i fully believe the Lord is talking to us, one way or another, all the time. Sometimes it’s in whispers and dreams, maybe a few resonant words in the middle of a conversation or a song lyric…. other times loud and clear, that is, if we’ve got our ear to the ground and are interested in what He’s got to say.
John 16:13, “But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said.”
If we are interested in the Lord, He will guide our way. His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
This discussion this evening is concerning another four little wisdoms which the Lord has given to me, wisdom gleaned through blood, sweat, and tears…
Without wisdom, we are dead in the water, just wild beasts standing in the wind and rain, knowing we are wet and cold, but not knowing what to do about it. i had some cattle many years ago, and i can remember looking out the kitchen window one morning through a downpour of snow and sleet and seeing some of the cattle standing up on a hillside, their backs to the wind, with what looked to me like misery on their faces, and snow and ice stuck to their backs. Don’t worry, cattle are usually pretty good outside down to about -30 below zero, and that morning it was 10 degrees above, nevertheless, cold and wet is cold and wet no matter how you cut it. While watching them in the moment i had to chuckle to myself thinking how they looked like people without wisdom or understanding, in that the look on their faces seemed to say they were cold, wet, and miserable, but really had no idea what to do about it. i imagined one looking at the other and remarking, “Boy it sure is cold and wet!” and the other saying back, “Yea, it sure is…i’m very unhappy, but i don’t know what to do….gosh, it’s really cold and wet.” …then letting out a pitiful moan or two with the conversation just going round and round as they rolled their large soft, wet eyes at each other, lost in their circular thinking. Similarly, without wisdom and understanding, we too, tend to just sit in our unhappy places, wonder how we got there, but don’t know what to do about it. Sounds like it’s prime time to ask the Lord for wisdom and understanding wouldn’t you say?
- “Never contend with a contentious man. Let him go his way.”
The first little wisdom of this evening was born out of a few long-running difficult situations of my own, similar to what the New Testament Christians found themselves in during the time of Roman occupation when the religious people of the world were being confronted by the presence of the Savior of mankind.
Jesus was active in His ministry and it was obvious just by His presence in the room, He tended to make the room feel pressed to choose if they were on God’s side, or their own side. Many loved Him, many just liked Him, and many hated Him with unfounded and profound anger that they couldn’t seem to explain other than He prevented them from making a profit or breaking their traditions. The old church paradigm was shifting, a Savior had been born, and as can be read throughout the four gospels, people were hungry for what Jesus had but yet they were very uncomfortable with what He represented.
Matt 26 gives an account where Jesus has been dragged before the chief priests, elders, and all the council was just looking for something to accuse Him of, even if it wasn’t true so they could justify putting Him to death. In all their searching, they found no one at first who would say lies about the Lord. Eventually, two came forward to testify against Jesus, and it was all the chief priest needed. The leadership invented stuff when they could find no fault. They were a contentious lot….how dare anyone disrupt their personal agendas and religious system!
When they questioned Jesus, the Lord answered not a word, even when the high priest demanded an answer, declaring Jesus was under oath by the living God, spitting and raging. When Jesus did speak, it was all the high priest needed and the council declared Jesus deserving of death. Then they spat in His face and beat Him, striking Him with their open hands, taunting and ridiculing Him, yet He answered not a word.
In Matt 17, when Pilate, a contentious man in his own right, was troubled in his heart about Jesus, made his own inquiry. Matthew 27:13-14, “Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” But He answered him not one word so that the governor marveled greatly.”
When in the middle of my own dealings with difficult people, the Lord has spoken to me, “Do not go to the mat and wrestle with this person. Do not contend with a contentious man, just let him go his way.” And you’ve gotta understand, this doesn’t mean someone who merely challenges our thinking or doctrine, but someone who is consistently contrary, always has a beef about something, and spares no efforts to make sure you know they’re contrary. Someone who controls the conversation and even when what you’re saying makes sense, they naturally take the counterpoint. Contrary i tell ya, just contrary, as if they just neeeeed the conflict.
When we are accused, it is hard to not reply, but remember, just because we are accused doesn’t mean we must defend ourselves. Jesus did not have a defense because He did not carry an offense, He held no toxic waste in His heart towards anyone. For me, when i have employed this wisdom of the Lord, it was a hard-won wisdom…i carried many offenses so it was hard to not make a reply. Proverbs 26:21, “As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife.” Friends, do not contend with a contentious man…let him go his way.
2. “We want a foreseeable, calculated outcome and a predictable crisis, but that’s not the nature of faith.”
