A friend of mine lost his race for judge recently. For months he poured a lot into it. I know how hard he worked because I hit the streets with him one day. But as we watched the numbers come in overnight, we saw it wasn’t going to be enough.
I couldn’t get him off my mind that night and all the next morning. I sent him an email, and here was his response:
God wants me to keep practicing law. Nothing but good has come out of this campaign. Thanks for all of your help. Your family has been such a blessing.
Later, he sent an email out to the people who had helped somehow in the campaign. Here’s part of what he said:
Lifting up the name of Christ to those that do not know him has had more effect than me winning an election. I have been able to witness to more people since June of 2005 than I have in the 35 years that I have been alive.
That blows my mind. And it makes me feel like a wee little man in the presence of greatness.
Could it be that if we simply follow our desires that God will make something beautiful of our lives? Could it be that our true strength is revealed not from seats of power, but on streets of humility? Could it be that the people God is sending us to are along the way, rather than where we arrive? Could it be that the things we thought were lost were really the things we gained?
4 comments:
you wrote:
"Could it be that our true strength is revealed not from seats of power, but on streets of humility? Could it be that the people God is sending us to are along the way, rather than where we arrive? Could it be that the things we thought were lost were really the things we gained?"
Very few of in the Body realize the paradox of how God is known to sometimes (often?) move--and smirk while He's doing it.
Even within the Body there is tons of self-help advice spread around: "work your way through it", "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", "do what you can and let God do the rest", "work like it depends on you...", etc etc.
Yet Jesus says "My power is made perfect in your weakness".
We (even the Body) think weakness is NOT where we need to be. We think we are to be strong and blessed. That's what God wants, surely He wouldn't want it any other way for His children! After all, He LOVES us!
God tells us we grown in Him through trials and difficulties, not blessing. Jesus says His power abounds when we are weak.
I grow more and stay at the Cross and Throne much more when I'm broken than when I'm "blessed" and things go well from an earthly perspective.
Your friend's experience, and your commentary, affirm what God often does. He used Jesus getting beaten to a human pulp as the Way to pay for sin.
God used a humiliating death on a cross as the Way to give salvation-rending power (1 Cor 1:18) and the Way to disarm powers and authorities (Col 2:15).
God used your friend's desire for office to advance His kingdom and to share the Way.
I think now of Michael Card's lyrics to 'God's Own Fool'. Aligns with your ponderings and how God often does things.
Uses a man with a huge stuttering problem to be His voice to His people (Moses). Chooses a highly charged, emotionally volatile man (Peter) to be a leader of the Way. The list is long.
Heck, I've wondered in my flesh why He bothered to leave the 99 and go search for a backslidden, opinionated person like me. He had every reason to write me off as unsalvagable goods, or take me out, but He didn't.
His ways truly are higher than our ways.
aka "grow in Him". What a dork. See? LOL
So, the desire that wells up in a heart is to be a judge or to preside over a church or a business or a state. The desire in our heart is to be a rock & roll star or a pro quarterback or a 4 star general. The desire in our heart is to open the eyes of the blind. Whatever it is.
But judges don't start on the bench, nor generals behind a desk. Rock stars begin by scrapping, pro quarterbacks in two-a-days. Prophets untying sandals. They start in the trenches, in the gutters, in a place that's beneath who they really are, which is to say in a place that's beaneath who they are destined to become.
But I think I've given the wrong impression--it was certainly given to me. Life is not about the bench, the stage, the mountaintop. Life is meant to be lived in the gutters.
Have you heard of XXXchurch.com? It's the #1 Christian Porn Site. Fascinating stuff. Incredible ministry. Anyway, one of the founders, Craig Gross, has written a book called The Gutter: Where life is meant to be lived.
It seems to me that if I really want to imitate Christ, it means I leave my place of comfort and honor, and go walk the streets, get dirty, get real, connect with people who are "dirty", and do stuff that is beneath me. Like the Veggie Tales song goes, "The best that He had He gave to the least".
The thing is, in the end, is my line: "Well, I had to go through a lot of poop, but I made it, and that made all the poop worth it"? Or is my line, "I made it through all the poop, and all the poop made where I finally arrived worth it"?
I think the latter.
Man, you've hit the nail on the head here.
I've been thinking the last two weeks about Christians wanting to have one foot in Jesus and one foot in the world.
I have done it. Wanted God's blessing and favor, but oh let me also continue in this sin and that sin. "I want Your hand over my life, Lord, but I don't want to repent, don't want to divest of myself or my things. Let me keep my life and my things, but use me in mighty ways!" Huh? I've done this.
Saw this same thing when we watched "Diary of a Mad Black Woman". The main character in the movie wanted to come to Jesus and begin to take on His yoke of forgiveness and healing, yet she at the same time decided to get a divorce and pursue a soap-opera, grass-is-greener, fairy-tale love escapade with another man.
This blog brings focus to this recent pondering.
It is stunning to see how much we in the Body desire and pursue the things of this world. Interesting how we justify these pursuits with Christianese garbage dribbling out the sides of our mouths (and I raise my hand for doing this and having done it, too).
There's a fine line here. Your friend's going for the judgeship was a desire of his heart in the Lord which he pursued. Through this God-inspired desire this man advanced and shared the Kingdom. I'm talking about when we pursue things from our own flesh (or from our 'Christian Flesh', blanketing our own pursuits with the name of Jesus). There's a difference.
I heard a pastor give a "this is my vision for this church" sermon last year. As I listened my spirit said "there's a good chunk of his own flesh in this vision, this is not all of the Lord". The vision sounded solid: sell the church, go non-denominational, reach out to the unlost in a different area of the city, etc. But there was a strong sense it was him and not the Lord. Sure enough, within five months this pastor resigned from the church as the flesh-plagued vision flopped.
We justify the pursuit or arrival on the stage or mountaintop as "well, God led His people to the Promised Land, and He has helped me get to the top of the mountain, too". And while we stand at the top of the mountain, one hand silently beating our chest (let's be brutally honest, how often does false humility come into play) and with the other hand raised in thanks to God, He's concerned about the poor, the rejected, the lost back at the base of the mountain. Man, I am convicted as I type this.
This reminds me of one of the most solid things I ever heard about the Way: "Some would sit outside the church and listen to the mission bell. I'd rather run a rescue shop a yard this side of hell."
Post a Comment