Afraid and running away

I know this is going to sound weird, but if I don’t say it, it will always be in the background of my year trying to encourage and understand how to be master of life on earth, sky and sea.

You see, when one obtains a close relationship with God, and He begins to mentor and develop a leadership character within, there comes a day when He calls to ask us to do something.

It is that call that scares the living … out of me.

I have been so close to Him and all of a sudden I pull away because I am afraid of that call.  Take a look at what I see in the Bible.  Abraham has to leave his entire family, Noah has to build a boat and for 120 years or so endure the laughter of his neighbours, King David ran most of his life, Jonah took off, Jeremiah couldn’t be married, Hosea had to marry a prostitute, Isaiah had to do stuff, Ezekiel crazy stuff and then there are others today.

Some have gone to work in the Garbage Village of Cairo, or in Mumbai – others past the Arctic Circle, others to Mongolia or Papua New Guinea.  Some have to carry a large wooden cross around the world, others have to stand up in a bus and proclaim the gospel and the list goes on.

At the end of the day, it’s all about trust.  I do not trust God to look out for me and so I keep in control of the situation and do not allow Him to get too near so that I actually cannot hear the call – in fact – I am running away.

Deep down I know that He is preparing me for the task for which He is calling me and that when the call comes, it will be something I would lay my life down for.  What makes it harder is that one of my youth, a 16-year-old boy, shared with me that he does not want to get too close to God because he is afraid that God will call him into ministry and his parents are totally against that – choosing between God and his parents is too great a task and he knows he will choose his parents over God and that will devastate him.  What do I tell him when I myself am running away from that same task?

Lord, before this year is out, if I am truly going to lead in the areas you have called me to lead, I have to stop being afraid and I need to stop running away.  A new, healthier fear may be the thought that if I don’t, I might be swallowed by a whale

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• Running From God

Noah

Noah is a character who exemplifies the thought of being master of earth, sky and sea.

The story of Noah’s life involved not one, but two great and tragic floods.  The world in Noah’s day was flooded with evil.  The number of those who remembered the God of creation, perfection and love and dwindled to one.

Of God’s people, only Noah was left. God’s response to the severe situation was a 120-year-long last chance, during which He had Noah build a graphic illustration of the message of his life.  Nothing like a huge boat, built on dry land, to make a point!

For Noah, obedience meant a  long-term commitment to a project.

Many of us have trouble sticking to any project, whether or not it is directed by God.  It is interesting that the length of Noah’s obedience was greater than today’s expected lifetime.  Our only comparable long-term project is our very lives.  But perhaps this is one great challenge Noah’s life gives us to live, in acceptance of God’s grace, an entire lifetime of obedience and gratitude.

Noah reflected the authority of God through his obedience, he also reflected God through His character trait – patience.  What patience Noah showed in building the boat and then after the storm, waiting another year before the waters subsided enough to leave it.

Most of us are aware of the promise of the rainbow.  In fact, at the age of ten, when I first heard that there was a God, it was through the rainbow that my neighbours shared the story of Noah and this God whom I had never heard of before.  The next Sunday I was invited to Sunday School and the rest is history as I never missed a Sunday in church thereafter.

However, what many of us are unaware of is that there was another promise given, and it was given prior to the rainbow.  God promised never agin to destroy everything on earth with a curse of judgement until the day Jesus Christ returns to destroy evil forever.  Now every change of season is a reminder of His promise – springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. (Life Application Bible)

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• Thank You Noah! (dianneguthmuller.com)
• Check out Unflappable Anchor at http://revelationsinwriting.wordpress.com/