Most of life is not lived in crisis, which is a good thing….but crisis does have something to say for itself: In a time of crisis, everything, absolutely everything is important and significant. Every little word has impact, every raindrop, every short breath, every anxious moment…. it all is important and significant. i don’t believe anyone, anywhere, anytime looks forward to, nor asks for a crisis of faith in their lives, but i have an observation about that… it seems to me, a crisis in our lives, as navigated by the Lord only serves to refine us and make us better. But as for the world…at this very moment in time, they are in crisis with no clue how to curb it all.
i worked for a large manufacturing company in the late 1980s and 90s. During those years i saw many ideas rise and fall, but one thing stood out among others, management was always and forever working to predict profit, loss, and failure….it’s called risk management, which is calculated in an effort to try to prevent financial ruin. Nevertheless, those on the manufacturing floor were continually driven, by management, as if there was a constant crisis and jobs were at stake.
But faith simply doesn’t work like that. Within myself, i find i am more than willing to take a chance on God when i can somewhat see the possibilities of what might go wrong, but exercising confidence and hope in Jesus doesn’t work that way. i find that if i could accurately gauge what my losses would be, the more willing i am to step out on the water like Peter did in Matt 14:29. i believe most people, who would rather “play it safe”, are so worried they might get it wrong, might be seen as foolish or stupid, or judged harshly by others, so much so that they never move out into God’s destiny for them. Always playing it safe is a fear-filled lifestyle.
Most believers really do have something to say, but very few of them actually get around to saying it. It is safe to remain quiet, and risky to voice what’s on your heart. Faith rarely, if ever, provides an avenue to calculate the outcome in order to measure the failure potential. With God in your picture, all bets are off as to a predictable outcome, other than He will accomplish His purposes, and we don’t necessarily know them. i think what we find so difficult to believe is that with the Lord, even if you get it wrong or sound foolish, He is with you and makes all things work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. With the Lord, there is no percentage of failure to calculate, and we must be willing to trust God and take a chance which, somehow, usually looks like a longshot. Yet, if we don’t take a chance and step out on the water, the longer we “play it safe” waiting for a calculatable outcome and a predictable crisis, the more we increase towards becoming despondent and disheartened, which is what Dr. Martin Luther King called the “fatigue of despair”.
Faith does not work within the box of a worldly business model where we play it safe and minimize our crisis potential. A crisis of faith is necessary for making faith a surety for us. 2Cor12:9″My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Most, especially when we are not allowed a measurable outcome, nor a predictable crisis, believe that in God’s strength, we are more than conquerors, for God has a way of wringing good out of our most uncomfortable circumstances. It’s time to walk on water friends!
3. “Convenience short circuits conflict, which seems good, but convenience never produces character.” Dealing with our internal conflicts may seem inconvenient and uncomfortable, but not dealing with them solves a grand total of zero challenges and it is increasingly hard on our mental and physical health.
Convenience is about saving someone time, effort, resources, frustration, or maybe even responsibility…it also short-circuits obedience and spiritual growth too.
Having heated with wood for years, i’ll be the first to say going out, cutting wood, splitting wood, stacking wood, bringing it into the house as needed, only to have the heat level spike and then taper, over time, back to being chilly again, is really inconvenient, especially if you’re like me and you can always think of something else you’d rather do. Having an armload of firewood, walking in the snow to only fall down and get snow all down your boots is very inconvenient, especially when you’re thinking of all the other places you’d rather be. Or having to go get wood from the woodshed when the wind chill is below zero and the wind is howling, is very inconvenient, especially if you’ve got a heart full of “don’t want to”….and maybe all that hard work it’s pretty fun when you’re young, but i’m here to tell you, when you get older, i’ve become addicted to having a little thermostat on the wall that raises and lowers the temperature with just the smallest movement of a lever, i see that as a wonderful convenience.
It is also important to point out that in all those years of cutting and splitting firewood, i learned some very Godly character traits. i learned responsibility, endurance, and how to persevere. The Lord spoke to me a great deal in the deep woods when my muscles ached from strain, and sweat was running off my nose. When a tree would fall down the hill, i would have to cut and carry it back up the hill, armload at a time, stack it on the trailer, then go back down the hill to carry more up….. over and over. i learned sheer persistence in the face of exhaustion, and soon approaching cold, and bad weather.
Without learning to persevere, which is a Godly character-building exercise, i would never have made it through college or had the character to pursue resolve in any conflicts. On a larger scale of today’s world, sure, it would be convenient to say the government will resolve our conflicts with the wrongdoing of others, but it takes character and courage to not let the convenience of “letting someone else take care of the problem” sidetrack us from dealing with our own personal difficulties.
