Carol and I appreciated getting away last weekend for some R & R in Arizona.  We love the deserts of Tucson and visiting our friends there.  Only problem is that a winter trip down south makes our winter here longer!  Winter is that great equalizer of all people and automobiles.  No matter how handsome or rich you are, winter is not an option.  You can't say, "Sorry, but this doesn't apply to me."

          Last Monday Carol and our friends took a walk in a desert park and discovered the "jumping cholla cactus" that can shoot its needles at people walking by.  Ground vibrations can cause it to shoot needles into surprised passers-by in a painful ambush.  Fortunately we weren't one of them.

          A lot of people today feel ambushed by the needles of health or lack of money or family troubles.  Jesus lived in a society where life was tense, money was short and the government was putting the squeeze on everyone.  Sounds like today!  No matter how advanced a society may become, most things really don't change much from generation to generation.

          In many ways, tension, stress and worry have become epidemic today.  Adults, youth and even children feel its affects.  I read recently about middle school kids keeping day-timers and taking anti-depressants.  Whatever happened to youth and childhood?  It's no secret we don't handle tension and stress very well, despite our diets and health clubs and support groups.  A person today can be gentle and quiet on the outside, but inside still be a seething caldron ready to boil over.

          Consider Ralph, age 75, who left Betty, his wife of 52 years, and moved in with a woman across the street in their retirement village.  He said he couldn't take her screaming any more.  And he was an elder in his church!  Or how about Pete, 40-year-old man struggling to make sense out of his life, earning a hundred grand a year with a garage full of toys, barely keeping ahead of his bills.  Then there's Mary, a single Mom who's certain her car will disintegrate and her teenage son end up in jail.  But she doesn't see him much because she has to work two jobs due to a "Deadbeat Dad."  And then there's Joe.  He always dreamed of getting a new home, and it is - it's a brand new hospice where he's dying from lung cancer.

          Yet to each of these people, and to us, Jesus says, "I will take care of you.  Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  But seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well."  "Easy for Him to say," we think.  "He's the Lord!  I've tried giving my troubles to God but they're still there.  I go to church but nothing changes.  If you believe in Jesus, when does relief come?"

          It comes when we put FIRST THINGS FIRST.  When we seek God and His ways, the stress may still be there but it won't suffocate us.  Problems may still be there but they won't crush us.  When we let go and let God be first in our lives, the load is still there, but it's lighter, because He's carrying it with us.  If you aren't sure of this, consider dealing with your problems all by yourself!

          Stress can't be avoided.  It's a result of life.  We can get the same amount of stress from being promoted as from being fired.  Stress comes when we have hard choices to make.  Stress also comes from living in an imperfect world infected by sin.  We're people and we're sinners, so we're going to have stress, even if we're rolling in bucks.

          But stress need not control us.  When it gets out of control and anxiety takes over, the fabric of life starts to unravel and our spirits dry up.  I've seen anxiety chew up some great people, committed Christians, disabling them at home, at work, in church, as husband or wife, even as a friend.  Maybe you know what that's like.  To all of us, Jesus says today, FIRST THINGS FIRST -- trust in God, clean up the dirt in your life, and then watch things fall into place.

          Stress isn't limited to adults.  Youth and children struggle with grades and peer pressure in a confusing world.  Parents preach morality, but movies and music preach immorality.  Parents teach honesty, but then are caught lying to the kids.  Kids are taught respect for leaders, but then hear of lying and theft in high places.  Our kids have thousands of choices, but too little guidance in making the right ones.  The stress we lay on our children comes with the all the choices we have.

          Jesus says, "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all the rest will fall into place."  He's telling us, "Don't worry about your kids or your future.  Don't worry about having enough, or curing the world's suffering, or rescuing a decaying society.  Seek first My Kingdom and My righteousness, and all the rest will fall into place."  FIRST THINGS FIRST, and the rest will follow.  God will take care us - we just need to believe it.

          But that's so hard!  Does Jesus really know what it's like being a Christian today?  Do we even understand it?  Do we know how to live?  Do we know what we're doing to ourselves by our hectic pace of life, bad habits, spendthrift ways and our misplaced priorities?  How can we not worry?

          Joe and Ernie were on a sailboat.  A storm came up and they were shipwrecked on a deserted island.  Joe started screaming, "We're going to die!  We're going to die!  There's no food, no water!  We're going to die!"  But Ernie just sat down, leaned against a palm tree and acted so calmly it drove Joe crazy.  "Don't you understand?!" said Joe, "We're going to die!!"  But Ernie, closing his eyes for a nap, said quietly, "Don't worry.  I make a $100,000 a week."

