Money Talks

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Matthew 13:22 (ESV) 

This morning when I read this scripture, I was struck by the word "deceitfulness". The verse mentions worrying, for sure, but it's not specifically worrying about money. The money is actually deceiving this person. What is the deception? The scripture passage doesn't really say in Matthew or Mark. The parallel passage in Luke gives a slightly different perspective:

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. Luke 8:14 (ESV)

This version of the story makes it even clearer that there are "cares" or worries or stresses that can be a problem, but there is another category of "thorns" - riches and pleasures. It's not just bad things that can choke the Word; things that we normally see as "good" things can do so as well.

So how are we "deceived" by our own money? I think the biggest deception may be that we think more money can make us happy. We've all seen the now-famous Jim Carrey quote “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.” And I think everyone who is not as wealthy as Jim Carrey is (most of us!) will tend to have a "sopur grapes" reaction, something like "That's right, Jim! You found out that just because you're a zillionaire famous actor, you're miserable just like us regular folks!" But then we fall into the same trap: "Man, it's four days to payday. If I just had twenty bucks I could get that thing I just saw at the store..." or "...I could order pizza tonight and I wouldn't have to cook..." or "...I could go see a movie and relax..." and we think that whatever thing it is will make use feel happier. And it's true in one way: it might make us feel happier in the moment.

That's why it's so easy for our riches to lie to us.

Because after you eat the pizza, you're going to get heartburn. That thing from the store was actually not that well made, and it fell apart a week later. The movie turned out to be a stinker. Or maybe none of those things happened, but in this world, the luster eventually wears off on everything. There is only one thing that goes against that trend, and that is because it doesn't originate in this world. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says that "Man's chief End is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." I've found in my life that there are always high points and low points, but when my focus is centered on the Lord, the high points are higher, and the low points are actually higher too. When you are wrapped up in Jesus, things are better than when you are wrapped up in anything else.

Your money is a liar. Also, the money you don't have is a liar. They both tell you they can make you happy, but they cannot. When you don't let those "thorns" choke out what the Word of God wants to speak into your heart, this is what happens:

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. Luke 8:15 (ESV)

Peace, part 2 - Guard

© 2011 Loren Javier, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio

...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:6-7 ESV

I blogged here about the mind-blowing peace described in verse 7 - but lately I've been thinking about something else in this passage. It describes that mind-blowing peace as a guard. God's peace is there for protection. Protection from what? From anxiety, says verse 6! If you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling fearful, for some reason peace isn't guarding your mind and your heart right.

In that case, you need to make an adjustment. That adjustment is taking your requests to God in prayer. Actually, it can involve two kinds of prayer, or maybe two intensities of prayer. "Supplication" just means that you're still making a request, but there's a little more desperation to it. Maybe your emotions are coming into it a little bit more. Maybe you're asking God for something that means an awful lot to you. It's getting personal; it's getting real. You're laying it on the line: "God, You're my last hope for this. Please help me!"

But you're not praying selfishly. You're bringing your need to God, but you're also bringing a heart filled with thankfulness. Somehow I think that's a key. What if God doesn't give you what you asked for? Even then, your heart is still filled with thankfulness, because you know God has something even better in store for you.

And maybe that's also how the peace of God can guard your heart and mind. You've presented your requests to a God that you know loves you, and you're filled with thankfulness, because you know that God either is going to fill that request, or do something even better. With that kind of certainty, who can stay anxious?

Now continue on to Part 3!

Mind = Blown

I gave my wife this plaque a couple of weeks ago.

There's a very familiar Scripture verse in Philippians about peace. Here it is:

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:7

The verse is referring to a kind of peace that God provides when we bring our requests to Him in prayer. Recently I was reading this verse and got curious about the word "understanding," so I looked up the Greek word. Do you know what it means? It means "mind"! See for yourself. It gave me a giggle... God's peace will blow your mind!

Then I got to looking up other words. Moving backwards, I looked up the Greek word translated "surpasses" (or "passes", depending on the translation you're reading.) It actually means to stand out above something, to be superior to it or to have more authority. So you could read it as saying that God's peace actually holds more authority than whatever's in your mind. Nice!

I noticed that there is actually a word that is translated into the English word "mind", so I got curious what shades of meaning it might hold. I looked it up, and it actually means your thoughts, the stuff that goes on in your mind. Then to be complete, I looked up "heart", and guess what it means? It means "heart". You know, the thing that pumps the blood through your body. So the peace applies to both what goes on in your mind, and what goes on in your body. Have you ever been stressed out? It affects your mind, doesn't it, but it also has physical repercussions. It makes your heart beat faster, for one thing. If you bring your requests before God in prayer, this verse seems to promise that those sorts of symptoms will be a thing of the past.

So, based on those simplistic, shallow-end-of-the-pool word studies, you might restate the principles in that verse this way: "God's peace is far superior to and more authoritative than any solution you could figure out on your own. Let it do its work, and it will calm your thoughts and de-stress your body."

