I watched an episode of Scrubs tonight where Dr. Cox lost three patients in one night. He went off the deep end, blamed himself, and became dressed and in a constant state of scotchen drunkenness. In the end it was JD's reassuringness, and gentile spirit that led Dr. Cox out of his depression, but this episode, and a reading from Jeremiah got me to thinking.
There's alot of crap in our world. War, violence, hurt, death, sorrow, injustice, and hunger are just a few of the problems we've got. It sucks. Sometimes I do wonder like the author of Jeremiah, "Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow, so that my days have been spent in shame?"
Jesus taught a very peculiar parabole. The farmer plants some seed, and at night the neighbor comes over and plants a bunch of weeds and crap in the field. If you've ever done any farming you know how easily the weeds and junk can overtake a field and leave the crop almost worthless. So Jesus followers ask, "do you want us to pull out the weeds?" And Jesus says, "Nope. Let them grow together." Wow. I can see in this world daily how the weeds are so prominent. But Jesus tells us not to try to rid the world of this things. Cause when we do, we're probably gonna pull up some wheat too. Think about how many times the church as fought over this kinds of things (abortion, gay marriage, wars, etc) and I wonder how much wheat we've pulled up trying to pluck the weeds?
I think God wants us to embrace the sorrow and pain of this world; to embrace a paradox of joy and blessing alongside the sorrow. Thats the example of Christ, not a life empty of sorrow or pain thats for sure. So let the discomfort, the pain, the sorrow, and the death that we experience in this world point us to the kingdom of God that is coming, and may we be remnants of the wheat that hasn't been choked out, and may we grow strong and fertile despite the weeds surrounding.
