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Life is not always predictable.
You don’t know what is waiting for you around the corner. Things happen without giving you a full notice.
That was what I experienced this time with my eyes.
One morning I woke up, and I saw everything in double. That’s how I lived for two months.
Last week, I went to see a specialist as a follow up. He said my eye issue is resolved now. I don’t need to come back for a follow up, he said.
I asked him, “Why did this happen? Was I unlucky?” He said, yes. It just happens sometimes.
Life is not always predictable. Jesus knew very well that life is unpredictable.
That’s what we sense in today’s Scripture.
You don’t know when the master will come home. You don’t know when the thief will break in. Unpredictability of life.
This unpredictability of life can cause much anxiety. We don’t like our life to be unpredictable. We feel vulnerable.
But what can you do? The unpredictability of life is the essential nature of life. That is what life is.
That’s what Proverbs said.
Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring. (Proverbs 27:1)
But even though you cannot change the unpredictable character of life, you can change yourself. Jesus said, Be ready.
Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit. (Luke 12:35)
What does it mean to be ready?
How can you be ready for the things that didn’t come yet.
For example, how would I ever know that I would have a double vision all of a sudden. How can I get ready for that?
We cannot be ready for every situation that we encounter. Too many variables. There is only so much you can do to be ready.
Being ready doesn’t mean to have a solution for every situation you encounter.
The early Christians had a wrong assumption about Jesus’ return. They thought that Jesus would return immediately. So, when Jesus did not come, some Christians were disappointed.
And they gave up waiting. Especially when they went through a lot of difficult persecutions, they gave up.
Life did not turn out as they assumed or expected. So, they gave up. But disciples never gave up.
Being ready means preparing yourself not to give up no matter what situation you may face. That is being ready.
Being ready is about your heart, your mind, and your attitude.
You don’t know what will happen to you. You don’t know whether you have necessary skills or resources to deal with what will happen to you. Whatever happens to you may be beyond your power.
But being ready means to accept your situation rather than complaining about it. Be ready to live with it and deal with it.
But I realized that being ready is more than just having a strong will not to give up. It is not just about your will power.
If you can handle your problem with your will power, you just have to do it. That is relatively easy.
But there are things that you cannot do with your will power alone. There are situations where your will power becomes useless.
We need more than our will power to be ready. We need faith. Faith in God. Being ready means to prepare faith in God.
You accept your situation without complaints but you trust in God even when there is nothing you can do. You leave your situation in God’s hands.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you do nothing. That is not what it means to leave your situation in God’s hand. If you don’t do anything, that means giving up.
You try your best but you will hit the wall of your helplessness. Instead of giving up, you trust that God will show you the way out. And he will actually help you by empowering you.
So even when you feel helpless and powerless, you don’t give up not because of your strong will but because of your hope in God’s help.
When I had the double vision, I couldn’t do much. I couldn’t even drive. Yong Mi had to drive me every where.
Joseph Myung heard about it from my sermon and he came all the way down from Barrie and examined my eyes. And he prescribed prism lens for me. After that, it helped me greatly. I was able to drive and do the reading.
Many people prayed for me. God shows the way out.
My friends, when you struggle, you feel like you are alone. More than anything else, you experience God’s absence.
The first thing the early Christians experienced was the absence of Jesus. They had to deal with the reality that Jesus was no longer with them.
Until then, their life was relatively easy. Jesus did everything.
Jesus performed miracles, Jesus healed people, Jesus gave all the teachings, and Jesus dealt with the authorities. The disciples were just there.
But after Jesus was gone from them, they had to deal with their life without Jesus. I am sure that wasn’t easy.
It wasn’t that Jesus made their situation easy before he left them.
Jesus created tremendous controversy and the controversy was not resolved even after Jesus left them. The disciples had to deal with the controversy on their own without Jesus.
At first they didn’t know what to do. They felt helpless. Their helplessness was well captured by John.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. (John 20:19)
They were behind the locked doors in fear. They didn’t know what to do with the absence of Jesus.
That’s what we feel sometimes. When we feel helpless, we feel the absence of God.
But I realized that feeling the absence of God does not mean that God doesn’t care. God cares even when we feel the absence of God.
Actually through the absence of God, we learn a greater lesson.
God lets you experience the absence of God so that you can stand on your own.
When we feel the absence of God, we search for God more urgently. Our desire for God, our search for God become very intense.
When the right time comes, God will show himself to us. We will experience the presence of God.
Even when you feel the absence of God, do not give up. Be ready to wait. God will come to you at an unexpected hour.
That was what Jesus said.
You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. (Luke 12:40)
God will come to you at an unexpected hour. And he will pull you out of your troubles.
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