Full. It was my One Word for 2020, and it seems to be a fitting description for the fall of 2022 as well.
In September, Randy and I spent several days visiting his mom in North Dakota. A few weeks later, my sister and I took our second annual trip to Wisconsin to see our 92-year-old Aunt Renate.
I read Mere Christianity for the first time when I was in my late 40s. I don’t know why it took me so long. I love C.S. Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia are among my favorite books in the whole wide literary world.
I was late to the party, for sure. But once I read Mere Christianity, the non-fiction title Lewis is perhaps best known for, I felt like someone who had just discovered pizza and wanted everyone else to know about it.
I have a pretty good idea what my strengths are. You probably know yours too. We might never broadcast our talents to the world, but part of knowing ourselves is understanding how we are wired and being confident in our gifts.
Hopefully, we’re not like those tone-deaf people who were convinced they were going to win American Idol because nobody ever had the heart to tell them they couldn’t sing. But we all have skills and abilities that are helpful and useful.
Inside: Gideon asked God for three signs, and God performed a miracle each time. Keep reading to find out why—and what happened next.
I meant to write this post last year, when my word for the year was strength. I’ve actually been thinking about it for much longer than that, though, and it sometimes happens that the longer I ponder something, the harder it is to write about it. I tried several times last year, but the words just didn’t come. After giving it another shot recently, I finally got it done. I hope the two-part series that begins today encourages your heart.
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The account of how Gideon rose up out obscurity to save the Israelites from their oppressors is one of my favorite narratives in the Old Testament. Perhaps you remember the story. Israel is in chaos. The judges who are supposed to be in charge are not leading well, to say the least.
Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press when “the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’ ” (Judges 6:12)
That’s not exactly the greeting you’d expect God to give someone who is so obviously hiding out from his enemies. But when Gideon responds with a barrage of questions about why all the calamity had befallen Israel if the Lord was really with them, the Angel is unfazed.
“The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you?’ ” (Judges 6:14)
Gideon clearly doesn’t think he’s the man for the job. But when he describes his family as the weakest in their tribe and himself as the youngest in his father’s family, the Lord simply says, “I will be with you. … You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.” (Judges 6:15-16)
Then the story gets really interesting. Gideon asks for a sign of God’s favor, and the angel brings fire up from a rock and consumes the man’s sacrifice. (Judges 6:17-22) Later, Gideon wants even more assurance that God will deliver Israel from the Midianites. So he asks for not one, but two additional signs.
“Then Gideon said to God … ‘I will put a fleece of wool here on the threshing floor. If dew is only on the fleece, and all the ground is dry, I will know that You will deliver Israel by my strength, as You said.’ And that is what happened. When he got up early in the morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung dew out of it, filling a bowl with water.
“Gideon then said to God, ‘Don’t be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me to make one more test with the fleece. Let it remain dry, and the dew be all over the ground.’ That night God did as Gideon requested: only the fleece was dry, and dew was all over the ground.” (Judges 6:36-40)
So, a question. When God calls Gideon a “mighty warrior” at the beginning of their encounter, is He being sarcastic, or does He see something that even Gideon himself has missed?
Armchair theologians—maybe even serious students of the Bible—might chastise Gideon for his apparent cowardice, his seeming lack of faith, his relentless requests for signs. I don’t know, though. I actually see resourcefulness in his means of threshing and boldness in his request for proof.
I’m guessing the Angel of the Lord scared Gideon half out of his wits, but he still asks for three signs. And God performs the miracles. Every single one.
He doesn’t chastise Gideon for his unbelief or strike him mute for his lack of faith (which did happen to other people in scripture, by the way—Sarah and Zechariah come to mind).
Perhaps this was because God knew Gideon’s heart. He knew how Gideon was wired—his personality, his internal drive, his willingness to do what was necessary, even if it was unconventional or he had to sneak around to do it.
Maybe that’s what the Angel of the Lord was talking about when he told Gideon to go in the strength that he had.
What happens next makes that argument even more convincing. Once Gideon accepts his new assignment, he has to recruit an army. He starts out with 32,000 volunteers, but God has some very specific instructions about how to narrow down the troops. (Judges 7:2-6)
By the time everyone who is scared or demonstrated a lack of readiness gets sent home, Gideon is left with 300 soldiers, armed with nothing more than trumpets, empty pitchers and torches. (See Judges 7:9-25 for details of the actual battle.)
