The Thursday Update

JANUARY 23, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

Have you ever watched someone do something and after seeing it say, “If I were him, this is what I would do…” Maybe you were presented with a hypothetical scenario and you responded with something like, “I would do this or that or the other” with absolute certainty. Or, perhaps, it could be that you heard about something that someone did wrong and you thought, “I’d never do that!”

It’s really easy to say what we would do in any given situation when we aren’t actually faced with it in real time and in very real circumstances. The truth is that sometimes we idealize ourselves in ways that don’t actually align with what we say and do. We can easily think that we are above the powerful “pull” of making bad choices. I know this is true for many reasons, but the one story that always sticks with me as prime evidence is Peter’s response to Jesus in Matthew 16.

Just after Peter made the profound declaration that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16), he made a “this is what I would do” declaration that revealed his idealized view of himself. In response to Jesus saying that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die (a reference to his crucifixion), Peter said, “I won’t let that happen. It will never happen as long as I’m around.” (Matthew 16:22). Jesus rebuked him strongly. And of course, as Jesus predicted would happen, Luke 22:54-62 tells us Peter disowned Jesus three times.

It’s so easy sometimes to say what we would do and yet so hard to actually do what we think we will.

The better thing to do is to humbly say that, by the grace of God, we would hopefully do the right thing (see James 4:13-16). Afterall, God knows our heart and it is only by Him and His grace that we can make good choices in hypothetical or future situations that we may face.

When it comes to money, this same challenge of what we would do with more of it always crops up. The good news is that God tells us how to be prepared in advance in the parable of the Shrewd Manager.

Let’s all do our best to be careful about what we say we would do by focusing in on what we are presently doing. Because what we are doing is the best indicator of what we will do.

Warmly,
Vince