Submitting selfishness

If this were not true, I'd feel ashamed to even think of sharing it. My car is showing signs of going "by the wayside" (so to speak) as it is chugging and needs some attention. This is not easy to do when you only have one car and a limited budget, but one does what one can when he is able to do it, yes?

The other day, the window on the driver's side made a funny noise and got stuck in the "down" position. My beautiful and very intelligent wife helped me get it up again. Later, dummy me forgot about the noise, and rolled it down--only to get it stuck--again. Once again, she helped me get it up. I told myself repeatedly to never even think about considering giving the thought of entertaining the idea of contemplating the remote possibility of bringing the window down again. So I didn't.

Still more recently, while trying to find a misplaced cell phone, I opened my car (hot from sitting in the sun), started it, and hit the down button to the rear window--only the rear window did not go down. The driver's side window went down about 3/4 and stopped and has remained there ever since. We can't it back up again. And it's been raining.

My wife got off a little late from work the other night (around midnight) and as she got in the car, she told me our daughter needed a ride home as well. I was not about to let my darling wife drive around Columbia in the middle of the night with rain coming down through a descended window of my own carelessness--so (though I turn into a pumpkin at 10:30) I volunteered to drive around town for the errand. I drove my chugging car in the rain, and I got wet (but not too much).

Less than one block from my daughter's house, I took a turn too sharply and destroyed our right rear tire. (Remember the context: pumpkin, driving chugging car, after midnight, in the rain). Some people sigh, some lose their sanctification. I lost my temper. And in all this, my darling wife is trying to encourage me.

I don't take encouragement well under those conditions and was not all that excited about the character-building exercise God was putting me through right then. While our oldest son (17, skateboarder) whizzed down the hill in the middle of the night in his grandmother's wheelchair, I changed the tire. Kept that tire iron busy, I did! Boy . . .

Of course, I've not said anything about the fact that I don't like making left turns (more on that later), or the budgetary strain we are already under. And I've not said anything about the stresses of so many teenagers in the house and the attention my mother needs in her care. I've not said anything about so many other things that demand our attention; yet, someone wants to know what all this reveals about my faith. What does it reveal? All this "stuff" I get frustrated over shows that God is not any less God and the goodness He wants to show is not any less good. I am reminded that one will always have His way: God's way. One way is always beyond my control: God's.

If I look at my situation and see that my DESTINY is God accomplishing His will to the praise of His glory, the response of submission should show itself in me;

If I look at my situation and see that He is powerful, then it is my RESPONSIBILITY is respond to the power that is all God's, and submission to His power should again be evident in my response;

If I look at my situation and and see that I don't know all there is to know about God or myself, then I am to LEARN what is lacking and respond to what is being taught with submission;

If I look at my situation and do not SUBMIT, then I act selfishly. Selfishness is accomplishing my own will to serve my interests and I am in rebellion against God. If I look at my situation and shun the responsibility to submit to His power, then I am selfish as I try to accomplish the impossible in my own strength. If I look at my situation and refuse to learn, then I assume omniscience and learn nothing. In short, if I do not submit, I am committing idolatry. There is no integrity, nor is there worship.

For some of us, this may be seen in the way we wake up in the morning. There are those that wake up and say, "Good morning, Lord." And there are those that wake up and say, "Good lord, it's morning."

Now my whining is minuscule compared to, oh say, Hurricane Ivan and the aftermath thereof (I spent alot of time in Galveston, so that event hits "home" with me a little) or the Babylonian besiegement of Judah, for example. What happened to Judah when it was besieged by the Babylonians? Daniel tell us that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was taken along others captives and the vessels of the household of God were brought from Judah to the treasury of the gods of Babylon. Joel describes how the land was brought to waste. That's the short version.

Why did God allow this? In short, because the people were not submissive to God. Jeremiah 26-27 shows their rebellion through the people's response to Jeremiah's message in the house of the Lord--they plotted to murder Jeremiah. They were selfish. In God's message to the people, however, He was very clear to distinguish the true from the false; that is, the obedient from the disobedient. Among those who were taken captive were men faithful to God.

Interestingly, the enemy was looking for something. Daniel 1:3-4 describes that from among the captives, the Babylonians were looking for people with integrity: good looking (nobody wants an unappealing face representing them); intelligent; wise; endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge (in other words, men who could serve the king's court). Potential service required honesty, faithfulness, clear thinking and presentation. The Babylonians find among their overwhelmed and cowering captives four men: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

Why did these men stand out? For no other reason than the fact that they had made up minds and this is reflected in a relatively small way through their dietary choice. Daniel made up his mind long before his situation went sour that he would submit to God, live a life of worship. Diet was a badge of a made-up mind that took the Babylonians by surprise. Think of it--of all that a captive could complain about it would have to be the food. Daniel and friends are given the BEST food--and they won't touch it! This communicated qualities the Babylonians were looking for--and those qualities hinged on a life of submission to God. The result of not folding under the circumstances was favoritism, not from the captors per se, but granted to the captors from God (Daniel 1:9)!

Contrast this with Jehoiakim, king of Judah (2 Kings 23:34-24:6). Jehoiakim became king not by God direct selection, but because Pharaoh Necho made him king. To show more power behind that move, it was the Pharaoh who changed named the king Jehoiakim--his real name was Eliakim! Jehoiakim gives silver and gold to Pharaoh, then taxes the land because of Pharaoh's command to do so. And we are plainly told "And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done." (2 Kings 23:37).

What a contrast! Two kings (Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar). Two rulers (Jehoiakim and Daniel). Jehoiakim, king of Judah, looses the kingdom and everything in it because he does not submit to God; Daniel gains not merely a kingdom, but the whole middle east because he submits to God! Interestingly, God used the Babylonian captivity to get his godly people OUT of the land. Look at what they left behind in Judah--an evil king and the residue of his wickedness.

I do not like left turns. I like right turns because that's the way the traffic is going. If I have to make a left turn, I have to cross one lane of traffic (when there is a clearance) and merge into moving traffic going the opposite direction. I especially do not like left turns when I have to follow somebody because now I have to keep an eye on the one I am following AND what the traffic is doing. I've said nothing about 7 other people who may be in the car and each individual conversation they are having +/- any over broadcasting MP3 players muddling up the already stifling air of an air conditioner that does not want to work . . . I do not like left turns, but they get me where I need to go. I like to go straight, or turn right.

God likes left turns because they make me check my resolve--my obedience to follow. His purposes are accomplished, with me or without me--He prefers I join Him. And when I make His left turn, across the oncoming traffic and all the troubles that stifle the air, I have to submit--and He rewards with favor.

"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." Proverbs 4:23

The first step to have a made up mind is to have a mind renewed in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. A transformed mind.

The second step is to let our trials bring us to maturity. That may involve God allowing the enemy to strip us of all our treasure in order for us to be moved to a different place so He can bless us when our made up minds are approved.