Devotion for the Week of Ash Wednesday 2009

I have often started a devotion off with quoting my favorite cartoon, Peanuts. Well, my second favorite cartoon is Calvin and Hobbs. So I will begin with one of those.

In on weekly series of the Calvin and Hobbs cartoon, they are trying to find a place to make into a club house. One of the daily strips starts with Calvin looking at Hobbs and saying, "Let's push the car out of the garage. I can't budge it by myself."
Hobbes replies, "I still think you should ask your Mom to move it."
Calvin replies with, "Then she'd probably say no, and we won't have the garage for our clubhouse!"
Hobbes answers: "But if we don't ask her, we'll get in trouble!"
Calvin shouts,: "We won't get in trouble!"
Hobbes, looking very wise, says: "Every time you say that, we do."
Calvin answers: "Mom wouldn't care about these things if she wouldn't keep finding out about them."

Parents have a way of finding out things their children do not want them to know. Jesus knew Peter's true loyalty. Jesus told Peter, "Get behind me." It sounds as if Jesus is saying, "Get lost, Peter!" He is not. Instead, Jesus is again calling Peter to be his disciple. "Get behind me," was a call for Peter to assume his proper place following Jesus. Jesus also says to us, "Get behind me. Follow me."

I remember reading about two lawyers in Virginia who, during a church service, heard the call to be disciples and follow Christ. At the conclusion of the service, they were attending, they did accept the challenge. These two lawyers practiced law together, so they decided to offer free legal services to needy people in their community. Their commitment to helping others, though, changed their lives in ways they did not expect. They soon gained new paying customers. Surprisingly, several people who had been delinquent with their bills suddenly paid them in full. "I suppose they didn't want to cheat lawyers who helped the needy," one lawyer explained.

I share this story with you, because being a disciple, does not mean we have to be a missionary or become a monk. It means we use the gifts' God has given us to help others. It means we become a disciple to people who need lots of love and some hands on help.

But [Jesus] turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Matthew 16:23