Following the God of Love in an Efficient World

 

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the people of Isreal, that they take for me a contribution.  From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.  And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple, and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skin, goatskins, and acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.  And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.  Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.’” (Exodus 25:1-9)

Here is an example where God wants people to act as their heart moves them.  As their heart gives them unction, they would be allowed to contribute to something so spectacular, something that impacts the entire community as well as future generations: “that I may dwell in their midst.”  

Do you let your heart move you?  Not in emotionalism, but in prompting by the Spirit to do something incredible and amazing with Him? 

Here, God prepared an opportunity for them to make a difference.  It was a sweet invite that was to come from the heart—from keeping God at the center of your heart.   God was to be central for the Israelites—His people.  I love how, as they established the tent of meeting, it was at the center of where the tribes camped.  It was where everyone faced and paid attention.   And if the cloud of glory above it moved, they were to move with it.   This tent, later became a temple, and both were a shadow of Jesus.  The Israelites were learning to be led by the Lord and make Him the center of their lives.   God was central.  

Gerald G. May, in his book, The Awakened Heart, notes that all our choices reflect our developing passions of how we decide to invest ourselves in what we care about.  Large or small, we are making a multitude of decisions every single day. [1]  And it is out of these decisions, that grooves are formed in our brain and habits are established. After repeated decisions in one direction, our actions can seem to happen without any real thought.  In fact, when we want to change them, we have to exert a great deal of effort to go against this conditioning. [2]

The Lord conditioned His people to make Him central.  He wanted every thought and every action to be formed around Him.  His centrality was key to the Israelites being who they were as His people.  He wanted the people wait for His leading.   Everything was to be done with Him in consideration and consultation. 

There were times that this was challenged and tested.  For instance, when the Gibeonites came to the leaders, the Israelites failed to consult God.  Because of this, the Gibeonites tricked Joshua and his army, pretending to live far away, into making a promise to keep them safe.  Also, we see at Ai, that as the people went ahead of God in over-confidence, they were defeated.  They needed to learn to step forward with God, in His timing, and then they found His miraculous provision was with them.

We also see people who respond faithfully when tested.  Caleb who was 40 years old when he went and spied out the promised land, was 85 years old when he finally had the opportunity to step into the promises of God and receive his inheritance.   While his brothers cowered and made the people’s heart melt with fear upon seeing the Promise Land, he told the people, “I wholly followed the Lord my God.”  (Josuah 14:8)  As a result, God was with him and he was as strong and full of vigor in his old age as he was at 40.  The Lord sustained him through it all and helped him to drive out his enemies from the land as he took the Promises of God.  He was not left out or left behind.  

Is God’s miraculous provision with you?  Could it be if it is not, there may be some places that you are not in tune with Him or making Him central in your choices?

“For the Lord was with me” sings in the background.     

Later, as the temple was built by Solomon, the Israelites already had the experience and training from wandering in the wilderness with God to make God central in it.  It was the place of worship and center of focus for the entire community.  As the people learned to treasure the presence of God, they invested heavy in making the central place of worshipping God breathtaking.  

Interesting that in building the first temple, that Solomon used foreigners to supply the wood and other materials.  He had them imported from an ally of David.   Not only this but he hired Hiram, a foreigner from Tyre, as skilled worker in bronze, to create the pillars, basins, pots, shovels and much more as it related to the temple.   It says that he was full of wisdom and understanding.  

In this case, having foreign help was not a hinderance but an incredible blessing.  It was because of the diverse contributions from the territory of King Hiram of Tyre and from the Queen of Sheba that the temple was as spectacular as it was.   For them at this time, embracing diversity expanded their capacity beyond what they could have accomplished alone.

Diversity can have this beautiful effect.   However, we have a tendency to make rules and formulas rather than being led by the Lord.  We see some examples where something works well and we want to make a model out of it that we can apply to our future circumstances.  We might say, see this is a perfect example and we should always look for and embrace diversity.  Rather than following the Lord in every situation, we make a golden calf that is appealing to us and follow this.  

We start following the rule rather than the Lord and the result is often a mess.  The diversity creates conflict and inability to get things done.  The opposing opinions create grid-lock and nothing gets accomplished.  Hate and anger or jealousy take the place of unity and people get hurt and wounded in the process.

We see this happened with Solomon as he married many foreign wives.  He was drawn into their practices and he fell away from the Lord.  The foreign women stole his heart and drew him into worship of other gods.

We also see an example of this in building the temple and the walls in the second temple.   As they built, those in the territory offered to help.  Since they lived in the territory, they claimed to worship God as they did.   In this case, the Israelites refused. 

As a result, these people opposed the rebuilding of the temple and tried to stop it.   And like with Solomon, the Israelites were later led astray by marrying the people of the territory and began erasing the lines of the distinction of themselves as a people set apart for God.  In this situation, the diversity created the problem for the Israelites. 

Further examples of this are Sanballat and Tobiah, governor’s in the area, when tried to do great damage when they were in power to stop the work of God.  Tobiah had been given a large chamber where they had previously stored grain and other offerings for the priest and most of the Levites had went home to work the fields as they were not being paid.  The central place of worship had been forsaken.  Alos, the Tyrians, who helped build and contributed to both temples, were the culprits of selling the people of God goods on the Sabbath. 

All that to say that there is no sure “rule” we can follow on diversity or anything else for that matter if we follow Christ.  He is this Center Temple, that we are to build our lives around and face every day in all that we do.  Our communities are to be formed around Him.  

