Once there was a man who dared God to speak. ‘Burn the bush like you did for Moses, God. And I will follow. Collapse the walls like you did for Joshua, God. And I will fight. Still the waves like you did on Galilee, God. And I will listen.’ And so the man sat by a bush, near a wall, close to the sea and waited for God to speak. And God heard the man, so God answered. He sent a fire, not for a bush, but for a church. He brought down a wall, not of brick, but of sin. He stilled a storm, not of the sea, but of a soul. And God waited for the man to respond. And he waited…and he waited…and he waited. But because the man was looking at bushes, not hearts; bricks and not lives, seas and not souls, he decided that God had done nothing. Finally, he looked to God and asked, ‘Have you lost your power?’ And God looked at him and said, ‘Have you lost your hearing?’
A GENTLE THUNDER- Max Lucado © 1995
Has there ever been a time in your life where you’ve asked God for something but He did something else? Not drastically different, but just like in the passage above, did you ask for something physical but God knew better and sent you something more on the spiritual side? I can remember a couple of instances where I have asked something but God went the other way. Like when I wanted to go to a school with my ‘friends’ from primary school, the guys I thought would have my back and be a true friend in whatever situation I was in. But God sent me the other way; and I praise God for that. Another example would probably be God ‘failing’ me in Extension 2 Mathematics, even though I knew at that time that I probably could’ve handled it, but God knew what I wanted. God knew what I needed. God did what he needed in order for Him to get my attention. That’s been the theme of a book that I’ve been reading through lately, ‘A Gentle Thunder’ by Max Lucado.
This book asks the question, ‘how far would you let God go in order for you to understand that his way in order how your life should be conducted is the best way?’ Because usually as humans, we ignore the signs that God has given us. We ask for something, and when that happens, we always assume a ‘scenario’ of how God would’ve acted, and usually, what plays out in our lives isn’t how we imagined. Like the man before, sometimes we could be looking for God to answer in the physical, not realising that God has already acted in the spiritual. If we’re not careful, we can become like the Pharisees during Jesus time who thought they knew who the Messiah was, but what came, Jesus; was different to the description that they understood. I mean, Jesus wasn’t rich, and he was just some regular average Joe, a regular guy for his time. If you were there during his time, you could’ve mistaken him for a mad-man, or maybe even a liar. Or perhaps the real deal.
I guess Jesus chose to come at that time; he could’ve come later, or earlier. I mean, let’s just imagine for a moment; that Jesus came not during the 6BC-11 AD mark but around 2000 years later, during the 21st century. There’s been millions of ideas like that, written in A Gentle Thunder as well as movies being made about Jesus coming to 21st century America, or Australia or anywhere in the world today. But let’s suppose he came into your life, and you, like the Pharisees; didn’t know who or what he was on about. He’d have to be pretty disguised for us not to recognise him, Jesus did assimilate during his cultural time period; he was a carpenter- like many during his day. So if he were to come during the 21st century, he’d be let’s say, a computer technician. What if He came up to you after his shift at work, while you were working through your emails, or maybe he was just the janitor cleaning the floors of your office after hours, and he caught you just as you were leaving the office. Whatever the case, he came up to you and said ‘Follow me!’ Would you do it?
You’d be right out of your mind if you did, some people would say, as there could be a million possible scenarios that could occur. There’s only a slim chance, these people would say, that the guy from your office wanting you to follow him, was genuine, as he could be taking you drug dealing, instead of saving the poor, he could take you to help him deal firearms, instead of preaching the gospel, or he could take you and reprimand you for your work in the company. Why would someone like an office person in today’s day, or a carpenter back in Jesus’ time, want the lowly and the commonfolk to follow him around as if he wasn't the real deal?
But if you look into the Bible, there have been many different people from Abraham to Peter who obeyed God’s instruction (in Peter’s case, it was Jesus). When Jesus met Peter and his brother Andrew, and brothers James and John when they were fishing on a boat at the Sea of Galilee. And as how the story goes, Jesus saw the fisherman in the water, and told them to go out further in the water to catch fish, even though these fishermen spent all the previous night trying to catch the fish, but with no success. But they obeyed Jesus (after some initial complaining that they didn't catch anything), and because of that, their nets overflowed. After that, Jesus told them to follow Him, and that, from that point on, they'll be catching men rather than fish.
If I was that situation I’d probably tell Jesus to his face that the season’s not right for fishing, we’ve been at it all week, so it’s not going to change any time soon. What makes his authority different to everyone else who’s trying to tell me different? But had I known what I was supposed to be looking for, had I known that it was Jesus I was speaking to, and had I known all of the prophecies that were fulfilled within this carpenter from Bethlehem, I’d have a different perspective and I’d say to him ‘Right on, you’re the boss!’. But therein lies my point. These days, us humans are waiting for a divine appointment and something to happen in our lives and around others that would give us 100% guarantee that this was a sign from God, that this was what was supposed to happen in the next few years. But in these days; it may not work like that. And it’s partly because of globalisation and technology. With the advent of internet shopping, internet banking, internet university, as well as work from home via the internet, and MSN and Facebook, Twitter and other technological applications making our life easier, one theoretically doesn’t need to leave the house to ‘have a good life’. Through technology and the advent of TV’s, DVD’s, CD’s and downloading via the internet, our lives have been very cluttered, our schedules have become very busy, with our work, leisure, hanging out with friends, paying the bills, cleaning the house, raising the kids, buying the latest stuff from department stores, going to church out of ritual... These days, it’s hard to find a sign for anything through our vision, when our minds are completely filled with all of this stuff 24/7.
