Part 12 (2/2)
The group was involved in a lively discussion about a well-known pa.s.sage of Scripture when this newest member piped up. ”Oh, right. That's found in chapter 14 of the gospel of Luke, verses 14 through 24.”
Everyone else knew that he had cited the wrong address, but I kidded him by saying, ”You ought to spend a little less time in the Koran and pick up your Bible every once in a while!”
There were chuckles all around the table-including from the target of my taunt-as we moved to the next item on the agenda and continued our meeting as planned. But I began to hear a faint whisper.
At the end of the meeting, in typical fas.h.i.+on the chairman of our board led us in a quick a.s.sessment of our demeanor and partic.i.p.ation that evening. He asked, ”Does anybody need to make amends for anything, clarify a point or apologize for a wrongdoing of any kind?”
I eased my hand into the air. ”I need to apologize,” I said, as I looked at the new member of our team. ”You've only been here for two months, and what I said earlier reflected an inappropriate level of playfulness, given your short time with us.”
”Oh, come on, Bill!” the guy jumped in. ”I listen to you teach every single weekend, and I know you well enough to know that you were just joking...”
”I got a subtle flag in my spirit after I made that wisecrack,” I said, ”so I want to stick with the apology and ask your forgiveness here tonight.”
He graciously granted it, despite believing it was thoroughly unnecessary.
What he didn't know was that G.o.d had been taking me on a journey that had started several weeks ago, at a party where I was given some counsel by a trusted, loving friend who truly had my best interest at heart. That journey is one of cleaning up my communication style and using words to build up and not to tear down. Sure, the whisper stung a little that night and took some of the s.h.i.+ne off of a great meeting. But I'm learning that if I'll pay attention when the sting is small, I'll be spared greater pain later on.
In John 8:36, Jesus says, ”If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” And if there is one beneficial by-product to listening to G.o.d's whispers as delivered through the people in your life, it is this: the well-timed, well-placed counsel of friends can put you on the fast track to freedom in this life-freedom from the troubling forces people face every day.
For some, the ”force” is a self-defeating belief-that they're worthless, incompetent or repulsive to those they love. For some, the ”force” is a self-defeating behavior-overspending, overeating, overdrinking, overachieving, over-pleasing or over-worrying.
For others the obstacle deals with relational dynamics: ”If I could just control my temper!” the twice-divorced man laments. ”If I could just stop manipulating people,” says the domineering woman. ”If only I could fix the pain inside me that causes me to wound everyone else,” says the victim of abuse who many years later still has not found relief.
The list goes on, as controllers and leaners and clingers and stuffers and liars make no progress in the relational wasteland of their lives. Perhaps you silently join their chorus, knowing all too well how they feel. Maybe it's you who have pushed a spouse away, pushed your kids away, pushed your colleagues away or destroyed every decent friends.h.i.+p you've ever known. But your life doesn't have to be this way. By G.o.d's grace, you can s.h.i.+ft gears, starting today.
The genuine liberation you seek can be found only in Jesus Christ. And part of his strategy for helping you is to provide truthful input through other people in your life. You're not worthless, incompetent or repulsive, but you might need to make a few s.h.i.+fts. And being open to the input of those who will shoot straight with you could be the greatest blessing you'll know.
The next time a trusted friend calls up and asks, ”Hey, do you think we could talk about something I'm seeing in your life?” I challenge you to lay down your defenses and to pick up humility instead. Tell your friend you'd love to talk-and mean it-trusting that G.o.d might have better days in store for you through the wisdom found in their words. One of the ways both you and I will experience a better, more righteous life is to heed those whispers. Open your ears to the in-the-flesh counsel your Father wants to communicate to you today. You'll never regret the surges of wisdom those interactions may bring.
CHAPTER 9.
WHISPERS THAT.
CHANGE THE WORLD.
THINK FOR A MOMENT ABOUT THE CLa.s.sIEST, MOST sophisticated restaurant you've ever visited. Imagine the gourmet chef, working tirelessly in the kitchen, designing each meal as though it were an individualized work of art. Tonight he is preparing your dinner: Beef Wellington-a succulent cut of tenderloin, seared just right and topped with marinated mushrooms.
