Sunday, February 11, 2018

Godly Indifference


February 11 (Luke 22:42)


Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.  (ESV)


We often find ourselves going out to eat with several families after one of our son’s basketball games.  If it were up to me, we would head to a pizza joint nine times out of ten, and the tenth time it would be to a burger place.  The choice, however, is not up to me alone, and quite often we end up at Chik-Fil-A.  Don’t get me wrong.  I can scarf down a chicken sandwich with the best of them, especially when I get about a hundred packets of sriracha sauce for my fries, but at the end of the day, it really does not matter that much.  What matters is that a bunch of families who are good friends get to spend time in fellowship.

This is what it means to be indifferent to something.  It is not that you do not care at all, but that you are more than willing to go along with something else.  Now, I know what you’re thinking.  That’s all fine and good when it comes to something insignificant like where to eat dinner, but surely, we can’t be expected to be indifferent when it comes to big things like our jobs or families.

Really?  This was precisely the posture of Jesus mere moments before He was arrested and led off to be tried and executed.  He was quite clear in His prayer.  He did not want to suffer what He was about to endure, yet He was fundamentally indifferent when it came to His own life.  The only thing that mattered was the will of the Father.
 

Lord, I pay lip service to wanting to do Your will and even pray the prayer Jesus taught us that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  You and I both know that is not entirely true for me.  Show me those places where it really is more important to me that my will be done and my vision of life be accomplished, then help me surrender those areas to You.  In the name of Jesus, Who trusted You so completely that He could put His life into Your hands, amen.



Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

2 comments:

  1. I think this is a perfect explanation of the idea of dispassion. Dispassion doesn't mean you have no motivation or care, it means that you are not controlled by worldly desires.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your comment, Matthias. Well said.

    ReplyDelete

While I welcome comments, even those that disagree with something I have written, I will delete any comment that is profane, vulgar, threatening, or in poor taste.