Upon What Do You Rely?
Some of the struggles of church planters are obvious. Where should I plant a church? How do I go about this? Will people respond to the message of the Gospel? On the other hand, some of the struggles are not so obvious. Issues such as physical health, exercise, and diet are included in this list. Interestingly, Jesus addresses the issue of diet from a point of view that is a bit surprising. Look what He says.
Luke 21:34 "But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
The word "dissipation" in the Greek can mean headache from drinking or it can mean gluttony. The book of Proverbs speaks of gluttony in 28:7 where it says, "but a companion of gluttons shames his father." Titus mentions it in connection with the work on Crete, saying in Titus 1:12, "One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'" (For an historic view of gluttony and the seven deadly sins click here.)
Jesus connects dissipation and drunkenness with the "cares of life." In other words, the question is, "In what do you trust?" Better yet, "What is the source of your comfort?"
God has blessed us in this country to such an extent that our grocery stores have about anything we would ever want. Restaurants seem to be on every corner, offering cuisine of all sorts and varieties. There is such an abundance of calories available for us to consume. It is hard to say, "no." The danger is that there is a subtle shift from the blessing of plenty to the burden of plenty. There is a tension between rejoicing simply in the life we have in Christ and addressing the difficulties of life with food and drink (and I would add anything that keeps one from "staying awake at all times.")
As a pastor, I made many home visits. The wife of one family that I visited had not been in church for years. When I arrived, I saw the reason. She was very large. She had a difficult time moving around her own home, much less making her way to church. And as we visited and communed over the course of a year, her faith grew. During one visit, she and her husband showed me the room where they stored rows and rows, boxes and boxes of boxed and canned food. Food had become her security. But now, her trust was sifting away from the contents of that room to the contents of the gospel.
One morning I received a phone call. John's wife had died of a heart attack. She knew Jesus and trusted that He had died for her.
Death is inevitable. It has no power over us. Yet, as we grow spiritually, remember that we are on mission. When the mission is difficult, He is the source of our comfort. As Jesus said in Luke 21:33, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
