And yet today, I made the mistake of again thinking smaller than God does. In fact, had things today turned out as I'd expected, I'd have been limiting God in His provision.
When St Paul talks about the way God does it, he mentions it being "immeasurably more than we can ask for or imagine": an outlandishly hyperbolic statement to the modern ear that is ennured to the exaggerations of mdeia around us.
And back to Elijah again: prior to his undignified conduct in praying for rain and repeatedly sending his servant to look for clouds, Elijah had come through rather a huge battle:
Basically, he'd had a contest with the priests of Ba'al as regards whose god was the 'ardest: the God of the Israelites or Ba'al. The contest involved a length session of prayer followed by an invocation of divine zapping: whichever deity managed to set light to the sacrificial fire on the mountain-top, was shown to be the winner.
Well, off the Ba'alites went, howling, cutting themselves and getting cranked up to fever pitch. Elijah's approach was thus though: he knew that God had been doing everything He'd said He would, with more besides. Thus he had the precedent of God acting on his behalf when he asked for anything in line with God's purpose.
So, Elijah did something extremely memorable: there, in a time of drought, with water being both scarce and precious, he went and ordered that all the wood be thoroughly soaked with water. He made the scenario impossible, in other words..so that it needed an actual impossible event to change that scenario. Had he not done this, he would have been through fear or unbelief, limiting God's ability to do the impossible.
Of course, with all the wood now non-flammable, the priests of Ba'al had to raise their game...but their god refused to show up and ignite the wood. Now, had Elijah failed...or if God did not rescue the proceedings, a very annoyed set of people who'd had their god mocked and their precious water thrown away, would have been displeased. Elijah's soon-to-be-much-shorter life would not be worth living.
As it was, God did do not merely what was needed and asked for, but immeasurably more than Elijah imagined...and not just finishing the demonstration that day but continuing to do impossible things in impossible situations.
For me and the sake of this story, this means that how today went with the car needs a tale above and beyond what I expected.....it also soberingly means that whatever God has done today is not the end of what He is doing, that there will be some relevance of this one day to something larger in days to come, and not merely for the sake of myself, but for that of others, and with a result of the same God being spoken of as the same impossible God as that of the Israelites.
And I underline the above, because obviously at the moment , the future is hidden from me...but I take it that the underlined bit will come about because I've seen precedents of God already doing similar. Time and events will be a witness, then, of whether I am lying or not...so you could always follow this blog to be proved right or wrong if you wish, as the days or weeks come about...
Well, Elijah first, then me: With the priests frustrated at the no-show of Ba'al's power, Elijah called on God. ZAAaaaPP, I guess the soundtrack must have been: fire from heaven came down with such intensity that not only was the wood and sacrifice consumed, but also it burnt away all the water from the trench around it that they'd filled with water. Needless to say, the priests of Ba'al did not live long and prosper. Also, despite the city around being a Ba'al stronghold, God had still, as He told Elijah, set aside several thousand others(apart from Elijah) who had not bowed the knee to Ba'al.
Now, Elijah had a nature like ours: yes, he'd seen God at work in his life doing impossibly more than he could ask or imagine..but needed to be jollied along by God, as he fell into fear and unbelief readily. In fact, the very next day or so, despite having been part of the trashing of the Ba'al priesthood, it only took a snarly threat by Jezebel(the king's missis) to see our Elijah immediately forget God's visible demonstration and past victories in his life, turn tail and run so far and so fast that he was reduced to eating bits of fallen carrion dropped by crows and other rubbish-scavengers.
The "moral" thus far being, I guess, that one day you'll be witnessing God's power and being thankful and sensing His reality...yet no matter how excellently-professional you can put your head up on a Sunday morning, you are pretty certain of falling into your fallen behaviours the very next minute.In fact, if you did not, you wouldn't have the same nature that is common to either St Paul, Elijah, your dustman, your wife, friends, Adolf Hitler, Uncle Tom Cobberley and all.
Well, I guess I'm in select company then!
I was anxious that the car might not get all its hidden bits diagnosed and sorted; I just about cranked up the faith to think that most would be done..and even got a bit of thankfulness going about the alternator being there to put in as well as having just about the funds to cover the work plus the alternator: because hadn't God already saved me money by both getting me a year's free RAC cover without ordering or needing it, and by getting the immobiliser passed on to that big Parts Bin In The Sky..?