Got the image in your mind?
Now, if I were to ask you, ”What is one thing you could do to really annoy that chef?”, what would your answer be?
I've had more time to think about this question than you have, so I'll give you my answer first. If I wanted to maximally annoy and offend that chef, I would wait until the gourmet meal was placed in front of me, then I'd look up and say, ”Thanks! Got any ketchup?”
I dare you to try this sometime. (And, for the record, asking for A1 Steak Sauce will yield the same effect.) Or imagine a Kennedy Center recital by a world-renowned vocalist, whose perfect pitch and ”high C” voice could shatter a crystal gla.s.s. In the middle of her beautiful Italian aria, you jump up on stage and join in, singing along at full voice-and at about a half pitch off-key. Your ”performance” could maim that musician for life-and she might just return the favor. Don't try it-even musicians can throw a left hook.
If you want to instigate a lively response from a musician or a chef, then try causing harm to the objects of their creativity. On a larger scale, if you or I want to instigate ire in a holy G.o.d, then try bringing harm to one of his creations, by playing loose with issues of justice in our world. You can bank on a dynamic response.
A quick scan of Scripture makes G.o.d's perspective on justice abundantly clear. ”Do not pervert justice,” Leviticus 19:15 says. ”Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” ”Follow justice and justice alone,” says Deuteronomy 16:20, ”so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your G.o.d is giving you.” Or how about Deuteronomy 27:19? ”Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
”The LORD loves righteousness and justice,” Psalm 33:5 declares. ”The earth is full of his unfailing love.” Check out this litany of justice-loving p.r.o.nouncements, straight from the heart of a justice-loving G.o.d: Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.1 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.2 Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.3 For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.4 He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your G.o.d.5 Woe to you Pharisees, because you give G.o.d a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of G.o.d. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.6 Clearly, our G.o.d fires up pretty quickly when he sees injustice at work in his world. Like a skilled musician who can't help but be traumatized by a series of flat notes, or a chef who reflexively cringes at the thought of ketchup on a tenderloin, injustice rubs G.o.d the wrong way. Understandably, it inspires his wrath. G.o.d's flawless character can settle for nothing less than justice on behalf of his people.
Now, to be clear, you and I don't respond to injustice quite so strongly. We may read verses like these and think, ”Yeah! Preach it, G.o.d. I'm right behind you!” But left to our own devices, we sometimes fail to act on that promise. A little oppression here, a little bigotry there-as long as we're not the ones being harmed, we can easily look the other way. It's not that we like injustice; it's simply that injustice doesn't cut to the quick of who we are. That is, unless G.o.d's soul-piercing whispers have their way.
I've been in awe of G.o.d's character ever since I was adopted into his family. I've noticed that when G.o.d finds somebody who is living tuned in to his input-a woman or a man with a serious mind, available hands and an unquenchable thirst for righteousness-he tends to tap that person for help in solving a societal ill. Like the eerie calm just before a storm, G.o.d places a quiet whisper of insight into a willing pair of ears-and then sits back to watch as a storm of justice begins to build.
Based on conversations I've had with scores of people who have received these types of whispers, the initial instructions from G.o.d often are simple: ”Read the book.”
”Ask the question.”
”Watch the doc.u.mentary.”
”Go to the learning group.”
”Risk engaging in that relations.h.i.+p.”
”Find the funding to take the trip.”
But not surprisingly, once the person follows that initial divine direction, all bets are off. More times than not, that person's world gets irreversibly rocked as their role in this world takes a radical, justice-focused s.h.i.+ft.
If you're a couple of decades on either side of me, you likely remember a woman by the name of Candy Lightner. One day in May of 1980, Candy's thirteen-year-old daughter, Cari, was walking from her house to her school carnival, when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver. The guy behind the wheel had three prior arrests for drunk driving and had been on a three-day drinking binge. Two days before killing Cari, he had been arrested and released for-you guessed it-a drunk-driving hit-and-run. In an instant, Candy's precious daughter had been robbed of life. The injustice of a child dying at the hands of a drunk driver stirred unbelievable pa.s.sion in this grieving mom. G.o.d rocked her world, and Candy Lightner would go on to found MADD-Mothers Against Drunk Driving-which over the past thirty years has influenced countless local, state and federal jurisdictions to strengthen laws and stiffen penalties for those who choose to drink and drive.
