Of Steering Wheels and VIPs

I can’t believe I’ve been in Mexico for a whole month now! It’s insane! I really do apologize for not blogging more. But I have found that I get really, really busy.  Part of what God is doing in me here is calling me to lay down my OCD, must-fill-my-planner, and overtly American personality type.  God wants me working directly under Him, meaning I have to ask what to do on a daily basis! It can be almost infuriatingly simple at first. Honestly, it is much harder than you think to not “do” anything. But, and I confess it is almost to my surprise, God has put more stuff “to do” in my lap than I could have possibly coordinated if I had ever tried. I find that I suddenly have meetings with the most amazing people from different churches here. Out of nowhere, people just call and ask me to lead worship at special events. Bands invite me to play with them or even perform at a concert. People who need to talk show up at my door.  A guy came running up to me on the beach, told me he just “knew” he had to talk to me, and ended up giving his life to Christ. It’s insane! I still cannot quite fathom how this principle—which is so simple that it should be the easiest thing I’ve ever done—seems to feel so foreign to me.

This morning God showed me a picture of a little kid sitting on his father’s lap in a car. Did your dad ever let you sit on his lap in a parking lot to “drive” with him? Obviously, he had his feet on the pedals and his hands on the wheel, but he let you pretend along with him. Well, in this image, the kid wouldn’t let go of the steering wheel. Actually, the kid was using all of his strength to try to steer the car his own way. The car just went in circles because the kid could only pull the wheel to one side and hold on. Then it hit me: That’s me! How often does God give me a chance to come up on His lap and participate in what He’s already doing, and I, for “some reason,” feel like I have to take over and do it myself. Have you ever felt that way?

***

I’ve been reading the story of David, and the Psalms. Today, though, my reading was about Solomon asking God for wisdom. God replies to him, “I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be” (see 1 Kings 3:10-14). That verse sort of stuck like a lump in my chest. Creeping into the dark corners of my mind, in a hushed sort of voice, was a sentiment: why can’t I have that? Now, don’t give me a knee-jerk response on this one. Have you not ever seen someone “receive a word” or something and said to yourself, Golly, I wish I could have that too. I wonder why God speaks to them so clearly but not me… If you’re feeling me on this one, you’re on the right track. If not, just listen to yourself for a while. We’ve all experienced spiritual envy—wanting the kind of closeness with God we perceive in some undefined “everyone else.”

I found myself looking at Solomon, envious of course, of this ridiculous gift. The guy was just given unlimited minutes on God’s private line! What?!  He doesn’t have to do a darn thing, either. God just says that He will “give” it to him. No fair! Why can’t God reveal himself to me in a dream and ask me what I want? Come on, you know you’ve wrestled with this yourself. Or do you think about what you read when you put the Eternal Word of the Almighty God in front of your face?

This line of thinking is fairly important. It comes to the heart of many people’s issues with God. Is He the kind of guy that has “special favorites,” people who get all the VIP invites? If so, what makes them so special? And, if you’re like me, you will instantly define yourself as one of the people on the outside. Bottom line: Do you believe that God will make Himself as completely available to you as he did with Solomon, Moses, David, Joshua, or any other “VIP” we read about in the Old Testament?

James 1:5 says the following: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

Did you catch that? It will be given to him. Now, we could hang out in the oohs and ahhs of how we will be given wisdom, too. But something has radically changed in this passage. Did you hear it? “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God.” He should ask.  He should ask God.

If you remember, God is the one who showed up in the Solomon story. God took the initiative and asked him what he wanted. I’m not sure if I can fully express what’s going on between these two verses. Do you realize that you were just given the VIP invite of the century? You don’t have to wait for some “appearance” or “vision” or “dream” of God—YOU may ask him. Right now. I’m not kidding. If God had not come to Solomon and asked him, he may well have had a successful reign anyway. But he would never have had that kind of wisdom. He had no way to make such demands of God.

Now, if we follow this line of reasoning through, then we must conclude that God has actually made himself more available to us than those “special” people I mentioned earlier. Obviously, God is omnipresent to everyone in every situation, but we’ve been told to ask! And in being told to ask him, it follows logically that God is going to hear us. And if God is going to hear us, he has to be listening! Let me blow your mind here a little bit…

Revelation 3:20 says: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” That’s a verse that we so often use in terms of the conversion experience—repentance, sinners giving their lives to Christ. What if we took it a step further and applied it to ourselves? These words, after all, were written to believers. They were written first to people who supposedly have already repented! The church Christ spoke those words to was accused, essentially, of becoming to comfortable in their faith. But even then, Christ was waiting for them at the door.