How's THAT for something you can use on a Monday morning?

Be Still

"Peace," said Jesus. "Be still."

You know the story. Jesus was out on a lake in a storm with His disciples, and all Jesus had to do was say those three words, and the storm stopped. The disciples were quite impressed, obviously; wouldn't you have been?

Things have been... interesting in my life lately. We've found ourselves in an uncomfortably precarious financial situation, and I've had to bob and weave a bit to keep things running smoothly; at work I've had some complex, high-profile projects which have taken a lot of time and mental energy to manage. Yesterday I figured out a little trick which allowed me to maintain my focus, but today that all got upended by a single phone call, and I found myself feeling anxious and out of control. Pretty embarrassing for someone who, almost exactly six months ago, was blogging about stress! I guess fear can overtake us even when we think we know all about where it comes from and how to avoid it. Boy, what a mess.

It's been cold out, but I went outside without my jacket... I needed to take a walk. (Good thing it was a little warmer today than it's been lately!) I started to take a walk around the block, and I wound up taking a walk around several. It did help a little bit, and I was able to finish out the day with some good progress on my project, but I knew I was holding it together with chewing gum and kite string... not a permanent solution. I asked God for some help, for a little insight, but I really got nothing. I've learned that usually when God doesn't answer your question, it's either because you already know the answer, or you don't really want the answer in the first place. I knew I really wanted the answer, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it might be. Luckily, I had a pretty good idea where to get my balance back: Encounter Night.

Luckily, tonight was Encounter Night. We have it at my church on the first Wednesday evening of every month; it's a service where we spend just about the whole time worshiping God with music. There's no formal message, although we do usually take communion. I went in needing something, and sure enough, by the time I left, I had found what I needed to persevere through the next steps of my work project and my financial commitments. But it wasn't quite what I expected!

Several weeks ago I blogged about storms. Actually, though, that post is more about one particular type of storm: it's about the kind of storm that is bringing the answer to a problem, but which makes it look like things are getting worse before they are getting better. That kind of storm is uncomfortable, but it is actually from God; like digging the bullet out of a wound so it can heal properly, it seems like the pain is getting worse, but the suffering actually causes the situation to improve in the long run. The storm I was experiencing today was not that kind of storm. It was primarily an emotional storm, something raging more on the inside of me than the outside. This was a storm of fear, not a storm of circumstances. This was not a storm of God. This storm had to go. But how was I going to get rid of it?

Recently I was reading a book that mentioned that being a disciple of Jesus means trying your best to know Him so well that you think and act like Him, react to situations like He did. As I stood there worshiping tonight in Encounter Night, I realized what it is that Jesus did that I needed to do. I needed to speak to this storm. I needed to tell it to Be Still. I'm not Jesus and I can't stop either a rainstorm or an emotional storm, but I can speak out in faith, in imitation of Him, and I can trust God to be the one that calms the storm. The storm of circumstances might or might not let up immediately, but when I speak to the storm of fear inside of me, believing that God can calm that storm, I know He will. At the right time, the circumstances will resolve themselves too, but from now until then, I'm speaking to the nor'easter when it blows up inside of me, and I'm trusting that God will bring it to a peaceful calm.

STRESS!

Oh boy, was I stressed.

See, my boss just got married. Obviously, that would be a source of stress for him, but you wouldn't expect it to be a source of stress for me, would you? Well, it was. See, where I work we are basically a two-man shop. I'm a Web site programmer, and although we do have one programmer that works for us part-time off-site, and we do have a number of terrific, professional coworkers in the office, as far as on-site programming and technical support is concerned, there's only the two of us. So when my boss went on a two-week honeymoon outside of the country and largely outside of range of anyplace he could check his email on his phone (smart man, that guy!) it meant that it was me handling any emergencies that cropped up. On top of that, I had several complex and high-profile projects to try and get a handle on. The result was that I wasn't far into the first week when I started to feel the pressure. I started to feel "stressed."

I don't remember the first time I ever heard the word "stress" used to describe an emotional state; as a kid I remember just knowing that it meant something that could happen to a bridge or something and make it break. And I may be wrong, but using "stressed" as an adjective for that state seems like a relatively new thing to me. "Stress" sounds like a kind of grown-up thing to have, doesn't it? It sounds very business-worldy. Something that high-rollers on Wall Street and the guys in the corner executive offices have. So when I have some "stress," it kind of makes me seem important. Like a president of a company or something. But one day I stopped to think about what stress is, and when it occurred to me what we're talking about here, it was a little bit embarrassing.

Let me let you down easy: like the poodle said, stress is anxiety. Let me give you a second to simmer on that one, because "anxiety" is kind of a grown-up word too, although it's not quite as dignified to be "anxious" as it is to be "stressed." "Anxiety" at least sounds like something important enough to rate an expensive therapist visit to get rid of. But let's unpack it a little further.

