Living In Fear of Being Asked

So my bride and I have created a new habit. Our life is busy ordinarily and has grown to be almost frantic the last few months. So we are increasingly finding some peace, some "down time" in watching TV. We are actually not nearly as tied to TV as maybe we were years ago, preferring to surf, read or work on something. But we have so much access now, we have started going back and watching TV series that everyone else watched years ago that we never did.

The first was "Everybody Loves Raymond." Took us a while to catch up. There were some others and most recently we've enjoyed catching up on "Army Wives" and currently - "Grey's Anatomy." Since a career in medicine was my first big idea, I've always loved those sort of shows. But this one has lots of good characters, cool music, and depicts life for interns going through the crucible together. Part of that formative process involves 48 hour shifts, intense pressure, and the responsibility to perform regardless of what is thrown at you. For example, on rounds with the resident (your teacher), at a patient's bedside you might be asked anything and everything about the patient, their history, their ailment, and your idea of how to best treat them. Some people are depicted as always ready, even eager to be asked and answer. Others... not so much.


Think about that as you read this passage from John Chapter 6:


⁵ Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” ⁶ He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
⁷ Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money^[a] to feed them!”

 ⁸ Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. ⁹ “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

Uh...they were standing beside the man they had seen turn water into wine, heal a man from a distance, who had told a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years to get up, take his bed and walk.

Nothing is impossible with God.


Every time we face so called impossible situations, whether we realize it or not, we're being asked "Do you believe in God?"


We ought to cherish those times like a kid the night before Christmas with a "I can't wait to see what God does this time" attitude.


Instead, like a nervous intern or clueless disciple, we quake in fear of being asked.


That's not the life Jesus wants for us.


Perfect love... casts out fear.