"Life Must Be Rough"

My friends and I like to joke about how life must be rough for kids when they throw a fit.  What’s implied is that all their needs are met and they have nothing to really worry about.  I wonder if God has the same humor towards us, His kids?  Maybe the Father jokes with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, “Yep, life must be rough for our kids.  We provide all they need and instructed them not to worry but to seek first the kingdom.  Then they get the hare-brained idea that they’re Us and take upon the weight of the world on their own shoulders.  You’d think they’d know better by now after millennia of making the same mistakes.”

It’s difficult though, isn’t it?  In certain places in Scripture we’re instructed to provide for our own families.  In other places Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom and all these things will be provided as well.  So which is it?  

Seeking first the kingdom is so difficult sometimes and quite frankly sounds esoteric if we’re not careful.  If we are to live for Christ though, it is imperative that we have the right focus.  Our vision is myopic at best when we focus on our own needs and our families’ needs at the exclusion of others’ needs.  We get worried about stuff that is really irrelevant to living for God on a daily basis.  Every so often tragedy strikes and we’re reminded of what’s really important in life.

When life is good again and makes sense, we forget to praise the One who made it all possible.  In Deuteronomy 8 it tells us when things are good we may say to ourselves, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”  But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

This was written to the Israelites thousands of years ago but the principle still certainly applies today.  When we succeed by the world’s standards and build wealth, we want to hog the glory.  Then the bottom drops out and we cry out to God, what happened??  But He is always there, Faithful and True, waiting for us to submit to Him again.