begin to compare themselves with other children that they go to school with who come from more financially well to do parents. The other children probably have better clothes, and better things to entertain themselves with, so the child born into the poor family develops a degree of jealousy, and perhaps a feeling that somehow life has been unfair to her.
When we define ourselves in terms of those things over which we have no control, (our race, the socio-economic status of our family of origins, the geographical region of the earth in which we live, the things that have been given to us by other people, the way we look, etc. we become enslaved to that definition of ourselves that has been imposed on us by others, and not the way that God defines us. The whole idea of “identity politics” that we have heard so much about in the media recently, in my estimation of things, is a very destructive way of defining ourselves and others. That is not to say that we deny any of these things, but God calls us to a higher way. And it is in that higher way of moving outside of those boundaries that true freedom is found.
The reality of life, is that our life on this earth is short, and we do not have the time or luxury of being bogged down in those categories. They impose limitations on our seeing ourselves as God truly sees us. To know God, move outside of this, and ask HIM to show you your true self.
Danny's Stump 