Sevier Heights Baptist Church

6 December 2007

Caught by Our Own Thinking

I saw and used one for the first time when I was six. A little, multicolored, woven bamboo tube that you place your index fingers into and pull slightly, thus locking them in place. Any effort to extricate your digits by logical means (read: pulling), only draws the bamboo strips more tightly around your fingers. I’m speaking of the dreaded Chinese finger trap. I remember trying in vain to free myself as my mother watched bemusedly. No matter how hard I pulled, I couldn’t get loose. (I think this was a formative experience for me because even today, I don’t usually wear a watch, and if I get something my finger that can not move freely, I feel like I have to remove it. If I ever get married, I hope my wedding ring is little larger than necessary.)

The way you remove a finger trap is counterintuitive; you push your fingers in farther and then slide the bamboo sleeve from them. It doesn’t seem to make much sense approaching the problem that way…that’s why we get trapped, I suppose. We know how things should work, or at least, we think we know how things should work, but sometimes the best answer defies what we think should be true.

The Kingdom of God is counterintuitive, at least to humanity’s idea of logic. Over and over again we find events and teachings in the Bible that turn our reasoning topsy-turvy.

Take being blessed for example. We have our own idea of what it means to be “blessed.” The word in the New Testament often carries with it the idea of being “spiritually happy.” Happiness is a good thing. I like that. I want that. What does it look like? Jesus tells us in Matthew 5: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake…” (vs. 10,11). Seems like this contradicts my usual idea of what it means to be happy and blessed. But this is par for the course when we speak of the Kingdom of God…up is often down, down is usually up, and what we think should be turns out to be the opposite. Just consider the life of Jesus…

The Sovereign King of the Universe was born as a baby surrounded by livestock…The disciples argued over who was the greatest among them during the Last Supper, and Jesus, taking on the role of the lowliest servant, washed their feet...Jesus was judged by earthly trials, yet is the Judge of all… In order to offer eternal life to man, He died…

This is why, when confronted with the truths of God, we often scratch our heads and think, “This doesn’t make much sense.” So we try to figure it out by pulling and tugging and fighting and stretching it to fit our own mindset. But life in the Kingdom of God doesn’t tend to line up easily with human thought. That’s why we must restrain from fighting against His working and willingly surrender to it. We trap ourselves when begin to think we can approach Him or understand Him on our terms alone.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8,9).

DCG

9 December 2007

Making Plans

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” Prov. 16:9

Sometimes I have an image in my mind that looks something like this…

It’s a cold morning, just before dawn, and I’m sitting in my truck at the edge of a recently cleared plot of land. Beside me is a rolled-up plan. It’s the plan for my life. I’m about to meet with God so that He can look it over. God shows up (I really don’t pay any attention to what kind of vehicle He drives…). I pull out the plans and lay them on the hood of my truck and He looks them over.

“Did you do this?” He asks.

“Yes.”

“All by yourself?”

“All by myself.”

“But you didn’t ask Me.”(pause)

“But I’m asking now.”

“Asking for what?” (another pause, longer this time)

“Asking for You to bless them.”

He looks at the plans again. “So, where do I fit in?”

“Excuse me?”

“Me. Where do I fit in your plans?”

I flip a page or two of the sheets, “Here, right here, see, there You are. And You are in some other places too.”

He just looks at me.

“Let Me show you something,” He says.

And, with that, He takes out His own plans and places the roll of papers on the hood. “You made plans all by yourself, that’s the problem. And the plans you have made by yourself would be really good plans, if you want to accomplish them all by yourself. These are My plans for you now.”

He unrolls a tiny bit of a corner for me to see. I look at it and say, “And…?”

“Do that, and then I’ll show you more.”

“But I would like to know the rest now.”

“You have plenty to do with this one corner now. Besides, these are My plans for you, not your plans for Me. You are a part of My plan, not the other way around. So, if anyone needs to get his plans in line, it’s you.”

