Mark 5:35-40
Faith and Attitude
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
John 11:1-16
Faith and Attitude
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
4When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." 5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
7Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."
8"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?"
9Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."
11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
12His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."
Why bother, this will not work, oh well, this is not my concern, I give up, what good is this, why pray for someone who is very old and very ill, why help others?...God gives us free will and everyday we choose our and make daily choices to do what we want to or not what we want to...Sometimes, I think we go through day after day without even realizing we are making these daily free will choices, that God has given us...We sometimes get so caught up in life and our daily busyness and forget that the daily choices we make are either getting us either closer to God, and further away from Him...We may be getting up, going to work, working, coming home on automatic pilot...When I am alone with nothing to do, I can choose to read my Bible, or watch TV, or do something else...When I am with family or friends, I can choose to ignore my thoughts of God and His Son, and give God His Glory and the credit that He is due, or I can go about my day, acting as if, He is not a part of my life...God made us to be both helpful and to be with family and others...Daily we have choices, many choices, and the decisions we make and choose are very important...
Are we kind to others, are we acknowledging our LORD, are we keeping the faith?...Are we basically doing what Jesus teaches?...
I think we should reflect on our daily choices, and think about them regularly...We should look at why we choose to do this or that everyday...C. S. Lewis wrote about the daily choices each of us make...Lewis tells us that "every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a Heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is Heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other."
What if Jesus took the attitude, of why bother, or oh well, it is not My job or concern, or I am giving up on old Lazarus?...Jairus' daughter and Lazarus would not have been resurrected...After Jesus chose to hep these two, Jairus' daughter and Lazarus would feel something very special the rest of their lives, then they would meet Jesus in heaven at a later date -after they died a second time (imagine that)...Jesus would not be who He is with a negative attitude, an attitude of "why bother"...Jesus cares, and even though He teaches us the Sermons on the Mount and Plains, about the toughness and sometimes the unfairness and sufferings of our world...Jesus teaches us can have nothing and be meek and still be blessed...Jesus was perfectly impartial, rich or poor, smart or not smart...He did not play favorites...And apathy is not a part of Him...We realize almost immediately in His ministry, that God is the central part of His life, and He is going to share that thought -that idea with whoever is following Him and listening to Him, no matter what...Jesus had faith in His Father, and His attitude projected that faith, in all the choices He made, while He was on earth...It did matter about Jairus's deceased daughter, it did matter about Lazarus dying...Jesus wept when Lazarus' sister told Him of her brother's death (John 11:35)...
We are often overwhelmed with news of one sort or another...Let us learn from Jesus, from these two teachings, that attitude means so much...Also, what we choose to do daily in our interactions with others, means so much...If our Father is a part of lives, we will care, we will try, we can face suffering and we can do good in the face of suffering and adversity...And as Jesus teaches in the above two examples, sometimes some goodness, and greatness comes out of our sufferings and pains, and in these above sufferings, we can see the glory of God...