Experiencing God at Home (24 page)

This young man’s return was not easy. He did not consider his family until he had nothing left. Yet at last he did make his way home. And what was the father doing? He was watching the horizon for the wayward child he knew would return one day. Oh, the father would have dearly wished he had come home sooner. Nevertheless, we are given the strong impression that each day the father gazed out on the horizon for the familiar silhouette of his second child. Scripture tells us that “when he was still a great way off” (v. 20) the father spied the son. The father could only have seen his distant son if he had been looking intently and purposefully. The father believed God would eventually get through to his son, and he wanted to be at his post when He did.

Summary

When God does a work in our life or in the lives of our children, it will inevitably lead to a crisis of belief. That’s because God’s ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8–9). His ways are higher than ours. He knows the future and how our lives will turn out. We will come to the end of our knowledge and power and be forced to trust in the Lord for what comes next. And when we do, we will be right where God wants us to be! But once we experience a crisis of belief, we’ll have to make some major adjustments in our life, and that is what we’ll address next.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion

1. Is there an issue in your home right now that is causing you to have a crisis of belief? If so, what is it?

2. What does your family witness when they watch you having to trust God for something?

3. Of your children, which one of them are you presently struggling to fully trust God for?

4. Take some time to reflect on the promises of God. Pray them into your children’s lives. If a particular promise seems impossible at this point due to how your child is behaving, take time before God to fully trust Him for what He promised.

Chapter 13

You Must Make Major Adjustments in Your Life to Join God in What He Is Doing

Embarrassing Myself on a Mountain (An Example from Richard)

My job requires extensive travel. Several years ago, I went through a period where I had been out of town almost constantly. One night I called home, and my wife, Lisa, commenced our conversation by saying, “You’re not going to like this. . . .” Now I have asked her
never
to begin a long-distance phone call that way, but she did. Apparently, the following week our boys’ school was having its annual downhill ski lessons. Every day after school, parents would drive their children an hour west to the Rocky Mountains and let them take ski lessons. The school had requested parent volunteers. Lisa, realizing I would finally be home for a week and knowing I had not spent much time with our kids of late, concluded that a perfect way to make up some of that deficit was for me to serve as a chaperone. Apparently I had been one of the lucky parents the school had chosen. Now I certainly did not mind spending time with my kids, but I had a problem. A BIG problem. You see, I didn’t know how to ski. I grew up on the Canadian prairies in the province of Saskatchewan. It is so flat there that they say your dog can run away from home and you can still see it three days later! I was sure I was going to break my neck during those lessons! In addition, I had been out of town all week. What I wanted more than anything was some time at home. I had visions of sitting in my La-Z-Boy recliner by the fireplace and resting each evening. But now I’d be endangering my life on a ski hill.

The next day things got worse. There was a family we knew called the Baileys. They had three children the same ages as ours. The father had died of cancer five years earlier. Lisa hated for Mrs. Bailey to have to drive her children to the mountains every afternoon and then try and keep tabs on them while they skied. So Lisa invited them to join us.

The first couple of days went well enough, until Thursday. I was in the ski lodge pulling food out of our cooler. The lesson was over, and dinner was soon to commence. Mrs. Bailey was helping. In walked my twelve-year-old son Mike and his friend Jason. Mike pointed an accusing finger at his buddy and demanded, “Dad, give Jason the leg!”
That
was embarrassing. I need to explain. The kids and I had a game we played when they were young. Wrestling! We would roughhouse for hours on the living room floor. Even my little daughter Carrie would join the tumult. The problem was that as the kids were getting older, they were also growing bigger and stronger. As I was getting older, I was becoming increasingly out of shape and in danger of a major heart attack. So, I did what any self-respecting father would do. I learned to cheat. I developed a technique I dubbed “the leg.” I would put my hand on the leg of one of my children just above the knee and squeeze tightly. My fingers would pinch right to the tendons and produce an effect much like an electric shock. So, if the kids were getting the best of me and I could feel “the big one” coming, I’d grab the nearest child and give him “the leg.” That would put one of my opponents out of commission. Well, it was this same, aforementioned “leg” that my twelve-year-old son was demanding I give to his friend.

Apparently on their last ski run before dinner, Jason had accidentally bumped into Mike and sent him hurtling down the slope, face first. Mike had been exasperated and declared that, for justice to be served, when they went for dinner in the ski lodge his dad would give Jason “the leg.” Now, in front of a hundred skiers sitting about the lodge eating their dinner, as well as Jason’s mother, Mike was demanding that Jason receive what was due him. Jason knew of “the leg.” All of my children’s friends did. “No, Mr. Blackaby. Please. NOT the leg! ANYTHING but that!” he begged. I feared that any moment Mrs. Bailey was going to summon a security guard to intervene and protect her son. I turned to Mrs. Bailey. “Have no fear. Your son’s leg is perfectly safe with me!” She rose from her chair and placed her arms around her son. I expected her to threaten me with a lawsuit if I laid one hand upon her firstborn. Instead, she looked gravely at me and stated matter-of-factly, “I think he deserves the leg too!”

