Yesterday’s post (if you missed it read it quick and come back!) pondered the difference between magic and miracles. I realized, after I reread it last night, that I left it a little too open ended. The idea of, “Do whatever He tells you to,” leaves the door ajar for magic too. I think many Christians pray for guidance – which I believe is a great practice – one which I am doing myself right now. However, as Steve in Central CA intimated in his comment post yesterday, Christians can spend a whole lot of time waiting for guidance and not a lot of time actually doing something. Why? Well, we’re waiting for a magic word from God.
Do not misunderstand me. I truly believe that God reveals specific things to my heart that I would not otherwise know or understand. Knowing God is like any other relationship – a give and take between two. Yet, I also believe that the Bible is already my best source of insight into the mind and heart of God. I already clearly understand what to do with my moments and my days by reading the Gospel, no need to wait for “a word from above.”
Am I making sense? I guess my concern is that we explain away our inertia and impotence as “waiting for a sign” when often we are really waiting out of convenience and fear and self-preservation. Friends, the truth is that we live by faith, and we must act on what we know to be true. And we must act today.
Is there ever a time to wait? Absolutely. “…they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (a verse that, by the way, gives us some clues as to who God wants to see in the Super Bowl). There is a time for waiting, for renewal, for being still, for just walking with God.
I’m just not sure that I’m supposed to walk with God right past a hungry person, you know?
3 comments:
Reminds me of a story I heard in school. The story is true as far as I know and takes place at a seminary during finals.
The students are hurrying to the class to take a test from one of the professors and as they get to the class they have to navigate around a man that appears to have been attacked or at least has had some event that has left him bloody, disheveled and in pain. This man is lying on the sidewalk to the classroom and the seminarians have to literally walk around him to get to the room. Some of the students are hustling to get into the class on time and no one is stopping to help the man on the sidewalk, some mumbling that this is an important test and surely someone will come along to help.
Finally one of the students stop to help the man and the rest of his classmates hustle by and into class. Most are relieved that someone is helping.
When they get into the class the teacher give them the essay topic to write about for their final. It is the story Jesus tells of the man hurt by the side of the road and the religious leaders walking by and not offering help. Just as they are reading the topic, the injured man from the sidewalk and the student that stopped to help walk into the room. The teacher looks up and tells the student he has passed the test with an A, he doesn't have to write and he may leave.
The injured man was planted on the sidewalk by the teacher to "test" the seminarians on their putting the Bible into action.
Yeh but...maybe it's not quite that simple.
Jesus walked past lots of hungry people, and crippled people, and hurting people. The pool at Bethesda is a great example (John 5). The only way to understand how Jesus knew who to help and who not to help in that story is to understand v. 20 from that passage. I'm wondering, can we really do anything of any eternal significance unless we are joining God in something He is doing? And we can't do that unless we are waiting on Him and watching for His invitation. In the meantime, we are staying busy doing the last thing we know He gave us to do. Henry Blackaby says, "Waiting on the Lord can be the busiest, most active thing you will ever do."
I think with this post, you've "tripped" (you know, Wendy, we all know you're more deliberate than you'd have us believe)onto a really rich concept: moving versus waiting...when to do which. Thanks for inviting us in.
Oops. Sorry for the confusion. It's verse 19 of John 5, not verse 20.
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