As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. — Matthew 13:22
Janae had been dreaming of owning her own catering business for years. She’d heard the stories of how hard it would be to succeed in the venture, but she had crossed every t and dotted every i. She’d done her homework. She’d secured funding. She found a storefront location. She launched with a beautiful gala.
The launch came three weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. Suddenly, no one was gathering in homes or even backyards to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and graduations. Suddenly, no one needed charcuterie boards or finger sandwiches for any kind of social gathering at all.
Do you remember what was happening in your life right before it was upended by the pandemic? Back then, a lot of people had goals and plans. They were graduating from college. They were starting businesses. Getting pregnant. Planning vacations. A lot of us imagined that we were on top of things. We thought we were running our lives. And then... the pandemic happened.
When that happened, we weren’t quietly lulled to sleep. No, it was an old-school choke out. People were being crushed by the cares of this world because we were racked with uncertainty and anxiety. We couldn’t go to work, the store, or the bank. We didn’t know how things would unfold, and a lot of us were scared. Concerned. Anxious. Afraid. Today, we can look back and know how it would all pan out: how we would get groceries, figure out working remotely, be in public with masks — and then there would be medicine. But as it was happening, we had no idea what would happen next.
I’ll suggest that while the COVID pandemic was unusual, it wasn’t unique. No, this is how we are. We are fragile and small, and uncertainty is a certainty for us all. Uncertainty and anxiety choke us. We think we have control, and then suddenly we have no control — despite our deep desire to control things. And it slowly strangles the life out of us. And the next thing we know, we’re sleeping like the early church was sleeping in Ephesus.
I don’t know what this looks like in your life, but I’m curious. What do you do when you are no longer the master of your domain? When you receive the diagnosis. When you can’t make the car payment. When you get fired. When your spouse leaves.
It can be so easy to be done in by the cares of the world.
We’re done in by anxiety. By uncertainty. We’ve lived it. We know it. It’s thorny. When the seed the sower has sown is choked out by the cares of the world, we are put in a kind of sleeper hold that puts us to sleep.
And we also get taken out by the deceitfulness of riches. I don’t mean money, because the Bible doesn’t condemn making bank or having riches. The Bible warns us about the love of riches (1 Timothy 6:10) because that’s where we get deceived. And this word isn’t just for rich people. It’s for folks without much money too.
Any of us can be deceived into thinking, If I just had more, my life would work.
The cares of this world — that we can experience as the deceitfulness of riches — lull to sleep the rich and the poor. Among the rich there’s a confidence in wealth that dulls our appetite for God. If we’re rich, we might be trusting in money to satisfy us with the second car and the beach house and the exotic vacations. Who needs God? For the moment,
- our money seems to satisfy, so we’re no longer hungry for the things of God.
If we don’t have access to financial resources, we might naturally believe that having money would solve everything. In both cases, we’d be wrong. We believe the lie that having more money will make everything better. (Some things? Yes. The things that matter most? No way.)
When Jesus talked about seed being scattered on thorny ground, He was talking about both the anxieties that are bullying us and also our temptation to make money our god. But the good news is that we can pivot, today. We can live as those who invest in our relationship with God, dropping every care and concern at His feet.
Excerpted with permission from Awake and Alive by Matt Chandler, copyright Matt Chandler.
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Your Turn
Are you feeling done in by the cares of the world? You’re not alone. It happens so easily. Today, stop and ask the Lord to increase your hunger for Him and drop all your worries at His feet. ~ Devotionals Daily