Straight Priorities

Matt 8:21-22 - Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

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Ready for some debate? For those who read my blog you know that one of my goals is to read scripture in a fresh way. I don’t want to take any of my culture or my “Christian” ideas into it. Sometimes that leads to awesome discoveries for my walk, and sometimes that leaves me even more confused than I started. Case and point – today’s verse.

The majority of my life has now been as a Christian. One thing that the church has always taught is that your family should come before just about anything. We say that God comes before our families, but in practice he doesn’t, and for the most part we are OK with that. But I got to thinking today, does the Bible place family before ministry? Should it be that way?

May I suggest that perhaps we should place ministry before our family? I am not saying that this is right, or that I do this, I am just suggesting that perhaps we could make a case for this in the bible. The verse above is just one example of scriptures calling us to serve with Jesus before we take care of the needs of our family. Elsewhere in scripture we see Jesus allowing his disciples to leave their careers and their families to follow him. The real kicker is in 1 Corinthians 7:29 – Now let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short, so husbands should not le marriage be their primary concern.

What I think we have is a disconnect in our Christian world between love and action. Can we love the Lord more than anything in this world and not have time to serve him because of our family obligations. I am not ripping on anyone, but I got to tell you that I get this excuse all the time. I love my job but the hardest part of it for me is getting people to jump in and do ministry with me. I am sure that the bulk of the problem is my fault, for not being a good enough motivator, but this excuse is just tough for me. It sounds so noble, and I am not sure that anyone has been called on this before, but let me say this, - If you are unable to do the Lords work because your family is your priority, perhaps your family has a whole needs a new set of priorities.

Then there is the idea that my family is my ministry. That is valid, but it is something that we never see in scripture as far as I can tell. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that family is not important. My only thought is that most of us admit that God is more important. We need to align our actions up with that.

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Lord help me to not only love you most but to live for you most at the same time. I don’t want to categorize my time, I want to be a Christian all the time. Whatever you are calling me to do is my primary concern. I live for you first, help me to do that.