Category Archives: Obedience

Ordinary to Extraordinary

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Summer is the time for vacations and kicking back, the time when people make time for each other. It’s a break from the usual routine and a chance to celebrate being together. And like it or not, concentrated togetherness always presents fresh opportunities to practice flexibility and tolerance. It’s also the perfect time to highlight creativity, even if it pops up in the most unusual of ways.

For example, when our cottage was packed with as many relatives as it could hold a week ago, finding bathroom privacy was difficult. One day in particular I kept my eye on the bathroom door, hoping to soon find it open. Each time I checked, though, it was closed.

When finally I got my chance, something interesting greeted me. The toilet water was a rich royal purple. How this happened I wasn’t sure, but I had to admit someone had been creative, elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary.

Wick removal programTP off course

The week was full of things like that. There was a pile of votive candles with all the wicks carefully removed, and a skewed roll of re-wrapped toilet paper, twice. Crusty pans were left overnight in the most unusual

Needing a soakEmerald's self-feed

places, and Emerald’s first attempt at self-feeding left a mess that matched the crusty pans.

Living in crowded community offers all sorts of let-it-go moments. We can square off with these odd-ball situations by criticizing, confronting, or complimenting. It’s our choice. Responding with a calm determination to find something good about each circumstance encourages us to chalk up the messes to the diverse ages and stages of those living under one roof, and it frees us from stress.

Also, thinking from God’s point of view helps to put things in perspective. The Father, Son, and Spirit are all of one ilk, divinely superior to any other being (such as us). When we humans complicate things unnecessarily and make messes as a result, the Trinity has every right to demonstrate righteous anger, especially if we purposely violate a standard these three have set for us.

We’ve seen this righteous anger repeatedly in Scripture, each time the Israelites chose to rebel and then experienced God’s stiff discipline. More often than not, however, he also offered them an opportunity to try again. Love was his motivation, which is why he patiently forgave them and offered a clean slate. If we wonder what to do when our crowded homes become creatively disheveled, we should follow his example.

It isn’t always easy when we’re the ones on clean-up, but searching for something upbeat in even the most peculiar situation is the route to elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary.

Royal

As for the purple toilet water? I would never have guessed.

It was Nelson.

“God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”               (1 Corinthians 4:33)

We heard from the herd.

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A cliffWhen I was in high school, I complained to my parents that they “never let me do what the other kids did.” I wanted to wear shorter skirts, go to the movies, and attend school dances, all of which were prohibited. Dad’s retort was always the same. “Just because the other kids do it doesn’t make it right for you. If they all jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?”

Probably.

What I wanted more than anything was to fit in, and usually that translated to doing what everyone else was doing. I was following the “herd mentality” of the day; if it was good for my friends, it was good for me. It would be many years before I began thinking for myself.

Last weekend I visited a large farm in Iowa (yesterday’s blog) that was established in 1868 by my friend Fred’s great-grandfather. He began with 400 acres and a few head of cattle, but those 19th century animals probably acted exactly the same as the 21st century cattle I saw last weekend, despite the many generations between them. One of the things endemic to all of these animals is their “herd mentality.”

The herdsFor example, Fred and Becky explained how cattle are quickly trained to steer clear of electric wire fencing. When one animal gets shocked and moves away, the others quickly follow. After that, workers can reshape the herd (to clean the feedlots or for any other reason), simply by stringing a wire anywhere across the pen. What one does, they all do.

Chute 3

The cattle also follow each other up a chute and into the truck that will take them to market, none the wiser. They aren’t able to think for themselves and just do what the animal in front of them does.

But cattle aren’t the only ones who abide by a herd mentality. The argument “everybody’s doing it” can apply to more than just cattle and high schoolers. For the rest of us it might mean cutting corners on taxes, falsely padding a resume’, not telling the whole truth, or any number of other things… because “everybody’s doing it.” But God challenges us to make up our minds, each one of us, as to the standards we keep.

Scripture paints an interesting word picture about a “narrow gate” being the way into God’s kingdom. It also describes the way most of the “herd” will go, calling it “the wide gate” with a broad road leading up to it. In other words, the narrow way is the difficult way, and the wide way is easy. So we need to be careful about which crowd we’re following, or we might find ourselves in some big trouble.

Herded together

As for the cattle? They can follow the herd mentality all they want.

“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.” (Matthew 7:13)

Eye-Rolling

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Garage shelvesI remember the days when one or more of my children would say, “Where is my such-and-such?” I might answer with something like, “Try the basement.” (Or garage, or yard.) But like clockwork they’d quickly return saying, “Nope. Not there.”

Knowing it was, I’d send them back again, maybe with another clue. “Look about chest-high. I think I saw it there.”

But more often than not, they’d reappear. “Un-uh. Still not there.”

So I’d roll my eyes, march to the spot where the item was, put my hand right on it and say, “See? Exactly where I said it was.”

“Oh….” he/she would say. “I was looking for a box, but it was in a bag.” Or, “I was looking on the floor, but was on a shelf.” In other words, “It’s not my fault.”

Sometimes I act the same toward God. I ask a question, and he answers by giving me helpful information, like where to find peace or maybe security, or courage. But rather than carefully following his instructions I say, “Doing that doesn’t seem like it’ll bring peace.” Or, “Relying on that won’t make me feel secure.” Or, “Just believing words can’t give me courage.”

Surely God must roll his eyes. “Look where I’m telling you to find it, and you’ll find it.”

With my kids, the problem was they didn’t really want to look. Instead they wanted me to stop what I was doing, lead them to the item they were pretending to look for, and hand it directly to them. Watching this happen repeatedly produced plenty of frustration in me, exactly as it must for God when I become that same immature child.

So how can these seek-and-find scenarios be improved? What’s missing? First and foremost, a listening ear. When parents tell their children where to find something, the kids aren’t really listening to the details. They’re hoping for a quick fix, a way to get what they want without putting forth personal effort. Sadly, I’m the same way.

When I’m seeking self-control, for example, or love, or patience, God describes how to find them, but his directions usually include action at my end, and that’s both disappointing and discouraging in the moment. I want it right away and without effort. When it isn’t forthcoming, I run back to him and whine. “Nope. I don’t have it! It’s not there!”

He tells me again (and maybe again) what I must do to secure what I’m wanting, but I don’t succeed unless I “look” where he points and move in that direction. I know the Lord views us as his children, a privileged place to be. But on this issue, I want to act less like a child and more like the mature believer he hopes I will someday become.

“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” (Proverbs 18:13)