Are you picking up on the implications of this? The God of Eternity, the One who spoke the earth into being, the One whose voice will have the final say over everything that ever was or will be, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is standing outside of your door on the off chance that you will wake up and open it. He has so humbled himself that He is waiting—on YOU. He has chosen to give you the say in whether or not you open the door. But He’s hanging on your every word, listening like a cat on the prowl for the slightest invitation on your part. Can you even fathom the… the stupidity of this?! He’s the king! Why not send in the armed guard to burn down your door and put you in prison for not letting Him in? Why not show up in full force and order you to ask for something? Isn’t that what we’re asking for when we whine that He doesn’t show up in our lives like He did in Solomon’s case? Why does He just… stand there waiting?

God. Is. Love. He is the eternal gentleman. He who has the power to dry up the oceans has solemnly decided not to violate your free will.  If you do not want him to have a part in your life, He will not force you. Oh, you’ll have to fight tooth and nail for your entire life to shake off His love. He will not give you up as easily as the Enemy tries to convince you. But believe me when I say that God was serious when He talked about the joy in Heaven if even one person came to Christ. We are under a better promise than Solomon! We have the Holy Spirit! And if we have the Spirit, then it’s time we start acting like people who have the King’s ear.

Which brings us back to the steering wheel. Why do you hold on to it? Do you try to control everything because, deep down, you doubt that God will come through—for you. Sure, He’ll help that other person who is so “spiritual.” But not you. Wrong! That is a Satanic lie, my friend. God will not only come through, FOR YOU, in every possible situation, but He will so make Himself available to you that you will need only to ask him on a moment-by-moment basis and he will open the floodgates of Heaven. Do you want to “hear” the voice of God? Do you want to be “lead” by the Spirit like all those “other people”? Well, for goodness’ sake, don’t you know that He’s reading this blog right along with you? Ask him! Let go of the steering wheel! Stop going in circles and trust that God will come through for you.

Trust that God will give you the desires of your heart when you first put your delight in him. I will warn you that it’s a learning process. You may not wake up tomorrow and have a “word” for your grandmother. But, and I can only attest to it personally, God will teach you exactly what you need at the exact moment you need it. He will prepare you for things you couldn’t have imagined if you had tried and you will be ready, right on time. Operating in the Spirit doesn’t mean that you can bust out tongues at the drop of a hat or that you shake like a psycho when worship music starts. It means that you consciously, day by day, make a choice to present yourself to God and say, “Do whatever you want. You know better than I do what the desires of my heart are. And I trust you.” Those words will change your life. And just as God said to Solomon that there would never be anyone like him again, there will never be anyone like you again. God has something specifically planned for YOU that no one else gets to do. So your day-by-day walk with God will logically look different than that of other people. Don’t let that frighten you, or worse yet, don’t let it make you feel like whatever God is doing in you is somehow less important or valuable. If God Almighty wants to use you to talk to a random person at a grocery store and that’s your only assignment for the day, then I’ll step out on a limb and say that the action carries eternal importance and significance. I’m not going to go into specifics here, but trust me when I say that following God brings better things than you could have EVER dreamed of. Trust Him!

Be blessed. Decide today to take God at his word. Don’t let the voice of the Enemy make you feel like you’re on the outside loop for one more second. You. You, yes, You—you already are God’s VIP.

"another fine bit of writing brought to you by yours truly"

Scandalous Grace... and Puppies!

1 John 3:1a "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

     I know I probably should give you a moment-by-moment update of my latest adventure--namely, moving to Mexico... but honestly, it would take hours. The basic things you need to know: God put in me under the care of the most ridiculously hospitable family I've ever known, and they're renting me a house here in Ensenada (really Chapultepec), very close to all my YUGO friends. I can't even express how astonishing their kindness is; I don't know that I have ever seen anything like it up close. God is already opening so many doors that I'm losing track by the minute--youth group outings, acoustic concerts, English classes, and my dear friends who I've gotten to see! Emotions are always an up and down kind of thing, but I have to say that overall, here I've felt much more "up" than "down," the only hard thing really being waking up for the first time in my own house and realizing that... yep... I'm here. That's your update! Enjoy it. The Holy Spirit has put something else on my heart to write....

      It involves another update that may interest some of you. I have a puppy!  Yep. You called it. The tie-dye toting, save-the-whatever-it-was-we-were-saving Eugene girl indeed found a Mexican puppy wandering the streets and took it in. Who likes to be all alone in a house? I'll put up a picture of him below. But the thing is... the little guy has got mange. I'm not joking. I just... I know that he's my puppy. I know that God is going to heal him. And honestly, 24 hours after finding him on the street, taking him to the vet, and praying over him like no other, almost all of his scabs have already fallen off. Take that, modern science! But the strange thing is... God was just ministering to me via this little fluff ball all morning. And the fruit of that is what I'm about to share. So buckle up... because (you guessed it!) I've got a lot to say. 

