Some of us have run from bees. Others of us have run from bullies. And lots of us have run from a friend’s house when we heard the voice of mom calling us in the house for supper.

I distinctly remember the call of my mother who would yell, “Ronnie and Johnny and Pat-riiiiiiiiiik!” to get her three sons home from a few blocks away. The last part of Patrick’s name was always drawn out in a falsetto voice. We could hear mom from five blocks away, and we would immediately stop what we were doing and run home for supper. And, unlike most kids today, we actually played outside, so, by the time we got home, we were sweaty, filthy, stinky, and starving; we were a mess!

As a pastor, I have heard, more times than I can count, about those who have run from their calling from God. There’s a story in an Old Testament book of the Bible about a guy who ran from his calling from God. “But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish” (Jon 1:3a NIV). It’s interesting how many Jonah’s there are out there in the pastoral world. Every seminary and Bible College hears their fair share of those who have “ran away from the Lord”.

The point of Jonah’s tale is to let us know that it is dangerous to run from God.

What about running to God?

My wife recently used a fairly simple and well known object lesson to bring home the point that we must all work together in order to do God’s will. In other words, no one person can do the entire ministry required to bring others to the Good News.

She used a tablespoon-full of coffee grounds to point out how only one part of a recipe is not very appealing to the palate. After all, it’s not until the grounds are added to water and heated on a stove that something edible is produced.

When she scooped up the coffee grounds into the spoon, she asked if anyone would like to eat the grounds. Of course, one young boy who wanted more attention than he should have desired raised his hand with great urgency and said with earnest enthusiasm, “I’ll eat it! I’ll eat it!” So, my wife obliged him with a quick dunk of a heaping mound of dry coffee grounds right into his mouth.

Immediately, the boy stood up and ran for the closest faucet. With a look of horror on his face, he ran as fast as he could to the kitchen sink, while his mouth oozed dark brown slobber that ran down his chin and onto his nice, white shirt.

Some Christians, who are called to some form of ministry leadership, run with great passion away from God. While others, like the little boy with a penchant for punishment, run with equal eagerness toward what they think they will enjoy. Imagine their surprise when they learn that they have rushed into something they weren’t really expecting. In fact, they found that the ministry they ran to wasn’t really tasty to them at all.

Let’s not forget Paul’s warning in his first letter to Timothy: “[An overseer] must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil” (1Ti 3:6 NIV).

Sometimes, Christians are too eager to dive into their calling before their calling is ready to receive them. And when they rush to open their mouths and take it all in, they are horrified to discover that it tastes nothing like they imagined. Because of their impatience, they end up making a huge mess, when a few more ingredients and a little more cooking time could have given them a more palatable experience.

As Dr. Rod Cooper so wisely stated, “God is not in a rush to make you a leader. He is much more interested in what you look like when you do lead.”

So, whether I’m a Jonah 1:3 runner or a 1 Timothy 3:6 runner, the direction I’m going isn’t really the problem; sometimes it’s the running itself that makes the mess, no matter which way I am headed.

In His dust,
Johnny

© 2010 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Theological Thoughts, Reflection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.