Something I read today....

[mizpeh]

Does this sound like someone you know?

As a Mule

“If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit” (Leviticus 26:18-20 – NIV).

I have a long history of stubbornness. I’m thickheaded, stiff-necked, arrogant and presumptuous. I’m pretty sure I know best. I’m pretty sure that if it needs to be done, I can get it done – and I certainly don’t need beings of lesser intelligence getting in my way. Sometimes I act like I don’t even need a being of infinitely greater intelligence getting in my way. I may not be large, but I love to be in charge.

Got a problem with that?

Apparently, God does. When he encounters it in one of his kids, he doesn’t beat around the bush. He promises bluntly that those who will not listen to him can expect him to punish them for their sins seven times over.

What’s the deal with that?

I ask, because that’s me he’s talking about. I don’t listen. When crisis strikes, you’d think I’d run to God. Instead, I set about determinedly doing things my way, on my time, with my brains, for my benefit. When stuff gets hard, I just try harder – and harder, and harder, and harder. Even when it’s clear I’m dramatically failing, I just keep stubbornly swinging away; listening ever less, embracing the delusion of self-sufficiency ever more.

I think it’s safe to say there’s only one I know more stubborn than me.

Him.

God has me beat. He can hold out longer than I can. Look at what he says in Leviticus: “I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.” I will. Not I might, I may, I could, I should, why I oughtta… I will. God’s going to break down my stubborn pride. My flimsy prayers and pleas are going to bounce off his iron heaven; my best attempts to dig into my own resources will only result in a bent and useless shovel.

Knowing this, seeing this, reading it clearly among the very words of God – you’d think I’d cave! Why prolong the inevitable? God isn’t trying to win some locker room bet with me; there’s no doubt in his mind who’s going to win this struggle for control. It’s just a matter of time. And God isn’t deriving some cruel delight from my agony either; that’s not the nature of a perfect father.

God knows that to bless me, he has to break me. I can’t go on to the next place of significance that he has planned for me still lugging around a two-ton weight of pride. I can’t fit through the door that leads to His next grand purpose for my life without personally decreasing. That iron heaven and bronze earth are actually gifts from God: reminders that resistance is futile. I’m not going to come through what I’m facing right now solely by tapping into my own IQ, charisma, or grit. I don’t have enough time, money, talent, or determination to make it to the close of this season intact, much less on top.

I might as well surrender now, crying out to God – and listening to him as he responds and directs me, showing me what to do and where to go. Otherwise, my strength will be spent in vain; my soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.

And I don’t want that.

I’m stubborn. As a mule. But I’m not anywhere near as stubborn as God. So God…

You win.

http://yourjourney.typepad.com/mark_.../01/index.html