"Simon Peter saith unto them, I go fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing." (John 21:3 KJV)
"And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don't follow the tradition they received from us. For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: "Those unwilling to work will not get to eat."" (2 Thessalonians 3:6-10 NLT)
Maybe it doesn't make sense yet, but if you are in any kind of ministry that requires your full attention, you know that it takes money to survive and make it work. Not that I have anything to say about that, as I have basically not worked for anyone in over 33 years, so I can't relate to what that might be like.
Then again, ministry can take place in everyday life! You don't need a church or a license to be a servant of the Lord; you just need to be willing to serve, to contribute, and to share your faith; everything else is taken care of by God! You really don't need to worry about the finances, although it is hard not to! When things get tight, I still get concerned, in the flesh; but when I turn all of that over to the Provider, He does what He does, and I just trust Him and obey.
What else can we do? If God says to trust Him with all that we have, then we must consider all that we have is His; making these things His makes us to be stewards of what He has given us. If it gets taken away, it was His in the first place; He will replace it with something else, material or not, it will do us good!
Right now, the thing I feel most concerned with is being here for my wife! Over the last five months I have been dealing with symptoms of illness, of what, I have no idea. I discovered it briefly back in May, when I was training for a bike ride down the coast. So, I had to cancel the ride and make different plans, that didn't involve stress and too much energy.
At man camp, in September, I was helping some younger men move picnic tables, after about three of them, I found myself out of breath, and needing to stop moving tables. This is something new for me, as I have never not been able to work! Even when sick with the flu, I still worked and hardly ever stayed in bed during regular working days. If I was really sick, I would wait until the weekend, and then try to get better for the next week.
For the very first time, I had to pull off of a repair job this last Thursday. I was crawling a subarea, taking measurements for the materials I needed to repair some termite damage, and suddenly felt that I needed to get out. I felt like it was some kind of panic attack, which doesn't happen, ever; I can stay in a subarea working for several hours, and never feel uncomfortable.
After I could catch my breath, which seemed like 15 or 20 minutes, I had to tell the customer that I could not finish the job and would come back at a later date with a helper. Maybe it's over 40 years of crawling into subareas and attics, where there is insulation, rodent droppings, waste, and whatever else might be harmful to breath; let alone, that I treat subareas without wearing a respirator; that could be a small part of the issue.
I say these things to share about how I feel, both physically and mentally; things are probably going to change, and there is something that matters more than material things and trying to make money! I must be able to care for my wife, because I am responsible as her husband to do so.
I know that she has people that care for her, but I don't think it would be the same if I were gone. Not that they wouldn't be willing to help, but that the powers-to-be might want to place her in hospice or some kind of facility, where she would most likely not be cared for very well.
All of that said, I believe that God is going to work all things out! No matter what, we will all be with Jesus sooner or later; the sooner the better, is good enough for me...
"Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. Don't be misled - you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let's not get tired of doing good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessings if we don't give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone - especially to those in the family of faith." (Galatians 6:4-10 NLT)
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