Packing for the trip…

Ever stop to think what it would be like to simply leave the house with nothing, no wallet, no keys and no real specific tasks in mind?  If you are like me, you try to leave the house only when you feel you have everything you need in case of nothing short of a nuclear disaster, including the food and water supply to sustain an army.  I have begun to downsize, now that I’m biking all the time. 

Jesus wanted His “twelve” to head out into the world with nothing. No wallet, no keys, no extra clothes, no blankets in case of that surprise blizzard.  I can’t fathom how these guys felt hearing these instructions.  “These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them saying:  ‘Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter the city of the Samaritans.  But go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.  And as you go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.  Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor copper in  your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.’”   Matthew 10:5-10(NKJV) 

 Here’s my question to you.  Would you be willing to simply leave on a trip, no luggage, no spending money, no extra clothing, and for you women, no extra pairs of shoes?  I can hear the gasping now.  “You have got to be kidding me.”  We would never leave on a trip without some forethought.  We would want to plan out our routes, pack a little of everything just to be prepared and call ahead for reservations.  I’m sure we would never simply trust that these things would be taken care of for us.  But that’s what Jesus wanted from His troops.  He was sending them out into a harsh, unwelcoming environment and was telling them to trust God.  Maybe it was a bit easier to do this back in Jesus’ day, but in today’s world, it would be considered nothing short of lunacy. 

Trusting God can help you feel as if you are prepared for the worst.  Having a complete and all- encompassing trust in Him can create the comfort and contentment we need in order to survive in a very uncomfortable world.  Think of it this way, if you were to turn everything around and not have any faith that God was in control, would you be able to survive the next trip solo? 

God is all about God’s great design, His plan for our lives.  He talks of these “plans” in the Book of Jeremiah.  When we simply refuse to trust in our God that He has a grand design, and we try to map out our own route to a happy and comfortable existence, we tend to get lost and fall short of our own expectations.  God is not all about making sure we are comfortable, or making sure we have exactly what we want, or think we need.  God is all about God’s great design, His plan for our lives.  We mess things up when we try to plan ahead and be ready for anything the world can throw at us.  We simply refuse to trust, because the world is not very trusting, or very dependable.  Because of this, we can’t bring ourselves to trusting and believing something we have never seen. 

God’s promises are clearly printed in black and white between the covers of the Bible.  We just need to make sure we are “packing” for these promises, and not some other destination that we simply don’t have the things we need to pack.

 “in the world, not of the world”