Date: Sunday, April 2, 2006 6:58 AM
Topic: Knee-jerk reactions -- again
Reflecting briefly back on my Missionary Musings blog entry on March 9, 2006, it is -- again -- obvious that my knee-jerk reaction to difficulties in life is primarily fleshly.
“Life difficulties” are those things that come upon us unawares and surprise us. They are those things that the Lord uses to grind, chip, sand, and smooth away the parts of His masterpiece sculpture that do not reflect His image. If we knew that they were coming, we would be able to catch -- and hold -- our breath and “hang on” through them many times.
But the fact that they surprise us is one of the key factors in revealing our true character. We’ve all seen the TV shows, movie bloopers, or heard stories of people caught in a moment of surprise and they yell out, “SH*T!” or “son of a b****!” or some other choice expletive. Sometimes anger flares from the nostrils of the surprised “victim.” Occasionally, the subject simply breaks out in embarrassed & uncontrollable laughter. I have even seen occurrences of tears, not from fear, but from the embarrassment of being exposed.
We laugh because we understand the feelings. We understand that at that moment we are stripped bare of all of our defenses and masks that we wear to cover up our imperfections, insecurities and, frankly, ugliness.
But it is in those very moments is where we can see God shine through us -- if we depend on Him. Let me share a personal example of such a failing...
In early March,
Greater Europe Mission informed us that we received a “raise” of $900/month. You think, “What a blessing! I could sure use $900/month!” Honestly, my reaction is, “Stink, that means that we have to RAISE our raise!”
Now, most of us would respond to a person in such a situation by saying, “Hang in there! God called you, didn’t He?”
“Yes, absolutely!” I would respond.
“Where God leads, God supplies.” might be the next exhortation.
That’s all true. I believe that. But then my pragmatic side kicks in a begins with the “plan” to raise our “raise.”
That means that we need to find another 15-45 people to join our support team (at $60-20 per month each). That means that we need to contact approximately 400 more people (according to statistics) in order to have 10% of those respond positively and join our support team.
And honestly, I don’t KNOW another 400 people whom I can contact. And then I get discouraged and think things like, “Maybe it’s time to quit this missions ”gig“ and move on to something else that isn’t based on faith-giving.” Blah, blah, blah.
And I think, “Well, I just need to get to work.” And off I run, writing emails, letters, making phone calls and concocting schemes like putting together a podcast on the state of our ministry work (the 1st issue being on the need for more financial support) or going to www.photostamp.com and creating stamps with our family’s photo to send out support requests in hopes that THAT would catch the attention of people whom God is desiring to join our support team. And that they would then respond and...
But, honestly, that’s
not how David (you know, the one from Bible stories -- King David, Bathsheba, etc.) responded to troubles & challenges. And that’s certainly not how the Lord Jesus responded.
Look at Psalm 64. Read it. Then look again at verses 1-6. He STARTS his psalm with “Listen to me, O God...” and then goes on to describe his very bad situation. After describing his situation, he comes to a conclusion about the fate of his enemies (v. 7) - “But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down.”
Now, I’m not going to discuss the issue of David’s motives regarding his enemies. I want to emulate his posture towards “life difficulties.” His immediate response -- his knee-jerk reaction -- was to include God in the picture from the beginning! Not to run to Him when all else failed. Not to spend hours, days, weeks, months, or even years complaining about someone or something and then finally take it to the Lord.
What’s all this got to do with our current support situation? A lot! If you are a praying person, and you believe that God can provide an amazing amount of support in a very short period of time (2 months at this juncture), I would like to ask/encourage/beg you to pray with us for God to do a “God-thing.” A “God-thing” is something that God does that makes us say, “WOW! Isn’t God good?!” It’s one of those things God does either “in spite of” or “on top of” that which we have planned, organized & executed.
More musings later.... Sure would appreciate your feedback on this one.
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