Things were going from bad to worse. I was humiliated! There were a hundred pairs of eyes that would see me manhandling this child. I was certain I had seen a policeman on the premises, and I could imagine seeing my face splashed across the front page of the newspaper the next day for having been arrested on a school field trip. But then something unusual happened. As I looked at Jason as he pled, “Please, Mr. Blackaby, NOT the leg!” I sensed the Holy Spirit gently speaking to me. “Look into this boy’s eyes,” He whispered. As I did, I saw a twelve-year-old boy who had not had a father to wrestle with him for more than five years. “I am the Father to the fatherless,” I heard God say. At that moment I felt the freedom to give Jason the “mother” of all legs! He went down hard, squealing and thrashing about. I was certain I’d be arrested at any moment, but I didn’t care anymore.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, that showdown in the mountains would have profound consequences. Mrs. Bailey was so touched at the playful attention I had given her son that she encouraged him to spend time with our family whenever he could. Jason began coming to church with Mike and one night at a youth rally gave his life to Christ. Two years later Jason was at our house one evening. He told us that he believed that if he had not become involved in our family, he might well be dead. Apparently, as his father was dying of cancer, Jason had pled with God to spare his life. When God had not, Jason became bitter and pronounced himself an atheist. The following years were filled with bitterness and disappointment. Kids at school teased Jason and made his life miserable. Upon returning home from school each day, he would retreat to his room and listen to dark, depressing music, trying to muster the courage to end his life. That was when he crossed paths with Mike and our family. Ultimately, he discovered a Father in heaven who loved him. Now his life had meaning, peace, and joy.

I came to see that there had been far more at stake during that week of ski lessons than I could possibly have imagined. I thought I was merely making up time with my children after having been away on business too much. But the reality was that a young man had desperately been seeking a reason for living. God had invited our family to join Him in His activity to set a young man free. At the time I had felt that I was a martyr for having to forego my La-Z-Boy recliner to accompany schoolchildren on the ski slopes. I had even chafed at the thought of having another family join ours during the mealtimes. The “leg” incident had certainly taken a toll on my dignity.

But the truth is that that you cannot stay where you are and be on mission with God. My natural inclination was to relax in my living room by the fireplace each evening. God intended to be fully present on that mountain where a young man still wondered if there was a God. I learned I could not remain in my recliner and join God’s activity on the mountain!

You Must Make Major Adjustments in Your Life to Go with God

God is continually at work in the world around us. He is unrelenting in His effort to redeem humanity and to restore His fallen creation. Scripture is filled with examples of God inviting people to join Him in His redemptive work. And, in each case, people had to make major adjustments to go with God.

Moses

Moses had been herding sheep for forty years when God revealed His plans to save the Israelites. God said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry. . . . So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. . . . Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:7–8, 10). When God first began talking with Moses, it must have seemed like an interesting discussion. God had seen the Israelites’ plight, and He was going to do something about it! Great! But then God invited Moses to join Him in His activity. God wasn’t asking Moses to merely believe He could bring salvation to His people. He was asking Moses to leave the security of the only job he had known for forty years, return to a land where he was a wanted man, and to deliver a highly unpopular message to one of the most powerful rulers in the world. That was quite an adjustment!

Mary the Mother of Jesus

Mary was a godly teenager. She must have been filled with excitement when an angelic messenger approached her, saying, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28). Who would not be delighted with that message? But then the angel explained how she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit
before
she was married to Joseph. This had never happened before! Furthermore, it was scandalous for an unmarried woman to become pregnant. What would this do to her relationship with her fiancé? How could a lady who had always lived so righteously endure the shame and the reproachful glares of the village women who assumed she was an adulterer? How could she bear the suspicion of Joseph or her own family? Clearly, becoming involved with God’s activity was going to change Mary’s life forever!

The Twelve Disciples

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen on the scenic Sea of Galilee. It was a noble profession providing a steady income. Their fathers were fishermen and would one day hand down their businesses to their sons. They lived in an idyllic, peaceful town, far removed from the noisy commotion of Jerusalem or Caesarea. They could enjoy their families and retire in comfort one day. By all accounts, these men were destined to enjoy a peaceful, predictable, purposeless life.

Then one day, as they were in the midst of their mundane tasks, Jesus was suddenly standing beside their boat. “Follow Me,” He had said, “and I will make you become fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). That seemingly innocuous invitation would forever change the lives of those men. They had been content to remain in that backwater location all their lives, but now they would be scattered across the known world. They had never spoken in public before; now they would stand before large crowds pointing people to the Messiah. They would have most likely been popular people in their small town; now they would face angry mobs that opposed them and intended to kill them. They certainly would not have entertained any notion of writing a book for posterity, but Peter and John would ultimately pen words that would be cherished for more than two thousand years. They had assumed their lives would impact few others besides their immediate families, but after they chose to join Jesus in His work, their lives would transform the world, impacting people on every continent for millenniums to come.

As Jesus stood beside their boat that day, these men had to make the most important decision of their lives. Clearly, they could not stay where they were and go with Jesus at the same time. They could not hold on to the certainty and safety of their current life and simultaneously embrace the new life Jesus was offering them. Each of these men would have to make enormous adjustments if they were to join Jesus in His work.

So it is with us. God is at work all around our family. He will inevitably invite us to join Him in what He is doing. But it will require us, and our family, to make significant adjustments. We cannot remain where we are, doing the same things we have always done, and go with Him! For many believers, this is a crucial decision. It is all well and good to believe God can change our world. It is quite another thing to make adjustments in our own personal life in order for God to change the world
through us
.