It seems like every time I scroll through a social media feed, I find common themes in what believers are posting about.

We post about what’s wrong with the world.

We post about what’s wrong with the church.

We post about what’s wrong with other believers.

We post about what’s wrong with what other believers believe.

Notice the trend?

It shouldn’t be surprising that the church is known more for what we’re against than for what we’re for. It’s what we highlight most of the time.

But what if we highlighted what’s right? What if…

We posted about what’s right with the world?

We posted about what’s right with the church?

We posted about what’s right with other believers?

We posted about what’s right with what other believers believe?

Usually, by the end of my feed scrolling, the simple act of highlighting what’s right seems like a pipe dream. But I’m going to keep dreaming anyway. If you join me, maybe together we can change what people think the church is about.

Why, yes, that is a strange title, but hang with me and I think it will begin to make sense. Probably, painful sense.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 14 about a man who decided to hold a great banquet and sent out invitations to all those he wanted to attend. In order to help connect the dots of that strange title and this parable, let’s agree that attending a banquet with amazing food that someone else paid for could easily be considered a blessing. (Can I get an amen from all the foodies reading this??)

Let’s pick the story up and see how the blessing played out.

At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another said, “I just got married, so I can’t come.” ‭‭(Luke‬ ‭14:16-20‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

They all began to make excuses, and on the surface, they seemed like legitimate ones. There was a new piece of property, a new mode of transportation, and a new relationship. None of those are bad, and yet all of those can lead us to the one thing that can stop the blessings of God.

Busyness.

Corrie ten Boom once said, “If the devil can’t make us bad, he will make us busy.” And that state of constantly having a great deal to do is so often the very thing that keeps us from saying yes to the things that God is inviting us to enjoy.

The sad irony of this parable is that the excuses didn’t even make sense. No one buys a piece of property without seeing it first. No one buys a car without test-driving it first. And married people still eat! That’s the insidious danger of busyness: often it doesn’t steal our time as much as it steals our hearts.

They all could have made the banquet if they had wanted to, and I think that’s why the man throwing the party got mad when he heard the excuses. He knew what we all know: we make ourselves available to whatever has our affections. A house, a car, a job, a relationship, a King.

The point isn’t that we can only have Jesus or those other things, but that our hearts must be available to Him first, or else other things can begin to crowd out our availability for Him.

I love the song, “Available,” by Elevation Worship. I love it for its simplicity and its clear challenge for us to say yes to the Father before and above our yes to anything else. Yes always leads us to the blessing of God, so let me close this writing with the simple chorus from that song that calls all of us to drop the excuses — even the good ones — and simply say, “I am available.”

I hear You call
I am available
I say yes Lord
I am available

Worry is one of those things that doesn’t help us, doesn’t help the situation, and yet is so easy to do.

Jesus knew this, and posed a simple question in the middle of the best sermon ever preached.

“And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span?” (Matthew‬ ‭6:27‬ ‭NASB, emphasis mine)

The truth is that worrying can’t add anything to our time on this earth, but there is growing scientific evidence that it can take time away.

I don’t know about you, but I want to live here as long as I can because our Father’s got things for me to do. He has things for you to do, too, and none of that is going to be achieved if we spend our time and energy worrying about things that are out of our control but under His.

“Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”

That quote from Erma Bombeck is so true! When we spend our time worrying, we make no progress, and we end up worn out in the same place we were before.

Enough! Jesus said to learn from the lilies and the sparrows. He can take care of them, and He loves us so much more. He can take care of us. That is a love that we can put all of our trust in. Consider what Peter wrote years after the sermon that Jesus preached:

“Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.” (1 Peter‬ ‭5:7‬ ‭NASB, emphasis mine)

It sounds like Peter was listening to the sermon. Maybe we should, too.