I suppose it is the excitement of challenges from the pulpit that make it all so enticing, leading us to eagerly buy the next book that gets published by that author or to download the latest podcast. There is the excitement of being chosen by God for an incredible task – together with the promise of an amazing prize – but if only we will obey Him. I suppose this gives us the motivation to listen to challenges and pep-talks from our favourite spiritual coaches: because we will then be more inclined to obey God when He calls us to our next grand spiritual assignment.
Considering that a lot of Christians are, let’s face it, neurotic and prone to fantasy – I don’t believe that these kinds of challenges to do the impossible, empowered by God, is such a good idea. For goodness sake, a lot of Christians struggle to get along with the things of everyday life – never mind becoming the next Noah or the next Moses!
Christians have hidden behind the excuse of pointing at, and identifying with, seemingly weak people in the Bible who were superly-anointed. The will point towards Gideon who said, “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.“ (Judges 6:15). We can also feel inspired by King David who was just a shepherd boy when he defeated the Philistine giant Goliath. John the Baptist can make us feel comfortable in the fact that we was a social outcast, but was greatly favoured of God and “used” by Him.
All of these inspiring Biblical stories are wonderful and they have their place when it comes to our everyday lives. It is true that God can take a weak person and do incredible things in his or her life. Apostle Paul wrote about God’s encouraging words to him in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
I feel that we cannot look to our weakness and struggle in life as a sign that God has some way-out, spectacular, world-changing divine assignment for us here on earth. This might seem to be a major disappointment for some, but it is the truth. Neither can we look upon an unappealing personality as being evidence that we, just like John the Baptist, have been chosen to do great things for God. Christians often say that they are not of this world; I get what they mean in that they want to separate themselves from the selfishness and unpleasantness that we see in this world. But at the same time, we must not look to this as a cliché which excuses a holier-than-thou attitude or as a validation for an unappealing personality.
I know what it’s like when you feel upset, hurt, bitter, down-trodden and desperate. But the path to hope is to be found in Jesus, not in what we do for Him and not in clinging desperately to extravagant ideals. The inspiring stories that we hear preached in church a lot of the time do not give us hope – they just stir-up the unrealistic expectations that desperate Christians have. The inevitable result of this is always going to be disappointment, as they realise it is just not going to happen.
0 comments:
Post a Comment