For the Lord had made a covenant

     with the descendants of Jacob

     and commanded them:

“Do not worship any other gods

     or bow before them

     or serve them

     or offer sacrifices to them.

 

But worship only the Lord,

     who brought you out of Egypt

     with great strength and a powerful arm.

Bow down to him alone,

     and offer sacrifices only to him.

 

Be careful at all times to obey the decrees,

     regulations, instructions, and commands

     that he wrote for you.

You must not worship other gods.

 

Do not forget the covenant

     I made with you,

     and do not worship other gods.  

 

You must worship only

     the Lord your God.

He is the one who will rescue you

     from all your enemies.”

 

But the people would not listen…

 

2 Kings 17:35-40

 

Everything in me wants to holler STOP! Why won’t you listen? Can’t you see this isn’t going to work out well? Play the story all the way out.

 

During the years I worked as a mental health professional, I oftentimes helped my clients visualize the probable outcome of their choices; if they continued in the same direction they were going.

 

If you do that, then…

If you take another drink, then…

If you go there, then…

 

God does the same thing in Scripture. He tells me things like:

 

If you…then I will…

If you don’t…then this will happen…

Don’t forget me…and I will…

Obey me because…

 

Everything he says to me is all wrapped up in his love and grace, and by playing the story out; he’s encouraging me to love him back. My creator knows me best.

 

God’s given me seven steps to becoming a worthless person. The directions are pretty straightforward—and if I follow them, they’re guaranteed to bring me some wildly unpredictable out-of-this-world results…

 

“They have planted the wind

     and will harvest the whirlwind…

(Hosea 8:7)

 

First, I have to block out new information; which means I should never ever read the personal words God inspired specifically for me. Because if I do, I might accidentally hear what he’s saying and then I might possibly understand it. And who needs all the guilt that could create? Surely my own thinking is good enough—and I probably already know it all anyway.

 

Second, the more stubborn I choose to be, the better the plan’s going to work for me. If I don’t budge in my thinking, there’s no possible way change can ever happen to me.

 

Third, if I follow everybody else, I can be in the majority; and I won’t even have to waste time thinking for myself. What could possibly require less energy or go wrong with that?

 

Fourth, I can boost the effectiveness of step three, if I worry incessantly over what other people think about me.

 

Fifth, I can live my life exactly as I want and base all my decisions on my feelings. That day. That moment. Sacrifice, boundaries, and standards are probably overrated commodities anyway.

 

Sixth, I need to value and trust the things I can see, touch, and control instead of the invisible Creator who made and holds them. And I should never ever be gracious about relinquishing what wasn’t mine in the first place.

 

Seventh, I need to be first. Always. People around me shouldn’t be bothered if I need to sacrifice them on my altar of convenience. Otherwise, how can I possibly be happy?

 

But the Israelites would not listen.

They were as stubborn as their ancestors

     who had refused to believe

     in the Lord their God.

 

They rejected his decrees

     and the covenant he had made

     with their ancestors,

     and they despised all his warnings.

They worshiped worthless idols,

     so they became worthless themselves.

They followed the example

     of the nations around them,

     disobeying the Lord’s command

     not to imitate them.

 

They rejected all the commands

     of the Lord their God

     and made two calves from metal.

They set up an Asherah pole

     and worshiped Baal

     and all the forces of heaven.

 

They even sacrificed

     their own sons and daughters in the fire.

They consulted fortune-tellers

     and practiced sorcery

     and sold themselves to evil,

     arousing the Lord’s anger.

2 Kings 17: 14-17

 

Foolproof. Yep.

 

Elisha had told the woman

     whose son he had brought back to life,

“Take your family and move

     to some other place,

     for the Lord has called

     for a famine on Israel

     that will last for seven years.”

(2 Kings 8:1)

 

The woman of Shumen followed good advice; and after the famine was over, brought her family back home and then went to see the king about reclaiming her house and land.

 

As she came in,

     the king was talking with Gehazi,

     the servant of the man of God.

