Don’t Share Your Favorite Fishing Spot or Your Bank Card

Ed, my neighbor next door, has a problem with sharing anything that is valuable to him. Ed has told me, “Don’t disclose your good fishing spot. If you tell even one person, where the fishing is good, it won’t be yours any longer. Many will turn up there, and find all the fish that should be yours. Keep your advantages to yourself. No one needs to know where you catch your fish.” Ed tells me that a person should only share what he doesn’t want to keep, if it is no value to him any longer. He says that it is good to share your junk with other folks but very little else. It is okay, however, to share some interesting gossip or hilarious joke anytime.

Since Ed is a faithful smoker, I asked if he would give a cigarette to someone if they asked him for one. “I wouldn’t make a habit of it,” he said. “If I did give someone a cigarette it would be both the first and last one ever. Never let people borrow from you or you’ll have them pestering you all the time.” So I asked Ed, “But if someone borrows stuff and returns it quickly, wouldn’t that be okay?” His only reply was, “No.” Ed is sure that I would not let other people use my bank card, and that proves you should never let anyone borrow anything valuable, even if they are some of your favorite people. Ed is convinced that those closest to you can hurt you the most. Most would agree that it does happen that someone close to us can deliver the most hurtful blow against us.

That was the case when Judas Iscariot one of Jesus’ twelve apostles betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. If we are wounded by a friend or close associate, it seems more painful since they were trusted as a friend. Peter, another of Jesus’ disciples, denied that he knew Jesus and that he had been one of Jesus’ men, while he was in the courtyard of the high priest. The people of Nazareth had clearly rejected Jesus as a rabbi and prophet for he had grown up before them. They could not believe he was anointed of God since they knew his family and how he had been a carpenter among them. They got so angry at him that they tried to kill him for saying he fulfilled scripture. Thomas, still another disciple, refused to believe Jesus was alive from the dead unless he could see Jesus in person and touch the wounds of his crucifixion in his body.

Did Judas betray Jesus for money? Was Peter afraid of being arrested himself if he admitted to being one of Jesus’ disciples? Yet, God betrayed Jesus on the cross to save all, both those who trust him and those who don’t. Many still fail to admit to being one with Jesus. Others are sure that their lives are too valuable to share with God? Trusting your life to God, means is your best advantage in yourself or in trust in God? Jesus has promised, “I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me.”

 

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