A man told me recently the reason he had a DUI on his record was because the breathalyzer failed….and he was serious. Maybe i shouldn’t have, but i had to laugh a little at his belief that it wasn’t his fault that he was driving drunk, it was the breathalyzer that lied. It was convenient to blame the device, and very inconvenient to be responsible for his actions. Convenience was looking to short-circuit his character. It is inconvenient to stand your ground when being wrongfully accused….it’s scary and uncomfortable. Convenience says to just say, “Whatever” and walk away, which may seem good in the moment, but tomorrow the bias has been set and we have to live with our not being firm…all because we avoided the conflict in the moment. Justice isn’t convenient…oh let me tell you, it is SOOO inconvenient. Doing justice on behalf of someone else is very costly and uncomfortable. It may be convenient to avoid getting involved, but where is the courage, where is the strength, where is the heart it takes to chase after the poor and support the beaten down?
i was having trouble writing a script and for several days the Lord would wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me, “If you’ll get up now, I’ll give you the whole thing in one sitting.” i put it off because it was inconvenient to get up. i was convicted by the third day and asked the Lord to forgive me and to try me again. In the middle of that same afternoon, when i was in the middle of a rare break in the day, the Lord came to me again saying, “If you’ll come away with me now, right now, I’ll give you the entire script in one sitting.” Wouldn’t you know it, on the instant, i momentarily found myself reasoning that … i was in the middle of a break and that i’d come aside with Him in a minute… Suddenly i started laughing at myself, thinking, “Yea, as long as it’s convenient for me, i’m willing to be inconvenienced.” i got up, went aside with the Lord, and in fact, He gave me the entire script in one sitting. Amazing! i almost talked myself out of it because it was inconvenient.
Conflict plus commitment equals change….. and to avoid it all because “we don’t want to get involved” is not the heart of the Lord. There is a conflict between a wax floor and the buffing pad of a floor polisher, but as the polisher does its job, the floor is made bright. Convenience short circuits conflict, which seems good maybe, but convenience never produces Godly character.
4. Here is wisdom: “A one-way street only runs just so far.”
And yes, i’m talking about the self-centered, self-focused, individualism-focused church…where it’s all about me…. yes, me, me, me.
When people become believers they don’t, at the same moment, become nice. For many, i think this comes as a surprise. Coming to Christ doesn’t automatically provide someone with good manners and suitable morals. The people of Corinth, evidently, had a reputation for being unruly, hard-drinking, and promiscuous. Paul spent a year and a half going over the “good news” in detail. Sometime later Paul got a report that things had somewhat fallen apart, with morals in disrepair, and worship had degenerated into, what i call, a selfish grabbing for the supernatural. Paul knew that if they continued in their self-absorbed behavior, the church would hit a dead-end street…because…. a one-way street only runs just so far before it either ends or becomes a two-way street.
Galatians5:19-20, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,”, etc, etc. Selfishness, or a “one-way street” is listed among those things considered as “works of the flesh”.
The world and all it entails is destined to come to an end, so i suppose you could say, the way of the world and the flesh, will come to nothing in the end.
Romans 11:7-8, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she did not succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result, received his stamp of legitimacy. The “self-interest Israel” became thick-skinned toward God. Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God allowed their eyes to become dim, their ears to be dulled, and allowed them to shut themselves away in a room full of mirrors…i believe they’re there to this day.” You know….in a room full of mirrors, all you can see is yourself.
Let us serve the Lord with eyes to see beyond ourselves, to hear more than our own voices, and to live for more than just our own self-promotion. If we think we are the absolute only ones who can do what God has called us to do, and if we don’t do it, it simply won’t get done, friends, think again. If the Lord wants something accomplished, we can rest assured He will make it so, and if we refuse or fail, the Lord will find a way to bring about His purposes for His glory. Pride and arrogance will close our eyes to see only what we want to see, will deafen our ears to hear only what we want to hear, and will turn the song in our mouth into the braying of a donkey. i have heard the bray of a jackass from my own mouth on more than a few occasions. Hear this wisdom: A one-way street only runs just so far. Think about it.
i love this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, “Life has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.”
Aren’t those beautiful words? i have read them often and pondered Dr. King’s use of contrasts like drought and flood, soothing warm and piercing chill, and fatigue of despair and buoyancy of hope. i find the Lord uses contrasts to help us understand what He is saying, and it’s not that He isn’t speaking, it’s us who aren’t hearing, it’s not that God isn’t giving us a vision, it’s us who aren’t seeing. Believe me, if the Lord wants you to know something, He is entirely capable of getting your attention and making Himself very plain, but i believe He wants us to be interested enough in what He’s got to say that we pursue Him. You know, God loves to be wanted just like we do… He is the beautiful lover of our souls.
i’m Social Porter and this program has sprung to life near the cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.
Four little wisdoms: Never contend with a contentious man, let him go his way; We want a foreseeable, calculated outcome, and a predictable crisis, but that’s not the nature of faith; Convenience short circuits conflict, which seems good, but convenience never produces character; And the last one i gleaned from a life of being on my knees with bleeding knuckles …. a one-way street only runs just so far.
Consider these four wisdoms as you go your way this week. Let yourself laugh and sing….it will serve to lift your heart to redefine joy for you. Be strong and courageous, and i’ll hopefully, talk to you next time. Amen!