Mark 13:34
It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
What is my assigned task? I have been a Christian for 30 years and yet, I’m still asking this question. That’s a bit absurd, I think. I know there are tasks that are assigned to all of us as believers: the great commission and all that. And apparently, I’m not alone in wondering about my particular task or Rick Warren wouldn’t have been able to build an empire on a similar question, “What on Earth am I here for?” and the Purpose-Driven Life.
But I want to play with the house and servant metaphor a little more. It’s important to remember that each servant cares for certain aspects of the house and yet, if properly trained, also pays attention to the “big picture” of the house as a whole. If a servant only tends to one small area and never lifts his/her head to look around, things could get off balance, areas of the house may go unattended for a long time. Who will notice?
And the one at the door? The one whose role it is to watch. What exactly is the watchman watching for? Certainly, the watchman is looking for signs of the returning Master. And the watchman is looking for signs that signal coming danger like the Robot in Lost in Space).
And yet, I am wondering if the watchman has even a greater role: not just to look out on the horizon but also to look inside. Sometimes the danger is within the house when the servants are falling behind in their tasks or become lazy or worse, they become unwilling to come out of the house.
If we never come out of the house, we may not realize that the house could use a refresh… new curtains, updated furniture, a paint job, or a more efficient way to use energy. Without coming outside, we may miss the other people who could help work inside the house, those who could do some renovating and expansions. But of course, that means change. And so often, if we’ve stayed inside the house too long, change is frightening. We get so comfortable inside our house and like it “just the way it is.”
Am I a watchman? Sometimes, I think I am. Or maybe, I’m just a regular little servant girl who has heard the watchman calling… “Come look! Change is coming to the House.”
Meditations from Zion 