Who cares? Or cares too much?

“You care too much,” people tell you. Things bother you too much. You worry about what is right, what is good, what is best. You see the gap between what should be and what is, and you are frustrated and paralyzed.

It is not that you care too much. Truth is, you don’t care enough. You care, and you get busy organizing: trying to change people and things and systems. You move them about like toys in the nursery. As if these issues were so small and insignificant as to be fixed by mere action on your part. Your work shows that you believe in the world and not in the Lord. You fail to recognize the complete failure of the world, and yourself as part of it.

Even if all the people in the whole world got together and agreed on solutions to these problems, what then? They would still fail. Why? Because we are the problem. It is in us and it is us.

But God says “rejoice in the Lord.”

When you are tempted to fix everything, and especially when that red warning light goes on in your head—the anxiety light—stop! Know that you are running low on batteries and you need to plug into God. Realize that God wants to be your only power source. Your batteries are defective, broken. When you run on batteries, nothing can go right. Find God’s extension cord instead. Think on Him. Read His word. Sing His songs. Focus on good things—these are God’s gifts and messages to you. Those things you are trying to fix? Leave them where they are.        

Take out God’s maintenance form number seven. Write out the problem in detail and put it into His request box. Then wait. God runs a mean and effective machine shop. He has resources and knowledge you cannot even begin to imagine. But he does want those forms filled out completely. He wants to hear about every single thing that is broken. He is not fond of whining, mind you. He will address your problem, so you will want to thank Him in advance. Do not be too quick to tell Him how to do His job.

Just one more reminder: stay out of God’s way. His plan for some damaged and damaging thing, or a system that needs correction, a management issue that needs re-booting, may be to blow something up, fire someone, or reorganize a department. You do not want to be around tinkering with something, duct taping the problem, when that happens. You are like a toddler in a machine shop: you need someone older and wiser around, so you don’t cause damage and get hurt yourself. Your Father, the experienced machinist, has got this. Your job is to hold onto Him and trust Him. In time, He will set you in His lap, hold your hand, and let you help him. He loves to do that.

For God’s part, if you submit the maintenance forms consistently, and especially when the warning light signals you, He promises to stay with you as an armed guard over your inner self. This you will neither see nor understand, but somehow Jesus made it possible. Be in community with His other children. Get along with them. The good things you see them doing, you do them, too. God will give you His peace. He invented it, after all.

                                                                  - a paraphrase/adaptation of Phil 4:4-9