faithful in a little

Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Does life just get to be too much? Do you feel like you need "7 habits" to get "your best life now"? I do, and I certainly understand the attraction of people like Covey (secular) and Osteen (religious) who offer pretty good advice for people who were born without the ability to prioritize and plan. I get that.

But I think this life of being overwhelmed isn't new. Modernity, the industrial revolution, and the PC didn't cause our lives to be more complicated than they were, just complicated in new and different ways. And despite what Covey and Osteen might tell us, the power to overcome these complications does not, and never has, come from within ourselves. It comes only when our lives are restored to their full potential as God's Created beings.

So, Jesus tells us, just be faithful. Be faithful in a little and God will give you more. Be faithful to God, and God alone. Don't try to be faithful to yourself, to your job, to your routine, or whatever other idol has taken your faith, but put your faith in God and the rest will take care of itself.

I know this all sounds glib, but I really think that it might just be that easy. Having spent the day at Fresh Start, the group process hotspot for clergy in new positions, I realized that we, especially clergy, put our faith in a lot of stuff that isn't good; programs, products, theologies, ourselves, our congregations, etc. and end up really wounded, cuz all that sh*t will at one time or another let us down (yes even ourselves), but to put our faith in God means to rest on the one who is eternal, is not passing away, and will not let us down. With time, we might even forget those wounds that we caused ourselves by putting our faith in things that are passing away, and might even become a better, more whole, person because of it.