About Tomorrow, Let God Worry: The Place of Time

By Edwin Zackrison

Successful human existence is wrapped up in how humans deal with their time. Everyone talks about the pursuit of happiness. Unpacked, that means how they ration and spend their time. The past gives direction to the present as well as the future. But the future never comes. Everything humans are in is present. The place of time is of utmost concern to spiritual people. The place of God in helping them deal with it is crucial.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532065095

Edwin Zackrison

Edwin Zackrison is a retired professor of theology and ministry at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He is the author of The First Temptation (2015), People Under Construction (2020), and Profile of a Religious Man (2020).

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

ABOUT TOMORROW, LET GOD WORRY

Do not lie in a ditch and say, God help me; use the lawful tools He hath lent thee.

—George Chapman

JOHN 11:1-45

¹ Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill. ⁴ But when Jesus heard it he said, This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it.

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, Let us go into Judea again. ⁸ The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again? ⁹ Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.

¹¹ Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep. ¹² The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead; ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. ¹⁶ Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

¹⁷ Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. ²³ Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.

²⁴ Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. ²⁵ Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? ²⁷ She said to him, Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.

²⁸ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, The Teacher is here and is calling for you. ²⁹ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

³² Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; ³⁴ and he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see.

³⁵ Jesus wept.

³⁶ So the Jews said, See how he loved him! ³⁷ But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?

³⁸ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. ³⁹ Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. ⁴² I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me. ⁴³ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, Unbind him, and let him go.

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.

THE BEAT GOES ON

When the Clinton affair died down years ago, some people were finding it hard to have a conversation. Talking about impeaching a president gave some people the feeling that they were talking about an important thing—even contributing to some significant decision-making. Should he or shouldn’t he be impeached. And that was all gone. What were people supposed to talk about? What was Jay Leno left to quip about?

Well, there was always Y2K—the alleged computer bug that would wipe out civilization as we knew it in the year 2000. I hear virtually nothing about that now. People put their money away in a safe spot until the day passed. Some people wouldn’t schedule flights over the change of the century.

Then there was the millennium, which found its end somewhere in the following two years. Some said December 31, 1999, others insisted it was the thirty-first of December 2000. The arguments on that continued for a while. If you are going to predict the end of the world you could set the date for December 31, 1999, and if it didn’t happen you could say you miscalculated, and you now believe the new millennium was to start on December 31, 2000, and that’s when the end will come.

I heard of a couple once who belonged to a conservative cult that didn’t eat meat or wear jewelry. They had a vision that the end was coming, and they believed it would start at their church with a ball of fire. On the day the end was to occur they brought their folding chairs to watch the church go up in flames, but nothing happened. They were so disappointed and shocked that they decided it was all a fraud. So that night they went to a party, put on jewelry and ate meat! That was pretty much where life resided for them! To be honest, I have expected a lot more bizarre behavior around the end of the millennium than we saw. The beat goes on!

THE END CARRIES A FASCINATION FOR MOST HUMAN BEINGS

There are churches in America that were founded on the awareness that we live at the end of time. Prediction after prediction about how soon Christ is coming and when great catastrophes will occur are standard fare for some people’s faith. Great excitement has accompanied the revivals of our day as preachers warn about the increasing sinfulness of our age and its final demise—in our generation.

I had a long visit from a concerned Christian who felt that our days are numbered and now is the time when we should be perfecting our lives in such a way that we are ready for the imminent return of Christ. And if you disagreed you were certainly not a concerned Christian and you probably didn’t believe the Bible.

These are natural concerns. Life and death are standard worries of human beings and the desire to find the answer to living forever has often been a discussion. After all, Christ did say he was coming back to this earth. He revealed that there would be signs of his coming to watch for. He said he would return soon. And his faithful disciples, through the ages, have pondered what he meant by this.

How soon is soon? Where are the signs of his coming? With the onset of modern technology, we can measure the effect of earthquakes. We are made aware of horrible tragedies through modern communication and satellites that beam the news as soon as they occur. What may have been common occurrences are played up on the news to the extent that things appear different than they have ever been, and self-styled prophets aim their obsessiveness to feed our fears.

As a university professor I have found that prophecy classes are most popular with young people, especially if you could somehow see that our days were indeed numbered. Advertise a new class on current events as they relate to the end of the world and you were almost guaranteed a full house. Life and death are of major interest even to normal human beings—and to those who are obsessed with guilt and worry they become even more relevant.

We seem to be made that way. We are fragile when it comes to understanding ourselves and many are deeply insecure about our futures—because we know that life does not last long for any of us.

LIFE AND DEATH ARE CONCERNS

In this scripture we see an eschatological² prediction. On the surface it appears simply to be a story of Christ’s love for a friend. His name was Lazarus. Here was a man in whose house Jesus had spent many hours. They talked together. They spent days and nights in discussion. Jesus felt comfortable to visit at any time—the house of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. We all need to get away and let our hair down and Jesus was no exception. Apparently, he could go to this house and just be himself. They were good friends.

