Sometimes I feel like I’m becoming an old man who is against ever y thing. They say old people are already mad about being old so it doesn’t take much to tick them off. That might describe me as I am having a birthday this week and I’m hitting a milestone that my family wants to celebrate. Maybe they are afraid there won’t be another one next year? Yikes!
Not only that, but it’s also easy to complain about everything. By the way, complaining is a sin (Philippians 4:13). I think it’s things we don’t understand that we complain about and the older you get it seems like there’s a lot you don’t understand. Television would be a good example of that; it takes me 30 minutes to find something to watch, Roku, Disney Channel, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, blah, blah, blah - whatever happened to NBC, ABC and CBS? Choices seem to confuse us old people. Why do I have to pay to watch football? Why do I have to search all over the internet to find the football game? Help! I want things the way they used to be. It’s okay to want that but that kind of thinking leads to being stuck and it’s a dead end.
Here’s what I’m trying to say. Why is it easy for us to be against things that are new, or we don’t understand? Why can’t we choose to be for some stuff even if we don’t understand it? Eugene Peterson paraphrases Philippians 4:5 when he writes in The Message, “Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them.”
I read somewhere that they will know us by our love (John 13:35). Maybe that’s why they don’t know us? Old, ticked off, against things and don’t love, that’s a pretty attractive combination, isn’t it? I don’t think you get many prom dates with that kind of attitude or reputation.
I keep thinking about Jesus on the beach after Easter (John 21). Some of the disciples had been fishing all night, they had zip to show for it, but this dude on the beach (Jesus, but they didn’t know it) tells them to throw their nets out again and so they do, and they catch the mother of all catches. About that time Peter sees that it’s Jesus and he swims half naked to the shore.
What I love about this passage is what Jesus says to the disciples, “Come and have breakfast.” Wow! Really? It seems like Jesus just back from the dead, scars in His hands and side would have better things to do, but nope. Jesus the risen Savior cooks breakfast. Jesus shows us that He is for two things in this passage: People and the most important meal of the day. I guess that’s love being expressed in a tangible way. I don’t have to understand it, I just have to do it.
He told me to tell you that.
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