Taking a look at Matthew 25:1-13 tonight. It is the story of the Ten Bridesmaids.
The bridesmaids await the arrival of the bridegroom but he is delayed and it is getting dark. 5 run out of oil for their lamps. When they dash off to the store to get more, the bridegroom arrives and these 5 get shut out of the wedding banquet.
Jesus finished the story with, "So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return."
In the previous story, the master returned sooner than the servant expected. In this story, the bridegroom arrives later than the bridesmaids expected.
How then should we be living?
How am I going to be that faithful and sensible servant? How am I going to be like the wise bridesmaids with the extra oil ready for the long haul?
I'll be the first to confess to being an inconsistent Christian.
There are days when I think, indeed, I know God is there. I'm ready to follow Jesus today and strive to be a blessing to everyone I meet! Carpe Diem!
There are other days when I feel like hiding under the blankets and say, do I have to go out the door today?
How do you keep the faith when your love for life is running low and you are thinking, stop the world, I want to get off?
How do you keep loving your fellow man when you have had your heart trampled on?
What is there to do when a circumstance has reared its head and there is nothing you can do?
I have no magic words to answer these questions. I can only share with you what I've learned over the years trying to follow Jesus and living out the Christian way of life. I'll be the first to say I have a lot more to learn and I've been in some deep holes where I wondered how far is up. But here goes my best "advice" as a fellow traveler in the journey of life.
(1) Be honest with God. If God knows everything, then nothing I say will be a shock to God so say it. God is big enough to hear us out.
(2) Pray for other people in your life while you are praying for your own problems. I'm not exactly sure why this helps but it does. When you pray for someone else you find you are less concerned about your own troubles. When you pray for someone else you find yourself wanting to go do something for that other person and one of the best balms for what ails me is trying the help another hurting human being.
(3) Seek the wisdom of the Bible. When I was hospitalized, I found comfort in the simple Scriptures like the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) and A Time for Everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). As I contemplated these familiar things, I felt a connection to God.
A skeptic will say it is just religious and emotional opium for the existential pain of life. Indeed, if there is no god than that is all that is. However, what if God actually exists and puts in our heart the longing for this kind of connection?
(4) Rest and take care of yourself. I Kings 19 tells the story of Elijah down in the dumps. One of the ways that God ministered to him was to help him sleep and provided some food.
(5) Community. A charcoal brick by itself cools down quickly. But together with all the other bricks, it can stay hot. The church is a flawed and imperfect institution because it contains people. Where else are we going to go?
The church is God's great gift to us and must be an incredible pain for God. God asks us to be his representatives in the world and so God has honored us with this gift to be part of the church. It must also be quite painful for God to see us stumbling around tripping over ourselves and sharp elbowing each other. But what else is there? Where else are we going to be shaped into better followers of Jesus than in a community of people trying to follow Jesus?
Lord help me to be about doing what I should be doing: loving others, seeking truth, living right, speaking blessings, opposing evil, cultivating a heart of gratitude and seeing your hand in the divine appointments you arrange for me each day. Lord, I want to be found faithful at my post should death or your return overtake me. Amen.
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