Monday, August 4, 2008

Negotiating With God

It's good to be home! The Neshoba County Fair was a blast. I was welcomed home by reading all of the posts some of you made in regards to my blog entry "Viewer Mailbag". Your encouraging words have gone a long way. Isn't it good to be encouraged by fellow believers? I thank God for all of you.

After spending the week chasing children, cooking, cleaning and entertaining others in our fair cabin, I considered sleeping in Sunday morning. Surely the other teacher will be there and she can handle it, I thought. I resisted the urge and went to church nonetheless. Much to my surprise, I had 10 two year olds Sunday morning, all of whom are potty training. Not to mention, my other teacher didn't show. In our childrens Sunday School time, we have a routine: teach the lesson, move the class to a much larger room where they enjoy a puppet show, skit and sing songs about Jesus (we call this the "Rally Room"), move the children back into our classroom, serve them a snack, potty time, then wait for the parents to pick them up. In surveying my group, I wondered how in the world was I going to do all of this by myself? A volunteer showed up at my classroom door. "I'll do anything you need me to do, but I can't help you with the children when you take them to the Rally Room. All of that singing and clapping just gets on my nerves," she said. I told her I could actually handle the children during every other time by myself EXCEPT getting them to and from the Rally Room (I was afraid I would lose a child in the hallway if I didn't have any help). "If you could help me move them back and forth, and help in keep them together in the Rally Room, that would be so helpful," I told her. "No! Anything but that," she said.

How many times has God asked us to do something and we've told Him, "anything but that, God"! We find ourselves negotiating what we will and won't do for the Kingdom. For some reason, we think that we can be an ala carte' Christian--do this, do that, but not this part. Psalm 95:7 says, "For He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under His care. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." If you have a hardened heart, that means you don't listen; a hardened heart is oblivious and could care less about the request being made.

Think of how full our lives would be if we would stop treating God's request of us as ala carte'; taking the bits and pieces we want and leaving the rest. In not fully listening to what God wants us to do, we miss out on the full blessing God has for us. God isn't known for giving "a half blessing".

3 comments:

Deanna said...

Thanks for the reminder. I definitely have some things that God is nudging me to do and I feel like Moses saying "I can't do that!". See Aaron over there... he is much more qualified? I just feel like there are so many people more qualified than me. I guess I should quit negotiating and start obeying. I guess that is all He asks anyway. Obedience.

Wilson said...

So good to have you back. Glad you had fun at the fair. As always, thanks for your Christian inspiration and reminders.

Heather said...

Glad you enjoyed the Fair! Hubby and I have just took over the children and youth at our church. We are very small and trying to build a program. Instead of complaining we felt that we were put at this church for a reason and we should do something about.
Thanks, you are truly an inspiration.