Donkey's and Spaghetti?

The other day I was struggling with getting one of the children to promptly rise and take out the trash.  Apart, I can usually get one to respond fairly quickly.  However, put these two together and suddenly neither has the desire to get up and go and take care of the task.  Because there is someone else in the room that can possibly handle it, it becomes a competition to see who gets to bow out of the responsibility first.  This is an aggravating scene for me.  All I want is for whatever it is...done!  

I wonder how often God is saying, “Would somebody?”  Somebody go!  Somebody speak!  Somebody pray!  Somebody, please get up!  

Jonah had refused to go and warn the people of Nineveh, he refused to do what God had instructed him to do.

   Jonah 1:1-6

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me.” ³ However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, from the Lord’s presence. ⁴ Then the Lord hurled a violent wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break apart. ⁵ The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his god. They threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. Meanwhile, Jonah  had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel and had stretched out and fallen into a deep sleep.

Verse four reminds me of those times when all chaos is breaking out in the midst of our loving abode and I have sent one of the children to take care of a task and later find them sprawled out on my bed watching a television instead of doing as instructed.  They know Mom’s memory span is about as long as a fly’s life span these days and therefore, believe I will forget about it.  Yet, Mom doesn’t forget, she loses it!  Much like the stormy sea Jonah and friends experienced.  Thank the Lord; I am not their final judge!  I don’t like repeating myself!  I expect my children to do what I ask the first time.  It amazes me when my youngest says to me, “Why are you yelling?”  “Hmmmm...Could it be that this is the tenth time today I have had to ask you to pick up your socks?”  I figure there must be a language barrier or perhaps a hearing problem.  This child picks up the socks and then stashes anywhere but where they don't belong...errr.

"No comprende"

I always threaten to take the kids to the doctor so their ears can be irrigated.  Back to Jonah.

⁶ The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing sound asleep? Get up! Call to your god. Maybe this god will consider us, and we won’t perish.”

Can you imagine telling the Almighty, NO?  Much like a two year old in the middle of a grocery aisle, who has been told to get up, act like their legs are made of spaghetti and wiggle their way to the ground stubbornly kicking, and screaming as they refuse to obey.  

"I won't go I say, I won't!"

Jonah wasn't the only one with spaghetti legs.  Let’s take a look at Jeremiah for a moment.  He was afraid, hesitant to do as God instructed, yet God warns him that he better do as he is told or else!

Jeremiah 1:4-10, 17-19 

I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. ⁴ The word of the Lord came to me: ⁵ I chose you before I formed you in the womb; ⁶ But I protested, “Oh no, Lord, God! Look, I don’t know how to speak since I am only a youth.”

Jeremiah felt that he was incapable of doing the task at hand.

⁷ Then the Lord said to me: Do not say, “I am only a youth,” for you will go to everyone I send you to and speak whatever I tell you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of anyone, for I will be with you to deliver you.  This is the Lord’s declaration. ⁹ Then the Lord reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and told me: I have now filled your mouth with My words.  ¹⁰ See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.

He had a huge responsibility to face.  However, he had the GREAT AND MIGHTY JEHOVAH to answer to!

¹⁷ “Now, get ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them or I will cause you to cower before them. ¹⁸ Today, I am the One who has made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the population. ¹⁹ They will fight against you but never prevail over you, since I am with you to rescue you.”  This is the Lord’s declaration.

Another well known called to serve:  Gideon

Judges 6:11-16 ¹¹ The Angel of the Lord came, and He sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine vat in order to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

Gideon was not in any way, shape, or form living in the likeness of a mighty warrior.  He was a farmer and a fearful one at that, working and hiding out in the darkness.  Yet, God saw the mighty warrior within him.  He saw his potential.  He saw Gideon still working even in his weakness, in his fear, and in the dark parts of his life.  God saw the strength that would arise in him as he learned to trust in his heavenly Father.  

He saw Gideon’s tenacity and willingness to work even if it meant suffering to get the job done.  Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, which was done with great difficulty.  This wasn’t the normal process for threshing.  It was usually done on a hilltop in the open so the breeze could blow away the chaff.  However, because of his fear of the Midianites, he worked hard in the gloomy room of the winepress despite the consuming time to produce.  This is like trying to use a stubborn donkey to plow a football field size of crop, rather then use a modern John Deere farm tractor with a chisel plow.  

"I'm not budging!" 

Gideon’s plight to stay in hiding cost him much time, isolation, and hard labor.

¹³ Gideon said to Him, “Please Sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” ¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you?”

Do you see that?  God is saying, it is “I” the great “I AM” sending you!  How can anyone refute the great “I AM?”  It is “I” that has the power, strength, and purpose for which you are to GET UP AND GO!  

Yet Gideon responds in disbelief with:

¹⁵ He said to Him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” ¹⁶ “But I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”

The key sentence:  “I will be with you!” says the Lord…”THE GREAT I AM!” Gideon knew he was too weak to do this in his own strength, and was so untrusting of God at the time, that he had to ask for a sign from Him three times.

Judges 6:39 Gideon then said to God, “Don’t be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me to make one more test with the fleece. Let it remain dry, and the dew be all over the ground

How many times do you think God has asked you to complete a task and yet you fell asleep on the job, hid in the darkness, or grew spaghetti legs?

Oh, how this must frustrate our heavenly Father.  I believe he feels sorrow when we don’t realize our potential in him.  There are circumstances that could be changed more expediently if we would just get up and go!  If we would trust the God who sees the big picture, then we wouldn’t be so caught up at our present situations.  We allow relationships, work, past mistakes, pride, but mostly fear to keep us from taking the road less traveled.  God is calling you to a greater purpose. 

