Category Archives: Submitting to God

God’s Good Will

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Dropping offOne of 6 stops on my errand list today was the local Goodwill store, not to shop, but to drop off. Usually a heap of guilt accompanies this process: (1) I shouldn’t buy so much; (2) the things I buy ought to be better used; (3) giving away partially used items might insult those taking them in; (4) I have too much, while others have too little.

What is the right way to decide what we do or don’t need?

Sinai DesertI love the scriptural description of God’s care for the Israelites as they wandered back and forth in harsh desert conditions for 40 years. Being the practical God he was, he knew they wouldn’t come across any markets during those years and wouldn’t have a way to find water, food, or shelter. So he provided everything they needed, even clothes.

sandals

For example, at the end of their journey, he pointed out that their clothes hadn’t aged in 4 decades. It wasn’t just good luck, he told them. It was his direct doing. And he had an important reason for preventing even one sandal strap from breaking. As he put it, “…so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”  He wanted them to recognize him in action, to realize he was sustaining them personally through those difficult years. (Deuteronomy 29:6)

The Lord is still doing this kind of thing, not necessarily by way of miracle-clothes or super-sandals but by continuing to meet our needs. And that’s the key word: needs. He inspects our lives, each of us, and makes a divine analysis of what those are and then meets them.

In Philippians 4 Paul says, “My God shall supply all you need.” The obvious conclusion is that if we don’t have it, we didn’t need it. I remember my children asking for things unendingly and telling them, “But you don’t need that.”

Their responses were always the same: “But I waaaant it!”

We must sound much like wailing children to God when we complain about not having everything we want, especially if we point to someone else and say, “But why can she have it and I can’t?” He has his reasons.

He could have clothed the Israelites in new outfits that fell from heaven just like the manna and quails he sent exactly that way. Instead he let them make do with what they already had, causing each item to remain new-like instead, not as fun as new wardrobes but definitely a need met.

When we look for God’s near-presence in our lives, it’s best to remove our preconceived ideas of what he should be doing for us and let him decide what we need and how to provide it.

Goodwill store

Maybe he’ll even do it by directing us to purchase some gently-used clothing from a local Goodwill store.

“The Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.” (Deuteronomy 29:5)

Caring and Sharing

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People can learn a great deal from animals. For instance, today I read a news story about a dog being abandoned in front of an animal shelter on the 4th of July. The shelter was closed for the holiday, but a police officer saw a cardboard box and the small dog tied to a nearby pole, so he investigated.

Doggie nursing kitties

When he saw two tiny babies in the box he wasn’t surprised until he realized they weren’t puppies but kittens. The dog jumped in with them, and they began nursing from her. When the officer turned them over to a foster pet home, the foster mom promised to keep them together until the kittens were weaned. She also complimented the dog’s actions: “All she knew, she was a mother, and these were babies, and they needed her.”

This story appeals to us because we project human characteristics onto animals who are behaving well. Experts tell us dogs and cats operate on instinct not reason, but sometimes we wonder. This dog’s unlikely behavior blurs the line as she overcame specie-obstacles to feed and care for animals that weren’t “of her kind.”

Polite at the pan

I often see the same blurred lines between instinct and reason when I watch two of our family dogs, Jack and his cousin Sydney. To see them greet each other down a road or across a stretch of beach is to watch a demonstration of pure joy as they run together to sniff, lick, and circle. They don’t even balk at sharing the same food bowl, politely taking turns eating together, a fine example of sharing.

Syd and Jack

Humanly speaking, sharing with others isn’t always easy. We may offer something to another, but our heads might be thinking, “There won’t be enough for me now,” or “She’s taking the one I’d wanted.”

As soon as children can speak, one of their favorite words is, “Mine!” spoken while yanking a toy from another child. When we get older, we squelch our “Mines!” but oftentimes they’re rumbling just below the surface. Because of this, when my kids were young we memorized Hebrews 13:16. I needed it as much as they did: “To do good and share, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

Young children don’t especially care about pleasing God, but the rest of us ought to be thinking about that. It’s interesting that Scripture labels sharing as a “sacrifice”. God wants us to know he recognizes how difficult it is, and that, of course, is the whole reason our sharing pleases him well.

I don’t think the dog in the news considers it any big deal to care for those two kittens; she’s just genuinely happy to help. But strange as it may sound, I think she’s getting some special credit with God.

Paul wrote, “Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well.” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8)

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)