Now Jesus gets word that Lazarus is very ill. But he makes no special effort to get there to see him. Visiting the sick is a job for the minister but sometimes he doesn’t get there in time. Jesus didn’t get there in time to say good-bye and when he finally did get there, his friend had died.

In fact, when he was summoned to go to this house, Jesus says, He’ll be all right. And he stayed two more days where he was. Jesus went about his ministerial business, talking and teaching, healing and comforting. And then he revealed, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep. (John 11:11). And his disciples were happy—so he must be getting better. The fever had broken, and he was asleep.

¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead; ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. (John 11:14-15).

Knowing that Jesus is in a crisis and that many people are now seeking to stone him, the disciples try to stop him. The city of Bethany was dangerously close to the headquarters of those who wished to do him in and when the disciples saw that Jesus was determined to visit Lazarus, who by this time had died:

¹⁶ Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. (John 11:16).

What a strange set of circumstances. You can hardly tell if these men believe in Jesus at all. They seem to be in a continual state of confusion regarding the behavior of Jesus. But aren’t we all in that same state of confusion when life and death stare us in the face? We don’t like to live, and we are afraid to die. Change means living and most of us are as afraid of change as we are afraid of death. Major changes come in our lives and we are fearful. We stretch to go back. We long for the good old days.

I look at the pictures in my high school annual and think of these friends of over fifty years ago. It all seems to be so neat—back there—when things were simple. But no one can go back. So, we just think about it.

LIFE AND DEATH HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH AGE

Lazarus was not an old man by our standards. He certainly wasn’t in the same age category as John the beloved who died in his 90s or Daniel who was probably in his late 80s when he died. Lazarus was not in that stage of life. He was probably in the prime of life, and death is not supposed to hit us then.

We tend to associate death with age but most of the people I have known who are dead, were young, many in the peak of their life—through disease, accidents, or self-inflicted tragedies. Martin Luther King wasn’t old. John F. Kennedy wasn’t elderly. Teenagers in my classes or youth groups—certainly aren’t old. Some have been fortunate enough to live to be old.

There are people in congregations who, when they were young, looked into the face of the grim reaper and he said, I’ll give you some more time! So, age is not the issue in facing either life or death. It probably takes more courage to face life than it does to face death. It’s just that death seems so certain, so inevitable and perhaps so final. Age sticks in our mind. And age is a factor in our dealing with time.

The older we get I suppose the more we are tempted to think of life and death from different perspectives. My mother was eighty-nine when she died. She had hoped to live to see the Lord return. But something could have happened when she was twenty-one. And yet she knew that death was inevitable without his intervention. In fact, she had a brush with death on a bobsled in Norway that almost took her life as a teenager.

We all eventually die. And yet I think I know as many young people who died as old people. Life and death are not things that are necessarily tied to age. I know young people who don’t live much. I know older people who live rich lives.

I am struck with Jesus’ approach to the whole matter. He says he wants to show the glory of God and that’s why he lets Lazarus die. I won’t go there—that’s another chapter—or book! But I think we can learn something from the way he deals with this illness and death.

We should learn from this story that death is of minor consequence when you have the keys to death. I lost my keys once. I panicked. But my wife didn’t panic. She calmed me down. I was ready to call Triple A or the police. But she said, It’s okay, I have a set in my purse.

Keys are powerful. I walked into my study one day. My study was in the garage of my house and there was a lock on the door leading from the house to the garage. Somehow, I had a load of books or something and I brushed against the little lock button. When the door closed to the house it locked. I could get out of the garage because the garage door was electric. But I couldn’t get back in the house.

I didn’t have much on in the way of clothes—so there I stood in my shorts and tee shirt—locked in the garage. I was the only person home with no prospect of getting out. I am a modest man and I didn’t relish the thought of trying to get out of the garage, climb up the wall to the second-floor porch in my shorts and tee shirt, and hope there was a window open in the house.

My keys were upstairs. My wallet was upstairs. The phone was upstairs. As the sweat formed on my brow—at the thought of being locked semi-naked in the garage I saw a key on the bookcase. It was the key to the house. I have no idea where it came from or how it got there. But it worked. That powerful item let me in my house without embarrassment.

THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS

Jesus walked to the tomb, quietly, decisively, as all the disciples stood there semi-naked in their frustration, stripped of courage, facing their fears of death. He inserted the key and the tomb opened and the dead man walked out, covered with the stench of three days in the grave. He greeted his family and the people were amazed. When you have the key, you need not panic.

As you look around you at the predictions, as you try to figure out what to talk about that is sensational enough to merit listening to, I challenge you to think about Jesus walking calmly to the tomb. About tomorrow, let God worry! Will the world end this year? Will some great catastrophe occur that will end life as we know it? I don’t know. I don’t know what North Korea or China is getting ready to do. I don’t know the latest thoughts of the Iranian mullahs. I don’t know what national crisis we may face with this millennium.