Romans 9:19-27 

You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?

Whew!  No back talk to God!

Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹ Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? ²² And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction? ²³ And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As He also says in Hosea:  I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. ²⁶ And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not My people, there they will be called sons of the living God.

Who are we to say that we are incapable of fulfilling God’s purpose?  The ONE, who created us before we were conceived in our mother’s womb, is the same God who has equipped us to carry out the plan he has for us.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And there it is!  He has provided the ultimate handbook for life!  It contains every bit of instruction to equip us and serve in his purpose.  And what does that calling look like?

Mark 16:15 Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.

This doesn’t mean that everyone is called to travel overseas to preach the gospel.  There are so many different avenues of spreading the gospel, whether it be in your very on backyard, across town, or over the waves of the Internet.  He just says, GO!  God tells us to be attentive to our calling.  He asked us to be certain of the area we are called to serve.  God also states, that we are to make every possible effort to learn of His ways.  We are to gain faith through goodness with knowledge, which is where we grow up and GO in faith, in His strength, in His purpose.

2 Peter 1:5-10 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, ⁶ knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, ⁷ godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.

Jehovah asks us to present ourselves before Him as a living sacrifice to be used by Him.

Romans 12:1-21 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Every time I hear this verse, I am reminded of my former days in a certain legalistic religion that focused mainly on the outer appearance as a standard for living life sacrificially for God.  

However, I've learned that if we are renewing our mind through His word, then our inner will grow into the desires of what is pleasing to God on the outside.  We begin to think twice before wearing clothing that exposes a part of ourselves that would bring attention or cause someone to lust or perhaps commit adultery. 

Our inner parts of Godliness would begin to ooze on the outside.  We begin to watch what we say, keeping our conversations clean.  Our choices would be based on the knowledge of what is pleasing to God as we grow in His word conforming to Christ ways instead of this world.  We all have a role to play.

Ephesians 1:11 We have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will,

Yet, we all have different roles and stages to play in this great-orchestrated master plan.

Many Gifts but One Body

³ For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. ⁴ Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, ⁵ in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. ⁶ According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the standard of one’s faith;⁷ if service, in service; if teaching, in teaching; ⁸ if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

Whatever God has called you to do, DO!  I can hear the question already in many minds.  How do you know what God has called you to do?  Where am I supposed to serve?  First, as mentioned earlier, God says to gain knowledge.  It is through that knowledge that you gain faith to move.  It gives you the desire to want to get up and GO!  Second, His will is made known to those that are seeking Him.  If you are truly seeking Him, He promises to give you an answer.

Matthew 7:7 “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

He doesn’t say that he might open the door to you.  He says, IT WILL be opened!  Our God is not a God of maybe’s…what he says, He’ll do if it is according to HIS plan…and HE does!

Numbers 23:19 ¹⁹ God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?

What I have discovered over the years is that if there is something that screams volumes in your spirit, wakes you often in the middle of the night, disrupts your plans, and is on your mind morning, noon, and night.  Then chances are it is an area God has chosen you to work in for His glory.  Look closely at the gifts God has given you.  If you desire to be a singer, and you consistently sound like a werewolf in heat, that ain’t it!   Yet, if it is a calling, much like Gideon an uncertain area due to fear, but you feel passionate about then gain knowledge, instruction, and move forward.  

Gideon lacked the knowledge of the power of God since He was originally raised in worshiping a Baal god.  He had to learn. 

Sometimes we become paralyzed to move forward because we are waiting on a sign.  We could rot in our old age before realizing that we missed the road and fell into the ditch eternally missing out on what greatness God had planned for us.  We can spend a life in much regret as Robert Frost points out in his infamous poem:

The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost

Must we waste our days waiting on a sign?

Matthew 12:39 But He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

God is pleading, “SOMEBODY?”  Are you the SOMEBODY in the room filled with complacent bodies?  Has God called you to take up a cross that others refuse to bear?  Is He shouting SOMEBODY, please take out the trash?  Is he calling you to speak boldly, taking a stand against some of societies immoralities?  

Seek him with all your heart, mind, and soul.  Read and listen to His word.  Gain the knowledge that is revealed to you through His Holy Spirit, and then walk confidently in the footprints of His character, knowing He has already provided the John Deere to do the job more efficiently then you or I could ever on our own.  

Jesus Christ, full of power and strength is more then able to work through and in your weakness!  So next time your sitting in the still of the night and you hear the call, “SOMEBODY, arise and say, “Yes, Lord…here I am. I’m willing to go.

He isn’t asking for the strongest, smartest, tallest, boldest, richest, healthiest, sinless, fastest…He is asking for SOMEBODY to please take the initiative and go!

Strong’s Greek Lexicon meaning (Somebody):  tis tis: some or any person or object

Are we going to refuse God’s calling in our life?

There are several definitions of the word refuse, but the one most interesting to me was the one I found in the Strong’s Greek Lexicon

skubalon skoo'-bal-on -what is thrown to the dogs, i.e. dung.

This definition spoke volumes to me.  “Thrown to the dogs?”  “Dung?” Again, Whew!  Is our calling, scraps to be thrown to the dogs?  Is that how little worth we believe God’s purpose is?  Dung?  I certainly, hope not.

Don’t allow your insecurities, thoughts of inability, or fear keep you from being that SOMEBODY to take the lead.  If God can use a donkey to complete his plans…what makes you think...He can’t use you?  (Numbers 22:21-39) 

Be that SOMEBODY when nobody is stepping up to the plate.  Trade your spaghetti legs in for fearless feet.  

The feet that God created to walk for miles in His shoes.

Listen to "Where You Go" video below:

Brenda A. Graff
Founder
FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE