burnt nachos and a rough bedtime…
Tonight was a rough night. First, I burnt the easiest dinner possible. It was literally some cheese on chips….somehow I burnt it. It was also was a rough night for one of the kiddos. We were trying to get Dodge to put up his laundry. He wasn’t having it. I think the time change is finally catching up to them.
It hasn’t happened yet, but I can already imagine what’s to come at bedtime. I’ll say, “Hey kids, go get ready for bed.” They’ll figure out a new way after a new way to procrastinate. Then I’ll go to their room and they’ll have done everything but actually get ready for be….
I once read an illustration by Francis Chan comparing those moments of parenting to how we relate to God. I mean think about it. What if I said, “Hey kids head to bed.” Then 10 min. later I check on them and they haven’t done anything. I say, “Hey, kids get ready for bed!”
Give it an hour and I go check on them. Imagine if I walked in on them huddled up in the corner feverishly writing notes and reading. They turn to look at me as if I just interrupted a wedding.
They say, “Oh dad, I’m glad you’re here. We’ve been thinking about what you told us to do. This whole idea of getting ready for bed. What a crazy idea! We love it! We’ve been breaking those words down into Greek and Hebrew. Tomorrow we’re going to invite our friends over to talk about it a little more.”
What would I say? Does that stuff impress me? NO! JUST GO TO BED!!!
Sometimes we make following God way too difficult-way too complicated. I remember sitting in rows at church and I felt like the person speaking was talking in a different language. I felt like I needed a rule book for each situation to learn how to navigate things. When do I raise my hand? What’s the perfect cadence to say a prayer? What’s up with all the genealogies? When’s a good time in the service to go to the bathroom?
Then there was Jesus. Jesus didn’t require some crazy seminary degree or for people to read some massive commentary on Hebrews He simply said, “Follow Me.”
“Follow Me” those two words point to something simple-follow Jesus. But, it wasn’t something easy. The call was never complicated but it was really difficult.
He was asking his friends to leave their lives behind, to put aside their own hope and dreams, and to ultimately let go of control. Follow Jesus wasn’t complicated… but it was difficult.
That call, to follow him, is the same invite we have today, but man we make it so complicated.
What if we’re so afraid of doing this simple thing we end up making it more complicated then it needs to be? Hear me out, instead of actually doing the thing Jesus asks us to do, we sit around and talk about how great those two words are. We splice them up to better understand the “context”. We explore the genealogy to better “understand” who Jesus is. In the end, we aren’t really following him as much as we are just staring at him…and it’s kinda creepy.
Sometimes making things complicated is a lot more alluring than getting out and actually doing the work. For my kids, that means they make the bedtime routine a ritual. One where the stuffed animals have to go just in the right spot, we have to sing just the right songs, read just the right amount of books and on and on….but in reality, a part of them is just hoping to avoid the call of bedtime.
What if we’re doing that with God? What if we’re attaching things to our faith to avoid doing the actual thing God calls on us to do? What if we add rituals to our faith to help us feel in control and avoid letting go of control?Yet, in the middle of all the song and dance and all the hoopla, there’s Jesus saying, “Hey, follow me. I just want you to follow me.”
I think making things complicated can be alluring because that type of faith never forces us to let go of control. It never forces you to go and actually follow Jesus.
So then, there is Jesus simply saying, “Follow me.” Will you do it? Stop staring at him and go…follow him.
