Which things are God's?

I read one of those somewhat familiar passages in the Bible the other day. I've heard it, read it, pondered it all before. Or so I thought. There's always more, isn't there? Mark 12:13-17 is what I read and I'm still left with a question or two surrounding it. Join me in seeking the best answers to them, won't you?

The setting has the Pharisees and other religious leaders trying to trick Jesus and 'trap him in his talk'. This is during the last week of Jesus' life before the crucifixion and we've already been given fair warning by Christ Himself that things were about to drastically change. Three times in the previous few chapters, He's pretty well laid it out. They're going to arrest me, mistreat me (with some not-so-uncertain terms to describe the mistreatment), kill me and then I'm going to come back from the dead three days later. Things are heating up.

Now we find ourselves listening to Jesus admonish and teach on a number of subjects in the midst of that growing heat in greater Jerusalem. And taking on all comers. Whenever I've read this passage before, I always seemed to play the role of the out-of-shape but still awkwardly involved fan of a sports team. "Here they come with their best shot, Lord"..."be careful (like I actually have any advice to share as to what to do or say in the situation!)"..."be God and all that stuff but, you know, GO GET'EM!!!". And then, voilà, the Savior comes through with the clutch shot that wins the game! Take that, you punks! Go start 'rendering' and get back to me later. Hey, by the way, Lord, that was some quick thinking. Way to go. And then off I go to my armchair approach to listening to God among us preach away some more.

But then that second phrase got me. "And (render) to God the things that are God's." It was directed to the questioning Pharisees and Herodians for sure. But everybody heard it. And maybe this time I did too. We're in the 'rendering' season with taxes coming due in the coming weeks. But that only starts to cover the Caesar part. And then the other half of the equation still needs more thoughts, conclusions and action. If we are to give the shiny coins to the powers that be, how do we obey the rest? Which things are God's?

It's easy to start the list with the typical Sunday School answers. My heart. My family. My future. My finances. My...well, everything. But I wondered if there is more. As I thought on the list being compiled, it seemed with all the 'big' things I was coming up with, acknowledgment of who God was and what He was doing in the midst of them is key. Rendering my job to God means realizing that it is from God and needs to be somehow approached for God. And the same with plans that I have for future endeavors, interactions with others whether close and intimate (family) or not so much (the clerk at CVS that I spent 120 seconds with this afternoon), and the dreams that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Those are all fine and good for Sunday philosophizing, but what about the other umpteen hours a week? In discussing this briefly as a family, we concluded that we must render each of the 'little' things to God as well. While we want to give Him our friendships, that must also mean we render that discussion tomorrow that we know will happen at about 4:20 PM to Him as well. We can give Him our finances, but it must necessarily affect what we do with that four dollars that we have in our pocket (even as we drove by the $2 special that two of us did yesterday and wondered about for a very brief moment).

So while I can say that I am rendering my 'life' to God, my prayer is that it is evident moment by moment, decision by decision, action by action, and attitude by attitude. And as I continue to ponder this passage, I trust that the height of Jesus' temple teaching will settle into the mundane details of me.