I’ll be honest. There’s not much that scares me.
Ok. Maybe I better say that a little differently.
There’s not much that I won’t pretend not to be scared about just so I can appear to be extremely independent.
That’s the whole truth.
I can do spiders, snakes, scorpions, mice, and all manner of bugs and other icky stuff. I can even handle staying alone at night in a house full of windows. Independence comes at a high price, but this gal thinks it’s worth it.
But occasionally. Just occasionally. I’ll ask Brad to come to my rescue. Like the other night when I was having a deep and meaningful phone conversation with my dearest friend, and while talking I used my big toe to straighten the rug in front of the kitchen sink. The minute I moved the rug, a large… and I mean large… garden spider popped out. I might have jumped.
Now I’ve killed a fair number of spiders in my day, and I even had a pet tarantula in my classroom years ago when I taught third grade, but when I’m on the phone with the BFF, I don’t have time to chase a big garden spider. So I did what any reasonable woman would do. Called on my knight in shining armor to rescue me. He begrudgingly came into the kitchen, grabbed a paper towel, reached under the edge of the counter, came up with the paper towel crumpled in his hand, and then tossed it in the trash can. With a slightly annoyed look, he returned to the living room.
Rescued. Thank you, honey.
Except just one small problem.
He.Faked.The.Whole.Thing.
And so the garden spider made her appearance yesterday while I was in the process of making TWO, yes, TWO delicious, nutritious meals for my family. Seriously.
I had to abandon the whole dump the contents into the crock pot process so I could chase down the spider since my knight in shining armor had failed me. After promptly and legitimately ridding my kitchen of the pesky spider, I texted Brad.
Can you believe he had the audacity to deny it? Of course that immediately led me to search the trash can, finding the crumpled paper towel WITHOUT A SPIDER IN IT! And then he suggested I might have found the crumpled paper towel.
Now, I’m out of space here to tell you the REST of the story, but let me just say this. This is NOT the first case of an empty paper towel. No, that actually occurred about 10 years ago and that paper towel was supposed to have a huge water bug in it. Yes, that’s a story worth telling, too, but we’ll leave it for another day.
But all this got me to thinking…
We like the idea of a knight in shining armor. A sure thing. A guaranteed outcome. A rescuer. No risk or low risk. Little energy and effort on our part. Just a quick plea… or dare we say prayer?… for God to come in and save us. For God to make this world a better place. For God to fix what’s wrong in our lives. For God to restore broken relationships. For God to… For God to… For God to… You fill in the blank.
The problem is NOT that God isn’t able. He is and will always be. (Luke 1:37)
The problem is that God has called us… you and me.. to be His hands and feet… to be His messengers of love and hope and grace and compassion… and we sit back waiting… doubting…fearing… what if-ing… because we don’t think we have what it takes to do God’s work.
But that’s where we’re wrong. Just as God told Gideon, “Go in the strength that you have and save Israel from Midian. AM I NOT SENDING YOU?” (Judges 6:14)
Ok. The all caps, bold, and underline are all mine, but seriously, this verse spoke VOLUMES to me! It’s so easy to come up with all the reasons… logical and self-imposed… why NOT to be obedient when God asks us to do something that is way beyond what we think we can do or way beyond the resources we have or way out of our comfort zone or way out of what we think is possible. We just have to remember it’s NEVER way beyond what He can do AND He’s the one sending us.
If you’re tempted to think “in the strength that you have” is not enough… that you don’t have the time, you don’t have enough money, you don’t have the skills, you don’t have the strength or energy, you don’t have… you don’t have… Remember who is sending you. God gave us the great commission. And He’ll use every last one of our weaknesses to show us just how mighty and powerful and able He is…