Stress is anxiety. And anxiety is just plain old-fashioned fear. Stress doesn't mean being dignified like a CEO: stress means being afraid like a little kid hiding under his blankets so the monsters under the bed don't get him.

What are you stressed about? Upcoming projects, like me? A complicated contract you have to decide on? A business deal that might not come to fruition? How about stress that comes from having people interrupting what you're doing all day long with another issue that legitimately demands your attention? Or stress from having someone in your workplace who seems to have it in for you? Those things are all normal parts of the work world, and there's no reason they have to cause stress. The reason they cause stress is because of fears. You may have a fear, bubbling just under the surface, that you'll make a mistake that costs you some professional pride, that causes you to lose face in front of colleagues or coworkers, or that even costs you your job. Maybe you're afraid that the coworker that seems not to like you will embarrass you in front of a superior. Maybe that person is your superior, and you're afraid that they're going to fire you or demote you. Maybe you're afraid that you just aren't capable of truly accomplishing everything that everybody tosses your way. But whatever the fear is, whatever is causing you anxiety, whatever is stressing you out, stress is really just a euphemism for being afraid.

What does the Bible have to say about fear? Well, essentially it's not God's plan for His people to live in fear. It's interesting that a number of times in the Bible, God and Jesus give a direct command to "fear not." Would God give us a direct command that contradicts what is possible? Of course not! So if God tells us that we shouldn't be afraid, it must mean that it's possible somehow for us to reject fear. But anyone who's ever tried to talk themselves out of being afraid knows that it's pretty much impossible to just put fear out of your mind by sheer willpower. I was never able to make those monsters under my bed when I was a kid go away, no matter how long I hid under the sheets.

You don't get rid of fear by talking yourself out of it. There's something I've realized lately about living life successfully as a Christian: it's not so much a matter of something that you do, as it's a matter of something that you let God do in you. Getting rid of fear is not a matter of using your willpower to talk yourself out of it: it's a matter of making yourself vulnerable and saying, God, I'm afraid of this thing that might happen, but I'm choosing to let You be responsible for causing a favorable outcome. I'm releasing my right to pride and bragging rights at the end, and however it comes out, I'm going to give you the credit. Of course, if you were stressing about something that you have a role to play in, of course do your best work. Don't think God's going to write your contract or report up for you. But if you release your stress to God and connect to Him in faith, you can do your work free of the stress that was hampering you from doing your best work in the first place. You can live free of fear, anxiety, and even stress. Unclench your emotional hold and let God intervene in the situation. What do you have to lose? Well... except for your stress?

Unburden Yourself

photo © 2005 meg and rahul | more info (via: Wylio)

    Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. (Jeremiah 17:19-22 ESV)

I've never been one of those work-is-forbidden-on-Sunday kind of Christians. First and most obvious of all, Sunday is actually not the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday, as any Jewish person can readily tell you. (The reason Christians meet on Sundays is because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday; the early church took to worshiping on that day and we've been doing it ever since.) Second, in the society we live in, it can be very difficult to function if you are dogmatic about the whole no-work-on-Sunday thing. Ever fill out an application to work in the service industry (most teenagers' first jobs) and fill in that you won't work on Sunday? Not always a wise choice! And hey... what about your pastor? I'll bet he comes to his job on Sundays!

I don't want to get into the whole ceremonial law vs. moral law thing where it comes to Old Testament rules... at least, not in this post. Thomas Aquinas blogged that one many years ago, anyway. :) My belief is that many things that were physical but ceremonial in the Old Testament are, in the era after Christ's sacrifice, metaphors for spiritual things. Whatever side of the working-on-the-Sabbath debate you fall on (Saturday, Sunday, no work, a little work, whatever), for a moment I want to think about a metaphorical application of carrying burdens on the Sabbath.

I get nervous about things sometimes. I get fearful if the bills aren't paid, if I have a responsibility that I'm not sure I'll be able to fill, if there's something coming up that I'm not looking forward to. Everybody gets stressed out from time to time. Those things are burdens. When Peter paraphrases Psalm 55:22, "Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you..." he changes it a bit: "...casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7 ESV, emphasis mine in both cases) A worry or anxiety is metaphorically a burden.

If "burden" is a metaphor for an anxiety, then what does the Sabbath represent? The Sabbath is a time of rest, of being in and enjoying the presence of the Lord. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us that the Sabbath rest is still present for the people of God, but it is entered into by faith in Christ Jesus, and is a rest from the impossible task of trying to do enough good things to be good enough for God. When we enter the presence of God, we enter that restful place, because we can only enter God's presence through Christ.

Your "burdens" are your fears, your concerns, your anxieties. The "Sabbath" is, metaphorically, your position in the presence of God because you have accepted the sacrifice of the Cross. Don't bear your burdens on the Sabbath. When you walk into church, don't bring your anxieties and fears and try to hang on to them. For that matter, in Christ we are continually in a Sabbath; don't try to bear your own burdens any time. Let God give you the emotional rest to match your spiritual state of rest. Cast your burdens and anxieties on Him. And get some rest!