Grow where you are planted

    I was thinking this morning about Joseph and what it must have been like for him in the Old Testament story to be sold into slavery by his brothers.  It doesn't tell us much about his faith in his teenage years, but it does appear that he believed even then in God.  I wonder if he felt discarded and abandoned when his brother sold him off to go to Egypt?  How did he feel when he got thrown down a well.  Then when they dragged him back up, it wasn't to help him, but to sell him. 
    Yet, the story never tells us that God abandoned Joseph.  Actually, it says the opposite.  It says that God was with him and that each part of the journey Joseph learned something, so that years later he could save the entire region from starvation.  Which leads me to say that Joseph learned something about growing where you are planted.  Joseph even told his brothers in the story that they meant it to harm him, but God meant it to bring about a deliverance.
     I've been guilty of not always appreciating where I am planted.  I look over the fence, methaphorically speaking, to see somewhere else I would rather go.  I think the place I am at is not good enough or that I am not being used enough.  But, Joseph learned that God had important lessons to teach him right where he was in prison.  So that, he could be used by God for much greater things later.  And when you look at the great men of the church or the Bible, you see sometimes there was a season when they were not in a place where they wanted to be.  But, it was not wasted time.  Rather, it was a time of purging and refinement.  Let me repeat that "it was not wasted time."
      Look at Moses, who was taught in the very best Egyptian schools, only to spend 40 years of his life in the desert shepherding sheep.  God used both of those experiences to call Moses when he was 80 years old, to do his mission.  It literally took 80 years for Moses to be to the point where he was ready.  But, once he was ready, God used him in a great way.
      There is a difference between vocation and calling.  Your vocation is how you get paid.  Your calling is the talents and abilities God has given you and what you are suppose to do.  Sometimes people are lucky enough for them to match.  I think most people don't have that luxury.  You might drive a truck during the day, but what your heart really enjoys is teaching the Bible to your Sunday School class.  One is your vocation and one is your calling.  But, God can use you in both places.  The important thing is to think about what your calling is and to use the gifts God has given you.
    In thinking about what your calling is, think about what your passion is.  What helps you get out of bed in the morning?  What do you live for?  What brings you joy?  What do you get excited about?  Jeremiah was called a "weeping prophet", but I don't think that most of the time God wants us to think of our gifts as something that brings us down.  Rather, our gifts are closely related to our passion and our heartbeat.  It is about who God made us to be. 
    The other thing I was thinking about is that when God gives us something, he wants us to share it.  I think sometimes we don't get more from God because we haven't shared what we already have.  When God teaches you something, your meant to tell others.  That doesn't mean you stop someone randomly on the street and tell them, but when God gives you the chance, share what you know.  This helps us affirm what we have learned and it also in turn, helps someone else.  Your a steward of what he has taught you.  Share it and help someone else to grow.  Grow where you are planted and be thankful that God can use you wherever you are.

Abram and Sarai

   In Genesis 20, there is a story of Abram and Sarai where Sarai is taken in Abimelech household because he thinks that Abram and Sarai are brother and sister.  God comes to Abimelech in a dream and tells him that he is a dead man because he has taken Sarai to be his wife.  It is interesting that God tells him to give Sarai back to Abram and that Abram will pray for him that he might be forgiven for this.  God describes Abram as a prophet.
    This is something that happens at least three different times over two generations in the book of Genesis.  Where Sarai nearly becomes another man's wife because of this lie that Abram tells others.  Abram appears, in contrast to his other great faith filled moments, to be very human and very fearful of others.  In a way, it actually encourages me, that God can use others even when they are very imperfect.
      Really, if you look at the disciples and some of the other great saints in the Old Testament you see the same story.  David had Bathsheba and Uriah.  Moses buried a man in the sand that he had killed.  The story in the Bible is of God using imperfect people despite themselves.  Sometimes these blunders were premeditated and shocking.  Sometimes they were impulsive decisions that had lasting consequences.  Yet, God still did great things through them.
      I really think this says something about the great mercy, grace and forgiveness of God.  That he doesn't have to wait until we attain sainthood or perfection in order to use us.  That he is forgiving of our fraility and selfishness.  That he understands that we are going to fail and sometimes fail in major ways.  That this doesn't somehow suprise God.  That even in the end he can use of our weaknesses, failures and trials to teach us.
      One of the things that I think failure teaches us is the need to remain humble.  I saw a billboard when I was in Houston years ago that said, "Humble and proud of it."  Humility is something that I feel when God uses me because I know how frail and imperfect I am.  I know I have no right to brag about anything and that it is all because of him.  When we start to become proud we move into dangerous and deep waters. 
      The other thing I think it teaches me is my utter dependence on God.  It is amazing to me that when I have even forgotten that I prayed about something and then days later see God answer a prayer.  Do I always pray with a spirit of anticipation that God will answer?  One thing I have noticed is that my day and week always goes better when it starts with prayer and giving my day to God.  It is so much better to walk into work knowing that you have prayed about your day.  I can remember many days stopping at a rest stop on the way to work and praying because I was wanting a few moments to pray before I faced my day.  It may seem like we are too busy to pray.  I would say your too busy not to pray.

    Thank God that he hears us when we pray and that He can use any of us if we depend on Him.

