June 9--What to Do When The Path You're Taking Needs Replacing

Sometimes we need to get off a rocky path and find smoother terrain, but there are other times when we find the rocks to be wisely placed by the God who wants to draw us close and grow us, as I learned from today's passages:  1 Kings 5-6, Acts 7, Psalm 127, Proverbs 16:29-30.

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Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

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June nine When the path you're taking is rocking. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I was crying over the mud puddles on the stone path I'd spent more than a week building. The dirt around the stones was too high because they'd been sunk too low. After I'd already dug and re dug them, I just couldn't face the fact that I'd have to do it all over again, but redo them I did, and it would be the fourth time. The trouble with the stones involved Sam, a deacon at our church, who was in charge of the project that put in a concrete sidewalk where a stone side path had been. It also included me since I'm the church's volunteer yard man who was given the task of adding the old stones to widen another path to the front door, which was also made of stepping stones. Through communication snafus, Sam and I were working at cross purposes on this path. I was working on it during the day, and Sam would stop by after work to add to what I'd done in the evening, but I quickly realized that I didn't want his help as his method was very different. He was laying the stones level with the ground while I kept them raised two inches above it so that when it rained the water could drain and we'd avoid having puddles to splash in on our way to the front door on a rainy morning. I tried telling him, hey, thanks, but I got this more than once, but it didn't sink in until I got blunt, which was painful for both of us. I hired Isaiah, a young twenty something to help me as the stones were slate, heavy and enormous. But Isaiah came earlier than expected that first day and began working before I explained the part about setting the stones higher than dirt level, and he dug in and copied the way Sam's stones were laid. So rather than having only Sam's work to undo that morning, I now had Isaiah's to undo as well, which was so very maddening, I have to tell you. Isaiah had to leave earlier than expected, and I was never so glad not to have any more help. The long and the short of it is that I ended up completely redoing the entire path, not just widening it, because both helpers had dislodged so much of the earth I couldn't make it look right otherwise. It was easier to start over and do the work by myself, so I did. The way I figured it, I'd rebuilt that path three times by the time I was finished, but it was finally done, and it was beautiful in my eyes. I reported to Sam who said he'd have his crew do the final cleanup by seeding and strawing the bare earth between stones, plus remove the large mounds of dirt I'd piled up in the process. I was grateful as I had a trip out of town to take, and when I got back I drove out to check on how the path project turned out, as well as to water the newly scattered grass seed. There was to be a wedding later that day, and I wanted to make sure our brand new front path was as inviting as possible. But what I saw made my heart hit my feet. There was grass seed and straw strewn helterskelter all over the stones so that some weren't even visible, but the worst part was that rather than haul off the dirt mounds, Sam's helpers had packed that dirt around the stones so that, you guessed it, they were all at ground level again. And this was the reason I lost my mouth and my mind as I rinsed the seed and straw from the stones that Saturday. I knew I'd have to start all over on this path and raise every one of its stones again, and this would now be the fourth time. As if to add insult to injury, it poured rain the next morning, and I watched as people splashed through muddy puddles rather than got raised up out of them as they dashed to the front door that dark and disheartening Sunday. Not only did I hate the path project at this point, I hated the path I was on to build it that God wouldn't let me off of. I hollered words at him I'd never spoken out loud, and the tears that fell were red hot and ugly. The passages today spoke pointedly yet kindly when I first read them, which

1 Kings 5-6

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was exactly two years ago today, which was the day after this rocking path fell right out from under me. The Old Testament chapters are first Kings five to six. As grand as the temple was that Solomon built, the cedar and cypress timber, the gold plated walls and floors, the bronze pillars and capitals and basins and bulls, God told him that the reason for the temple was to have God himself, not to build something amazing for him. And already my bells are ringing. What the temple really meant to God and to Israel was having his presence with them, not having bronze pomegranates and golden cherubim wings. From Solomon's first communication with Hiram, the wood supplier, to the number of years it took to finish it, the details of the temple construction are found in these chapters. And right in the middle of the description of workers, floor plans and materials, God took Solomon aside, and he repeated the promise he gave to Solomon's father David, that if he lived God's way and followed God's instructions, quote, carefully and obediently, end quote, God would keep his promise, which was to live among the Israelites and to be present with them. But of course, the temple wasn't the literal place where God lived. Even Solomon knew, quote, the heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built, end quote. The purpose of the temple was to show men and women how they could be restored to a right relationship with God. By offering a blood sacrifice for sin, they could connect with God's forgiveness. Building a beautiful temple where this reconciliation took place was an important task, the most important task of Solomon's reign, and it would be easy to get distracted by all the details of its construction, caught up in the finery of the materials, dazzled by its artistry and beauty, and forget that building the temple wasn't the most important thing, because the most important thing about the temple was its quote resident, not the residence, end quote. Solomon might forget that God was the point, not the building, especially if he'd been working on it all his waking hours for seven full years. It would be easy to be caught up in what he was doing for God rather than to be caught up in God himself. Is it just me? Or are you hearing ding ding ding? So God reminded Solomon during the process what the point actually was. If Solomon obeyed God, God would keep his promise to David and quote, I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people, end quote. I can't help but feel an elbow in my ribs. I want this path to be glorious for my church and for God, but God keeps mucking up the works by letting Sam interfere. Why is he letting it happen? And so often. Maybe what God wants more than a perfect path to our church's front door is for me to want and enjoy him more than I want this path project to turn out. Maybe what's more important to God than my building a perfect path for him and the glory I secretly want to gain from it is having his imperfect daughter freshly humbled and submissive to whatever it is her father wants to teach her. Maybe what God wants is for me to relax and enjoy him rather than knock myself out for him. When the path you're taking is rocking, open your

