Car Vs Bus
With gas prices as they currently are many people may assume this post is going to be about converting single car commuters to mass transit users. Though that is a interesting discussion, that topic is not at the heart of this post. No, this post comes from a very thought provoking discussion this week in the Sunday school class I attend.
We were discussing the nature of God’s call on our lives and talking about learning to trust God and completely invest our lives and goals in His will. One of the other class members remarked how he and his wife had been discussing this at home, and to them it was like choosing to take the bus to go shopping instead of driving your personal vehicle.
Hopefully my recounting of his point, will present to you a great picture of the difference in trusting in yourself vs trusting in God. This analogy really drove home the point to me how many Christians still put their will ahead of Gods, even when it comes to doing His work.
First we see that our eventual destination (i.e. the goal) is the same. Basically regardless of how we choose to commute to the store we are going to the store. In the same way if we know God is calling us to a ministry or a task we know that we are going end up performing that ministry. The question then becomes which route and means are we going to take to get to that point.
The selfish / me focused route is one that says this is where I am going. I know it is of God, and God is leading me there. So, it is my will to arrive there now / quickly. We then proceed to do things our way, including in our own timing and means. As a result, we operate more in our will then Gods. The goal is achieved, but not completely as we likely did little via God and most was done via ourselves. God may or may not bless the work, but even then it is only the end result that is blessed as we completely missed all He had for us in terms of development, growth and experience. The results appear to be the same, but really they are only a portion of what God had planned for us within this ministry / work.
The shopping parallel is to go get in our car and drive directly to the store. Once at the store we are still able to freely operate on our own. We need not worry about rain or weather or the schedule of the bus as we can come and go and move as and when we see fit. We can get what we need quickly, leave when we want too and avoid any problems as we have the ability to choose how / when we achieve our goal.
In comparison, the God first approach to ministry is to say - God I know it is your will, I know your way is right and I will trust you to achieve your goals and will through me in your time. That may mean more time, a few delays, some inconvenience , and lot less of us in the final result. In the process though God shows us far more, we learn a lot more about Him, and our own will and desires are decreased. The result is far greater as the final goal is achieved, but so are all of the other things that God desire for / through us. God’s blessings and power can be seen from beginning to end and at all points in between.
In the shopping analogy this is the bus or mass transit route. We know we are going to the store, but the route we go will be different and likely not as direct or quick if we were driving ourselves. On the bus are also dependent on the bus driver to get us their safely, not our own abilities. Additionally, on the bus there are likely to be numerous stops and delays along the way that are not part of our plan or destination. This usually means that people outside of our core group / family get on and join us in the trip.
This trend continues once we are at the destination as well. Things are different when we are dependent on the schedule of the bus to take us back to where we started. Like it or not we have to wait on the bus / train and it operates outside of our control. As we labor, we must work through and around the rains or hurdles that arise as we do not have a means to leave on our own. We are completely dependent on the bus and others for us to not only achieve our original goal of shopping, but for us to arrive back home safely / in good condition as well as we have no control of our route and the stops along the way.
I hope this little analogy means as much to you as it did to me in class. Hopefully it will challenge all of us to trust in God more and more and in ourselves less and less.
Stay strong, be courageous, and serve God in all things.