But I know who has the key to the tomb. The signs of the times are only important if you know who holds the keys to the kingdom. Otherwise they just terrify you or can make you cynical.

Those disciples would go to their deaths eventually. They would all meet either violent deaths or cruel treatment in some way, even though they didn’t know it at the time. But that day there could be little doubt in their minds that they knew the keeper of the keys.

What are the rocks in your life? What are the pebbles? What is the sand? And what is the water? Our lives are filled with sorting opportunities. And those lives are happier and more fulfilling as we let God worry about tomorrow. Christ provides the life and the hope. He is the object of our affection this day.

CHAPTER TWO

LIFE IN THE FORMER LIFE

The past always looks better than it was; it’s only pleasant because it isn’t here.

—Finley Peter Dunne

EPHESIANS 4:17-24

¹⁷ Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; ¹⁸ they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; ¹⁹ they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. ²⁰ You did not so learn Christ!— ²¹ assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.

²² Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

FALLING BACK

Several years ago, a young pastor was invited to plant a congregation. On the day the church was officially organized, he received a phone call from a church member introducing himself as Bill. He called to tell the pastor that he wanted to be active in the new church.

Over the next few months the two became good friends. But this day he had called to ask for some supplies to help people study the Bible. There were friends at work who kept asking him questions. From there their involvement became a mutual concern for unchurched people and for those wishing for biblical understanding.

Bill became active with the young people since he had kids of elementary school age. He taught a Bible class and served as a lay activities director for the congregation. As a contractor he accepted a position on the building committee. He helped as a young people’s sponsor to be with his children at church. A couple years down the line he was elected a church elder.

As time went on Bill called the pastor again, asking him to pray with him and his wife. They had decided to open a business of their own and they wanted God to bless them.

They would start the business on a shoestring—they would work hard—it would take time and dedication. They would have to take some time from their church activities—they would have to take some time from their kids. Bill’s wife was pregnant with their fourth child. But all that time would be replaced as the business took off. Shortly after this Bill’s father died. The troubles were building.

All these events hit him within a very short time, adding to his stress. A lot of stress all at once. Bill reminded his pastor that his real desire was not just to have a business but to be instrumental in leading his associates to Christ. And as the owner of his business he would be in a unique position to witness. He wanted to widen his ministry. He would hold classes where people could learn the blessings he was enjoying as a Christian. He had not always been a Christian and he had had a beautiful experience becoming one. He wanted to share that.

So, he started his new business. And the pressures began—pressures typical in any new business venture. They built up—those he had hoped to influence for God began to influence him away from God. Time was taking its toll.

Then one Friday morning Bill called his pastor, this time not so encouraging.

He came over to the church office. There he sat like the world was coming to an end. He hung his head. He hardly looked up. He looked very sad. And he began: I goofed up last night.

What did that mean? I took a drink last night—the first in six years. He told his pastor that he wanted him to remove him from all his church duties until he got his life straightened out.

The pastor talked with him about his life and the stress he was under. He asked about his former life. What his life was like before he became a Christian and how it was different now?

Bill revealed that he had come from a rough home. There was alcohol, but God had found him and turned him around. For that he was so relieved. God had turned him from his former life, it’s futility, it’s emptiness, it’s consequences, it’s hopeless future. He had become a Christian—sanctified—set apart to work for God—and he had worked—he had worked hard. His pastor knew that—his minister had marveled at his perseverance and ability. God had taken over his worries.

That morning the pastor watched the beginnings of a family self-destructing as Bill took back the worries of his life. The pastor just sat there helplessly for the drama—and he did everything he could to help him reverse the next couple of years—drug sessions, alcoholic programs and 12-step agendas. In the hospital—out of the hospital. Bill would make some progress and then he would fall back and return to his former life. The end was very painful—divorce, lost business, and finally a fatal heart attack. Bill was dead. His pastor was heart-broken. This was one of his closest friends and so capable.

THE FORMER LIFE

Paul wrote words from his prison cell about slipping into the former worries.

¹⁷ Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; ¹⁸ they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. (Ephesians 4:17-18).

Then he admonishes:

²² Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Each of us may have a Bill in our life. Perhaps Bill is the story of our own life—and we struggle to stay with the gains we have made in letting God worry about our tomorrow for us. It is a story that can be told in truth a million times over because his is the story of the human plight, the human predicament, the human condition, the human battle with one’s own being.

You might wonder at the waywardness of a son or daughter and it seems that the more you pray the worse they get. You might query at the obstinacy of a brother or a parent when you try to share the blessings you understand as coming from God. You might be astonished at the agnosticism of a true love and why there seems to be no spark of understanding or interest when you mention the name of Jesus in any setting other than profanity. This can become your worrisome life.

The mother of every rapist and murderer usually says the same thing, He is really a good boy. That wish dream dies hard—that wish to see human nature as something other than it really is. The former life of which Paul speaks is the natural life—the life we all share by being born into this evil age. We have created language to mask this reality. Perhaps it’s a defense mechanism—in those lower