Interrupting Jesus' Crucifixion

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 13:7-14

When I was in college, I was part of a drama ministry team called Love Company. We travelled around to various churches, schools, prisons, and any other places that would have us, presenting the Gospel through drama and theater. One of the skits we did was a very powerful reenactment of Jesus ' crucifixion in which Jesus literally takes someone's place on the cross and then, once he has risen, offers forgiveness to his executioner. There was one particular performance where I, as one of the guards escorting Jesus to the cross, had just exited the stage, and it occurred to me that I did not remember anyone grabbing a necessary prop for the next segment of the skit. I was off-stage and would have had to make my way back onstage in full sight of everyone, disrupting the skit in order to, ostensibly, "save" the skit. I had my hand on the door, ready to move but finally decided to wait and see what happened. After all, I was a newbie. We had people in the group and onstage who had been doing this for several years. So I waited and listened. No one had forgotten that key prop. I just hadn't seen the person grab it. But if I had let my uncertainty reign and my impatience rule me and tried to take care of things myself, I would likely have ruined the moment and hindered what the Holy Spirit was doing.

In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul was waiting on the eve of a massive battle. He had been wanting for Samuel to arrive to seek the Lord's blessing with a sacrifice. But as the window for Samuel's arrival drew to a close, Saul noticed his men getting restless and slipping away, and he grew impatient. Time was almost up and Samuel hadn't arrived yet. So Saul took it upon himself to do what only the anointed priest should do, and Saul offered the sacrifice himself. But just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering Samuel arrived (1 Samuel 17:10, NLT). When Samuel realized that Saul had taken it upon himself to offer the burnt offering, rather than waiting for him,  Samuel told him, "But now your kingdom must end...because you have not kept the Lord's command" (1 Samuel 13:14, NLT). The sad thing is, if Saul had only waited a few more hours, everything would have been fine. After all, Samuel arrived just as he was finishing the sacrifice. But Saul allowed his uncertainty and impatience to rule him, and he was unable to trust either God to honor him for his obedience or Samuel to show up when he was supposed to. As a result, he lost the blessing of God and, ultimately, his kingdom.

How often do we suffer the same fate that Saul did? How often is time running short and we allow our impatience to prod us into acting before it is time? How often do was see people not acting when we think they should and assume they are not going to do what is right or to keep their word? How often do we allow our fear and uncertainty to prompt us to take action when, if we just trusted God a little longer, we would be able to see that God has taken care of everything, that all of the props are where they are supposed to be? How often do we assume that, because we haven't seen what God is doing in the people around us, that God is not doing anything in those people at all? How often do we allow our uncertainty and our fear to prompt us to take action instead of trusting God and waiting just a little bit longer?

Impatience, when it is born of fear and uncertainty, is a signal that we do not really trust God. But God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV). If we want the blessing of God on our lives rather than the judgment of God, we must resist the urge to act like Saul. We must exercise self-control, power, and love and not allow our fear and impatience to drive us to sin.

When Moses Killed a Resurrected Fly

Suggested Reading: Exodus 18:9-26 (or read the whole story here)

When I was in college, I was part of a drama ministry group that did a skit called "The Fly Skit." It started off with a guy on stage who is minding his own business, reading a magazine, when a fly starts buzzing around and annoying him. After swatting the fly away several times, he reaches out in anger and catches the fly in his hand. Amazed by his luck, he shakes his hand and can hear the fly buzzing inside. Quickly, he is joined on stage by another person who suggests they play catch with the fly. They proceed to throw the fly back and forth between each other, accompanied with the appropriate buzzing as the fly travels from one person's hand to the other's until, finally, having been thrown around so much, the fly ends up on the ground, seemingly dead. In desperation, the two begin applying CPR to the dead fly and manage to bring him back to life. They begin jumping around and celebrating and then, these two people who have been so good with the fly that they could toss it back and forth, catching it without any difficulty at all, high five each other. As their hands meet, the buzzing of the newly resurrected fly abruptly stops. These expert fly handlers accidentally kill their beloved fly. (Add the tagline, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," and you have yourself a nice ice-breaker skit for Christian venues.)

