Are You Crazy?
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
That would have been my response to Jonathan if I were his armor bearer.
“Jonathan said to his young armor bearer “come, lets go over to the post of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”
1 Samuel 14:6
I’m having a hard time even putting into words the absurdity of this statement. “Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf.” Perhaps? Perhaps? This is so crazy to me probably because of my journey with the Lord and the American Christianity that we often subscribe to. When we even get the slightest inkling that we are supposed to do one thing or another, what do we do? I know what I do. Think, ask friends, read every Christian book on the shelves, etc. (None of these are actually bad things). This takes so much time that after all is said and done, some months later, the opportunity or “prompting” is well gone and I get to chalk another one up to the fact that “it probably wasn’t what God wanted me to do.” Usually it’s something real complicated that takes a lot of effort, perhaps like stop and give a guy a dollar so he can eat, or tell someone to have a good day and ask them their name, you know those things that take about 30 seconds but “I’m way to busy to do.”
Contrast that with Jonathan, who is contemplating attacking the Philistines, slightly harder than handing out a dollar and a smile. And the best part of it, it doesn’t even seem to be God’s idea. Now Israel was God’s promised people, and Jonathan knew that. But nowhere in the passage does it say that God was “prompting” him, telling him what to do, opening doors – closing others, which is usually what we wait on. The word that he uses, perhaps, is such an ambiguous word especially when you’re talking about going into battle. It’s an in the middle, could go either way type of word.
Lets bring this down to a situation we could possibly relate a little better to. You’re having coffee with one of your best friends on your lunch break and he looks at you and says “perhaps we should go to Afghanistan in the middle of a terrorist cell and tell them God loves them.” My first response, after a laugh of course, would be what prompted you to do this? Do you feel like God is calling you to this mission? And if he were like Jonathan, maybe his response would be, “he didn’t really tell me to, but I think that its something God would maybe want us to do.” And if you’re like the armor bearer in the story you say “sure, whatever you say.” Right?
Not me. Why? Cause it’s crazy! But…I wonder if just maybe that’s the beauty of God’s story and I miss the point daily. God’s story is one where normal people do crazy things because there’s an all-powerful Creator of the Universe who loves us so much and is so crazy that it evokes crazy reactions. Rich people sell everything to follow Jesus, people quit their jobs without a two-week notice. Why? Because you heard the Son of God wants to know you and wants you to know him. That is crazy. Moving forward I hope and pray that I may be more like Jonathan, willing to show crazy love or serve the least of the least without hesitation hoping that “Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf.”