Appreciate Jesus, & What He Provides!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea (2) and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ (Matthew 3:1-2)
One good thing about a life of traveling to all the vacation hotspots where Uncle Sam needed me (like Iraq or Afghanistan) or others in the Far East or the Pacific was gaining the appreciation of the creature comfort that we enjoy here in the US. Paved roads being the norm and not the exception, for example, and greenery instead of tan and grey sand for miles. There are spots where electricity and running water on demand 24 hours a day is not the norm; some places turn off the running water at night and turn it back on in the morning so the water levels can recuperate from all the leaks in the system. Others will turn electricity on and off in order to save fuel costs, or to do repairs.
Even in the ‘backwoods’ of the US, there are locations where no power lines exist, and water comes from a creek, or a well. (Even in North Port, as in our neighborhood, we get our water from a well pump.) These ‘off-grid’ locations also have no phone or internet services (unless one has a satellite service such as Iridium or Starlink). If you want to get away from it all, these are the places to go. Where civilization stops and the wilderness starts, the perceptions of what is truly important changes.
When you go into the wilderness, it may change your perspective; you become more appreciative of what is provided to us daily, of how things become obvious on what we take for granted. Be out of the realm of the USA for a couple of months and you realize the blessings of having Publix and Wal-Mart, Taco Bell and Beef O’ Brady’s in close proximity of your neighborhood, with electricity, phone and water on demand.
Those who wandered into the wilderness in John The Baptist’s (JTB’s) day, though not having electricity or running tap water, became appreciative of Jerusalem’s civilization. Perhaps the early followers of JTB would feel blessed when entering one of Jerusalem’s establishments at that time for food (perhaps Mensch’s Bagel Stand or the Matzo Madness Café, just a block away from the Temple in an alleyway; a shekel got one their signature dishes), when they returned to Jerusalem from the desert. It is likely their perspective changed from taking what they had for granted into appreciating the blessings of having such things available to them, after the blessing of sharing honey and locust with John in the desert.
The perspective is not to see the comforts of civilization as blessings, necessarily, but to see them in the light of how good God is in all of His provisions. His blessings to provide that which is need; it is a blessing to have the restaurants to go to, but it is also a blessing for the locust and honey provided in the wilderness. The Lord’s provisions are all blessings, whether we buy them in a grocery store, or go fishing, hunting, or gathering for them. It is not for us to worry but to have Faith and trust the Lord that He will provide, as He does with the birds and the animals (Matthew 6:26-34).
There are those who wander into the wilderness but either cannot or do not want to find this new perspective; they will come back and continue to take for granted what is not theirs to provide. Perhaps they will when Publix (or Matzo Madness) closes up in their neighborhood, and then they will gain appreciation of what they could have had if only they paid attention, but it’ll be too late.
This is also an example of repentance, to turn away from sin. We have to leave our ‘normal’ but sinful lives, where we have taken God for granted. We have to go into the wilderness that is Christianity, where relatively few truly go. There we gain a new perspective, and we turn away from our sin and turn toward Jesus. Most will take God for granted even after approaching Christianity and never appreciate God’s gift of salvation through Christ, until it is too late, when their mortal life ends and their spiritual life begins. Instead of life with Christ they have life without Christ in Hell.
Most of us who accept Christ will return back to our ‘normal’ but now Christian lives, but with our new perspective we no longer take Jesus for granted but appreciate Him and serve Him as He calls us to do. There will be a some who will take on full-time ministry rolls (like JTB), but all who are changed will serve Christ by sharing His Gospel and do what we are called to do for Him and His cause.
