Category Archives: Submitting to God

Zzzzz

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Eeeeee'sDespite my habit of blogging late at night, I usually don’t fall asleep on the job. Usually. The other night, however, my head dropped and I was gone, fingers resting on the keyboard. Twelve pages of eee’s later, I awoke and laughed at the result of my black-out, glad no one had seen me.

Today on the news I heard the story of a fellow keyboard-sleeper. A bank employee in Germany had arrived at work short on sleep, but his listless condition didn’t keep him from having an exciting day. While making a routine bank transfer of 64.40 Euros ($82.89 in US dollars), he fell asleep mid-transfer with a finger resting on the 2-key. As his brain was in zzzz-mode, his computer made a transfer of $222,222,222.22.

That was one expensive nap. His bogus transaction (which slipped past his wide-awake supervisor) cost his boss his job and the mess that resulted ended up in court.

All of us need to stay alert through our days and years. If we don’t, the consequences will be far more serious than multiple computer screens of letters and numbers. It’s no surprise Scripture details examples of when and why to stay alert. Here are 10 of them:

  • so we won’t be seduced by money
  • so we’ll identify God’s answers to our prayers
  • so we won’t use our tongues in hurtful ways
  • so we’ll make wise choices when they come to us
  • so we’ll recognize temptation when it hits
  • so our hearts won’t become dulled by the world
  • so we won’t allow bitterness to take root
  • so we’ll recognize Satan when he gets too close to us
  • so we’ll notice how God is moving in our lives
  • so we’ll be ready when Jesus returns to get us

Our lives will look quite different if we swap watchfulness for dozing, and the scriptural David is an example of this. He made all kinds of senseless decisions without being alert to the consequences and had to back-peddle later on. But in a passage from 2 Samuel, he explains his new resolve to stay alert and do things right, from that point on:

“God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I cleaned up my act, he gave me a fresh start. Indeed, I’ve kept alert to God’s ways; I haven’t taken God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works, I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.” (22:21-25, The Message)

Eeee's

The good news is that any of us can follow David’s lead by making up our minds to stay alert…. which even includes time in front of a computer screen.

“Make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live.” (Deuteronomy 4:9, The Message)

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)

Time to panic?

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Keep calm...Most of us are familiar with the poster, “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.” I first saw it in the home of Hans’ bride, Katy, when our family arrived in England for their wedding. It was 2007, and because of the kingly crown on the poster, I figured it was strictly British. The sentiment applied nicely as busy wedding preparations saw us sometimes becoming un-calm, though we did do well at carrying on.

Apparently that poster was created by the British government at the beginning of World War II. Officials wanted to be ready with inspiration, should mass air attacks occur in major cities. Although 800,000 posters were printed, few were circulated as the war intensified, mostly because authorities thought the message trivialized the gravity of the situation. After that, the posters all but disappeared.

Then in the year 2000, one of the originals was rediscovered in the bottom of a box of books. Today the slogan has grown into an international industry and is printed on everything from mugs and aprons to notebooks and food packaging.

Although the “keep calm” motto has been altered in all kinds of ways (Keep calm and drink wine, Keep spending and carry on shopping, etc.), the original idea is still a pretty good one. It’s even scriptural.

In Isaiah 7, the Almighty was speaking when he said, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart.” (v. 4) He was talking to a king in similar circumstances to World War II, telling him not to panic over what appeared to be certain defeat by a powerful army. God reassured him by saying, “Keep calm, because I’m controlling  things.”

But he didn’t just leave him hanging by telling him to stay calm without telling him how. He followed his instructions with letting the king know he’d have to do something, too: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” (v. 9)

The British poster campaign was eventually considered a “misjudgment of the mood of the people.” But maybe that’s because they weren’t told how to stay calm. If mass air attacks in large cities were the order of the day, people couldn’t remain calm for long… unless of course God endowed them with the ability to do so.

He did that in the Isaiah passage and is willing to do it for us today. In Philippians we read, “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (2:13) And it pleases him when we stay calm in a crisis, because it proves we’re trusting him for the outcome.

So, when circumstances tempt us to panic, we shouldn’t ask God for relief from the situation but for strength to stand firm in our faith all the way through. After that, keeping calm and carrying on should be no problem.

“You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the Lord is your security.” (Proverbs 3:25-26)