What else?
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side - Psalm 3:5-6
This morning, this analogy (better than the one I had the other day) came into my head. It sort of came from the psalm I read in my quiet time this morning, and it sort of relates to this whole waiting thing.
Suppose that the challenge that you are facing is like a season with your church league basketball. I played with my Bible Study class in the Second Baptist league when I lived in Houston (It's obviously more exercise for me than real competition if you've ever seen my game). Suppose you're a team like mine looking for the elusive goal of the league championship, and you're up against the best team in the league... one where a couple of guys played some college ball and really shouldn't be in "church league" if you know what I mean. Do you think that my team of 10 guys that were pulled at the "hey - let's have some fun and play in this thing?" recruitment are going to have much of a chance? Probably not.
But suppose for this game we were short a little for players, and a guy walks in and we can pick him up as a "free agent" player... so we pick him up because we need the extra player and this guy looks like he knows how to play. He introduces himself, "Hi, I'm LaBron James." Yes, THE LaBron James.
Now, you can imagine that we'd have a lot more confidence now that a player the caliber of LaBron is on our team. The same is true of us when we know that God is on our side and working toward our good (Romans 8:28). But what if we said:
"Okay, I've got the perfect gameplan... LaBron, sit on the bench and we'll pull you in if we really get tired or need some scoring."
- or -
"LaBron, I want you to run decoy. You can fake them out while we work the play we've drawn up."
Does that sound like a good gameplan if you have a player like LaBron on your team. HECK NO!
What do you do? (That is, if you want to win)
You give LaBron the rock. That's what you do.
But you don't give LaBron the rock and stand around, you run the play. You're involved, even though he may be able to beat all 5 guys on the other team all by himself. Heck, he may dish the rock to you or me and we'll get an easy basket. Wouldn't be possible if Drago (Rocky fans anywhere?) was guarding us without LaBron, but now that he's too busy with our new buddy we're wide open if we're in the game.
Same goes in life. God is on our side. He is working toward our good. And He is the ringer we need on our side. So what do we do with life's challenges... the things that we really can't seem to control but try to?
We give God the rock. We give control of the thing we're waiting on to Him and let him do His thing. Like in the church league game, we're still in the play (but running out of a different playbook), still engaged in life, still working in partnership with God (isn't that cool?), but instead taking challenges on our own we've given the game over to the one that owns the game. One that we can trust in to deliver. And you know what, He may have a different play drawn up than the one we were imagining, but it's exactly the right play. And when all is said and done, it was because we gave up control to God that things worked as they did... in a way that is for our good and gives God the most glory.
It's sometimes hard to give up the rock. That's true. But in reality would I... really... want a 5'9" white guy going up against a college player... or LaBron James?
Exactly.
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side - Psalm 3:5-6
This morning, this analogy (better than the one I had the other day) came into my head. It sort of came from the psalm I read in my quiet time this morning, and it sort of relates to this whole waiting thing.
Suppose that the challenge that you are facing is like a season with your church league basketball. I played with my Bible Study class in the Second Baptist league when I lived in Houston (It's obviously more exercise for me than real competition if you've ever seen my game). Suppose you're a team like mine looking for the elusive goal of the league championship, and you're up against the best team in the league... one where a couple of guys played some college ball and really shouldn't be in "church league" if you know what I mean. Do you think that my team of 10 guys that were pulled at the "hey - let's have some fun and play in this thing?" recruitment are going to have much of a chance? Probably not.
But suppose for this game we were short a little for players, and a guy walks in and we can pick him up as a "free agent" player... so we pick him up because we need the extra player and this guy looks like he knows how to play. He introduces himself, "Hi, I'm LaBron James." Yes, THE LaBron James.
Now, you can imagine that we'd have a lot more confidence now that a player the caliber of LaBron is on our team. The same is true of us when we know that God is on our side and working toward our good (Romans 8:28). But what if we said:
"Okay, I've got the perfect gameplan... LaBron, sit on the bench and we'll pull you in if we really get tired or need some scoring."
- or -
"LaBron, I want you to run decoy. You can fake them out while we work the play we've drawn up."
Does that sound like a good gameplan if you have a player like LaBron on your team. HECK NO!
What do you do? (That is, if you want to win)
You give LaBron the rock. That's what you do.
But you don't give LaBron the rock and stand around, you run the play. You're involved, even though he may be able to beat all 5 guys on the other team all by himself. Heck, he may dish the rock to you or me and we'll get an easy basket. Wouldn't be possible if Drago (Rocky fans anywhere?) was guarding us without LaBron, but now that he's too busy with our new buddy we're wide open if we're in the game.
Same goes in life. God is on our side. He is working toward our good. And He is the ringer we need on our side. So what do we do with life's challenges... the things that we really can't seem to control but try to?
We give God the rock. We give control of the thing we're waiting on to Him and let him do His thing. Like in the church league game, we're still in the play (but running out of a different playbook), still engaged in life, still working in partnership with God (isn't that cool?), but instead taking challenges on our own we've given the game over to the one that owns the game. One that we can trust in to deliver. And you know what, He may have a different play drawn up than the one we were imagining, but it's exactly the right play. And when all is said and done, it was because we gave up control to God that things worked as they did... in a way that is for our good and gives God the most glory.
It's sometimes hard to give up the rock. That's true. But in reality would I... really... want a 5'9" white guy going up against a college player... or LaBron James?
Exactly.
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