Our Opportunity to Reset

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them – it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.” Then they asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” 

–Luke 17:20-37

God has given us the gift of time to reset our focus on matters of significance. Many of the things that have been distracting us have suddenly been removed from our lives. Sports, office politics, many forms of gossip and a long list of other things are no longer distractions. God is giving us the gift of a reset. Take a deep breath. Better yet, take an hour worth of deep breaths, and as you do, ponder the most important things in your life. Write them down, and during this time of reset, develop a plan so that after this season ends, you will be able to maintain your focus on matters of significance. This is a gift from God, and we should not waste it. While we do not know how long this season will last, when it ends it will be over like it began, in a flash.

It is really quite remarkable how quickly this time of reset came about. During the span of spring break the wheels turning many institutions halted. Had someone asked you at a New Year’s celebration to imagine March without March Madness, baseball, softball, spring football, concerts, theater, movie premiers or public gatherings for worship, or to imagine hundreds of miles of pristine beaches closed on beautiful sunny, windless days during spring break, or to imagine schools, colleges and universities suddenly shifting exclusively to online formats, you likely would have wondered what they had consumed to put such silliness in their mind. Yet here we are within the span of less than two weeks, and during a period not much longer, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 30%.

Talking with friends this morning (by phone of course), we marveled at how quickly it all happened and wondered what the new normal might look like in the near term and long term. How many workers, skilled and unskilled alike, will be able to survive an extended workless period? What measures will be necessary to help the number requiring treatment to plateau at a level the system can accommodate rather than spiking beyond capacity? Will marshal law be imposed? Will school buildings reopen this fall? Will football games be played? So many questions.

As I pondered our conversation, thoughts of rapid change and comments suggesting it was unforeseen tumbled in my mind, disturbing me greatly because it was not actually unforeseen. As the virus rushed across China and Italy, news reports shouted the forecast, but many of us failed to notice while others failed to give due attention. With countless voices shouting for our attention, we must constantly discern where to focus. And it occurred to me that our entire conversation missed the larger point – this time, this season, however long it may last, is an opportunity to reset. What will we do with it?

It occurred to me that I need to appreciate the gift of time that I have, recognizing the uncertainty of how long it will be, and use it to build my foundation for the future and all the sudden changes that will undoubtedly come. I know our foundation is in and through Christ Jesus, and as I pondered time and sudden change and Christ Jesus, I could not shake images of Lot and his family fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the angel telling them not to look back, and of Jesus telling us that people who look back are not fit for the kingdom of God (see Luke 9:62). Time and sudden change and the foundation of our faith are inseparably connected.

The current of time is connected to everything here on earth and Jesus uses the notion of sudden change as a current running just below the surface in a lot of His teaching. For example, consider the parable of the rich fool. After harvesting a large crop, the man built barns to store it up for his future, but he died that very night. Jesus explains that we should always be generous with God because we could die at any moment (see Luke 12:13-21). While the message is about generosity and selfishness, the story is driven by time, the uncertainty of how much time we have and the suddenness of change. As a human, the man must have realized his mortality, but he anticipated a long life of pleasure before death came for him, and he was wrong. He could stockpile his wealth but not his time.

In the parable of the bridesmaids, young women waited and waited for the groom. Some ran out of supplies before he came and they missed the celebration. While they knew the groom would come and they were in the proper place, they did not know when. The opportunity came and went in an instant, and in that instant some missed out (see Matthew 25:1-13).  

In the passage above, as He discusses the kingdom of God, Jesus refers to rapid change. He says change will occur quickly and suddenly, like lightning flashing from the sky – even when the conditions are ripe for lightning we cannot predict precisely when or where it will occur. Then He refers to two accounts from Genesis: the stories of Noah and the flood, and of Lot and his family’s narrow escape immediately before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and sulfur raining down from heaven. In each account people woke one morning and ate and drank and made plans for their future and it was an ordinary day full of life and purpose until the flood or the rain of fire and sulfur, respectively. Noah prepared for a long, long time and he was ready the instant readiness was necessary. Lot and his family had a single night’s sleep to prepare, and they were not quite ready when the time came. In both accounts, everything changed in an instant. Jesus promises that change will come, and He urges us to be ready.

How do we do that? How do we prepare ourselves for significant change that happens so quickly? How do we prepare for the doctor’s call that turns our world upside down, or the car that suddenly changes lanes and alters our future, or a myriad of other situations? Jesus explains that we prepare ourselves by building a foundation of faith now, so that when the storm comes or the fire falls, we will be secure in Him. Underscoring that point, consider this account in which Jesus discusses fitness for the kingdom of God.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62

Three men separately encounter Jesus and each discusses with Jesus the notion of following Him. The first shies away in response to the material comforts he would lose by actually following Jesus. Jesus invites a second man to follow Him and while the second indicates a desire to do so, he cannot quite let go of his worldly obligations. Jesus urges him to “proclaim the kingdom of God” but he is unable to break the chains binding him sufficiently to do so. The third is similarly bound and, expressing a thought eerily similar to the account of Lot’s wife as they flee town, Jesus says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The angel of destruction gave Lot and his family the opportunity to flee, but they lingered. They did not flee right away, they stayed in their home for a while longer, and in an act of extreme compassion the angel seized them and forced them out of the city and told them to run and not to look back. But Lot’s wife wasn’t ready. She did not really want to leave. She looked back and died (see Genesis 19:15-26).

How do we prepare for change that will come in an instant? We set to work and keep our focus on Christ Jesus. We do not look back at the world that we left behind; rather we focus on the path before us, the untilled soil that needs plowing – the ground we are called to prepare so that when God sows His seeds they will land on fertile soil. Jesus explains that as His followers we should be distinct from the world around us (see John 17:16) and He urges us to be salt and light, changing the character of the world around us (see Matthew 5:13-16). How is God calling you to brighten the world around you, to make it more flavorful, to help hearts you encounter transform into fertile soil? We should each put our hand to the plow in a way that expands the kingdom of God here on earth, and by doing so our faith will grow and the change that will inevitably come will not destroy us.

“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Where is your focus? Are you focused on the turmoil of the world and how your future is being impacted? Are you watching the turbulence of the stock market and allowing its volatility to shake your foundation? Are you, like me earlier today, guessing what might happen in the future? Or are we looking with eyes steadily focused on Christ Jesus while plowing the earth before us?

It is time for each of us to consider what is most important, and to develop a plan so that as we move forward, we may focus on matters of significance without distraction.

God is blessing us with this time of reset. I pray that we do not miss it, that we do not waste it, that we use it to lay a solid foundation for the new normal that we will soon experience. Because as this season arrived suddenly, it will end suddenly.