Sometimes the professor learns from the student. One of my mentees, George, recently completed 20+ days on a wilderness trip, and he told me this story about the first few days of that trip:
During the first four days of the hike, it rained a lot. And on days three and four, it was non stop. During those last two days we were actually in a cloud so even when the rain let up, there was still a constant mist. It was impossible to escape the mist, it even got everything under our tarp soaked. All of my stuff was dripping wet.
But then on the fifth day I woke up with beams of sunlight hitting me in the face! All the clouds had lifted, and it was nothing but sunny skies. It’s hard to describe how much it meant to see the light and feel the warmth of the sun after so many rainy days. I just stood there looking at the sun and was overwhelmed with happiness.
It was amazing, though, how quickly my feelings toward the sun changed as we started hiking. It became so hot and humid I was almost wishing it would rain again to cool me off. It only took a few hours for me to complain about the very thing I was so happy about that morning.
It was then I realized this is how we treat God. We always look down on the Israelites for turning their backs on God, but we do the same thing all the time.
I’ve thought about George’s words a lot, and I think he’s right. We love His blessings at first, but sometimes we don’t like them later:
- We thank God at first for forgiving our sin, but then get frustrated when we have to say “no” to our same temptations later on. We love grace until it feels like God’s standards keep us from doing what we really want to do.
- We’re grateful God calls us to Him as His child, but don’t always like it when He calls us to ministry or missions work. To be His child, forgiven and loved – yes. To follow Him fully, laying aside our own plans and future – too much.
- We praise God for providing us a job, but rebel against His call to give back to Him sacrificially. Our gratitude for a paycheck decreases when God demands that we give back a significant portion to His work.
- We thank Him for bringing us through the storms of life, but don’t want to be more committed to Him after the storm. Sure, we make verbal commitments during the storm (e.g., “I’ll follow you, God, if . . .”), but those commitments become meaningless words when the storm no longer threatens.
- We’re glad God gives us food, but then don’t like it when He calls us to fast and/or avoid gluttony. We appreciate God’s blessings as long as we don’t ever have to give them up.
- We ask God for mentors and accountability but then don’t like the commitment and honesty these relationships require. What we apparently want, then, are attention and time more than godliness and growth. We want mentors, but on our terms.
- We love our local church family, but get stressed when they press us toward faithfulness. It’s one thing to love a local church that welcomes us and ministers to us. When they hold us accountable and challenge us in our sin, though, we no longer appreciate the blessing of the family.
- We love having a wife, but don’t like the accompanying responsibilities. To have somewhat respect our manhood? To have sex without guilt? You bet! To respect our wife first as a sister in Christ? To love her as Christ loved the church, being fully godly and never putting ourselves or our desires above her? That’s more than we bargained for when we started a relationship.
- We’re grateful when God gives us good health, but we don’t do the work it takes to stay healthy. We’re spiritual beings, after all. Why discipline ourselves to take care of the body God gives us?
- We thank God for His Word, but then don’t like reading it. It’s not always easy to understand, and it sometimes just convicts us. We’re glad we have it as long as we don’t have to let it govern our lives.
George gets it, I think. We gladly accept God’s blessings one minute, take them for granted the next, and later complain about the expectations of the One who blessed us. We like the sun until it gets just too hot.
