Thursday, January 15, 2009

God’s Sense of Humor

I can’t count the number of times God has laughed at me in my lifetime while teaching or reinforcing a lesson. Today added to that number. So, I’m in day 4 of a 21 day Daniel’s Fast that a bunch of churches are currently involved in. Basically, no meats, sweets, bread, caffeine, dairy. I had a banana for breakfast, but forgot my lunch due to a hectic morning. No problem, I thought, since I was headed to an event at work around lunch that normally would offer a vegetable and fruit platter. Lunch: Check.
Yeah. So I get there and Bushiban Coffee (local coffee shop) is setting up a booth next to me and the fresh, buttery popcorn machine is getting cranked up next to it. On my other side, in traipses vendors from Chick-fil-a and Jersey Mike’s Subs carting their wares. Oh, and everything I’ve listed was free. And I had to be there at the table I was manning for 2 hours. Man, was my mouth watering. I was looking for loopholes to that fast, but I couldn’t find any. Of all the times to have free Chick-fil-A & Jersey Mike’s!!
So, why was God laughing at me? I have just finished a personal study in Joshua 1 over the past week or two. In verse 7 God tells Joshua, “Do not turn from [the Law] to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go.” Today, I wanted to turn in both directions. I think I almost heard God chuckling at me when I realized that outside of the fast there’s so many times that I get pulled (or just flat out run) to the right or to the left, and then I wonder why I don’t have success in my personal life. So many times my selfish desires, even desires for otherwise good things, send me off course for days, weeks, months, and yes, sometimes years.
There’s many things to learn and areas to grow when in a fast, but here’s a lesson my stomach consistently teaches me: Wouldn’t it be great if I desired God as much as a couple chicken strips and a cup a jo? Rather than desiring and pursuing my creator and Father, I essentially despise him (to borrow a term from a friend’s recent blog) and go after stuff that doesn’t fulfill.

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