‘History is His story. Life has only one author.’
I don't fight change much-at least not most times. Of course there are exceptions for everyone and sometimes you just wish everything would freeze in the moment-but for the most part,I move on quick after very minimal fuss. It's not that I am an unfeeling ,tough and macho guy,(actually, I am a bit of a softie!) and it's definitely not because I am a wise man who thinks that fighting the inevitable is foolhardy-no, far from it!
It actually has to do more with a personal flaw.
I get bored way too easily. Life is too predictable and uninspiring when it's all the same stuff over and over again! Getting bored quick with routine is not an admirable quality. It's actually a really bad one. Not the type that wakes up to a regular 9 to 5 and keeps a family together by doing the same thing day in and day out for decades. Loving, leading, sacrificing every day of the year is not for the fickle. I aspire to get there –soon! Endurance and tenacity are what you need for the long haul if you are to do anything meaningful and that outlasts your life. None of those short spurts of enthusiasm get you very far.
So it’s a new year! So excited! The potential for change is ever so great! There are many old ways to forsake and new ones to embrace. A chance to bury the past and with new vigor, attempt to write a different chapter of your life! Aaah! The thought alone invigorates me-bring on the New Year!
My pastor talked on change this past Sunday and now I have a new Bible hero! Of course Jesus is the ultimate hero for a Christian- God the eternal coming down to wear a suit of mortal flesh and to die as a substitute for the vilest of sinners deserving the worst type of death row is unmatched-but are we not human? Don’t we like to read about a regular Joe, an underdog who by God’s design, favor and grace overcomes insurmountable challenges to perform great feats that awe us and bring glory to the God? At least I do! It gives me hope that the Holy, Almighty God could use a wretch like me to do an iota of something good and meaningful in this otherwise painful, stressful and mostly hard to decipher life!
I get bored way too easily. Life is too predictable and uninspiring when it's all the same stuff over and over again! Getting bored quick with routine is not an admirable quality. It's actually a really bad one. Not the type that wakes up to a regular 9 to 5 and keeps a family together by doing the same thing day in and day out for decades. Loving, leading, sacrificing every day of the year is not for the fickle. I aspire to get there –soon! Endurance and tenacity are what you need for the long haul if you are to do anything meaningful and that outlasts your life. None of those short spurts of enthusiasm get you very far.
So it’s a new year! So excited! The potential for change is ever so great! There are many old ways to forsake and new ones to embrace. A chance to bury the past and with new vigor, attempt to write a different chapter of your life! Aaah! The thought alone invigorates me-bring on the New Year!
My pastor talked on change this past Sunday and now I have a new Bible hero! Of course Jesus is the ultimate hero for a Christian- God the eternal coming down to wear a suit of mortal flesh and to die as a substitute for the vilest of sinners deserving the worst type of death row is unmatched-but are we not human? Don’t we like to read about a regular Joe, an underdog who by God’s design, favor and grace overcomes insurmountable challenges to perform great feats that awe us and bring glory to the God? At least I do! It gives me hope that the Holy, Almighty God could use a wretch like me to do an iota of something good and meaningful in this otherwise painful, stressful and mostly hard to decipher life!
An absolutely wretched human being who by fully trusting God rises up out of the muck and mire of selfish living to effect change in the lives of those around them never fails to inspire me. Those stories give me hope that maybe, just maybe-God will graciously do something remotely close in my own life.
So I have always been awed by Moses, David, Job and Paul. They are incredible role models, remarkable people who by God’s design and Grace have accomplished superhuman feats. Superhuman because no man in and of their own strengths would go through all the trials and tribulations that they faced and come out on top. It’s just not manly possible. However, my secret favorite has always been Samson-and that is not only because he possessed the biggest and most chiseled biceps any man has ever boasted. I mean, the ability to dispatch a thousand well trained soldiers with the jaw bone of ahem, a donkey, is pretty impressive for a hero worshipper like myself! Let’s also not forget that he carried an entire city gate on his back up a hill! Come on, you gotta give the strongman some credit here. However, the clincher for me was his walk with God. Samson was trouble from the get go. Big muscles give you a bit of arrogance-superhuman strength like he possessed kind of soaks your brain cells with pride and a sense of invincibility. No wonder most big and burly men end up being nothing more than guard dogs to their skinnier and obviously more intelligent employers!
