So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” [Matthew 28:19 (NCV)]
Dorian has departed and we Floridians are taking down hurricane shutters and removing plywood from our windows. Some people avoided that task by having high-impact windows and doors that combine specially glazed impact-resistant glass with heavy duty frames that keep the glass from breaking away from its frame; while the glass may crack from a direct hit, it will not break. In theory, when a home or business has such glass installed, no additional shutters, screens, or plywood are necessary to protect it from the ravages of a hurricane.
A friend recently sent me a meme with the words, “Do you believe in your own product?” It showed a business near West Palm Beach; the sign above the door said it sold “Impact Windows & Doors!” Since all of its windows were covered with plywood, the picture wasn’t a good testimony to the business owner’s confidence in his own product. Any potential customer seeing the plywood covering the glass might question the truth of his claims about its ability to weather a storm.
I suspect I know why there was plywood over those windows. I know of people whose supposedly impact-resistant window frames were bowed by Hurricane Irma’s forceful winds. While their windows remained intact (as promised), the rain blew in through gaps in the twisted frames. It could be that, while he touts the benefits of his product, the business owner knows that it’s not 100% trustworthy. When facing the likes of Dorian, complete faith in his windows failed.
Having been instructed to make disciples, we share the gospel message in the hope that people will want to have Jesus in their lives. In effect, our Christian witness is a little like selling a product. The meme and the question it posed made me wonder if our lives truly support our faith in the effectiveness of our product. Do we act as if we believe in Him and His promises? We say we trust God completely and yet, just in case He doesn’t come through, we tend to worry, fret, and fuss which isn’t much different than putting up plywood over the glass we claim to be impact resistant. Either we believe, trust, and place our lives in God’s hands or we don’t! If we truly trust Him, we must depend on Him in more than just the sunshine, summer showers and gentle winds we encounter. We must have faith in the thunderstorms, blizzards, tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes of life, as well!
It’s been said that people can tell the size of our God by the length of our worry list: the shorter the list, the greater our God. When life’s storms are brewing, do we worry or pray? Do we put our faith in God or ourselves? Unlike the not-so-confident business owner, we can be confident in our God; He is 100% effective and trustworthy. But, when we worry, we’re a poor witness for our product. It’s not enough to speak of our impact-resistant God; we must live as if we truly believe that He can still any storm.
The great act of faith is when man decides that he is not God. [Oliver Wendell Holmes]
The thing I’ll miss most when we move to southwest Florida permanently is easy access to my grandchildren. This summer I’ve relished watching the little guys frolic in the sprinkler, race their scooters down the sidewalk, climb the monkey bars, decorate the driveway with colored chalk, and play bags with their cousins. They insisted on helping in the kitchen, offered to set the table, listened intently to every story read to them, and never tired of endless games of Crazy-Eights and Kings’ Corners. Their squeals of delight at the holiday fireworks and when they mastered riding the Irish Mail (where they pumped with their arms and steered with their feet) were music to my ears. They asked endless questions and pondered every answer. Wanting to please us, they even were obedient. Seeing their unbridled enthusiasm, energy, and desire both to learn and please, I wondered why I wasn’t like that. After all, God wants us to be like children.
Not so long ago, it was hard to face my computer with any enthusiasm. Every beginning led to a dead end or took me down a rabbit hole of confusion. The paragraphs over which I’d struggled had come to nothing and my hours at the keyboard seemed an exercise in futility. It’s as if I had little scraps of useless fabric but couldn’t find a way to quilt them together. I wondered where God was when I so desperately needed His guidance.
During the days of Elijah and Elisha, there were several schools or companies of prophets in Israel. Probably some of the 7,000 Israelites who remained faithful to Jehovah, they were the prophets’ disciples, maybe something like an ancient version of the Knights of Columbus. Although they gathered for fellowship and study, had a spiritual calling, and were under the prophets’ guidance, they carried on their ordinary work and family lives.
Once a pampered prince, forty years later, Moses was living as a Midianite shepherd. When speaking to him from the burning bush, God laid out His plan for freeing the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and the pivotal role Moses would play in it. Protesting, Moses made excuse after excuse but God countered every excuse with a solution. Provided with a shepherd’s staff and Aaron as his mouthpiece, Moses reluctantly accepted God’s charge. Before approaching Pharaoh, however, he first met with Israel’s elders to convince them that he was on a mission from God.
Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise. [Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NLT)]