     I'm going to narrate the story from a slightly different perspective. Let's take this puppy as a metaphor, shall we? You and me--we are the mange-ridden mongrel on the side of the road. Just deal with it. You're itchy, hot, thirsty. Some random person promised you a life, and then threw you out onto the streets to die. Just a tiny baby in this world, you had no idea what to do. So you wandered around eating whatever you could shove in your mouth. You followed all the wrong dogs into all the wrong places, and did all the wrong things. Oh, sure, you didn't really hurt anything--you were too weak for that. But little by little, whether you were doing "big" things or just wandering aimlessly, you became filthier and filthier. Pretty soon, you were downright contagious. Disgusting. Gross. People didn't want to come anywhere near you. Other dogs literally bit you if you sought help--and you have the wound on your tail to prove it. At this point, we'll push pause.

     Enter that strange human being. That one that you just knew you wanted to be close to. But you dared not get too close--so many other people have thrown rocks in your face... How could this one be any different? Yet something inside of you allowed a tiny seed of hope to take root. You followed the strange human around, still keeping your distance. But little by little, even if you just sat at the person's feet... you knew you couldn't leave. Then comes the gnawing doubt: Why on earth would this person ever notice me? I'm filthy. I itch. I'm covered in disgusting sores. My fur is matted and I'm hungry. I have absolutely nothing to offer except my contagious, gross self. Who on earth would take me?

    Strangely enough, though, as a knife slicing through the doubt, a hand reached down and wrapped a warm towel around you. Suddenly you found yourself inside of a cardboard box, being carried by some unforseen strength to a place of healing--the Veterinarian's office. It hurt at first--you had to get an injection, a painful bath, you were wrenched from the only life you'd ever known. You were left isolated in a new place. But just as quickly as you thought it was all over, you found yourself asleep in the sunshine, sitting in the Master's Lap, as he risked his own skin (literally!) to clean you, hair by hair. You gasped as he searched every part of you, the places you thought you could "deal with on your own." You hadn't realized how bad things really were. But soon enough, you were so used to it that you just lay belly up, taking in the love and comfort. 

     That's the scene here. Now let's shift the focus. What on earth is up with this idiot human being? What kind of moronic American wanders the streets of Mexico looking for a puppy? Seriously--there are millions of free puppies all over the face of the earth. Who gives a rat's patoot about this stupid little dog wandering the road? Just let the dumb thing die already! There are plenty more where that came from! Doesn't that person realize--mange can be dangerous to humans! Whoa, nelly! Let the pup go on its way--sooner or later, it'll just get hit by a car or starve to death... if it doesn't get violently eaten by something bigger. If this person wants a puppy, just buy a cute one. For goodness' sake, this little flea-infested sack of buyer's remorse isn't worth the time and effort. 

     Right?

     Not if we're talking about God. I don't know if we really fully grasp the scandal of God's grace. Can you imagine the way the spiritual realm gasped when he decided from before the foundations of the earth to go in after us? Why not just start over--get a brand new earth, leave us idiot humans to ourselves, and keep everything nice and neat. Why get messy? 

     I can't even explain to you how much God spoke this to me through my puppy. Just as I declare a new, healthy, amazing future for the dog, God declares the same for you. You have no idea the kind of lottery you one when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. This puppy has no idea how passionate I am about dog training, and how much effort I'm going to put into its health and well-being. He has no idea the kinds of prayers being uttered over him has he sleeps. He doesn't see himself in the future like I do--bringing joy to children, chasing tennis balls, running with me every day, going with me everywhere. He has no idea how committed I am at this point. I made a decision. No one made me. No one held me at gunpoint and said "SAVE THE MANGE DOG." No one. It was my choice. And it will be my sacrifice. 

      In the same way, God has picked you up out of your old life. God has an unimaginably great future in store for you. Maybe right now you've only just been picked up off the street. You're still itchy and scabby, and you feel like you've made a terrible mistake. That's okay. Trust in the Master: you have no idea the blessings in store for you! Pretty soon, you may even see a picture of your old self. But I promise you you won't recognize the face in the photo. Because you are a new being in Christ. He has taken you up, in a scandalously idiotic act of grace, at great personal cost, risking much more than mange to bring you to his home. He didn't have to. He could have left you to die in the street and saved himself the money. But he has chosen you. He has chosen you to accompany him in this life. He has offered you an unimaginable adventure full of love, grace, joy, and the painful washings that must come beforehand. Will you take him up on the offer? Will you trust that he knows what he's doing? Or will you allow the fears, that used to gnaw at your mind just as the mange gnawed at your skin, to win? Will you choose to see all that Christ has for you? Or will you determine to see yourself as mange-infested refuse? 

Like I said, I'm pretty stoked about this puppy. He is healing up pretty stinking fast. God has great things in store for him--and his story! I just knew that I had to take him with me. He doesn't have a name yet. How do I begin to put a title on this little one? Not sure. But one thing I do know... 

My God is gracious!

"another fine bit of writing brought to you by yours truly"