Putting Sharks And Problems In Their Place

by Kevin Burton

    My good friend Tracy sends out riddles and brain-teasers that challenge the mind, thoughts that make me ponder.

   This one made me laugh out loud.

   It was a trick question, under the heading “Drowning”:

   “Imagine you are in a sinking rowboat surrounded by sharks. How would you survive?” was the question. The answer; 

   “Stop imagining!”

   Before I read the answer, my first thought was I wouldn’t live long enough to drown, so I wouldn’t have to worry about that.

   My second thought was, I could kill at least one shark, if it choked to death trying to swallow me.

   But Tracy’s way is much easier, much the better solution.

   Have you ever had a dream where you are doing something dangerous and thought, well I can just wake up, this is just a dream? I have!

   When I stopped laughing over the trick question, my mind went to one of my memory verses, Matt 6:34, which reads. 

  “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

   My wife Jeannette is a champion worrier. She’s “first-string all-conference” in that category. 

   That of course, was hilarious the first two or three hundred times I said it. It also served to minimize the fact that I too am no stranger to undue worry myself.

   My memory verse actually includes the verse before 34, which reads:

  “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” (Matt 6:33 KJV).

   It would be good if you would, on your own time, visit Matthew 6 and read what things shall be added unto you.  But be assured that if you are truly seeking first the kingdom of God, all things will be added unto you.

   It’s best to consider those two verses together.  Verse 34 alone could be seen as an invitation to laziness or lack of preparation or good stewardship. 

   The two together, in the Kev paraphrase say, “Follow God’s plan to the letter, leave the rest to Him and see how things work out for you.”

   Life under the sun is so complicated. If you let it, it can drive you crazy.  Chances are pretty good that I could start writing a blog post like this one, finish up, then go back to my e-mail and find something there that creates a further complication for me.

    I have to face my realities and obligations of course. But “seek ye first” keeps my eyes where they should be, on God.

  When facing a huge problem, is used to say it was a “God-sized problem.” That meant it was obviously too large for me to handle on my own.

   That was a good realization, but I later realized that extrapolated, the thought meant that there were some problems that are small enough that I can deal with them myself.

   That is a bad, bad notion. That’s even worse than borrowing trouble from tomorrow; not turning over my problems to the One who can truly deal with them.

   We can not know what tomorrow holds, but we know the One who holds tomorrow in his hands.

   Remember, there once was a den of lions, who decided not to bother Daniel, because almighty God told them not to.

   Are your eyes on the lions (or on the sharks of my friend’s trick question), or are they on the Lord?

   “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved,” (Psalm 55:22 KJV).