Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
If you’re a parent, you know that the worst part of going to the park (or anywhere fun) is leaving the park to go home. On a good day I can offer a 5-minute warning, let them know when it’s time to choose one more thing and then announce that it’s time to go home and all four of my children will obediently walk to the car. But who am I kidding? A typical trip to the park ends with them pretending not to hear me, bargaining for more time, pleading for one more chance to swing on the swings or stubbornly deciding they need to go down the slide just one last time.
When reflecting on today’s Gospel, I found my thoughts drifting to these occasions at the park. How often has the Lord called me and I have simply said yes and obediently followed? More often I am like my children. I either pretend I didn’t hear the call, or I have a list of reasons why I’m not quite ready to answer the call. I tell the Lord to wait just a little bit. I need to meet this goal first or save this money first or check this off my bucket list first - then I can do what you want Lord.
We hear in today’s Gospel that this is not what the Lord wants. At the end of today’s Gospel reading from Luke we read that “Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God." When we are called to do the Lord’s work and we try to stall to take care of our earthly work first, we are not ready. We are not fit for the Kingdom of God.
When I am asking my kids to leave the park, I am often asking them to leave something that is inherently good. They are outside, in nature, playing. Wonderful. The things they are asked to walk away from are not bad things. Similarly, when the Lord calls and asks us to follow, it is often the blessings in our life that we are reluctant to leave behind. In the Gospel, the disciples did not ask for much. They wanted to be able to bury their dead and say goodbye to their family. These are simple, reasonable requests. But it begs the question – what in my life am I scared to walk away from, in order to follow the Lord? We can say that we trust God with our life but it is hard to drop everything and follow Him. Is it your family, your job, your wealth, your routine, your comforts? What is it that you cling to when the Lord calls?
Just think – my kids don’t know what we are doing after we leave the park. Maybe I am taking them out to ice cream or maybe we’re headed to see a good friend or maybe we’re just going home for a calm, peaceful bedtime. In the same way, we have no idea what impact the Lord’s call will have on our lives. That’s the thing about God – He’s so much bigger than we can ever understand and His plan is so much greater than our own. When he calls us to walk away from something, even something intrinsically good, it is because he has something even greater in store. Often something our earthly minds have never even fathomed.
Our first reading from the book of Job states, “He does great things past finding out, marvelous things beyond reckoning. “ We humans want to be able to reckon. We often feel like it’s our right to find out – find out why and how and when the Lord’s plan will unravel. And here in lies the challenge. This is when we have to trust in the Lord and trust in his promises. My favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you— plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.” Whatever call the Lord has placed on your heart this day, I pray you have the courage to say yes and to follow. May you be found fit for the Kingdom.
-AJ Grimm