I find myself confronted with that reality at times. I can get comfortable and so focused doing “my own thing” and ignore the One who has plans for my life. And, sometimes, the “corner” that He lets me see makes little or no sense at the time, because I can’t see the entire picture. He’s not an “add-on” or “optional equipment.” He’s the Architect of the plans I am to follow and Builder. He doesn’t need my wisdom to make His plans for me (“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (I Cor.1:19b)), but I need His wisdom to follow the plan (James 3:13).

The problem lies in forgetting Him; for us to see a work that can be done by God alone, we must first see a work that is impossible for man alone. The only thing I can really offer to the accomplishing of the plan is my trust, obedience, and dependence upon Him. “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor.12:10b).

Are you a part of His plans, or is He a part of yours?

DCG

13 December 2007

Right In Front of Your Face

I read an article the other day about avoiding shark attacks and what to do if attacked, not as though I intend to swim with then, but if I do, I guess I’ll know. After the detailed description of what to do in order to escape a hungry shark, I read this: “Australian scientists have discovered that swimming with another person decreases your chances of being attacked by 50%.” I would say so, and if I were swimming with 99 other people, I suspect my chances would be further reduced…just a hunch.

Funny how the obvious seems so hard to grasp at times…

How many times has it happened to you? You stand looking for something, maybe your keys, an important paper or the remote control, yet you just can’t find it. You search everywhere, then, stopping to think, you cast your eyes downward, and there, sitting before you, is the very thing you sought. It didn’t seem like it was there all the time, but it was.

I’ve heard married couples comment on this phenomenon when one has asked the other to retrieve something from the refrigerator. Standing there before the open door the husband, I’m told, usually speaks these words, “We have no ketchup.”

“Yes, we do. Look again.”

He peers longer into the shelves. “No, I don’t think we do. It’s not here.”

The wife, sighing, crosses the kitchen, slides the milk aside, and there, filled to the brim, is a bottle of ketchup. “It wasn’t there earlier,” he says. It’s so obvious that you miss it.

It’s one thing to miss a container of tomato product because you aren’t paying attention, but it’s another to miss the God of the Universe because you are too busy with everything else that comes your way. And it’s not that God has hidden Himself away in some dark, inaccessible corner. Rather, He has revealed Himself to mankind. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Creation itself testifies of God’s existence (“His invisible attributes are clearly seen”), His work as the Creator (“being understood by the things that are made”), His “eternal power” and divine nature (“Godhead”). Creation screams out the name of God, yet we sometimes miss the most obvious message of all.

Sometimes, when I’m at the point that I feel like I’m missing something (or Someone) in my life, much of the time, it’s the Eternal God that I’m overlooking.

How obvious is He to you?

DCG

20 December 2007

True Wisdom

Ben Franklin wrote of an interesting exchange between some of the early colonists and the Native Americans. It seems that after the treaty of Lancaster was signed by the two parties in June 1744, the Virginian government offered, as a gesture of goodwill, to take 6 of their young men and educate them at one of the colonial colleges. After thinking it over, the Native Americans gave their answer the next day…

"For we know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men with you would be very expensive to you. We are convinced therefore that you mean to do us good by your proposal, and we thank you heartily. But you who are wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things, and you will therefore not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it: several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly; were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, or counselors; they were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." -from The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin

For the Native Americans, knowledge carried more importance than just understanding a concept or committing a fact to memory. The knowledge had to hold a practical component; something meaningful should result. Being educated was more than passing a test sitting at a desk. Education and wisdom was learned by hands-on experience and intensive practice.

It really reminds me of the idea of wisdom found in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the word used often for “wisdom” could be translated as “skilled living.” When God gives us His wisdom, skilled living is the desired result. It’s more than just being able to win a Bible trivia game. There must be a practical application of truth. Because of the importance of living a skillful life, we are admonished to seek this wisdom. “Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding” (Prov. 4:7). God wants us to run after that type of true wisdom with diligence and passion: “If you seek [wisdom] as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God” (Prov. 2:4-5).

God offers to take us, and take great care of our spiritual education, instruct us in His wisdom, and make fully-devoted followers of us…but we must seek it as the treasure it is.

DCG