You Fool!

Reading through Genesis-Exodus (still!). So good!

Yesterday morning I read from Jacob through Moses. As I went over Exodus 2-3, God's personal message for the day hit me like a ton of bricks.

(Below a non-theological take! If your theological feathers are ruffled you're most welcome to respond anyway)

- God made a lopsided covenant with Abraham: non-bilateral, fully unconditional, pure grace. No matter how messed-up or unfaithful Abraham could be, God would fullfill it.

- God had Isaac in mind since the beginning. No old womb could stop him. Even his future wife and how they met (camels included). Time and again, He shows that He 'sees' and 'hears'. 

- God pursued Jacob's whole-hearted devotion. Arranged dates just to meet with him, even a whole night of wrestling. Renamed him, and then reminded him. Blessed him with a soccer-team-sized brood of kids.

- God set Joseph up for a fall. Into the pit. Then prison. Then palace, overnight. Denied him authority, only to position him for top governmental position.

- God called Moses who grew up with Egypt's finest only after he'd been cast out in the wilderness and lost all influence to return and do the impossible. Out of touch with Egyptian and Hebrew culture. Foolish and ridiculous. Just what God wants. Moses rebutted, God re-rebutted.

Everything God does, He does. He doesn't force, but He doesn't back down. He doesn't choose for you, but gets in your way til you see the street light and His signpost. When He wants your heart, He's dead serious. Like, literally. 

Everytime you look at yourself and think "I can't do this", "I don't know how", "God, send someone else", "Oh no, not me!", "but I can't speak well", "I just need more training", "they won't listen to me"...you're potentially laughing at what God can do. And putting your trust in your 'I' more than God. Oh, He loves to choose the foolish to shame the wise. 

It's SO foolish to use a baker and cupbearer to be Joseph's new prison-mates.

To open Sarah's womb when she's so old when someone else could've birthed Isaac.

To tell Abraham to give up his only son who's supposed to carry on his promised lineage.

To use Jacob, a conniving man, to father the tribes of Israel. To manage a soccer team would've been more believable.

To have Moses cast out of Egypt and then tell him to go back and meet Pharaoh when he's more like a desert wildman than a royal prince. And tell him to do tricks like changing a staff into a snake, that's supposed to convince Pharaoh?!

"Who am I, Lord?"

Exactly.

So foolish. So inept. So incapable of doing things right. Such an unlikely choice for divine purposes and great plans.

Ahh...but JUST what God needs.

Under the weight of the ton of bricks, I asked God for a foolish generation.

One that fully recognizes its need for Him, completely in touch with their lack of ability. A generation that may seem culturally awkward, alien yet anointed. Prioritizes making disciples more than making sense. Ridiculously obedient and radically counter-worldly.

If ever you think God made a 'wrong choice' when it comes to you and your calling, I hope you can see just how 'wrong' a choice you are. Grace is so much bigger then. And your desperation for Him to confound the wise through you. Precisely because you are so foolish to believe He could be right when He chose you.

God, I ask You for a generation so foolish to believe in You, to believe that You want their undivided devotion, and think that they can be of any use at all. Make their hearts so incapable of functioning without acknowledging they are nothing without You. That they be captured by Your voice to the point they can seem irrational but cause people to notice Your love is real and can change lives because they foolishly let You change theirs.

Thought of the day: Risk is not calculated by the probability of success but the nobility of its cause. Faith is not calculated by the probability of fulfillment but the reliability of its Source.