In Exodus 18, we have an interesting account where Moses' father-in-law, Jethro travels into the wilderness to visit Moses and bring Moses' wife and children to him. When Jethro arrives, he hears all about the incredible miracles God has done through Moses. He hears about the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's army at God's hands, all through Moses. Jethro is duly impressed by all of this news and  praises God for all that has occurred. But the next day, Moses sits down to judge the people, who have formed a line so long that many of them wait from morning until evening to have their cases heard. Suddenly, Jethro, this man who was so impressed with all of the things Moses had done in freeing the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, becomes critical of Moses and says. "What you are doing is not good. You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because this task is too heavy for you. You can't do it alone" (Exodus 18:17-18, HCSB). Jethro then suggests a plan that will help Moses accomplish the task without wearing out both himself and the people.

Sometimes, when we are flush with the success of some major venture, we can easily begin to think that we have it all together, or that we are successful at other unrelated things as well. Having led a successful business, we think we are experts on management. Having succeeded in an acting career, we think we are experts at politics. Having successfully started a camp fire we begin thinking we know everything about pyrotechnics. And inevitably, reality hits us in the face in a way that reminds us that being successful in one or more areas doesn't mean we know everything. For Moses, that day was the day his father-in-law came to visit and saw him judging the people's cases in a very counterproductive way and called him out.

In that moment, when someone calls us on our bad strategy, our hubris, or simply the overestimation of our own skills, we have a choice to make. We can, like some people, insist that we know what we are doing and continue to bluff our way through until we end up in total failure; we can realize the truth of the warning but refuse to change because our pride refuses to let us back down; or we can choose to accept good council and change our approach like Moses, who "listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said" (Exodus 18:24, HCSB). We have the ability to recognize that good advice can come from unexpected places and that we are never so big and knowledgeable that we will never make mistakes.

When you accidentally kill the fly you have just resurrected, when your moment of success is quickly followed by a false-step, how will you react? Will your pride keep you from changing course? Will you decide that you don't have to listen to someone who doesn't have as much experience as you? Or will you demonstrate wisdom by following the sensible course, no matter who happens to present it? The fact that you've succeeded doesn't mean you can't also fail.

Politicians, Eunuchs, and Journeys

Suggested Reading: Acts 8:26-40

When I was in college I discovered I had a gift for languages. I could already speak Spanish, but I studied Hebrew and Greek as well, discovered that I could decipher written Portuguese and took a couple semesters of French and German. Because of my newfound love of languages I began researching post-grad degrees and, through a time of prayer and decision making, decided that I should go to Oxford to study linguistics. Instead of graduating in December like I would have otherwise, I decided to graduate the following May to avoid some complications that would have arisen from waiting the 8 months between December and August to start grad school. Because I was going to stick around for a full year instead of just a semester I continued being active in Love Company, the university's drama ministry group. Being part of Love Company that year is how I met my wife. But because I met my wife, I did not end up going to Oxford. To this day, I feel strongly that God wanted me headed to Oxford if for no other reason than so that I would stick around another year in order to meet my wife.

I was reminded of that experience a while back when someone made a comment about God being wrong when God told a particular politician to run for president because the run had been unsuccessful. The commenter assumed that when God tells a person to do something the only point is accomplishing the task itself.

In Acts 8 an angel of the Lord told Philip to go to a particular road going from Jerusalem to Gaza. Acts 8:27 says, "So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch" (NIV).  Upon meeting this eunuch, Philip was able to share the Gospel with him and baptize him, and then Philip was transported away by the Spirit of the Lord, never actually reaching his destination.  Now, God definitely told Philip to go to a particular destination, but the destination was never the point of the trip. Sometimes, God leads us in a particular direction because there is something we need to learn or experience or something we need to do along the way but God is never really concerned with the destination.

I cannot speak to whether or not God told that politician to run for president, but I can say, based on scripture and on my own experience, that sometimes the point is the journey, not the destination Now, if the man had said, "God told me I would be president," we'd know he was a liar. But just the fact that a venture is "unsuccessful" does not mean God didn't speak or that God was wrong.

If you thought that God had called you to do something you never managed to accomplish, don't assume that you heard God wrong, look back and see if there was something else that happened along the way. I would never have met my wife if I hadn't been preparing for Oxford. Philip would never had led the eunuch to Jesus if he hadn't headed down the road toward Gaza. And there is no telling what you will experience along the path God has called you to follow.

God very often calls us to journeys, not just to destinations.