When engaging with the word of God there is something incumbent on me the reader that challenges me to discover how now should I live in the light of what I’ve heard. It’s more than reading, it’s hearing and it’s about hearing what is being said – it’s not just text, it’s living words conveyed from the Father to one of his sons.
This week in my place of work I’ll be delivering a module to customers on time management. This is a subject that people can take for granted, but is more fundamental to their existence than is often credited. So when reflecting on Matthew 4, one of the things that come out to me in both parts of the narrative is that Jesus could not be faulted on His own time management, primarily because He was led by the Spirit.
For example, one of the big things I hear among the young people that I serve and indeed among people in general is the complaint of being bored. What that means is there is not enough to do to keep them occupied and what there is to do does not not keep their interest. So finding a job is boring … though they just want to work. In as much as they could spend their time playing on the Xbox or chatting with their mates on Facebook, their lives are typified by lacklustre pursuits and a nagging pursuit of something worth their time.
What we have with Jesus is the beginning of his earthly ministry after baptism. For Jesus all His activities are filled with meaning and purpose and because ministry is serving it requires action. Even fasting is something that could not be considered to be boring. In fact while He is starving Himself physically, He is immersing Himself spiritually in preparation for what is to come. Thus the three temptations that follow it are efforts on the part of the enemy to distract Him from the mission that He’s sent on.
Stones to Bread
The thing about the temptations is that they are fairly reasonable. You’ve been starving for over a month and in you low estate you can just rustle up a sandwich miraculously, what harm can that do, especially if that proves who you claim to be. That Jesus knows there is more to life than feeding for the instant and depending on that which lasts is what stops us from being captives of our immediate desire for gratification – something again that those who are bored often refer to.
Jumping for Angelic Rescue
Another element that the bored live by is the search for a thrill,, that’s where extreme sports gets its drive from, the desire to push yourself to the limit and see where you can get that next adrenalin buzz. Especially on the part of the young it is linked to that feeling of immortality or invincibility. As the Son of God you’ve got the ultimate safety net as the devil points out from the highest point in the temple. The Word is on your side, you can jump and show off how you’ve got angelic protection. But testing your limits with God is hardly the behaviour of responsible loving children. Here again, Jesus displays how you don’t have to live for thrills and spills to prove your heavenly Sonship. It’s not about showing off, it’s about displaying God’s glory in wise behaviour.
Giving the Kingdoms of the World
I often think about the scene in the Garden of Eden when I consider this last temptation. One of the reasons people get bored is because they have not realised what they have already – when you learn to make the most of what you have is when you realise there’s so much more to what you have than what you’ve given credit for. What that has to do with the Garden is that the great deception that leads to the fall of humanity is Adam and Eve believing that the fruit would give them something, only to discover they already had it and now had lost it.
The devil tries something similar with Jesus on a mountain top in displaying the kingdoms of the world and offering them all to Jesus. Yet the King of Kings knew who was to be served and also knew what was destined for Him. It would be an insult to God to give all that up for the temporal, decaying, corrupt and comparatively pathetic empires of man. Knowledge of the sufficiency in God allows you not to seek more, when there’s no more to get because God is more than enough to be getting on with. That is why He alone is worthy of our worship.
Beating Boredom – Defeating Distractions
Any diversion from what the will of God is for His life would leave His life open to much activity without fruit. His clear focus on His call allows Him not to be dissuaded even at His most vulnerable.
From then on there is no room to be bored because He is now fully about His Father’s business – teaching, preaching, healing, demonstrating this new rule that is far superior to any earthly alternative. His time is taken up with people, His time is taken up with mission, His time is taken up with ministry and every opportunity that He is given by the Spirit reinforces the point of His being about. Even within that He is balanced to know when to work and when to rest, because these are all essential elements of the Kingdom that He is proclaiming and demonstrating.
Inviting men to join Him on the journey will be an eye-opening adventure for these disciples that will change their lives forever and likewise have them completely dedicated and focussed on being about the Father’s business. That priority dictates the use of time and that priority means there is no room for boredom.
How now should I live? Fully in the pursuit of the will of God for my life so that whether it’s at work, at home, with the church, in the community mission and ministry dominates life. I am very well acquainted with the problem of boredom for there have been times in my life when I was bored and an active life for me was about spending all night playing Championship Manager.
I’m not bored any more and that’s not because I’m a married man or a father of three. I’m not bored any more and that’s not because I’m busy using my abilities to keep myself occupied. I’m not bored any more primarily because the vision of Kingdom activity informs virtually every waking moment – and some sleeping ones as well if my dreams mean anything.
I’m not holding myself up as a model of sainthood as other issues will attest. What is clear, however, in the light of what His Word says, there is a way for people to beat boredom, as long as they are about the Father’s business.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 