homeschooled By GOD – Lesson Twelve: a Needle in a Haystack
Lessons Learned in the Classroom of Life
new YEAR, new YOU
January 28th, 2022
Psalm 40:1-3, ‘I waited and waited, and waited some more, for God. At last, He looked; finally, He listened. He lifted me out of the ditch (the slimy pit), pulled me from deep mud. He stood me on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.’
LESSON TWELVE: a Needle in a Haystack
Have you ever had to look for a needle in a haystack? Have you ever had to find a tiny diamond stud nose ring? Have you ever thrown a penny into the ocean and tried to retrieve it? Have you ever lost something so dear to you, when you realized it was gone for good, you wanted to give up altogether? Have you ever had to thread a camel through a needle’s eye? All impossible situations, seemingly hopeless outcomes. Does it ever feel it is nearly impossible to follow Jesus?
So our Teacher today has an important homeschooling lesson for us, but it will seem as futile to us as it did to the rich young man we learn of in Jesus’s teaching. We mustn’t walk away however. We meet him in Matthew 19 where he has just asked Jesus how he can earn eternal life. In verses 21-26, the passage says, ‘”If you want to give it all you’ve got,” Jesus replied, “go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.” That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go. As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.” The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?” Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”’ (MSG)
For whom the bell tolls. What a sad sentiment, to be holding on so tightly to the endearments of this world, we are unable to wrench our grasp free to take hold of an eternal, everlasting forever. This caused me to pause (sigh). We are so accustomed to chasing after fame and fortune often it really does seem money and notoriety makes the world go ‘round. We believe if we can buy it, it is worth it so we got to have it. If we are ‘someone’, we boast an entitlement degree. We bear a blemish if we cannot afford what others have and where others go and what others do. We mistakenly have bought into a falsity that we must earn our goodness which gets us to heaven. But Jesus came to set the captive free and He is the One Who paid our price so we wouldn’t have to. However, there is a requirement, and that is to totally sell out to Him, to give up whatever holds a dearer place in our lives, to abandon what has us in captivity so we can be free of anything holding us back from being able to be wholeheartedly committed.
It is meant for all people—Jesus came for all people—but not all will get it. Like the wealthy man, we may have our fists so tightly wrapped around what we own, earned, achieved, dream of, the thought of letting go may be something we cannot fathom or bear. In this case, the Teacher homeschools us, warning us finding a needle in a haystack or a penny in a vast ocean might be easier. What will you do? Will you let go and see what God refills your open palms with or will you hang on and thus lose everything? It’s an oxymoron, but it’s true. Let go and win, or hang on and lose…anyway.
