God's Not Bored

We had been over this more times than I could count.  How many times must we repeat ourselves for this pre-k drama queen to understand that the world doesn't revolve around her friends' opinions of her? "I'm afraid other people won't like me," she told me.  I had tried to talk her through this before, consoling her and offering encouragement. This time I had had enough.  "If you don't want to play with your friends, that's your choice," I told her kindly, but firmly.

But a few minutes later, as she still wiped crocodile tears and looked to me for consolation, I tried to talk her through it one more time.  "Does God love you?" I asked, only slightly impatiently, to encourage her to think through this on her own.  "No," she answered.  "I think He gets bored of us."

Even in the Deep Blue Sea
There really is no other way to put it.

Disgusting. It had to be disgusting. There in that great fish for three days and nights with seaweed, saltwater, undigested plankton, and whatever else it ate - the smell alone must have been repulsive.

As easy as it might be to feel sorry for someone in that predicament, Jonah had no one to blame for it but himself.

His own choices, his own decisions, his own disobedience brought him here.  He should stay here - a long time.  Maybe forever, don't you think? God is under no obligation to rescue Jonah from the prison he brought on himself.

But.

Prison Life
Just a few short hours before I found myself counseling my five-year-old friend, I had flipped the pages to my daily Bible reading assignment: Psalm 69.

Just like Jonah, our little drama queen was in a prison she had fashioned for herself. But they were never alone there. "For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners" (Psalm 69:33).

Here I was, with a little girl in a "prison" of fear of man - a prison where I have made my own home far too often.

Time and Time Again
Does He get bored of us?  It would make sense if He did.  Day in, day out, the same mistakes over and over.

Every day I get myself in another mess.  It's my fault, my problem.  What if I have the same problem as Jonah? As our drama queen? As nearly everyone in the history of the human race?  Does He grow weary of rescuing us time and time again from the same predicaments?  Does He get bored of His creation of man?

I would.  But He doesn't.

He does not despise His own people who are prisoners...

When They Drive You Crazy

I've heard it many times: "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).  For years, I have assumed this verse is about the mutual relationships between good friends.  Friends who love each other.  Laugh together.  Actually like each other.  Friends who had polite, deep, encouraging, stimulating, uplifting conversations.

Doesn't that sound great?

Don't get me wrong.  This kind of friend is wonderful, and I am very blessed to have some of these friendships in my life.  But on deeper thought, I don't think Solomon had my warm, inviting scenario in mind when he penned Proverbs 27:17.

Straightforward Sharpening

The verse itself is very straightforward, but not very detailed: "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”  There are no qualifiers.  The text doesn't call for people who are "equally yoked" or "equally mature," and it doesn't seem to be describing relationships that would be considered "mutually beneficial."  Nope.  Just "one man sharpens another."  Any man sharpens any other?  That's a broad brush.

Judging by the little I know about sharpening something, it seems to me that it wouldn’t be a pleasant process.  Sharpening is accomplished through constant pressure and a lot of friction.  It causes heat and makes a terrible noise.

Is this how you would describe your relationship with your BFF?

What If...

Could it be that we are sharpened in every relationship?  Is it possible that the annoying person who seems to follow you around - the one you've told yourself you are influencing for the better - is shaping you, too?

That guy who always misunderstands what you say, always challenges your points, or maybe just plain gets on your nerves – could he be sharpening you?

It’s an interesting thought.  What if the interruptions other people cause in our plans, the differences in others' personalities, and the many (but minor) inconveniences others bring our way...are all part of iron sharpening iron?  After all, if any man sharpens any other, then maybe that pesky person you can’t avoid may be the sharpest sharpener in your life.

Day In and Day Out

Do you know how easy it would be for me to be kind when no one bothered me?  Do you know how effortlessly I could be patient when no one messed up my plans?  It would be so easy to be loving when there was no one to push the limits of that love.

But it would be empty.

I cannot be kind without being kind to someone.  I cannot be patient without being patient with someone.  And love has no meaning without an object of that love--a person.

An individual, made in the image of God, with their own desires, personality, strengths, weaknesses...and, yes, sin.

That would require kindness.  Patience.  Love.

Sometimes we are called to represent Christ to people who drive us crazy.  We can't do it once per person or once a month and then check it off a list.  We are called to represent Him wherever we are and whoever we are with, day in, day out, no matter how difficult the other person is.  Day in and day out, others' grating attitudes or personal idiosyncrasies will often continue to eat at us.

Annoying, yes.  But we'll be sharper for it.

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Listen for the Marching

The clandestine army of warriors crept as close as they dared to the unsuspecting enemy.  They trusted their leader (and his God), but thirsted to strike out at their foe, however superior the enemy forces may be.

Time slowly passed as the fighting men waited expectantly for their chance to do what they had come to do.  The strength that gave them courage in battle strained to obey the order to wait.  As the men lingered, they heard a faint thum, thum, thum coming from above them.  Looking up, they saw nothing.  But they knew something was there.

Often as I read an account in the Bible, I wish I could have been there personally to witness it.  Seriously - how amazing would it have been to be there when the Red Sea parted?  Think of the incredible grandeur of witnessing Christ's ascension into heaven or the outpouring of the Spirit on the disciples left behind!

What would it have been like to be there with David and his men?

David had just recently been crowned king of Israel.  His first battle as king - against the ever-present Philistines - ended in victory for the rookie.  Now he faced the Philistines "yet again" (2 Samuel 5:22).

But their king knew that he was in good hands.  "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6).

As the apostle Paul later echoed, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). The red sea parted for the Israelites.  Christ arose to seal our hope (1 Peter 1:3).  The Spirit came to help us as we tarry on this earth.

It's true, isn't it?  God is for us!  As Benjamin Franklin said during the arduous times of America's beginning, "God governs in the affairs of men!"  How freeing to know that God penetrates the filthy crust of our world and enters the messes of our lives.

Imagine the goosebumps those fighting men must have had as they heard the marching in the tops of the trees.  They couldn't see anyone.  They couldn't tell exactly how this would help them in this specific circumstance.  But they could hear them.  They knew God was working.  He was with them, on their side.

It’s against our nature, isn’t it?  When we find ourselves in desperate situations, like David and his men, we get frantic, seeking for a way to fight, a way to win.  Yet God calls us to leave it in His hands.

Whether we face disappointment, stress, tragedy, inconveniences, trauma, or just plain ordinariness, we are not called to fight in our own strength.  Sometimes we will fight, yes, but not without Him on our side.  Not until He says it is time.

We may never see exactly how He reached into our mess and worked in ways we would never have imagined.  We may never understand His providence in our circumstances.  But sometimes, if we listen carefully, we can hear the sound of marching.

And we will know He is with us.  No matter what.

Photo of Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest is courtesy of TripAdvisor