Also, I wonder if things could have been different in this case had the Israelites helped the people of the area follow the Lord and allowed them to participate.  If they were the influencers rather than being influenced.   What about if they helped the area experience and worship God the right way?  Perhaps they would not have had all the opposition.

When Jesus came to the earth, He went right to the people who most “needed a doctor” and began to exert influence.  Rather than separate Himself from them and not associate with them, He went right in their midst to help.   I just started to read a new book called Multipliers.   It is about multiplying one’s influence through others. 

When we look at what Jesus actually did, it was this.  He went into the most troubled areas and exerted influence to help and heal people.   In Luke 4:18-21 where He tells the people what He is about, He tells them the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and anointing Him to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  

It was everything that would turn the tables for those needed.  He did this by dying on the cross and then sending His Spirit to empower others to make this difference for others.  He empowered us to perform good works that He prepared beforehand.   His dream was for us to be free to make a difference. 

I wrote in my Bible, “Your legacy is not what you accomplish but what others accomplish because of you.  

In looking at how Jesus, sacrificed and died for us to empower us with His Spirit so that we could make a difference, is this what we follow?  Are we led by love and entering the invitation to live aware of God every moment and love others, or are we living for ourselves as a means to obtain our wants?

 In leadership, there seems to be two directions one can take.  They are like streams that have an undertow flowing in two different directions and we have to decide which one we will dive into.  One is the direction of preeminence.  It is all about my plan, my power, my productivity and my position.  It is all about being central, and control in wanting to be efficient and effective in producing results.  And the results take precedence over the people because at the end of the day, we want to be recognized for our accomplishments in making a difference.  There is a way that seems right to man, but leads to death.  We see the fruit of following this path.  It is mistrust, judgement, a lack of grace, and control.  It is the world’s way.

Ever think that if you have the fruit in your life of distrust leading to control, of suspicion and judgement, you may just be wading into this stream? 

Yet, the other stream flows in the opposite direction.  It is an invitation to love—love others self-sacrificially by making room for them to become all that God has created them to be.  It is about being vulnerable and taking risks to serve others.  It is the true Jesus way.  We diminish as we also multiply and genuinely make a difference.  Notice that it is an invitation rather than a drive.   It is living in, living into, and being alive within [3].    

Thrall, et al. notes that “true goodness flows from a fulfilled life and a heart of character.  When we experience love, when we mature in character, we are empowered to love others.” [4]  I would love to argue that this is the true picture of flourishing and success.   It is not accomplishing some metric, but birthing forth life in the world.  It is the meaning of being fruitful and multiplying.  It is how success genuinely happens.  From living out of flourishing, one finds contentment, joy and abundant provision.  Rather than distrust and fear, trust of the Lord and abandonment lead the way into greater and greater joy and fulfillment.

We cannot use worldly measures and expect a godly outcome.  Want for more (success, recognition, or money) will lead us right off a cliff.  I love that Ecclesiastes notes, “All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.”  And also writes, “What is lacking cannot be counted.”   It reminds us that lack and want are always following us.    In pursuing it, it eludes us. 

But in loving others sacrificially, helping them to become all that God has designed, our life overflows.  It is like a river that overflows its banks.  A trusting joy and abundance are the fruit that it bears.  It is a different Kingdom. 

This is the place, the place of trust of the Lord and a desire to love others well, that we need to embrace diversity.   Thrall, et al. notes that receiving the care and concern of others who are different from us can be messy and sometimes chaotic. But when we refuse to turn away and embrace people different from ourselves, accepting them for who they are, we will be amazed at how much we have gained.  Trust should not be reserved for a small group of people who look, think, and act in ways very similar to us. [5]  

He goes on to note that trusting people different from us, requires us to lean in to trust God.  As we look and depend upon the Lord to sustain us, we can endure negative circumstances and difficulty in relationships while we are waiting to see God bring forth His purposes. [6]

Here is where we differ in opinion:  He notes that we need the Lord’s strength to trust people have our best interest at heart.  Not to be a skeptic, but let’s face it, people do not always have our best interests at heart.   As much as we want to blindly trust people, even pastors don’t always have our best interests at heart.  We see this all the time with Paul in the Bible.  Religious people followed him around just to make his ministry more difficult and stoned him to death more than once.  

People do not always have our best interest at heart but God does.  No matter what happens, God is in control and working all things for His good and glory.  We are not out of His reach. Like Paul, people may stone us, but God can raise us back up if He wants.  If we trust in people, we will be eventually betrayed and wounded.  But trusting in the Lord, we can always count on Him.  And because we trust Him, we can trust ourselves in other people’s hands as God leads.

It comes back to this place of being led by the Spirit.  If I went around blindly trusting everyone, I would be an idiot.  But in trusting God, I can lean into Him and trust Him to guide me through the most difficult situations and even betrayals.  And when I am in trouble, I can trust that He will meet me in it.

Lord, help us to make you central in everything.   When the world pulls on us to measure success by metrics, let us use your measuring rod for true flourishing.   Help us to direct our paths according to Your ways, being led by love, into multiplying our influence investing in others.  Let us see how the fruit in our lives communicates the direction of our hearts toward You or the world.

 

1-3.  May, Gerald G.  The Awakened Heart: Opening Yourself to the Love You Need.   HarperSanFrancisco, New York, NY.  1991.

4-6.  Thrall, Bill, McNicol, Burce & McElrath, Ken.  The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationship Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence.  Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.  1999.