I got the call in the afternoon, some 5 hours after I'd dropped the car at the garage.
But..talk about impossibly more than I'd asked or imagined: the bill was a mere £30. Thirty quid?! That all?
Yet they tested then cleaned each earth connection, replacing one corroded one: and guess what? The alternator had not been faulty, as the problems had all been caused by the unseen enemy of the earthing.
Consequently the battery was now receiving the charge it was supposed to.
And there's impossibly more than this, which I certainly never imagined:
....You see, I'd become used to the electric windows opening super-slowly for a year or more, thinking it was the car's age or tired servos; I'd been well-used to the lights dimming upon slowing down under engine compression for ages. So you can imagine my utter amazement at yet another blessing: the windows now go "whee" in double-quick time and the lights all seem brighter as if new bulbs have been put in and the headlamps cleaned. Now, I'd never expect that, nor even would I have imagined that this needed to be asked for, let alone not asking for it as I was not aware it was needed, THEN having it restored anyway.
And "restored" is the word. The car now actually performs better than before it indicated it was in need of attention. It is restored to a better condition than I expected or imagined, as I could never have been aware of exactly what to imagine. Well, you don't, do you, when you don't realise something is wrong?
So. This not about cars is it?
Or if it is, then of how much more it concerns its driver, as if God does this with an inanimate car then what can I expect from Him..particular when given the coincidence that this is the very week when there will take place some major praying with others about my life.
Soberingly, then, given the analogue of the car(and the times that He has commented on my life using the car as a symbol in dreams), there may be more "wrong" in my spritual mechanics than are dream't of in my philosophy(Horatio...sorry, the by-product of being an English-teacher by trade). ...
...Yet if all the nasties get an airing and are made visible in shaming powerlessness, I have to tell myself that an Impossible God is both willing and able to restore me to a better condition than before. And, yes, this I do need.
One final thought: as insular as often I think I'm condemned to be, these times of being allowed to get powerless so as to actually be willing to let God get past my pride, have always included others.Whether in prayer or by an equally prayerful yet largely unrecognised method of just "speaking and listening alongside" the friends that I've been blessed by walking with, the process seems wired to include others.
Of the biblical Good Reasons for this, I'm reminded of when Jesus restores a very smelly and definitely-dead Lazarus to life..and this ain't resurrection but rejuvenation, by the way.
First of course, is that fact that the man in need is beyond help and certainly beyond social decency...though you'd almost believe that niceness is a pre-requisite of belonging, in some churchy manifestations. Jesus has to get up close and personal, breaking all religious and social niceties by practising real love: the love that does rather than merely speaks or even feels.
The next step is interesting: Jesus commands Lazarus to "come forth": job done. Lazarus lives.
And Jesus does not address Lazarus further. Lazarus himself has, of course, "come forth" but is in a bit of a state: he stinks of death, is wrapped with bandages that were appropriate to his being dead and all. These bandages are now stopping him feeding, talking, seeing..and are not what he should be wearing.
So...what does Jesus do?
Jesus' next words are not to Lazarus. They are to those around him: his friends, family, those who live alongside him, who are blessed and challenged by him, who smile and and weep and get angry with him.
Jesus' words this time are; "unloose his bandages".
You see, Jesus does the saving, the initial freeing from the law of death: but it is the responsibility of those immediately around to now get as close and personal as Jesus just has, and for them to do the unwrapping.
I wonder how many churches, who are full of well-meaning evangelism rather than obedience and love from personal knowledge, realise this? Do they consider that their duty has stopped when they've handed out the tract, or done the fish-flappy-thing as people fall over, and Jesus saves? Nope, only just begun: it's your job to deal with them now you've got them on the pew..or did you think that was someone else, someone more suited in your eyes to being "pastoral"...?.. because your strength, as people have not told you otherwise, is church "evangelist", isn't it....?
(...And how misunderstood is that very passage about gifts and who-does-what...but that's another sermon...)
So, like the feeding miracle too, it's the disciples who do the work of feeding; Jesus could do it but He wants us to do it: beter for us, them and God's Kingdom.
And it's the family that does the unwrapping as you walk forward to take the Road Less Travelled...
For more of my photos of both it and other springlike beauties,
have a look at this gallery
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