God told me to.

A friend of mine posted a status on Facebook that caught my attention. It was a conversation between her and her daughter.

Mom: What made you think to make a sand angel last night?

Daughter: God. He told me to, he thought it would be funny. He laughed. 

Mom: Being 3 is so awesome!

 

This is such a cute conversation. There is something about a little kid's innocence that adds a layer of sweet to everything. 

But this little conversation got me thinking about people who say, "God told me to."

 In fact my first comment on her post was..."It's not so cute when they are 13, is it?" 

Yeah I know, I totally killed the moment.  There reaches an age when hearing someone say the phrase "God told me to." causes you to first think, "Wait a minute, is this person crazy?" 

 I think that happens after puberty. Puberty screws a lot of things up. 

But have you ever heard someone say that phrase? You can't tell me that you haven't thought in the back of your mind, "I wonder where the closest exit is."

Why is that?  Why do we get so weirded out by the thought that God has told someone to do that? I have a couple of ideas.

1. Crazy people really do exist- Last month an actor from the t.v show Ugly Betty killed his mother with a samurai sword because God told him to kill the demon inside her......oooookkkkk that's creepy. In fact it seems that the only time God gets major publicity for something is when someone crazy says it. Sidenote:  Why do crazy people get so much publicity?

2. It's hard to prove otherwise.- I mean anyone can say "God told me" about anything and you can't really argue with them. Why did you buy a Justin Bieber cd?  God told me to....really? I mean in my imagination I picture God having much better musical talent than a 12 year old with the same hair as Tom Brady, but who am I to say that it didn't happen? I know that God won't tell you to sin so that limits things. Is buying a Justin Bieber cd a sin?

"I need more product!"

3. Because T.V. preachers say that God is telling you to give them money- Let's be honest. It cost a lot to have this hair. It takes a ton of product to defy the laws of physics and have this stay in place...but really, televangelists have been giving God a bad name for a long time. I've heard multiple televangelists say that God is calling people to give them money for His glory only to later learn that the money was spent on an airplane. If you want to glorify God, you can fly coach with the rest of us. Although I might hope that God tells my 7 month old to throw up on you.

4. If you hear from God, there's a chance He wants to talk to me too- I think that this is a fear of a lot of people. If God told you to do something, then He might tell me to do something too. What if He tells me I have to give up my stuff? What if He tells me I have to move to Africa? What if He tells me to take up my cross and follow Him? That's hard. Really hard. I think a lot of people don't want to admit that others hear from God because they fear that God might tell them something they don't want to hear. 

 Have you ever heard from God? 

Did people think you were crazy?

Drop a comment below. (I turned off moderation so it should appear immediately!) 

The One Thing You Should Never Pray For

As a pastor people often ask me how they should pray or what they should pray for. We talk about it and I toss some ideas out to them and they go on their way.

But there is one thing that I tell people to never pray for.

Patience. 

Why would I tell someone not to pray for patience? I mean patience seems like a good thing right?  I mean it's a fruit of the spirit after all. That's true. But Patience is the avocado of the fruit of the spirit. (yes it is a fruit) You look at it and think, this might be good but I'm not sure if I really want to try it to find out.

The problem with praying for patience is that it's the one prayer that God never says no to. Seriously, I've never seen God say no to a prayer for more patience. But God doesn't just give out patience like King Sized Snickers on Halloween. God teaches you patience. That's right, patience is a LEARNING thing.

Let me give you an example.

1. Pray for patience in a car?  You'll get construction. Then you'll have to merge into one lane and if that doesn't test your patience I don't know what will.

2. Pray for patience at work? You'll be assigned a project with the most annoying person in your office. You know the one who laughs like a hyena and smacks her gum while talking about all of the sub plots to Desperate Housewives.

3. Pray for patience while out to lunch? Oh yeah, you'll be right behind the slow person.

4. Pray for patience at school?  2 words: "Wuthering Heights" (the worst book ever)

5. Pray for patience before church?  2 hour sermon with special music from the pastor's wife. (OH THE HUMANITY!)

The road to patience is a tough one but once you get there it really comes in handy. It allows you to keep a calm head in the heat of the moment. It helps you avoid rash decisions (like buying tickets to the New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys concert).  It allows you to follow God even when you're not sure where you are going. Patience helps live a balanced life.  You know, I could go for a more balanced life.

So perhaps praying for patience isn't such a bad thing.  Patience is actually a good thing to have in your life!
I'll say this though, if you pray for patience, buckle up, because life is about to get interesting!

Have you ever had to learn patience?

Jon

Seeing God in a Snowstorm

This winter has been nuts. We had a 14 inch snowfall in December and another 12 inch snowfall last weekend. It's funny. Each time one of these storms is mentioned on the news, there is an onrush to the local grocery store to stock up on milk and bread....I don't understand this at all. What can you make with milk and bread? soggy bread? anyways.....

Saturday afternoon while snow was still falling I got geared up and went outside to shovel my driveway. I can't decide why I went to shovel my driveway but I did. I hate shoveling. It's terrible. Something about repetitive motions that cause pain and soreness that just annoy me I guess. But for whatever reason, I went outside and shoveled away.

I shoveled a good part of the driveway and realizing that I was exhausted, I sat down on my front porch. And that's when it hit me.

Silence. 

More Silence.

A LONG SILENCE.

There was no noise. Just falling snow. I live in the suburbs. There are over 150,000 people who live within 8 miles of my house...but there was only silence. It was as if I was the only one in the world.

For about 10 minutes I felt as if it were just God and me. And so I started talking to Him. I don't remember what God and I talked about for those 10 minutes. I just know that I could have a conversation with him. for once my life wasn't too busy.  For once, I didn't have my tv, ipod, computer, work to distract me. I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't do anything. the only thing I could do was sit in silence with God....it was beautiful.

My question for you is this... Why is it that we are so busy that it takes an act of God just to cause us to slow down enough to spend time with God? Why did it take a foot of snow to slow things down enough for me to truly sit in silence with God? Why are we so busy that a state of emergency in our state is the thing that allows us to profess the state of emergency in our hearts to God?

what do you think?

Jon