Have you got your head where it doesn't belong? It's not always easy to recognize it in ourselves. Sometimes it takes your dog getting his head jammed in a cheese ball barrel to open your eyes. Sometimes we can be that dense.
Jesus said it plainly--"Do not let your heart be troubled . . ." John 14. The operative word here is LET. I guess it is a choice.
I was curious to find out what the back story was --so I looked at John 13. The quotes are not from scripture, but intended as part of my story. Here's how I imagine it might have gone.
Jesus and his buddies are lounging around in their man-cave. There were 12 of them sprawled all over the furniture and floor. Jesus was lounging on the couch next to John who was squeezed beside him.
"Guys, I hate to break the mood here, but one of you is going to betray me."
Stunned silence settles over the room. Think if you were there. What would be going through your thoughts?
No way! Betray Jesus? One of US? How could that be? Uh . . . I hope its not me.
Imagine the tension in the room when Jesus announces, "I'm going to dip this bread in the wine and the one I give it to is the betrayer."
Anxiety rises. Hearts pound.
Jesus dips the bread and reaches over to hand the bread to Judas. Satan enters Judas on the spot. I wonder what that looked like? Judas races from the room. I bet you could hear eleven sighs of relief?
Jesus hardly takes a breath before hitting them with more bad news; "I'm leaving . . . and where I'm going you guys can't go."
I imagine their peace when right out the window after that announcement. Their whole world was turning upside down.
Why change things now when they have been working? I thought we were a team? Where are you going, Lord? What's happening? And what's going to happen to our brother Judas?
Then the Lord turns to Peter and says . . . "And Peter, don't think you're superior to Judas, you will deny me three times!" (I guess we are all susceptible- no matter how close we are to Jesus)
Okay, now we know the setting when Jesus says, "Do not let your heart be troubled!" John 14:1.
I'd be troubled . . . how about you? He goes on to reassure them he will come for them, but I don't think it would be too easy not to be troubled after what just happened. Isn't that just like the Lord. In the middle of the worst fear attack, or fits of anxiety, he says "Don't let your heart be troubled . . ."
It's because trust is a battle word. Trust in a good God, when nothing looks good, unlocks our negative thinking, and unties our hands. Just as my son had the tools to get the cheese ball container off Oden's head.
You don't have to look very far to find something troubling - just look at posts on Facebook! But as soldiers for Christ, we must not get our heads stuck on/in the wrong things. I've always limited trust to images of a shepherd leading his fleecy flock in peaceful fields under blue skies. Wrong. Trust is a word for battle.
"I will trust my good God!!!" Is the voice of tenacious trust and will keep our head in the right place.