Acts 7

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heart to receive it as God's path to a closer relationship with Him. The New Testament chapter is Acts seven. Stephen, the standout deacon, defends himself of false charges before the temple council. He begins by recounting Israel's story since Abraham, and he ends by pointing the finger at the council that's accused him, and he says that by murdering Jesus, they're just like their ancestors who murdered God's prophets. Those who'd been listening to his history lesson thus far go nuts and drag him outside where they stone him. A young man named Saul is standing there, watching and approving. What a horrific regret that must have become for him. Stephen's last words echo Jesus on the cross when he says, quote, Father, forgive them, end quote, because they need it. Twice the text says that Stephen is quote full of the Holy Spirit, end quote, which is why he can preach with passion and forgive like Jesus. What Stephen tells them is exactly what Jesus had been saying for years. Their mutual goal was to prompt these religious posers to repent and be forgiven. This is the goal of any sermon or teaching that the hearers would be cut to the quick, see their sin, and repent. God wants to redeem us, but he won't force his way inside us. Repentance is the invitation we give him to move in, but repentance only comes when a person is gifted by his spirit. Salvation is God's doing from start to finish. We can't earn it, we can only repent and receive it, which is so very humbling when you think about it. This is what the temple council could not do. Nobody gets to build their own temple for God worship or take their own path for pleasing him or create their own version for how to be saved. Nobody even wants God in the first place unless his spirit quickens them. God's complete sovereignty in our saving is both humbling and freeing. When the path you're taking

Psalm 127, Prayer, Proverbs 16:29-30

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is rocking, submit to it as God's tool to lead you to repentance and into so much joy. From Psalm 127. With God at work, we can rest. This Psalm is about God's work, which is the only work that really matters, because if God's not building the house or guarding the city, it won't be built and it won't be safe. We can either throw in with what he's doing or not, but the truth is that God's the one who gets anything done, and while this might be mildly insulting on the one hand, on the other hand, it's mighty freeing. Because with God on the job, we get to rest and trust, take time off and get enough sleep, leave worry behind. Will success in the marketplace follow you into eternity? Our children don't ultimately belong to us. They are quote God's best gift, his generous legacy, end quote. They're gifts he gives us, a legacy we get to influence, but unless we give them to him, we won't get to keep them. God wants our work to be done within the context of his, not separate from him as something unto itself. The idea of God's work trumping ours doesn't mean that ours isn't meaningful. It means that we're not bearing all its weight by ourselves as we do it. After all, if the work we do in order to leave our greatest legacy is making babies, it's hardly work when you think about it. When the path you're taking is rocking, remember that God is the critical player, so you can rest. Prayer. God receiving what you bring, repenting for sin, resting in you. These are three of the hardest things you ask me to do. Help me to learn them from you. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 16, 29 to 30. Beware status climbers who betray friends and family, shifty eyes

Afterword

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that betray poor character, set jaws that betray sternness. Here's an afterword. The extraordinary thing isn't that I spent thirty more hours over four more days to fix the path after I first posted this. The extraordinary thing is that God spoke the words I needed and just when I needed them to pull me out of my path worship and into his worship that Sunday morning, and he didn't wait for me to say I'm sorry or to shape up first either. And the even more extraordinary thing is that he enabled me to hear him in his words in first Kings, Acts, and Psalms, and respond to them with joy and relief, and not another pitched fit. There's more at this story at the end of this written post at the link if you're interested. Passages in First Kings, Acts, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartelaban Roebuck.