Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
Boy was this weekend rough. Our very last podcast on Friday, I passed along that I was dealing with strep throat again and had asked for everyone’s prayers. Well it turns out that it wasn’t just strep throat, because I was absolutely miserable even after 48 hours on the amoxicillin. I could hardly breathe, I had horrid pain in my ears and throat, and congestion was severe. It appears I had several other infections all hitting me at the same time as the strep, so I was down for the count for about three days straight. Yesterday I went to see my doctor and he called in some steroids for me to help get me back on my feet finally, and boy let me tell you do those things work. I feel like a brand new man! Maybe Barry Bonds was on to something after all…oh, too soon, by bad. All jokes aside, while this weekend was pretty rough for me, I want to tell you who it was the roughest on – my wonderful, loving wife Kylie. When I say I was down for the count, I was essentially worthless for two days straight. That left Kylie to be taking care of me and both of the kids all by herself. She got the kids up and dressed and ready for worship Sunday by herself. When the kids kept her up at night, she did it all by herself. My poor wife is exhausted by today because of how hard she worked over the weekend and she most certainly needs a break. But you know what? She’s never complained once, she just continued to pour herself out and serve her family out of love. I am so incredibly grateful for her and the way that she cared for me and our family over the weekend, but I am equally as grateful for how she does this day in and day out in her life. She is my hero, and I need her more than I could possibly ever express with words. All of this got me thinking about something in particular though. Certainly people who are suffering and are in need of care round the clock we can sympathize with, but have we ever stopped to think about how difficult it is for those who work as a full time caretaker? I know there are many of you listening to this who have been a caretaker for someone in their life that can testify to this, but it is one of the hardest labors of love. You are constantly on call 24/7 to come to the aid of the one you are caring for. It effects your schedule, your sleep, your finances, your relationships, everything. As a full time caretaker, you put yourself in the position to serve the suffering with your every waking moment, to do for them what they cannot do for themselves. But you know what, I’ve never once heard someone who was in this position ever complain or try to garner sympathy for how tired and spent they were. And do you want to know why? Because it is a labor of love. They are willing to put it all on the line and pour themselves out for someone that desperately needs their care with no expectation of anything in return. So today as you stop to pray for those who are hurting or suffering, make sure you also stop to thank God for those that are caring for them too.
Come to think of it, I now want to shift the focus a little bit to share what I have been thinking about as I meditated on these things. I think sometimes we are very “me focused” when it comes to our relationship to God. When things come up in our lives, we become overwhelmed and think about how difficult it is to deal with our hardships here on earth. And certainly life is hard. In fact, Jesus promised that while we lived in the flesh that we would have trouble. But have any of us ever stopped to think about how much appreciation we ought to have for our caretaker? Consider Colossians 1:15-22, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.” I want you to notice the emphasis on everything that is done by and through Christ that we could never do for ourselves. The world as we know it is held together by Jesus, we could not do that ourselves. Our very life and breath is given to us by Jesus. It is not within man to direct our own steps, and so he is the head of the church and leads us where we could not lead ourselves. We could not save ourselves from our sin, and so Jesus literally gave his body over to death that we might be reconciled to God. Just stop to consider the job that the Father, Son, and Spirit have. They are constantly, and have been for all time and will be for all time, giving themselves over in service to their creation. Every single prayer at every hour of the day and night is brought to the throne of God. Every need, every heartache, every injustice, every desire, all of it is known and cared for by the Lord. He knows every hair on your head, he knows what you need even before you ask, and he freely gives us all things through Christ. And yet God does all of this freely, he does not complain, he just continues to serve his creation. Why? Because it is a labor of love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) It is because of his great love for us that God has poured himself out for us and continues to do so. Every action, every word, every plan and every promise is rooted in love. Nothing about what God does is easy, though sometimes I think we think it must be because after all he is God. God has tasked himself with being the caretaker of all creation – so in your prayers today, do not just stop to ask him for more ways in which he can serve you…stop and thank him for all the work that he does and continues to do for you in your life.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.