The king had just said,

     “Tell me some stories

      about the great things Elisha has done.”

 

And Gehazi was telling the king about the time

     Elisha had brought a boy back to life.

At that very moment,

     the mother of the boy walked in

     to make her appeal to the king

     about her house and land.

 

“Look, my lord the king!”

     Gehazi exclaimed.

“Here is the woman now,

     and this is her son—

     the very one Elisha brought back to life!”  

(2 Kings 8:4-5)

 

“Is this true?”

     the king asked her.

     And she told him the story.

So he directed one of his officials to see that

     everything she had lost

     was restored to her,

     including the value

     of any crops that had been harvested

     during her absence.

(2 Kings 8:6)

 

Not many of our life stories could begin the way this one did, but they could all finish up the same way.

 

Restored.

 

Because the Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth, Redeemer of all people, and the One whose throne room I enter every time I pray, has said…

 

“Then I will make up to you for the years

     that the swarming locust has eaten,

     the creeping locust,

     the stripping locust

     and the gnawing locust,

     my great army which I sent among you…”

Joel 2:25

 

Our game closet shelves are stacked with games and overflowing with memories.

 

One of my favorite mental snapshots is from the first fall and winter after April and Michael married. They came over at least two evenings every week, possibly to eat supper; but also to laugh, tell stories and play games.

 

BLOKUS was our hands-down favorite game that season.

 

It was a new strategy game where each player placed one color of variously conglomerated squares on a grid board.

 

It always started with the board wide open and full of great opportunities; but that would quickly change as the other players began moving their pieces into your space.

 

The printed rules object of the game was to finish using all your pieces first, but some of us played more aggressively and strategized our moves to block out the other players. It took me almost an entire game to realize Michael was deliberately mirror-mimicking my exact moves.

 

It’s no secret that we love ice cream at our house and I kept the freezer stocked with popsicles that fall and winter; so we’d eat popsicles and wear our coats while we played BLOKUS at the kitchen table.

 

That always encouraged April to remind us, once more, that I kept the house so cold when she lived here that she had to sleep in her snowsuit to stay warm. Possible truth.  🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Fast-forward 9 years and now Faith is dragging games out of the game closet. Most of the boxed games are too advanced for her, but we examine and play with their pieces. She took out BLOKUS the other day and we sat on the floor played.

 

I told her about Mommy, Day, Mama Jan, and Papa Dan sitting at the kitchen table playing BLOKUS and eating popsicles. She doesn’t know her Papa Dan, but she’ll meet him someday; and I’d like her to have a few good stories under her belt when she does.

 

True stories have purpose and there are many many good reasons to tell them.

 

 

Hear this,

you leaders of the people.

Listen,

all who live in the land.

In all your history,

has anything like this

happened before?

Tell your children about it

in the years to come,

and let your children

tell their children.

Pass the story down

from generation to generation.

Joel 1:2-3

 

God’s war tactics are out-of-this-world. Modern day meta-materials and invisible-cloak technology have nothing on him. Everything about my thinking stretches when I read the inexplicable stories that showcase his otherness.

 

Now there were four men with leprosy

sitting at the entrance of the city gates.

 

“Why should we sit here waiting to die?”

they asked each other.

 

“We will starve if we stay here,

but with the famine in the city,

we will starve if we go back there.

 

So we might as well go out

and surrender to the Aramean army.

If they let us live,

so much the better.

But if they kill us,

we would have died anyway.” 

 

So at twilight

they set out for the camp

of the Arameans.

But when they came to the edge of the camp,

no one was there! 

 

For the Lord had caused the Aramean army

to hear the clatter of speeding chariots

and the galloping of horses

and the sounds of a great army approaching…

2 Kings 7:3-6

 

Talk about psychological warfare and mass hysteria—there were no visible chariots, horses or great army—just the approaching sounds of a mighty galloping and clattering horde.

 

Why in the world would I ever act as if I could outsmart God?