It’s Monday morning. You wake up, shower and dress, then head to the kitchen to start the coffee and grab some breakfast before a busy day. You’ve got a lot on your mind as you enter the kitchen. An important meeting. Numerous errands. Bills to pay. A friend was just laid off. You wonder if you’ll be next. You can already feel the familiar anxiety creeping into your soul.

As you enter the kitchen, you’re startled to find a man sitting at the counter, drinking a cup of coffee. “Good morning,” he says.

“Ah, good morning,” you reply. Then after a moment of hesitation, you say, “Jesus?”

“Yup,” he says and takes a sip of his coffee.

“What are you doing here?” you ask.

Jesus takes another sip of coffee and smiles. “I’m always here.”

You stop for a moment to let that sink in. If he’s always here, you wonder why you don’t always see him. You’re about to ask, when Jesus speaks.

“You don’t always see me, because if you did, faith wouldn’t be necessary. And the thing is, I like faith. I always have. I like to be believed. I liked it when Abraham believed me. I liked it when Moses believed me. I liked it when Joshua, Elijah, Daniel…you know, all those guys.”

“Yeah, okay,” is all you can manage for the moment as Jesus pours you a cup of coffee, adds just the right amount of milk and hands it to you.

“I’ll tell you something–being believed really pleases me. I guess you could say I get pleasure from it.”

You’re really trying to grasp all this, but there must be a puzzled look on your face, because Jesus says, “Why does that surprise you?”

You take a couple sips of coffee before responding. “Well, I know the Bible says that, but, I don’t know, it’s kinda different to hear you say it, that you get pleasure from people believing you.”

“Look, I know life isn’t easy. Everywhere you look there seems to be a reason not to trust me. I understand that. The economy is a mess. People you love get cancer. Children don’t always obey. Your boss is demanding. And you don’t see how you’ll be able to pay your bills.”

You nod your head in agreement.

He continues, “If you spend all your time focusing on those things, then of course you’re going to be anxious and afraid. Who wouldn’t be? But what I want you to understand is that I am always with you. Always. I will never leave you. And I didn’t design you to try and handle all those things on your own. I made you to trust me, not what you see.”

You try to take it all in, but it’s not easy. You’ve read this stuff before, but now Jesus is sitting in your kitchen explaining it to you.

“I’ll tell you what, let me show you how all this works. What’s the first thing on your to-do list today?” Jesus asks.

“Well, I was going to pay some bills before I go to work.”

“Okay, let’s do that first. Get your laptop.”

You get your laptop and pull up the website for your bank. As you’re logging in, you realize you didn’t give anything at church yesterday. You hope Jesus won’t ask about that. You click on the bill paying link and then pull the bills from your briefcase.

“So what’s first?” Jesus asks.

“Well, the mortgage is due this week, so let’s do that one first.”

“Hmmm.”

“What?” you ask with an uneasy feeling in your stomach.

“You already know what, don’t you?”

“But see here’s the thing–if I gave money yesterday, then I knew I wouldn’t have enough to get through the next two weeks. It’s not just the mortgage. There’s the electric bill, the gas bill, the car payment and the two medical bills. And that’s not even counting what we’re gonna need for food and gas.”

“Huh,” is all He says.

“Okay, look, I know you want me to give something, but how am I supposed to do that? You see all these bills.”

“Yes, I see them. Let me ask you–are you afraid you won’t have enough money to pay these bills if you give back to me a portion of what I’ve given you?”

You hesitate for a moment, then with head bowed, you say quietly, “Yes, I’m afraid. I just don’t see how it will work out.”

You look up, knowing you’ll see a look of disappointment on Jesus’ face. Instead, it’s a look of compassion and understanding. Then Jesus grins.

“So because you were afraid, you didn’t give to your church yesterday. Is that right?”

“Yeah, I was thinking about paying all these bills today and I just knew there wouldn’t be enough.”

Jesus seemed content with a few moments of silence before he continued. “I know it seems like fear was the reason you didn’t give, but that wasn’t the real reason.”

“It wasn’t?” you ask. “Then what was?”

“Think for a minute. What was I just saying?”

You’re glad you have your coffee to occupy you for a minute while you try to think. Then it hits you. You look at Jesus. He’s grinning again.

“Feeling afraid was only the symptom, wasn’t it? The real issue was me not trusting you.”

Jesus reaches over and puts his hand on your shoulder and says, “Yes, that’s the real issue. You didn’t give, because you didn’t believe I would provide for you like I said I would.”

Having Jesus say it like that makes it sound so different. Trusting him now doesn’t seem hard at all. In fact, it feels right. It feels like it would be foolish to do anything else.

You pull your checkbook from your briefcase and write out a check for your church. Then you finish paying the other bills. A couple of them have to be scheduled for the week after next. You hope Jesus will tell you what he has planned, but he doesn’t.

As you get ready to leave, you see Jesus put his jacket on and head to the door. “Ah, Jesus, what are you doing?”

“I thought we were going to work?” he says.

“Well, I am. You mean you want to go with me today?”

“Today? I go with you everyday. Come on,” he says. “We have just enough time to stop by the church and drop that check off.”

You still don’t see how everything is going to work out. Especially the money stuff. But believing Jesus seems to be a whole lot better than worrying about it all day. And the thought of having him by your side all day changes your mood. You realize the anxiety you felt an hour ago has crept away.

You start to get into your car, but Jesus is already sitting in the driver’s seat. “You don’t mind, do you?” he says.