Adjusting to Life’s Inevitabilities—Isaiah 60: 1-6; Matthew 2: 1-12
We begin a series on the marks of spiritual maturity lasting most of this time of Epiphany. The basic outline for this series comes from the writings of Christian ethics professor T.B. Matson, who taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The outline and the characteristics are his. The details of the sermons are my own, so I stole (or borrowed, shall we say) the idea, not the content. The first of these marks of spiritual maturity is being able to adjust to life’s inevitabilities. Now, the self-help books list a few things as “life’s inevitabilities.” Some of those include conflict, personal weaknesses, getting old, failure, taking something for granted, and death. I’m sure there are more, but this gets us started.
I had a friend who could adjust to life better than anyone I have ever met. If he had a flat tire, he just smiled and whistled while he changed it. When people began to fight and quarrel around him, he could defuse the situation in an instant. If he couldn’t do something, he just shrugged and went on to something else. I asked one time how he managed this whole sense of calm. He laughed, and said, “Whenever something happens outside of my control, I try very hard to be unbothered. I’ve decided to live my life unbothered by things I cannot change.”
I think we see a number of instances of being unbothered in our texts today. The Magi followed a star—they were unbothered by the struggle and difficulty of the journey to Jesus. They were unbothered by Herod’s complete lack of help in their search for Jesus. They were unbothered by the awkwardness of meeting a young Jesus and finding a poor family instead of a rich king. They were unbothered by having to find a new route home to avoid the wicked plans of King Herod. Mary and Joseph were likewise unbothered by three complete strangers showing up; though, I’m sure expensive gifts helped. These Magi were foreign and strange to Mary and Joseph, from different social classes, and likely both parties were taken aback by one another, but both were unbothered by it in this unique moment of Gentiles from far away meeting and worshiping the Holy One—Christ.
The person who was truly bothered by the whole situation was King Herod. His limited time as king, his weakness before God, and his fear of losing the privilege of the throne not only bothered him but shook him to his core. It caused him to scheme, to continuously go against God, and finally to order a murderous rampage against innocent children. But God always has the last word over the Herod’s of this life who seek to bring power only to themselves instead of following where God leads.
In our own lives, we must learn to be unbothered. Life and the troubles of life will come and go so long as we live and breathe here on earth. There are things we can control—suffering, poverty, hunger, lack of faith and hope. We can fight to combat these evils in our world. We can live and work our part of God’s mission here on earth. But there are also some things that we cannot control.
For those things we cannot control, we have this gift of trusting in God just enough to find ourselves unbothered. Now, being unbothered isn’t some miraculous, never-ending sense of happiness. Of course, when life’s inevitabilities happen, we are going to be upset, hurt, and wounded deeply. Feelings and emotions are natural—even Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus despite knowing he could raise the dead! Instead, being unbothered means we find this peace which passes all understanding that can only come from God.
When we find this peace, this “unbotheredness” at adjusting to life’s inevitabilities, we can move from unbothered to unburdened. Jesus tells us what this means in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you…for my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” But the best part of those verses is what we find in Christ. Verse 29 says that “you will find rest for your souls.” If unbotheredness is finding peace, then being unburdened is finding rest. Two things we don’t often get enough of in life are peace and rest.
This whole story of Jesus teaches us about the importance of growing in a closer relationship to Christ. In our story of the Magi today, the ones who sought Jesus with all their efforts were unbothered and unburdened in life. Herod, who fought against Jesus the whole way to the point of pure wickedness, remained riddled with fear, anger, and sin right up until his death.
Life is going to send us inevitabilities, troubles, real burdens which we must cope with. But the real mark of our spiritual growth is not what troubles we navigate in life, but how much we are willing to rely on the Holy One to see us through. As Proverbs 3:5 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” The true secret to being unbothered by the inevitabilities or “inescapbables” of life is how much we are willing to trust in Jesus to navigate us through all of these things. And when we find this peace of unbotheredness we can find this rest of being unburdened.
A friend of mine was recently told that it seemed he was talented at everything. Shyly, he replied, “I’m not, unfortunately, but God knew what he was doing when he made me flawed because I’d let it go to my head if I knew [too much] more.” He went on to acknowledge that where he finds shortcomings, he knows to rely on God. To be unbothered and unburdened and find God’s peace and rest requires us to trust in God’s guidance and wisdom. Some may even call it God’s providence. Whether we are led by a star in the sky, a feeling in our heart, a cloud, pillar of fire, or any other means of God speaking to us, one thing is certain: the more we trust, the more life’s inevitable troubles fade away into God’s goodness and God’s glory. I pray this year is an amazing year for all of you, my friends.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/448438886911228