I’m at a retreat center in Carefree, Arizona (yes, that’s the name) with 14 other pastors. Every morning we gather for devotion. Every evening we have an hour or so of theological talk and then close the day with a devotion. In between? Spring training baseball games!
Taking my morning walk, I’m fascinated by the street names. Sunshine Way, Easy Stret, Nonchalant, Radiant Court, Never Mind Trail, Lucky Lane, and Ho and Hum roads that intersect, obviously at HoHum. The people are smiling and enjoying the good life here in Carefree.
I smile as I write this, not mocking, not envious. One blessing of this spiritual retreat is to learn again where we are carefree. That is in total dependence upon God and our only hope, Jesus. Along with the high-end jewelry and art stores, real estate agents offering expensive properties, and busy banks here in Carefree, you also find doctors’ offices, counseling services, meditation areas and ministries. In other words, life is never carefree.
Martin Luther drew a sharp contrast between the things that attract us and the things we avoid – you might say between life carefree or full of cares. “God’s love does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. Human love comes into being through that which pleasing to it…. (God’s love) is the love of the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction where it does not find good, which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the evil and needy person.”
As I was walking, I came upon a sign at an intersection. Turn left onto Bloody Basin Road or turn right onto Tranquil Trail. Where do you find God in your life? Figuratively on “Bloody Basin Road,” the turn Jesus made when He came into our world and chose the way of the cross. “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). And after suffering, what then? The tranquil, heavenly way!