Job's complaint

     As I have started reading through the Bible chronologically, one of the first books we read is the book of Job.  That is because many scholars believe that it is the most ancient of Old Testament writings.  Most of the events in this book appear to have happened  before Abraham or Moses.  Most likely it was a story that was passed down verbally for many years, perhaps hundreds of years,  before it was written down.
      One of the things that makes Job enduring is that it deals with the question of the unfairness of life and the problem of evil.  Here is Job who worshiped God and put him first in his life and God allows Satan to take everything except his life.  For many chapters, Job has to struggle with the idea that it appears that God abandoned him.  To make matters worse, he lived in a time when it was assumed that if a person was rich or blessed with material things that he was in God's favor.  So, his illness and the disasters that occurred to him make it appear to Job's friends that he has done something horribly wrong.   They are there on an evangelistic mission to turn Job away from his sin and turn him back to God.  It appears obvious to them that he did something wrong.
       This idea is still apart of our culture today in some ways.  A person may come to the conclusion that if things are not going well for them that they are not favored or that God is angry with them.  Job himself stated that he wanted an interview with God to declare him own righteousness.  Maybe because he has also bought into this idea that God's favor is displayed when things go well and you are blessed with material things.
       One of the things you also see in these verses is that although he doesn't understand God's ways, he clearly still loves God in a profound way.  In the middle of sitting in a ash heap with boils on his skin, thinking that death is imminent, he talks about the glory of God and the greatness of God Job 26:5-14.  Here he sits in the ash heap wondering aloud when God allows the sinful person to die in peace, but he doesn't curse God for it Job 24: 1-2.  I think that is one of the profound messages of Job, that sometimes we won't understand God, but are we still willing to praise him in the middle of where we sit when things are not going our way.
       In the group I am a part of someone asked how long God allowed Job to suffer before he appeared.  Because in Job 38, God does show up to speak to Job.  He doesn't show up because Job is right and he feels obligated to repent.  He shows up to speak to Job about himself.  It doesn't say how long Job suffered.  The text makes it appear that it could have been only a few weeks or months.  But, I think it if it was clear, we would probably have some churches or people today running around claiming that they suffered longer than Job or that your truly only righteous if you suffer as long as he did.  People tend to get caught up in things like that.  We tend to make minor points into major points and lose our perspective.
      The silence of God can be profound at times.  When it appears that he has hid himself and life doesn't go the way that we think it should.  If that has never happened to you as a believer you are fortunate.  It happend to the psalmist.  In Psalm 13:1-2 the psalmist writes "How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou forget me forever?  How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?  How long shall I take counsel in my sould, Having sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long will my enemy be exalted over me?"   I want you to notice that this is a psalm.  That God didn't condemn the psalmist for asking this question any more than he did Job.  God can take our questions and not condemn them. 
       But, at the end of the day we have to come back to the idea that though I don't understand him I will trust him.  I will trust that one day he will make things clear.  I trust him with my conflict, I share it with him.  I share my hurts, fears, worries and concerns with him, whether I feel his presence or not.  I do that because I walk by faith and not feeling.  Because I know God is a loving and compassionate God who doesn't abandon people though it feels like it at times. 

Job and his friends

  This year I am in a group that is reading the Bible chronologically.  Today, we are in Job 6-9 where Job is confronted by his friends about his situation.  Job has had everything except his life taken away from him.  From what his friends are saying to him, it is implied that he sinned somewhere along with way, so that God has taken everything from him.  It is interesting to read Job's reply to them in Job 6

   "For the despairiing man there should be kindness from his friends; Lest he forsake the fear of the Almighty" Job 6:14

   Then Job goes on to compare his friends to a wadi.  A wadi is a dry river bed in the desert.  It would fill with rain when it did rain and other times remain dry.  Job says that these friends are like a river bed, that travelers see in the distance and are hopeful that it has water.  But, when they arrive all their hopes are dashed to pieces because it is dry.

   Job is insistent that he is innocent of doing anything against God.  He sounds pretty sure of himself.  I'm not sure that I would be so confident.  Numerous times here he declares his innocence.

Job 6:10b "And I rejoice in unsparing pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One".

Job 7:20 "Have I sinned?  What have I done to Thee, O watcher of men?"

Job 9:21  "I am guiltless."

    Job's friends continue to insist that he is guilty of something.  Job's friend Bildad says that his sons must have committed some sin and that is why God is judging them Job 8:4.  What is going on here?  They are trying to reconcile what they see with the idea that God is holy and just.  They are trying to understand the suffering they see and their only answer is that Job must have sinned.  Because in their eyes, the righteous are blessed and the sinful are judged. 

     But, we know that the innocent do in fact suffer on earth, sometimes through the fault of others.  We see that in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Ct where shooters entered places like schools and cinemas and shot people down for no good reason.  We don't blame the kids for that or the people in the movie theater.  We shouldn't blame the guns because guns don't aim themselves at people.  What Job and his friends are dealing with is the difference between what they believe and what they see happening.  They realize they can't blame God, so it must be Job's fault.  When the truth of the matter is that the righteous sometimes do suffer just like those who are lost.  It is the result of living in a sinful world that is fallen.  Sometimes bad things happen.

    The real questions is, "Where is God in the middle of all this?"  To which I would reply that unlike the Muslim God or the Buddhist idea of God that the christian God is a God who came down from his glory to join us in our suffering.  He took up a human body and suffered and then died.  He can therefore relate to us as someone who understands us in our suffering and weakness.  He did not remain remote somewhere in the sky, uncaring and unconcerned.  In fact, Isaiah calls Jesus a man of sorrows Isaiah 53:3. 

      One of the shortest verses in the bible is in John 11:35 "Jesus wept."  He saw what our sin does to our relationships and the pain that it causes.  He saw how the death of our friends and family grieves us.  He saw and sees the pain that our sin causes to ourselves and others.  He came to redeem us from that.  To give us hope even when standing in the middle of a graveyard.  That one day he will make everything right, bring back our loved ones to us and the one day death will be no more.