Feb 25 2019 - Feast of St. Matthias

Feb 25 2019

Acts 1: 26 Feast of St. Matthias

T­hen they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Today in morning prayer, we commemorate Matthias, about whom we know very little. After Judas’ betrayal and subsequent suicide, the remaining disciples wanted to round out their numbers and fill Judas’ empty spot.

To fill this important spot, they did some important analysis, vetting, matrix, etc. No, not really. They drew straws, and Matthias was named the new disciple.

 As a life long government and non-profit administrator, this is startling, and ultimately comforting. As opposed to drawing straws for important decisions, I am the on who plans and labors over the decision, trying to predict the right path forward. Risk benefit analysis. Triple bottom line. Skill inventories. And while my job is to help decision makers make timely and good decisions, I have no illusion that my methods predict the goodness of an outcome. At best, my toil reduces the risks of a bad outcome.

This is such human nature, that we fret and stew over choices or actions or days yet to come. We save for a rainy day. We exercise, even when we don’t like it. There’s a sense of control we’re trying to exert over the outcome. Not the disciples. They drew straws.

I am not suggesting that they were careless in their methods. But what I find comforting is that regardless of their human contrived effort to predict or manage the results, God made the choice right. Matthias was the right disciple. And even if he was the worst of the options, I’m quite certain that God worked with what the humans had; Matthias may or may not have been God’s first choice, but I can hear God saying, “hmm. I can work with that”.

 What this says to me is that yes, I still need to pursue laying out the best option, to take care of myself to fend off possible future bad outcomes. But regardless of my efforts, any decision, outcome or choice will be the right one, because God will make it right. It takes a little burden off me, thinking that I really need to choose, predict or recommend the sole right option. God’s the one who makes it the right option. Not me.