Samson was a screw up who always learnt the hard way. He had lost sight of God until his eyes were gauged out-no pun intend! How he could never see the schemes of the women in his life when they asked him for the answer of his lion and honey riddle or the secret source of his strength beats me- again, big muscles, less brain activity?
So I have always been awed by Moses, David, Job and Paul. They are incredible role models, remarkable people who by God’s design and Grace have accomplished superhuman feats. Superhuman because no man in and of their own strengths would go through all the trials and tribulations that they faced and come out on top. It’s just not manly possible. However, my secret favorite has always been Samson-and that is not only because he possessed the biggest and most chiseled biceps any man has ever boasted. I mean, the ability to dispatch a thousand well trained soldiers with the jaw bone of ahem, a donkey, is pretty impressive for a hero worshipper like myself! Let’s also not forget that he carried an entire city gate on his back up a hill! Come on, you gotta give the strongman some credit here. However, the clincher for me was his walk with God. Samson was trouble from the get go. Big muscles give you a bit of arrogance-superhuman strength like he possessed kind of soaks your brain cells with pride and a sense of invincibility. No wonder most big and burly men end up being nothing more than guard dogs to their skinnier and obviously more intelligent employers!
Samson was a screw up who always learnt the hard way. He had lost sight of God until his eyes were gauged out-no pun intend! How he could never see the schemes of the women in his life when they asked him for the answer of his lion and honey riddle or the secret source of his strength beats me- again, big muscles, less brain activity?
Is this a good example of the pride of life? I do a lot of dumb things and I am absolutely floored and gob smacked that a God so holy and so righteous would give a second glance at me! Samson’s last words are something like… “and now, let me die with the Philistines!” Defiant till the end. God still as gracious as ever, merciful till the end, grants Samson's somewhat selfish and vengeful final wish- to kill all the philistines who have ironically gathered in their thousands to celebrate his capture! He avenges his two eyes by killing more people on that day than he has easily dispatched during his entire life!
I have always identified myself more with Samson than any other Biblical character. We have both been called to a life that we definitely have no will power or strength to pull off on our own. Ever so blinded by pride, ambition and the small trophies of earth, we stumble and mess up so often along the way. Yet we are constantly being helped up by the hand of the ever merciful one. The all powerful one who chooses to walk beside us and extend his hand so readily and willingly as if he were a hired hand!
But Samson is not the hero of old that pastor talked about this past Sunday. No, He talked about a boy-king. A man cut from a different cloth who took an unusual stand. King Josiah. The kid became king when he was only 8. Barely out of his diapers, he was quickly thrust into the hot seat of ruling an entire nation! A nation of idol worshipers deeply plunged into pagan practices for decades. A nation that had rebelliously chosen to forget their unique history. Even Josiah's own father was a wicked pagan king, murdered by his own subjects. Orphaned at 8 and with no godly role model to emulate, (his grandfather, Manasseh, was one of the vilest kings who ever ruled in Israel!) Josiah had every reason to follow the ways of his predecessors. This kid king was different though. He chooses to go against the grain.
By the age of 26, he has gone all out on a quest to purge Judah of idolatry and all pagan practices.This is precipitated by one event. Someone finds a copy of the book of law and after it is read to him, he is horrified by how far he and his people have fallen away from God's design for His people. He starts by tearing his royal robes after rending his heart before God. He doesn't stop there though.
He tears down shrines and temples built for foreign gods and idols! He orders that pagan priests be put to death. A young man led solely by the zeal to honor his God, single handedly restores the worship of Yahweh, the true God of the Israelites to a nation that had forsaken their God for decades. The Passover, a ceremonial feast in commemoration of how God had led the Hebrews out of 400 years of slavery had long been forsaken. Josiah restores it. He orders renovations to the temple and tries to restore it to it’s former glory as best as he can. A single man brings sweeping, radical changes by taking a stand and following through. Am sure it wasn't a picnic. People don't wake up and change overnight. In fact, people hate change. Most people like to stick with the status quo.