G.o.d has moved similarly in scores of other lives. I think of a woman at Willow-a suburbanite, young-but-devoted Christ-follower enjoying a comfortable, upper-middle-cla.s.s existence until G.o.d decided to rock her world. Seeing her able mind, her open hands and her obedient spirit, he said, ”I have a special a.s.signment for you.”
For the past six years, this woman has resided in Cape Town, South Africa, where she seeks to show G.o.d's love to fourteen-year-old prost.i.tutes. Every night she hits the streets, armed with food, wholesome employment opportunities and an invitation to start a new life. One young girl at a time, this woman is right-sizing the injustice of a broken world that uses these girls as disposable objects. And every ounce of progress she has witnessed can be traced back to a single whisper from G.o.d-a whisper she could not deny.
Then there is Gary Haugen, the founder and president of International Justice Mission (IJM). In the late 1990s, life was going just fine for Gary, a Harvard-trained lawyer-until one day when G.o.d whispered a plea into his ear. ”Gary,” the Holy Spirit said, ”it's time you use your legal background to fight for those who can't fight for themselves.” Today, IJM has field offices in fourteen countries and a staff of hundreds, all of whom are laying down their lives to secure justice for victims of slavery, s.e.xual exploitation and the violent oppression that wreaks havoc in our world. Willow is grateful to be one of IJM's many partners.
When G.o.d is given the invitation to rock someone's world, great kingdom gains get made. The one being rocked joins G.o.d on an adventure he or she never could have imagined, and the people he or she serves discover hope and peace and freedom they had never known.
The first world-rocking whisper I received from G.o.d dealt with helping to alleviate extreme poverty. Admittedly, logic would say that I'd be the last person to care about social-action issues such as this. I'm a white Dutch guy of reasonable means who spends his downtime racing sailboats. What do I know of poverty and suffering, of oppression and strife? And yet G.o.d would have certain plans for my life that traced their roots all the way back to that Nairobi hotel room I described in chapter 1, when I was a teenager visiting one of Kenya's worst slums.
That particular evening G.o.d had whispered, ”Bill, if you'll dedicate your life to me, I'll use it to help solve some of the problems you are witnessing.” Those ”problems” involved bloated bellies, rotting limbs and flies crawling all over the faces of people living and dying in the streets. I was watching the crown of G.o.d's creation being forced to subsist on too little money, too little food and far too little hope.
I wasn't sure exactly what G.o.d meant by this whisper, but I took the deal nonetheless, and over time he has filled in some of the blanks.
WHEN I WAS STILL A STUDENT IN COLLEGE, I BEGAN TO NOTICE and study Scripture that expressed G.o.d's strict instructions that the wealthy members of society care for those who were poor. For example, in Leviticus 19:9a10, G.o.d says, ”When you harvest your land, don't harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don't strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner” (MSG). Later, in Deuteronomy 15, G.o.d instructs landowners to carve out a tiny piece from their expansive property and give it to someone who was poor. Landowners were to provide starter seed as well, so that an impoverished family could harvest a crop and feed themselves with a sense of dignity.
To the wealthy, G.o.d also says, ”Whenever you make a loan to someone who is poor, do not ever charge them interest.”7 They already were poor; why on earth would a rich person want to profit off of their misfortune? Similarly, he tells well-resourced people to cancel the debts of the poor whenever possible-that they would be further blessed by writing off the loans they had made.8 Although G.o.d is clear in his instructions that his followers help lift the poor out of poverty, sometimes G.o.d's people failed to pay attention to what he says. Instead, according to Zechariah 7, they ”stubbornly turned their backs and covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent.”9 G.o.d's people actually stopped up their ears so they couldn't hear the cry of the poor! And understandably, G.o.d was enraged. I can't help but reflect on times when my own hesitant response to the cry of the poor has equated to ”stopping up my ears.” During those same young-adult days, I came across a pa.s.sage of Scripture describing another way to live. Isaiah 58:10a11 says, ”If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
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