A hypothetical example- Wake up at 6:30am, have a shower, pay some bills over the phone before you go to work, make breakfast for the kids and drive your spouse to work, go to the office pretending to do work while you chat on Facebook and Twitter with your friends, take an extended lunch break, clock off at 5:00, buy some takeaway KFC, watch a TV dinner, and then going window shopping on the weekends, and also sneaking in a movie in the cinemas once in a while. That’s the schedule for a hypothetical person in this day and age. I’m not trying to say that by some extent this is our entire fault, by shoving all of these things onto our plate thinking that we can handle it, not at all. What I am saying is that circumstances have thrown our way atrocious schedules that sadly we have to handle in order to survive. Things like paying the bills, cleaning the house, raising a family, and keeping up with our social life are not things that can be done away with. But sadly, our spiritual life, which also is an aspect of our lives that cannot be done away with or compromised, in fact is. We look at our busy schedules and say God, there’s my soccer, my promotion, my kids, my TV, my dentist appointment, my spouse, my birthday, my mates, my social hangout group, my turn at cooking dinner and washing the car, so how can I fit You in?
And then instead of waiting for an answer or a clear definitive direction of where we are supposed to be going, we turn and look the other way, pretending that the conversation never happened. Because society as a whole doesn't want to admit that they need help. Because they always think that help means a psychiatric or psychological sense, they do not want to admit that they are broken, spiritually and relationally. But in each one of our hearts, they know what is true. They may know that they do need help. But then when they look at Jesus, a man who ‘died’ so they could live, they see just a man who died- like a hero, Superman maybe, but nothing else. But then if you think about it, if Jesus was just a man, then why, in the passage before, did Peter say (according to 'The Aussie Bible' by Kel Richards): ‘Fair go! We’ve fished all night and haven’t even caught a tiddler. But, okay, if you reckon- well, we’ll do it.’? Because He was no ordinary man.
In fact, Jesus was a man who fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish, Jesus was a man who healed men from the dead, he walked on water, calm a ferocious storm, even declared Peter’s denial at the point of the last supper; but Peter said something like: ‘Never, Lord- I’ll die first!’. But when Jesus was taken away to be executed, Peter did in fact deny Jesus 3 times. The rooster crowed like Jesus said it did, and when Peter heard this, he wept. That very same Jesus that died on that tree on that Good Friday night, proclaiming those last words ‘It is finished!’ was the same Jesus that was raised from the dead, three days later. Now if you’re like me, no one can rise from the dead. Once you’re dead, then you’re dead. But if you’re God, then that is a different story; because nothing is impossible for him. And when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING! The problems that you have? The problems that I have? He can solve them. With just a click of a finger, he can make everything right. He can wipe the pain that disease, hunger, AIDS, family breakdown; he can get rid of all of that. But he doesn't.
And then people start to get mad. They start to blame God for their problems, saying something like 'If you're God then why don't you fix everything?' when the question that they should be asking is this, 'OK God, I know that I've asked you for this, but it seems as though You have better ideas than me on this, why don't you show me?' or better still, 'why don't I just trust you that You've got it all worked out?'...I guess it's hard to trust someone, especially when that someone is God. I know I have had trouble wanting to create my own signs to point to my own future, when all I need to do is to look around at his signs. Because even though His signs pointing to the future that's already mapped out for me may be a little out of what I am capable of at this point in time, I know, with all my heart, that when I've reached that place, and I look back, I'll know that God's way was the best way for me. The same God that let Jesus die on that cross, knowing that that way was the only way to reconcile mankind to himself, is the same God that wants you and I to trust that the outcome He's already planned for our eternity is the one that is the best for us, even though in the moment, you'd think that your future will look totally different to what God wanted. In fact, come to think of it, the Kingdom of heaven is in fact the opposite of the Kingdom on Earth.
The kingdom we're ruling over teaches us to perform to be loved; also known as the performance paradigm. However, the kingdom paradigm explains things differently. We are already loved first. Jesus did die on the cross, indeed for everyone's sins. However, that doesn't mean that everyone will go to heaven. Not at all! There will be people who don't go to heaven, simply because they haven't acknowledged that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, that 'yes, I do have a debt and Jesus paid that so thank you, and now I'm going to live my life for you!'; or they are just stuck in this performance paradigm trying to earn God's favour. Once they realise that you don't have to perform, but rather because of the overwhelming grace and mercy that God has shown all mankind through the sacrifice of his only Son, even to the hands of death itself, bearing the punishment of our sins so that we may have life abundantly; then change will come as a result of that. It's not 'change and alter your behaviour and then God may love you.' It's the other way around. You are loved and accepted into God's kingdom, just as you are.
Once you've responded to that and believe that Jesus died for us, then the natural response would be to live a life that reflects God's glory, in the decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis, through the good times and the bad times, because ultimately, how we live our lives will show people around us God's light, and it is through how we live our lives that the fish come to the fisherman.
At the end of the day, there's only one thing. That we are faithful to the calling that Jesus Christ has placed upon our heart to do. That when we stand at Heaven's door, we'd want the Lord to know that in whatever we did, we did it unto Him. That, as it says in a song by Chris Tomlin '...at the end of the day, I wanna hear people say, that my heart looks like Your Heart...unashamed I will dance, in Your name, I'll lift my hands, til my heart looks like your heart...'
Until next post;
Jon.
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