What's Missing

See if you can figure out what is missing from this video of what I did today.

Since MOM has to spend most of the day tomorrow in Salt Lake at an ethics workshop and won't be here to help type out my normal Saturday post I thought I'd do it now.

I want to talk to ya about when life isn't what you thought it was going to be.  The Gospel of Mark 8:31-38 tells a the story when Jesus tells Peter "Get behind me Satan" and then tells those gathered that if they what to follow him they need to take up their cross and follow him.  But right before he says this he has asked Peter who people thought he was.  Finally Peter say, "You are the Christ".  And all is happy and roses as far as Peter is concerned.  The confession of Peter, "You are the Christ," is the turning point in the story.

That's what Peter thought. And that's why Peter is shocked at what comes next. He is "blown away."  He never expected Jesus to says, "OK, now that you have made that confession, prepare to take up your cross and follow me to Jerusalem."

Peter is like, "Wait a minute. I thought we were going back to Galilee? They love you in Galilee. The crowds are crazy about you in Galilee. Everything is fine in Galilee. Why do you want to go to Jerusalem?" And that's when Jesus Rebukes Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!"

Jesus then gathers himself and explains, being a Christian doesn't mean just following me around Galilee. It also means following me to Jerusalem.

Do you know what Galilee is? Galilee is where the living is easy. Galilee is sitting in worship and listening to sermons. All these wonderful times where you just sit around with other people who, for the most part, agree with you and talk about what it means to be a Christian and what Christ means to you.

But there is a difference between following Jesus around Galilee, and following Jesus to Jerusalem.  "Whoever will save their life will lose it; and whoever loses their life for my sake and the Gospel's will find it. What will it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?"

You see it's different now. Being a disciple is different after Peter's confession. And I think I know why. I think Jesus is heading for Jerusalem because someday you will go there. You don't choose to go there. No one chooses suffering. No one chooses to enter a hard time in their life. But someday you will go there. Sometimes dumb decisions lead us there, but you didn't plan it. Sometimes circumstances beyond your control leads us there, you didn't plan that either.  We planned on spending our life in Galilee, where the living is easy.  But one day you may find yourselves walking to Jerusalem...alone.

Life just has a way of doing that to us, picking us up and putting us into situations that we didn't train for, we didn't volunteer for, we didn't want. But for better or for worse, this is the situation we find ourselves in.  You might find yourself saying, "This isn't the race that I entered."

It seems to me that so many feel that when hard times come it means their religion or their faith has let them down. That God has abandoned them.  But this scripture is here to tell us that when hard times come, your faith is to lead you on, and to show you that you can get through this in a way that new life will come to you.

You don't choose to take a hard journey, but you can choose how you are going to make it. You can behave badly, or you can behave nobly. "What will it profit you to win the world and lose your soul?"

Blessings,

Goose