We are keeping Caleb and Amos while their parents are traveling. The morning routine is grueling. It’s funny. At home, I am up by 4:30 or 5 every morning, fully refreshed, lots of quiet time, totally prepared to face the day.
Here, I scramble out of bed at 6, gulp down the first of several cups of coffee, trying my best to get a shower and brush my teeth before the YOTO alarm goes off upstairs and the onslaught begins. Get the dog out and fed, put on breakfast, roll the boys out, pick out clothes, brush hair and teeth, get the oatmeal bake in front of them, gather up books, pack lunch, and breathe a word of prayer before we load up for school. And that’s just the part that Doris does. 🙂  There is so much more preparation here than at home. I don’t know how Allison does it. (Hence, the early morning devotional at 2pm.)
Preparation is a funny thing. Sometimes it comes so easily. Everything falls into place. Everyone knows their job. The tasks get done. The plans are made. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Other times, we should have prepared to get prepared. We can’t find the stuff we need. Nobody knows what to do next. We put the capital C in chaos. It seems like the harder we try, the further behind we get. And here’s the other thing, it seems when we are fully prepared, everything goes well and we really didn’t need all the preparation. When we fail to prepare, everything that can go wrong does.
Part of that early-morning ritual is teaching them a Bible lesson. So today we talked about what Jesus was doing on this Friday before Palm Sunday. Of course, Caleb knew all about Palm Sunday and wanted to tell about the significance of the palm branches. Amos wanted to talk about how Hulk was stronger than donkeys. Eventually, we got back to the Friday before Palm Sunday and the preparation for Holy Week. I told them this Friday is called Viernes de Dolores, The Friday of Sorrow, and it is about Jesus seeing the end of His public ministry and the beginning of His Passion, His Suffering. The Lenten reading from my prayer book today is Mark 10:32-45. It is seen in the more liturgical churches as a day of preparation for Holy Week.
You know the story. Ministry has been going well. The disciples are seeing Jesus do amazing stuff. But there is also this growing tension between His followers and the religious leaders of the day, and Jesus can read the handwriting on the wall. (That’s funny because it was Jesus who DID the handwriting on the wall.) He knew all the prophecies. He knew the plan of His Father. And He could see the wickedness of the human heart. He begins to prepare them for what is going to happen. He warns them in verses 32-34 that things are going to get rough. They respond by paying no attention and instead asking about titles, and recognition, and being first in the Kingdom. (They could very well have been talking about Hulk and the donkeys.) Jesus just shakes His head and says, “Oh, you’re going to be first in line all right, first to suffer like I am going to suffer.” And then He reminds them again of the mission, put God first, other people next, and be willing to give up everything for the Father. He is preparing them not only for the next week, but for the years to come, and for the world to come. That’s some serious preparation.
I have a good friend who is trying to prepare for some potentially difficult days. There is sickness involved, a terminal diagnosis, palliative care, hospice, all of those scary preparation kind of things. My friend knows that God is in control. He believes that as long as there is Jesus, there is hope. He has not given up and continues to inspire me with his faith. But he is also making preparations. You can do both. They are not mutually exclusive. We often use the cliche “Believe for the best and plan for the worst.”
So, what did I tell Caleb and Amos this morning about Viernes de Dolores?
I told them that bad stuff happens to everyone, even really good people. Be prepared. Faith is not a lucky charm, and God is not a rabbit’s foot. We live in a fallen world with sickness and sorrow, with war and wounds, and as long as we do, we need to stay prepared for difficulty, disappointment, and despair. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.” How we handle that may be the very best testimony we will ever share.
I told them that our natural inclination is to be selfish. Be prepared for it. In the middle of the darkest speech Jesus ever made, His disciples started fighting over who got to sit on His right and left. Sometimes Doris tries to cheer me up by reminding me of the plight of Christians in China, and the lack of food in Fallujah. That doesn’t help me. I just say, “Great, now I’m depressed about me AND about them.” I am so selfish that it’s hard for me to get my focus off of me. I’m not much, but I’m all that I think about. We need to be on the lookout for our own selfishness and always fight against it.
I told them that if we love Jesus, we will want to serve other people. “They will know you are Christians…,” Jesus said, “not by the words you say or the t-shirts you wear, but by the way you look out for other people.” Servanthood, true caring, allows us to quit thinking about the problems and about ourselves. The best antidote I know for depression or narcissism is intentional ministry for others. Jesus reminds His guys, “You didn’t sign up to get a pass on hard things, and you didn’t sign up to always get your own way. You signed up to serve the world and don’t you forget it.” That was true for the followers of Jesus back on the first Viernes de Dolores, it was true for Caleb and Amos this morning, and it is true for all of us who call ourselves Christ-followers.
I told them, when life gets hard, and you get discouraged, be prepared to help other people.
I told them, when things are going your way, and you are thinking too much about yourself, be prepared to help other people.
And I told them, when your teacher asks you who picked out your purple shirt and camouflage shorts this morning, be prepared to tell them Mimi did.
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