September 3, 2014 Stop. Go.

Stop. Go.

Matthew 15:38-39 The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

YOU know about life, don’t you? It keeps going on, never stays the same, moving you from one event, one job, one thing to the next. Sometimes life leaves you exhausted and empty. Other times it fills you up. Life happens, and you can do little to stop it. At least that’s what people seem to think.

     But let’s think differently. As always, it’s really good to look at how Jesus lived his “unstoppable” life as a real human being. Here he fed thousands, and then he dismissed them. He sent them home. Remember he said, “I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way." (Matt 15:32) So that’s what he did. He purposefully fed them. Then he sent them home. He decided to do it. He decided to stop it.

     It was the end of the day and the end of 3 days of teaching. Everyone was exhausted. More could be done. Life could have overwhelmed him, but Jesus stopped there. He dismissed the crowd, got into the boat and left for another place.

     Life moved in on Jesus: “Feed the thousands!” Life also moved on for Jesus: “Go to Magadan.” Jesus decided how to respond to life as it came to him.

     Here’s what we can draw from this: We can effectively decide how to deal with life as it comes to us. No, we can’t stop life. Yes, we can be purposeful as we respond to it.

LIFE Link: Know how to stop and where to go.