This morning, it hit me what I had known a few days back, on my way home. There was a bulldozer on my street, and I thought to myself as I walked down the street, well it’s about time. You see the street in the estate where I live, is an artifact of nature. You could look at it that way. The force of Nature had left its mastery on it, doing work of art in carving, to match the best human effort. I wondered how long it would take before the gully would finally separate us from our homes. Twice already, I had been enlisted to help lift up a car that had got stuck.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one wondering. I watched for a while as the bulldozer ran roughshod over the street, tearing up earth and rolling it over again. Back and forth it went, breaking up and leveling hitherto, jagged road. There was something about the way the bulldozer worked that struck a chord in me, and immediately my spiritual antenna snapped up. God was talking, but I wasn’t sure what he was saying. The transmission was certain, but the reception was foggy. I wasn’t too surprised at that. Lately, I have noticed a very disturbing fact that I was neglecting my spiritual workout. I mean, I couldn’t remember the last time I actually listened to a complete sermon on tape. The reason? I was so busy working for the lord that I had neglected walking with him. You know, that is a very subtle way the enemy has for coming at those of us who have dedicated a life to the service of God. He tries to cut us off from inside out. It’s like being in the Army; I mean, the only reason you get okayed to join the forces is because you met up with all of the physical and mental expectations … by the way I discovered this cool site about the army, http://www.goarmy.com/, when I was trying to correlate my service for the Lord with service in the force. After all, like Paul in the scriptures, and Paula on the web love to put it, we are Soldiers. And one sure thing about a soldier is Basic Training. It is what makes you a soldier; it is what keeps you a soldier. For the Christian Soldier, Basic Training includes Word Study, Tongue Talking, Daily Confession, Meditation Time and Thinking Time. And for me, on all counts, I was below critical region. But I digress.
So there I was watching this bulldozer work up and down the road, and clearly God was talking to me. It was a few days later when the voice I had heard finally downloaded to my spirit in streaming audio. I really do need to tune up my spiritual bandwidth.
There is always a shaking before a settlement.
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I mean the reason for the bulldozer was to straighten up and lay the road right; get rid of the forming gullies. But in the process, there would be a lot of digging up, and tearing down, and rolling over; a lot of shaking, literally. It’s the same principle in the spiritual, God was saying to me, when I finally tuned in. There is always a shaking before a settlement. And I am reminded of Ezekiel in the Valley of dry bones: Ezekiel 37:1 -10; an amazing story. I don’t exactly like to use the language of the world, but if you look at it in the right perspective, it’s like what they say, “It gets worse before it gets better”.
Some things have been happening in my organization that should be a source of concern to me. There’s been a lot of restructuring going on; a moving between offices, departments and responsibilities, as need requires. And though I am finally comfy with the idea of actually working in church, instead of a big software company like Microsoft, don’t take me away from the web. I would plain die. I mean, isn’t every organization’s goal to maximize productivity? And isn’t the best way to do that be to put the right man on the right job? But then I am reminded that this is no ordinary organization; and this is no ordinary job. It’s boot-camp; and it’s battle time. Everyone is first a soldier. At this point I am reminded of a hilarious comedy, In the Army Now, where water-boys in the infantry were forced to drop their water jugs and pick up artillery. Or, the movie “When Trumpets Fade” where soldiers, in World War II were sent out to territory irrespective of whether they wanted to go or not. But again, I digress.
So, there I am in the midst of major reshuffle in my organization, and am holding my breath: dear lord, please keep me online; this is my battle ground, this is where I am in my element. Needless to say, I was getting all worked up for nothing, because as the Lord reminded me the first reason I was a church staff was because He had assigned my portion and my cup. I was simply answering a call.
You know, that is one thing that took me a while to deal with. I had always thought living by faith was for dealings in world. But I have come to understand that, even in church, living by faith is a prerequisite. There are no microwave operations. You work out your own salvation.
Now, I just glanced at my laptop’s status bar and noticed that the clock is ticking. Which, interpreted means, I am behind on the new website that should go live today. Besides my growing laundry and my personal needs…oh well, duty calls, so this blog will have to be continued…
Faith is Made of This 