Jesus Isn't Decaf (By Naomi Meyers)

Each day, as we pull out of the school carline, my children have questions for me. “Did you make Jello? Did you go to the store? Did you remember to wash my softball jersey?” A few days ago, when the answers to that day’s questions were negative, my oldest daughter asked the question I hear so often when the things they wish for don’t happen on their schedule, “So what did you do all day, Mom?” 

Admittedly, the question always puts my back up. The beautiful stacks of freshly laundered, neatly folded clothes waiting to be crammed haphazardly into dresser drawers go unnoticed. The clean, orderly house is taken for granted. The from-scratch meals placed before them each night are eaten with relish, but no real comprehension of how much effort it takes to put them there. They aren’t ungrateful children. They express gratitude often. (Especially for food!) What they lack is the understanding that it takes time and planning to create and maintain the pleasant atmosphere we enjoy inside the walls of our little abode. I have been busy, even if they don’t see the specific results they were looking for.

Honestly, we all find ourselves in the same position. Although you may have chuckled at my children’s graceless interest in my day as you read their less than complimentary question, a moment of soul transparency will remind you that you have often posed a similar question. Hopefully not to your mother! Most likely to God. On days when things have gone unbelievably wrong. When the word from the boss’s office wasn’t what you expected. The days when your heart has felt irreparably broken. When you have read the news and looked around at the terrifying social demise of this world. In frustration, in fear, in anxiety, in pain, you threw back your head and screamed up at the heavens, “What are you doing up there anyway? Don’t you see this mess? Why aren’t you fixing this? What have you been doing all day, God?”  

Unfortunately, there is an odd God concept permeating our society. It is the idea of God as a distant Being, completely uninvolved in our lives, our society, our world. We have constructed a mental image of God sitting on a golden, jewel-encrusted, plushly upholstered throne, feet comfortably propped on a neighboring planet, a bowl of popcorn in His lap, watching the goings-on of earth as if it’s the latest blockbuster. We expect Him to simply snap His fingers or wave His hand and make all the “bad” things go away. When He doesn’t, when we don’t get our way immediately, when we think the plan we have made is better than the plan He is implicating, we decide He isn’t invested, doesn’t care. He can’t, we argue, or He wouldn’t let good people suffer. He wouldn’t let bad people prosper. He wouldn’t allow things to get so far off the rails. He’d fix our situation, bestow all our wants within the timeline we have allotted. He’s God, right? He can do anything, right? So what’s He doing all day, anyway?!

The children of Israel must have been at this same crossroads. Trapped as slaves in a country not their own, they found themselves in a wretched situation. Their sons had been ordered slaughtered, breeding fear in every mother’s heart. They were slaving every day to make bricks for an unpleasable Pharaoh. They were gaining nothing of their own, the future was dark. Change didn’t seem to be coming. Their children had nothing to look forward to but abuse and brick building. Hearts burgeoning with the pain of their situation, enshrouded in the feeling of abandonment,  and beleaguered by the bleakness of the future, I wonder how many of them threw back their heads and cried out to Heaven, “What are You doing up there, anyway?”

But God wasn’t just hanging out, gazing at flower gardens and smiling at frolicking animals. Every cry from every broken heart was like an arrow stabbing through to the heart of God. Cries for help. Cries for a rescue. Cries for something more, something better than their current situation. (Exodus 3:7-9) He wasn’t just sitting up there ignoring their brokenhearted wails. No. God was working a plan. Step by step, He worked the plan even when the people were angry with Him, blamed Him for not listening, or nearly gave up hope. God was busy. Around the clock, He worked. Bringing Moses to a place of willingness. Gathering Aaron to help. Giving instructions. Sending opportunities for Pharaoh to obey. Sending plagues when Pharaoh was stiff-necked. From the moment the people began crying out to God, He began working. Even if they couldn’t see the progress, even when they couldn’t see any results, God was working out the plan that would rescue them. 

Their rescue didn’t come overnight. Their release from captivity wasn’t quick. There was no instant gratification, no flicking of the wrist, no snapping of the fingers. It required patience and perseverance. It took strength when Pharaoh doubled the workload. It took multiple rejections of their request. It took a few plagues and some really rough times. It took a sacrifice and a special meal and blood on the doorposts. It took a flight out of Egypt that turned into a narrow escape. Just because it took some time and had to follow a particular pattern didn’t mean God wasn’t listening. Rather, it was proof God was listening. God had a plan. God was working even when human eyes couldn’t see what He was doing. Because God is always busy on humanity’s behalf. (Exodus 1-14)

  We find that concept hard to believe. As society falls farther and farther short of the mark of quality or even remote godliness, a niggling doubt crowds our minds. Perhaps God doesn’t care. Perhaps He’s not invested. As we watch hate and anger boil over, causing mayhem, disaster and death, we wonder if God even notices our dire straits. Suffocating under a shroud of oppressive fears of illness, failure, people, and life itself, we question if God is even aware of what’s going on. When evil sprouts willingly on every corner, in every neighborhood and is condoned instead of condemned, we are tempted to believe He has spun the world into space and left us to fend for ourselves. We can’t see God working through the social disasters happening around us, so we decide that since we can’t see what He is doing, He must be unconcerned. We throw our heads back and holler at the heavens, because surely, if God cared, He’d stop the madness, change the people, fix the mess. What is He doing all day, anyway? 

The answer to our exasperated question lies in the beautiful verbiage of Psalm 68:19, “Day after day He bears our burdens.” (HCSB) Every. Single. Day. We forget that. Somehow we seem to think the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary for our sin burdens was the end of the burden-bearing. We act like we have to shoulder all the things that trouble us, shake us, beset us on our own. But God didn’t step away after Calvary and leave us to handle the rest by ourselves. At Jesus’ final breath, He didn’t dust His hands together and say, “Well, there, that’s finished.” No. It was just the beginning. He is waiting, daily, to bear our burdens. Not just burdens of sin, but every burden. The anxiety, fear, worry, frustration you’ve been hauling around? Give it to Jesus. That conundrum you don’t share with anyone, but haven’t been able to solve on your own? Bring it to Him. Future uncertainty? Drop it at His feet. He’s happy to bear your burdens, to work on your behalf to bring you peace and rest.  Because bearing your burdens is what God is doing all day. Every day. As long as you will let Him. (Matthew 11:28)

And that’s what it really takes. Letting God do what God does best. Plan. Work. Part waters. (Exodus 14:21) Make donkeys talk. (Numbers 22:21-39) Whatever it takes to get the job done, God will do it. There is no situation that stymies Him or for which He has no answer. There is no cry that goes unheard.(I Peter 3:12) He is touched by our pain. (Psalm 34:18) And He is working, daily, to bring results that honor Him and enrich your walk with God. (Romans 8:28) All you need to do is roll all your cares on Him and allow His strength to sustain you through the good times and the bad. (Psalm 55:22) Because shouldering your burdens and sustaining your soul is what God is doing.  It’s not always easy, trusting God with your burdens and not micromanaging His response. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve done my share of screaming at the heavens. I’m sure I’ll do some more. I’ve also watched God move and work in ways I would never have imagined to accomplish things I could barely believe were possible. But everything, even the impossible, is possible with God. (Matthew 19:26) So go ahead. Throw your burdens down at His feet, trust Him to deal with them and walk on. You don’t have to carry those burdens anymore. That’s not your job. It’s God’s job. He does it every day. All day. That is what He is doing whenever it crosses your mind to ask.