A New Scene with the Lord's Footprints

Imagine you and the Lord are walking on the beach together For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace.

But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns. For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually your footprints come more in line with the Lord’s, soon paralleling His consistently… You and Jesus are walking as true friends!

This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: Your footprints that once etched the sand next to Jesus’ are now walking precisely in His steps. Inside His larger footprints are your smaller ones, you and Jesus are becoming one.

This goes on for along time, but suddenly the second set of footprints is back. This time it seems even worse! Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Gashes in the sand. A variable mess of prints. You are amazed and shocked.

Your dream ends. You now pray: “Lord, I understand the first scene, with zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning. But you walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk in with you.”

“That’s correct.”

“And when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in you in Your steps, following you very closely.”

“Very good.” You have understood everything so far.”

 “So Lord, did I lose your trail or get distracted?  The footprints separate, and this time it was worse than that at first.”

There was a pause as the Lord answers, with a smile in His voice. “You didn’t know? It was then that we danced!"   (adapted from Linda Newton’s blog)

In the midst of difficulty, let’s choose Jesus’ strength and salvation, not pain and confusion.  Jesus will lead us in this dance called life, if we choose to follow Him.  If you desire the Lord to give you strength and salvation, pray this verse for yourself:  

" The Lord is my Strength and my Song, and He has become my Salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him."  Exodus 15:2

Divided Disciples with the Master

The Holy Land in Jesus’ time has been called a land of conflict.  People were divided by the wars, religious groups, and political parties.  The Roman occupiers were the latest oppressors.  Jesus chose 12 disciples to mentor and send to preaching and healing missions; numerous women also followed Jesus and were devoted to his teaching and work.  Four disciples left the fishing business behind.  Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot are the only disciples identified by their past.

Matthew the tax collector was apparently a wealthy man and was hated by almost all Jews because he collected heavy, unfair taxes for the despised Romans.  Matthew was one of those who sat at the tax booth (Matthew 9:9, Mark 2:14) and collected customs or tolls at ports and city gates on goods passing through.  They were hated because they cooperated with the Roman oppressors and because they were usually fraudulent crooks.   He would have been politically conservative because his lucrative position depended on the Romans’ control of Israel.

Simon the Zealot was named so because of his radical views (and possibly his actions) before he became one of Jesus’ disciples.  “The Zealots” were a fanaical Jewish patriots who wanted to restore Israel to glory by brute force.  Some of them carried large knives or short swords hidden in their cloaks.  They would work their way through a crowd to get close to an official and fatally stab him.  Have you ever heard of “cloak and dagger?” They were willing to die to further their cause because they were zealous for Israel’s glory. 

So we have the only 2 disciples who were labeled by their previous lives.  One’s title represented greed and cooperation with an occupying foreign government.  The other’s title represented violence and hatred for the same government.  Can you imagine a tea party person sitting down to eat with someone involved in the Occupy movement without some tension and sparks?  Why did Jesus chose such radically diverse disciples?  There must have been times when Matthew and Simon argued about their views. 

Jesus demanded total allegiance from the disciples.  He required a forsaking and radical break from the past.  From the stories about Matthew, we can see that he did forsake his former ways and used his wealth to introduce his friends to Jesus (Luke 5:27-29).  We only assume the same for Simon.

Today we have the Culture Wars in America.  Christ-followers are divided along economic, political, and moral issues.  We have Christians on the right and on the left.  We even question the faith of those who disagree with us.

I suspect it was that way among the 12.  Jesus probably had to squash such talk.  It’s difficult to get conservatives and progressives to sit down together and discuss their beliefs, but Jesus somehow persuaded them to accept his teaching and work together for God’s Kingdom.  Despite their differences, Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot are both able to live together with the rest of the 12.  After Jesus’ ascension, in Acts 1:13, both are listed with the other disciples in Jerusalem. 

In these weeks leading up to the election, I hope we can recognize that some things are more important than our political differences, and that following the Master is one of those.  If a tax-collector and a Zealot could get along well enough to serve together in God’s Kingdom, why can’t we do the same?

Simple Ways to Represent Christ at Work

Many Christ-followers struggle with how to represent Christ in our workplaces.   How can we find practical ways to be a blessing to coworkers?  Pressures, deadlines and/or conflict can undermine our best intentions.   Here are some by Josh Reeves that I found online:

-Intentionally eat lunch with coworkers, to learn their life-story.

-Get to work early to pray for your coworkers and the upcoming days, or if you’re not a morning person, find another time of day to pray for coworkers.

-Make it a regular priority to speak or write encouragement when someone does something well.

-Bring extra snacks when you make your lunch, to give away to others.

-Once a month, bring donuts, burritos, or cereal for breakfast with everyone in your department.

-Keep small candy, gum, or little snacks around to offer to others during a long day.

-Find a regular time to invite coworkers to your home or out for coffee, tea, or ice cream.

-Make every effort to avoid gossip in the office, and be a voice of thanksgiving, not complaining.

-Be one of the first to welcome new employees and help them get oriented.

-Ask someone who is usually ignored, if you can get a tea or coffee for them when you leave the office.

-Go out of your way to talk to your janitor or cleaning people who are overlooked by most people.

-Visit coworkers when they are in the hospital.

-Find out your coworkers’ favorite music, and arrange to play it often.

-Make a list of your coworkers’ birthdays, and find ways to bless everyone on their birthday.

-If possible, invite coworkers to participate in a service project or community service club that you’re involved in.

In John 20:21, Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you."  Jesus has sent us to our workplaces as His representatives.  May we seek to be a blessing to our coworkers by choosing a few of the ideas above.