Sometimes it’s a tricky line between what is my responsibility and what is God’s. God has given us resources, talents, and opportunities so we want to steward those correctly. We know Jesus is the one building His church (Matt 16:18) but we know He wants to use us. (2 Chron 16:9).
We’re all no doubt familiar with the jugglers who keep the plates spinning on poles. My suggestion is that sometimes we just need to let the plates drop. If we try and keep all the plates spinning we’ll eventually burn out, drop out, run out or just plain check out. I’m not talking about abdicating or being irresponsible – I’m talking about surrendering.
Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. And that we are to cast our burden upon the Lord and He will sustain us, never allowing us to be shaken. (Psalm 55:22). There are times when we need to say “Ok God, this is too much for me, I’m just going to let these plates drop – I can’t keep running round keeping them spinning. If You don’t like the sound of crashing china then You can keep them spinning.”
In Mark 1 Jesus was at the house of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, possibly relaxing after a busy morning at the local synagogue, teaching and ministering to a man with an unclean spirit. Being the Sabbath the people waited till the sun went down then they all found where Jesus was and came to be healed. It says “the whole city had gathered at the door” (v33). I wonder when Jesus got to bed that night? But He still managed to get up when it was still dark and go out to pray. Obviously the people were knocking on the door at first light as Simon and others went out looking for Jesus. They found Him and said “Everyone is looking for you” (v37).
Faced with such a need, and in line with His mission, we would expect Jesus to continue ministering to the people out of His deep heart of compassion. Surprisingly He said “Grab your bags boys, we’re moving on” (or words to that effect). My take on this is that He perceived it was appropriate to leave all those spinning plates and if they fell…? Well, His Father would take care of them.
There was only one Saviour, only one Son of God, only one Messiah – but He could still walk away from tremendous needs and trust His Father to orchestrate the big picture. Is it time for you to do the same with the circumstances of your life?
In Mark 4 Jesus was asleep in the boat and the disciples were panicking as the waves of the storm were breaking into the boat. They woke Jesus up and said “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re dying!” Interesting how we tend to interpret adverse circumstances as a sign of God’s lack of concern for us.
Anyway, to restate this situation in terms of the point I’m making, the disciples saw that the plates were about to drop and they wanted Jesus to fix the problem. Jesus, of course, did fix the problem and then once there was some peace and quiet he said (my paraphrase) “What’s the problem guys? Just because you think things are getting out of control doesn’t mean you can’t trust me or my heavenly Father. I said we were going to the other side but you obviously didn’t believe me. Let it go. Believe my words. Chill. Don’t judge by what your eyes see or your ears hear. Now get out the oars and put your back into it cos we’re certainly not going anywhere by sail.”
Trusting in the Lord with all of our heart and not our mind (Prov 3:5) sometimes means we come to our Heavenly Father with an attitude of “I’m not being irresponsible but I give up trying to keep the plates spinning. If they drop, they drop”.
Let them drop. See what He will do.