Like this:

And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’” (Luke 19:31)

I’ve read this part of the Bible many times before, but yesterday when I heard these words, they struck me in a different way. The situation is that Jesus is telling some disciples to go into a particular town and they’d see a donkey tied to a post and that they should just take it and bring it to Him, as He needed it to enter Jerusalem.

Of course, the disciples were asked why they were taking the donkey. They said what Jesus had coached them to, and they got what they wanted.

In Bible times, donkeys were beasts of burden and could be double as horses. So giving your donkey to two people you don’t know was not a light thing. Perhaps Jesus had made an arrangement with the donkey’s owner beforehand, in the event that the donkey wasn’t returned. Or maybe the owner just recognized the authority in these disciples, from the word Jesus had told them. Who knows?

What struck me yesterday was the last bit of the quotation above: Because the Lord has need of it.

In my own life, there have been times when the Lord had need of me. Sometimes, I’m like the owner of the donkey, and I immediately give–my time, my talents, my moulah, my…whatever. And those times I smile and sleep easy.

But other times, I’ve just gotten into a discussion on why the Lord should need what I have. And, well, so-and-so has just as much or more than me, so He could surely get what He needed from them. Sometimes, I don’t see what the Lord sees and can’t agree that I even HAVE what He wants, so I’m stressed in thinking, why is He asking THAT of ME?

It would be so nice to be like the owner of the donkey. All the time. (Or at least have a 90% success rate!)

So why can’t I?

Well, I could. But it would take giving up:my schedule/to-do list for that day (maybe EVERY day). My pride. My insecurities. My surliness. My…fill-in-the-blank.

But at the core of me, I really do wanna be like the owner of the donkey.

So I press on.

because a seeking heart does good,
KC

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