A Thought

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Matthew 6:24

Science has pretty much done away with the myth of multi-tasking, especially in warning us of the dangers of texting and talking on a cell phone while driving.  We can obviously do several things simultaneously, but we will likely not do them all very well.  In doing one thing, something is overlooked in another thing.  It is as we’ve all probably been taught; that anything worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Jesus’ lesson is challenging for us in that we live in a world in which multi-tasking is necessary (or we think it is).  We take on so much voluntarily in search of “happiness” as well as having so much pushed upon us, especially at work, that we feel we are always under the gun to accomplish so much.  In the end we never really accomplish much of anything, the work which needed to be done is not done well, and we walk away feeling as though we’ve only been spinning our wheels.

So Jesus has a lesson for us that not only compels us to evaluate our daily business but also challenges us to determine how much in our lives prevents us from a close, intimate connection to The Lord.  Our work cannot always be about The Lord, but our work must never pull us away from The Lord.  We may think our secular work has nothing to do with The Lord, but the Truth who is The Lord must always be present in our work because He is not our Lord only on Sunday.  Or if this is the only real time we think we have to give Him, He is not really our Lord.

But we must also not allow such passages as these to be strictly limited to a choice between Heaven and Hell as if Jesus is always giving ultimatums.  There is a tremendous blessing in this brief passage because it follows, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life …”  The distractions come when we worry about our financial well-being or the new car or the remodeling … or the still-challenging economy that is allowing a lot of employers to keep their workers on a thin ledge.  Jesus says that when He comes first, everything else will fall into place.  If He comes first.

Take this moment to devote this day to Him.  Not only will this bring us untold blessings, but we will also be reminded that the secular work before us will come to an end but the life we are given in Him will not.

Let Him bless you this day, this hour.

Michael