The Creative Solution

This morning I was reading in Luke 16 when I came across something confusing. As I have re-read the gospels lately, there seems to be a lot of things that seem more confusing than they once were. However, I guess this is a good thing because in Corinthians 8 it says, "If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not know as he ought to know." So I guess it's a good thing I am learning that I know nothing... It's funny because if you read the gospel quickly and glaze over, it seems simple. But as you seek to delve deeper many times it gets much more confusing. I think this is what Christ was referring to when He talks about hardening hearts, or people having ears but not hearing. It is not until, as He says, we seek, that we find; that we knock, and it is opened to us. So as I started reading my passage in Luke, I began to seek to understand it, and in comparing versions I came across this is the Message, and it presented it to me in a new light. So if you are interested, read it in your own version, and then follow along.

Basically a master tells a manager he is getting fired because he has not done his job, so the manager goes around cutting peoples debts, collecting half the amounts so they will like him when he is fired, and the manager gets some of his stuff back. In Luke 16:8-9 "The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”

In Kenya, as well as in the states, people are obsessed with looking after themselves. Keeping an eye out for number one! Sadly number one, should usually be the last one we should really be focusing on. Often people are so concerned with surviving, or not even that, but the superfluous stuff that they equate to survival, that they neglect others. We push away others in need to get at the stuff that doesn't even matter. Which raises two questions in my mind, what is needed for survival (what is our daily bread as Christ teaches us to pray for), and where should our focus be?



Daily bread is something I have been learning and reading a lot about lately. Christ teaches us in the Lord's prayer to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread". Give us daily our daily needs. This does not say what is needed down the road, in advance, so we don't have to rely on anyone, but what we need NOW, at this moment, for this day, to get us through. This doesn't say that God will not give us more, or far and beyond what we ask, but we are not to be concerned about it. For the Father knows our needs and takes care of them (Matthew 6).  In order to really trust God, you have to be in need of Him, and often we try take care of ourselves so well that we are never really in need of Him.  So in waiting on Him, and not doing ourselves, we learn to rely on Him daily for our needs.

I am pretty sure that at times God works within whatever parameters we give him. (Of course he is always at work!) What I mean though, in my mind at least, is that if I say, "God I am waiting on you, but while I am waiting I am going to start the process of figuring out fill-in-the-blank". He may show something, but I have limited His operating parameters. Whereas if I say, "God I am waiting on you. It is completely in your hands," He acts without anything I can and would have done, in His way in His timing. It is a difficult thing though to FULLY trust. Most people say, you have to do something and leave room for God to work, don't just sit idle, but I am not sure this is true. Sure we should not be idle, but I think we should be focusing on what God requires of us, the poor, sick, hungry, those in need of the gospel, and let him sort out the extra stuff: car, housing, etc. Not sure it makes sense for both of us to be caught up in trying to sort out the trivial stuff! If we spend more of our time focusing on others, on kingdom work, and not on ourselves we solve the problem of sitting idle and not becoming too caught up on our own needs.  I am trying to learn that balance, and not to wear myself out on stuff that is not kingdom oriented. He knows our needs and that's all I can ask for. For He is the Giver of all good things. So seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and pray, "Give us THIS day our bread." Let us trust on the Lord in "creative" survival.