          Dumbfounded, Joe said, "What difference does that make?  We're on an island with no food and no water, and all you can think of is how much money you make!!"  But Ernie smiled and said, "I'm just not worried - I make $100,000 a week."  "But how can that help us?" shouted Joe.  Said Ernie, "I make $100,000 a week, and I also tithe to my church.  Don't worry - my pastor will find me!"

          I'm thankful Christ already found me.  You see, I have some fatal diseases.  One is called "I Disease."  I spend too much time thinking about me, myself, my problems.  Another disease I have is "Stinking Thinking".  I get consumed by unimportant details and forget the important ones.  It's not that I don't try to do right, it's that I can't!  The harder I try, the worser I get.  Paul said, "The good I want to do, I don't, and the evil I try to avoid, that I do." (Romans 7:19)

          The real problem here is Sin, and the solution is putting Jesus first.  Sin isn't just offending God, it's a life-threatening disease.  If we don't get something done about it, we're sunk!  The Bible says we're "Dead in our trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), and that means all of us - nice guys and bad guys, church-goers and delinquents, marrieds and singles, homosexual and heterosexual, Lutherans and Catholics, Hindus and atheists.  The Bible says, "There is no one who is righteous, not even one..." (Romans 3:10)  We need a prescription, one called Jesus.

          Just because we live our life better than Joe Schmoe doesn't make us right with God.  God isn't interested in tally sheets on good deeds.  He doesn't care what church we attend or our politics.  He just wants us to trust Him, to believe in His Son, and lean on His everlasting arms of love.  Do we trust Christ or do we lean on our possessions?  Is Christ our salvation, or is it our 401K plan?  At I-25 and Broadway there used to be a tall sign that said, in huge letters, "Stuff."  Friends, all the "stuff" of this life will pass away, but our faith in Christ will not.

          My mother always said worry is concern without faith.  A friend recently told me, "Worry is the interest we pay in advance toward tomorrow's happenings."  We all have concerns, but we need faith that God will take care of everything.  FIRST THINGS FIRST, friends.

          A pastor once told this story in his sermon:  "A father, his son and his son's friend were sailing on the ocean.  A fast approaching storm swept them out to sea and the waves eventually capsized their boat."  As the pastor told the story, two teen boys in the front row began to show their first interest in the sermon.  The pastor continued, "Grabbing a rescue line amid the raging waves, the father was forced in an instant to make the most difficult choice of his life - to which boy would he throw the single lifeline?  His beloved son was a believer in Christ and he wanted to save him.  But his friend was not a believer.  In that instant the father yelled, 'I love you, son,' and threw the line to his son's friend.  The friend was saved, but the son disappeared in the waves and his body was never found.  The father knew he'd see his son in eternity, but he couldn't bear the thought of his son's friend being lost forever."

          The pastor continued his sermon, likening this to God's willingness to sacrifice His only Son so that we, the lost ones, might be saved.  He urged all present to grab the lifeline God was throwing them right then.  At the end of the service those two teenage boys came to the pastor and one said, "Nice story, pastor, but not very realistic.  I mean really, what father would give up his son in the hopes the other boy would become a Christian?"  An aged gentleman next to the pastor overheard his question and said, "You've got a point there.  It isn't very realistic.  But then, you see, I was that father, and the boy I threw the line to is standing next to me.  He's your pastor."

          God is throwing each of us a lifeline.  He sacrificed His only Son Jesus to save us.  Because of that Son we're all given a second chance now, and heaven when we die.  "God loves us [all] with an everlasting love." (Jeremiah 3:1)  It's more powerful than any human love, because His love is not based on emotion, but on decision.  God decided to love us in advance of our lives.  Thank God His love isn't love based on who we are, but on who He is.  God will take care of us!

          FIRST THINGS FIRST, my friends!  Best way to do that is to give Him your heart.  That's the only way out of the quicksand of worry.  Ask Him into your life not just once but every day.  He will bring you contentment - count on it!  One of the mysteries of life is how love can grow between two different people.  It's a far greater mystery that a holy God can love unholy people.  I don't know how He does it -- I just thank Him for it.  Let's trust the Lord, at home, at work and in church.  Put FIRST THINGS FIRST and see what great things He has in store for you.  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.