Overcoming Obstacles to Meet with Jesus

Remember those stories about servants and their enthusiasm (or lack thereof) for investing their master's property (October 21, 2005 and October 25, 2005)? Jesus told one of those stories while having dinner with Zacchaeus, a real live example of someone who showed just the right kind of investment initiative and enthusiam.

Remember Zacchaeus? When he first appeared in Luke 19:1 he didn't know Jesus but he really wanted to see Him. In fact, he wanted to see Jesus so badly he did something some of us would never dream of doing. He climbed a tree. Good grief. I can barely set the alarm clock a couple minutes early in order to meet with Jesus. (And I'll admit I also find it hard to turn off the TV for a half hour or keep my eyes open a few extra minutes at night to breath a prayer or read a few verses.)

Zacchaeus had a couple of excuses that would have been reason enough to give up on seeing Jesus that day. First, it was hard. Zacchaeus would have to fight the crowds. To make matters worse, he had an inherent physical disadvantage when it came to seeing in a crowd. He was short.

But Zaccaeus didn't let the crowds, his own physical limitations, laziness or a lack of creative thinking get in the way of his goal. He made it a priority to figure out a way to get to Jesus that day. He determined the route Jesus would travel, ran ahead of the crowd, and climbed up into a tree. The result: he got a personal audience with Jesus when Jesus saw him there waiting.

If we want to move God to the top of our "to do" lists we can do no better than to follow the example of Zaccaeus: overcome all obstacles--whether our crowded lives or personal limitations--to meet with Him.