As a parent, I know the frustration of having my kids ignore me when I ask them to do something. I’ll ask one to put his towel in the clothes hamper, only to later find the towel on the floor. I’ll ask the other to stop making annoying sounds, but he keeps making them. When I ask them to do something, I might get a grunt as a response, if I’m lucky. However, if they end up listening and doing what I ask, I’m a happy camper. We have to ask ourselves if we drive our own Heavenly Father just as crazy when He asks us to do something.
God asks us all to follow His commandments and be a beacon of light and love to others. He asks us to follow His Son and model our lives after His. How many people actually listen to God and follow through with His request? The sentiment of the world seems to be, “my way or the highway.” The world seeks the easiest and most pleasant path and too often that path is different than the one that leads to God.
There are many “cafeteria Christians” who just go through the motions of living a Christian life. They go to church every week and are friendly to those close to them. They cite scripture verses and post uplifting social media posts. On the outside, they look like model Christians, but inside they aren’t listening to all of what God wants them to do. These same people often look down on those who are in a different socioeconomic status than they are and treat them as second class citizens. They sometimes end up supporting things that are morally wrong such as abortion, euthanasia, and premarital sex. They also like to choose what they want to believe in relation to faith. I think we all have been cafeteria Christians in some degree during our life. I might say to my kids, “We need to go to the store, so put on your shoes, get your wallet, and get in the car.” If they only do one or two of those things, we can’t go to the store. The same is true in regards to going to Heaven. We need to listen to all of what our Father is telling us in order to make the journey smooth to Heaven.
There are also many reformed and “born again” sinners who end up becoming saints. These are people who start their life on the path to destruction and turn their life around by listening to God and following the path He made for us. Some of these people fell to the lowest of lows and into the pits of despair, but they caught a glimpse of the light and had the determination and drive to climb out of the pit and get back onto the path. They may have spent a good portion of their life in sin, but ended up doing the right thing in the end. This also goes back to the Gospel from last week that talks about how the landowner continued to summon more laborers all the way through the end of the day and gave them all the same wage. The wage God gives us is eternal life in Heaven. It’s not about when we choose to listen to God that matters, it’s about choosing to listen to Him and then following through with our actions.
