What lies ahead for you this week? Staff meetings, a round of golf, recitals, out-of-town trips, child care arrangements, anticipation of certain news? We all have plans for the week. Almost all of them involve some choice or action on our part. I had a great conversation last week about “determinism” versus “free will” – do we or does God determine our path in life (and at what level) and all we have to to is life out that pre-determined path, or do we have the ability to make choices about the direction of our lives in real-time? This gets tricky for Christians because we say things like “God has a plan for you” or “Pray that God would reveal His will for your life.” If we go to extremes, we either have a God who is uninterested and removed from our experience, or we have a God who micromanages every tiny thing we do such as when we scratch our heads and even whether we get cancer, struck by a car, or are the victim of a crime.

There is so much I have to say on this topic, but I want to focus on one aspect in particular: What responsibility, if any, do we have for others? Is our caring pre-determined or a matter of free-will?

The Youth Service today (5/5/2013) under the theme “Hands and Feet” gave me some clarity on this. In the youth’s skit, there was a moment when an elderly man was talking with his granddaughter about being involved with the church. When he was young, he was very involved and gave a lot of himself to the church. Now that he is older and not able to move about freely, he didn’t feel that he had anything else to offer. It turns out that he was still serving the church, but in a way that even he overlooked. He was serving the role of teacher and encourager for his granddaughter, her friend, and his wife. We may not know how we serve, but we do have choices. Will we see opportunities to serve in Jesus’ name and decide to pass them by? Or will we seize that moment?

Over the years, I’ve heard a number of people defend their actions (or inaction) with their neighbor by quoting the Bible: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The problem with using this verse from Genesis 4:9 is that it is spoken by Cain just after he killed his brother, Abel. I’m thinking this is not the best rationale. Instead, there are MANY Bible verses that speak of caring for our neighbor. Jesus elevated it to one of the two Great Commandements (love God with your whole self, and love your neighbor as yourself).

This Week

If you haven’t read the Scriptures from last week (John 13:31-35 and Acts 11:1-18), I encourage you to take some time to do that. Otherwise, consider the following two Scriptures. As I’ve mentioned before, writing in a journal or talking with a friend is a good way to take time in the Word and hear God speaking to you.

Scriptures

• Jeremiah 29:11
• Deuteronomy 6:1-12 Pay attention especially to verse 4. This is one of the central creeds of Judaism and is called the Shema. Shema in Hebrew means “hear” and begins the verse “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” Some Jews to this day will post a mezuzah next to their door in fulfillment of v9 “write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”. This might not surprise you, but the Wilsons have some decorative mezuzah near our door. I’ve included a picture so you can see what they look like if you haven’t seem them before. Notice there is character that looks like a “W”. That does not stand for Wilson, but is the Hebrew letter shem, the first letter in Shema.