Obedience Over Convenience | Crossroads Daily

Hey, glad you're here. My name's Caleb. I'm Mish. I'm Sierra. I'm Alex. We're looking at John chapter 12 today. This is our kind of our last section of scripture talking about light, specifically about how God Jesus is light. Now if you thought Jesus was like just a squishy stuffed animal, he's going to drop the gauntlet on us today, right? He's not just all squishy and nice and you can do whatever, you can walk all over him. No, no, no. Right? Verse 35, Jesus says, talking about himself, the light will only be with you a little while longer and walk while you have the light. Right? It's like a challenge. Like there's some urgency. It makes me think of, if I can tell you a story real quick. Right after college, I decided to do something difficult. So me and a friend set out to hike like a 160 mile hike through mostly through Kentucky with all our stuff on our back. I've had like no experience doing overnight backpacking. It was a tragedy basically. We did finish the second year. We had to quit the first year, but I will tell you, you should hike while there is light. Okay? Because when you try to hike through the forest in the darkness, because you want to make more mileage, you feel like you're behind, you're trying to get to a city so you can take a shower.

You will get lost. I promise you, you will get lost and super disorienting to be in the forest with no light, you know, in the middle of the night. So I feel what Jesus is saying. He is right. We should walk. We should walk while there is light. How does that strike you guys? I just want to start high level. Like what does that make you think of? Are there things in your life, things in the world that that kind of brings your mind to walk while you have light so you don't walk in darkness? I think for me, light never feels like it's like a lightning bolt and like one moment it's like, okay, boom. That's what you're supposed to do. I feel like it's this ongoing, um, like little small tea candle lights that are like, no, this is the right decision to make. Like, I think it's continuously a choice of like obedience over convenience. And I think that feels like light because it's a, it's a pattern. Like I think it's a choice to pursue that. So for convenience, that should, yeah, it makes me think of this thing that everyone's like, just do the next right thing, right? I want the lightning bolt. I want the like burning bush, right? Like God say, go do this and I will go do it. But it's more like a sunrise, right? We're just like, it's a little bit more light, a little bit more light. Just do the right next thing. It's a little bit more light. And then it becomes, oh, this is kind of obvious.

I should have been doing this, but it was seven steps ago that I started taking steps toward it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That Frozen 2 song, just do the next right thing. Have you seen that? Frozen 2? I don't know, but if you could sing it, that would be great. The next right thing. You guys know, I'm just all in, I'm just here for the musical moments. Um, yeah, I, I just recently started this that made me think about, I feel like when it comes to doing things for God, it feels like it needs to be this big, grand life changing thing sometimes, but sometimes the thing that God is asking you to do is the small thing. And so I just very recently, because I read it in a book, um, started just asking God in the morning, just in a quick prayer, because sometimes that's all I feel like I have time for with two young kids at home, God, like, what do you want me to do today? And sometimes it's, sometimes I don't feel like I hear anything like super specific. And sometimes it is something really small where the thought of a friend that I haven't talked to in a really long time comes to mind or, um, a really random thought of like last week I felt like I should stop at Kroger on your way home. Like that's not something that I would just be like, stop at Kroger on your way. You know? And I feel like I've seen, um, some like cool, just little moments and it's just a reminder to me of maybe it's like the obedience over convenience thing of sometimes even just the small things are the things that God is asking us to do. I get like an image of like us, like being on like a sidewalk that's like illuminated by the sensory lights. So like each step you take, it's like both sides light up. And then as you keep stepping the path, like the path is illuminated, but you have to take

the step for it to even light up. Have you been to Kroger when you do that? You have to run down the aisle. Oh, like in the like frozen, the frozen aisle. I've never done that. That sounds fun. No. Yes. Or any grocery store probably. But, um, yeah, like find a aisle that is dark. I mean, the, but like the, on the, in the, in the sensory lights, come on. Sounds delightful. It's true though. I mean, like people say, right. I don't know. I'm not, I've never sailed a ship before, but that it's, it's easier to turn a ship that's like already moving. Right. Or it's easier to turn a car or anything is, is easier to make adjustments. If you just start moving, you wait for the perfect opportunity, the perfect heading. You're just going to keep waiting. So earlier this week, we talked about what, what some of our fears were. And actually, I don't think I answered perfectly, but I think I can answer better now. I think I have a fear of missing the moment, missing whatever moment it is. And I think I'm learning, God is trying to teach me that, like that moment is not just like the single instant. Like we get the fortune that God works outside of time and outside of like the physics that we have to operate in. And so I like connecting it to the scripture. I think what Jesus is talking about is that today, when you wake up and when you take that first step, what are you going to do today? I hope it's not, I'm going to leave you forever one day. I don't think that's what he was saying to the disciples is like, unless you act right now, you're never going to have a relationship with God. I think he's saying the opposite of that. I think is I'm with you right now. Walk with me right now. Yeah. Let's do something right now. Yeah.

Instead of waiting. Yeah. It's amazing too, I think of all that Jesus can do with just like the little bit that we bring to him. I wasn't thinking about this before we got started talking, but you know, the little kid, there's a, there's a story in the gospels, a little kid brings two pieces of fish and five pieces of bread or something to Jesus. I mean, it's like a minuscule amount of food and Jesus feeds thousands with it. And so when we give him just the smallest piece of obedience, right? The smallest yes, or the smallest risk, or I guess I'll stop at Kroger on the way home or whatever. Like you can just blow it out into things that we had no idea were coming down the pipe. Yeah. So thinking about your own life or thinking about people that you know, you think of any examples of that, where, where have you given Jesus a little bit of something? You've taken a step in the light and he's done something remarkable with it. You know, it's hard to, sometimes it's hard to look back on because it's like what you said, it's seven steps or 10 steps before that you start taking those steps that you now get to where you are right now. So it's not that immediate turn, but one that I feel very confident I can look back on is my relationship with my wife and how it started in high school and where we were in college and just like the brokenness in it. And mainly just the brokenness in me and God redeeming that. And now like seeing, we have two amazing kids right now. We have a strong marriage that like continues to get better and we get to like go on these awesome vacations together that we look forward to because we love being together as a family. And yeah, I think like just my relationship with my wife, because like God redeemed it.

Like he opened my eyes to take steps with him alongside him into lightness, into lightness and into the light and continues to do so. Yeah, love it. But I think about like, I always want to not be blind to the fact that like, how did I get here? Like, like, what am I like, really? Like, what am I doing here? Right? Because there are 10 years ago, I was a science teacher in central Kentucky, like just trying to teach sophomores about cell division. They didn't care. I barely care about cell division, right? Like, not a lot of public care. Yeah, you know, don't even get me into that. But just like one small yes. Yeah, another small yes. Like, one small yes was I yes, my then fiance signed me up to chaperone a student ministry trip with middle schoolers. And I was like, Babe, I teach for a living. My weekend does not want to be and I went I said yes to that. And dang it. I like those kids. And then I was back on Sunday and then I started leading this and then I was leading a group and now I'm in Cincinnati talking to you lovely people. I don't know how I got here except that kept saying yes and walking down the path. I'm thankful for her that Jesus gave me. I mean, yeah, wives are pretty awesome. So whatever God is calling you to do today, if it seems small, don't write it off. A lot of times it's the small steps that bring a little bit of light that builds on

each other. God may be creating something brand new in you. Don't miss it. We'll see you next time. !