New Potatoes

Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. -Matthew 16:25

There’s no denying that Jesus calls us to follow him to the cross. This is not an easy message, but it’s very clear. The Holy Week cycle is continual in our lives. Something dies, something new takes birth. Something is lost, something new is found. Without letting go of something, there’s no room to take up something else. The death and resurrection cycle takes many shapes.

I had a dream this week I was lugging a huge, heavy burlap sack of potatoes down a road in an open place. The road went on as far as the eye could see and it was hot. The sack was a terrible burden that slowed me down and exhausted me and I thought I was never going to make it to the end. I finally decided I had to drop it, and threw the potatoes out of the sack on the side of the road, and put just my water and snack back in the bag, now much lighter. When I came back the same way later, there was a lush garden of new potatoes - more potatoes than I could imagine, all growing on their own in God’s light with no help from me at all! It was a great dream.

That dream is like Jesus’ words, above. You can drop your heavy sack of possessions and give them to God and you’ll find new freedom. You can keep what is really essential, giving the rest to God, and you can move more nimbly forward anew. You can lay your burdens down and admit you can’t carry them alone and God will step in and help. You can let go of the familiar way you thought you had to do things and that’ll make room for new things to happen. You release what you think you need, and you’ll find God will provide far more than you need. You can let go of your personal plans for the future, and God’s plans, often more appropriate than our own, can take shape.

Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

I think we people of faith sometimes mistakenly think God’s called us to do something and then we’re on our own, like sub-managers. But in another place, Jesus reminds us that his yoke is easy, and his burden light. Although the call to follow Jesus can be deeply challenging in this world, and stretch us further than we thought we could stretch, we never have to pull the load by ourselves. Jesus is right there, a much ‘bigger ox’ than we are, pulling right alongside us. We are called to lean in and trust.

The readings for this Sunday are HERE. Ordinary time offers many readings to contemplate each Sunday. Track 1 will lead you through certain Old Testament books week by week more in depth. Track 2 provides an Old Testament text that is meant to compliment the Gospel of the week.