Come to the wedding banquet.
—Matthew 22:4
Jesus spun a story about a king who invited some well-heeled friends to a wedding banquet for his son, only to be insulted by their refusal to come.
First impulse is to brand these invitees as a wicked, wretched, worthless brood. But not so fast.
One rejected the invitation because he was taking care of his farm; another because he was taking care of his business: both legitimate occupations. The things that claim priority in our schedules are not necessarily bad things.
Sometimes we don’t RSVP to the Lord’s invitation for our time and attention because we’re busy—often in legitimate activities.
Our challenge is to be sure we don’t let the second best beat out the best, the good eclipse the grand, the temporal trump the eternal.
The good is sometimes
the enemy of the best.