They can't be bothered to exert themselves when they have found a comfortable rhythm, and anyways, what does a young boy know? Who is he, what right does he have to tell them what to do? I am also sure the devil wasn't taking all this lying down. What challenges and odds did King Josiah have to beat to make all this happen-we don't know. The Bible just highlights his success and his not so heroic death in battle. The point however remains; one person believing in the one true God, stepping out in faith can make a difference. Real change starts with one God, working in one human's heart to bring change to many other lives for the glory of His name.
So what will you stand for or against in this New Year? What changes will God bring to those around you through you? God is always working, doing, moving-- the question is, are you on the same page with the big Change Maker? Will you let Him turn over a new leaf? Will you let the ultimate page turner write a new chapter in the adventure book of your life? Real change is only a heart change away!
(for King Josiah's story, see 2 Kings 22 and 23)
I have always identified myself more with Samson than any other Biblical character. We have both been called to a life that we definitely have no will power or strength to pull off on our own. Ever so blinded by pride, ambition and the small trophies of earth, we stumble and mess up so often along the way. Yet we are constantly being helped up by the hand of the ever merciful one. The all powerful one who chooses to walk beside us and extend his hand so readily and willingly as if he were a hired hand!
But Samson is not the hero of old that pastor talked about this past Sunday. No, He talked about a boy-king. A man cut from a different cloth who took an unusual stand. King Josiah. The kid became king when he was only 8. Barely out of his diapers, he was quickly thrust into the hot seat of ruling an entire nation! A nation of idol worshipers deeply plunged into pagan practices for decades. A nation that had rebelliously chosen to forget their unique history. Even Josiah's own father was a wicked pagan king, murdered by his own subjects. Orphaned at 8 and with no godly role model to emulate, (his grandfather, Manasseh, was one of the vilest kings who ever ruled in Israel!) Josiah had every reason to follow the ways of his predecessors. This kid king was different though. He chooses to go against the grain.
By the age of 26, he has gone all out on a quest to purge Judah of idolatry and all pagan practices.This is precipitated by one event. Someone finds a copy of the book of law and after it is read to him, he is horrified by how far he and his people have fallen away from God's design for His people. He starts by tearing his royal robes after rending his heart before God. He doesn't stop there though.
He tears down shrines and temples built for foreign gods and idols! He orders that pagan priests be put to death. A young man led solely by the zeal to honor his God, single handedly restores the worship of Yahweh, the true God of the Israelites to a nation that had forsaken their God for decades. The Passover, a ceremonial feast in commemoration of how God had led the Hebrews out of 400 years of slavery had long been forsaken. Josiah restores it. He orders renovations to the temple and tries to restore it to it’s former glory as best as he can. A single man brings sweeping, radical changes by taking a stand and following through. Am sure it wasn't a picnic. People don't wake up and change overnight. In fact, people hate change. Most people like to stick with the status quo.
They can't be bothered to exert themselves when they have found a comfortable rhythm, and anyways, what does a young boy know? Who is he, what right does he have to tell them what to do? I am also sure the devil wasn't taking all this lying down. What challenges and odds did King Josiah have to beat to make all this happen-we don't know. The Bible just highlights his success and his not so heroic death in battle. The point however remains; one person believing in the one true God, stepping out in faith can make a difference. Real change starts with one God, working in one human's heart to bring change to many other lives for the glory of His name.
So what will you stand for or against in this New Year? What changes will God bring to those around you through you? God is always working, doing, moving-- the question is, are you on the same page with the big Change Maker? Will you let Him turn over a new leaf? Will you let the ultimate page turner write a new chapter in the adventure book of your life? Real change is only a heart change away!
(for King Josiah's story, see 2 Kings 22 and 23)
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