Talk about unorthodox military strategy. Ridiculous is more like it. And yet, there’s no record in scripture of Gideon questioning any of it.
When he finally decided to step out and boldly go in the strength that he had, God did amazing things. The end result wasn’t up to Gideon, his job was to do what God told him to do. And the outcome was an astounding victory for the Israelites.
So what does all this have to do with us today? Click here for Part Two—How to Cope When Doubts and Fears are Eroding Your Confidence.
♥ Lois
Some might chastise Gideon for his apparent cowardice and relentless requests for signs. But I see resourcefulness in his means of threshing and boldness in his request for proof. Share on X The Angel of the Lord probably scared Gideon half out of his wits, but he still asked for three signs. And God performed the miracles. Every single one. Share on XP.S. I’m linking up this week with OneWord2022, #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Recharge Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.
Inside: What the sunrise teaches us about God’s glory and presence, even during seasons when it’s hard to feel Him with us.
Last winter, when the sun rose later and I was able to get outside to run before the break of dawn, I noticed something interesting. Dawn comes every morning, but when the sky is clear, it’s not as spectacular. It’s the presence of clouds that make the sunrise brilliant.
This doesn’t happen when it’s completely overcast, of course. But when there are white or gray clouds spread across the sky, the sun’s early morning beams reflect off them, producing all the glorious colors that take our breath away while we’re driving to work or walking to school or running down the trail.
There’s a spiritual application here, I think. Without the clouds—the problems, cares and concerns of life—we would miss many opportunities to see God’s glory and provision displayed.
I’ve found it to be true; perhaps you have too. Often, it is in seasons of struggle and weariness that we find God’s peace to be most sustaining, His comfort most reassuring, His presence most stabilizing.
Maybe we have to come to the end of ourselves to realize He truly is the only Source of everything we need?
But what about the days when the sky is completely overcast? How do they fit into our spiritual metaphor?
Is it contradictory to suggest that tough seasons provide equal opportunities to feel closer to God than ever, and also further apart than ever? Perhaps, but it’s also true.
God sometimes seems distant when we’re going through a hard time. He doesn’t appear to be answering our prayers. We don’t notice evidence of His hand at work. He feels far away.
The thing about God, though, is that He doesn’t change with our circumstances. We might not feel Him, but that doesn’t mean He’s not there. It just means we don’t feel Him.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again—to myself and anyone else who will listen. Like love, faith is a choice. It’s a choice to believe that God is who He says He is even if He feels distant or seems unconcerned.
The thing is, glorious sunrises don’t happen very often—at least not where I live. I don’t usually get out on the trail before the sun comes up during the summer, but I can think of only two times last winter when the sky was so amazing I had to stop running and take a picture.
The sun keeps rising, though. Day after day.
The older I get, the more I’m realizing that life is a journey. It’s a long walk home. It’s a long obedience in the same direction, as Eugene Peterson titled his wonderful book.
On rainy days, sunny days, days when we see evidence of God’s hand and days when all we can do is put one foot in front of another and know that tomorrow is a new day.
These are the lessons that the dawn is teaching me. They’re obvious, perhaps, but sometimes the things that are right in front of our nose—or above our heads, as the case may be—are the things we need reminded of the most.
“From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” (Psalm 113:3)
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I’m going out of town next week so I’ll be taking a short blogging break. I’ll be back in early October with new posts, including a short series about my word of the year from 2021 that I’ve been thinking about writing for much longer than that.
♥ Lois
God doesn’t change with our circumstances. We might not feel Him, but that doesn’t mean He’s not there. It just means we don’t feel Him. #Godiswithus Share on X Like love, faith is a choice. It’s a choice to believe that God is who He says He is even if He feels distant or seems unconcerned. #Godiswithus Share on XP.S. I’m linking up with OneWord2022, #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Recharge Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.
Eight years ago this week, I sent my first post out into the blogosphere. So much has happened—in my life, in our country, in the world—since then. It’s almost incomprehensible, if I try to think about it all.
A blogger friend recently celebrated her seventh anniversary by posting excerpts from her top seven posts, and I thought it might be interesting to do something similar.