There was this boy who went to school every day. When he arrived he would start with watering the plants, bringing the teachers a cup of coffee or tea, he would clean the yard and throw out the garbage. He would clean out the dishwasher and refill the copy machine when it ran out of paper. At the end of the schoolyear he didn’t pass to the next grade…. Why not? He always attended school and he did good things, right? Yes he did, but it wasn’t his job to do these things. It wasn’t the reason he had to go to school.
Go(o)d things
I have been married for almost 10 years, I do the laundry, clean the house, cook the meals, al these things are good things, but it aren’t the things that make me married to my husband. They don’t mean anything if I don’t spend time with him and we don’t live our lives together. We can fill our days ad lives with “good” things, and they really are good things to do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are God things. Let’s have a look at some examples from he Bible.
All work no play
Maybe you have heard the story of Martha and Mary. It’s such a familiar story but also recognizable. We can point fingers at Martha and think how obvious it would be to sit at Jesus feet when such an important person would visit your house. But definitely in that time, it was the woman’s job to make sure there would be food at the table. It was a good thing what Martha did. She wanted to take care of Jesus, to make sure He would be comfortable in her house and not leave with an empty stomach. Let’s look at our own lives. Who likes her own birthday best? Almost no one. We’d rather sit at someone elses party. Because at our own we have to take care of our guests, we walk all evening serving drinks, preparing food and at the end of the evening we haven’t even talked to everyone attending. It’s a good thing to be a good host, to let people feel they are welcome and taken good care for. But is it always the best way to spend your evening?
What is God’s idea?
Maria knew that normally her task would be in the kitchen, not with the men in the living room, but this was different and it asked for a Godly reaction and not a good reaction. What’s Gods idea? I am a visionary, when I’m driving in my car all kinds of new ideas come to my mind, I could start an Alpha course in prison, I could work as a volunteer for an organization, I could help refugees settle in and getting to know the language, I could teach at Sunday school, I could organize girls nights at our local high school, I could visit the elderly and lonely people. I and we can think of a lot of good things to do, but we can’t do them all. Our time is limited, so we need to make choices.
Stand still
Now all of the ideas above are good? But what is God? I believe that God has a specific plan for each of our lives. You got a uique set of talents, gifts, time and possibilities that God gave to you for a reason. We can do a lot of ood things, but I believe that when we are doing God things it will bring the best results for it has His blessing, it was His idea too. When we look at Moses in the Bible he has such a close walk with God. When the people of Israel started to complain again about the absence of water Moses asked God what to do, but ended up doing his own idea.
So often we run ahead of God, thinking we already know the best way
Water came from the rock and the people had there water, it was good. But it wasn’t God, it wasn’t what He wanted to do. So often we run ahead of God, thinking we already know the best way, following our own good plans and things. But I think there is a lot of power when we take time to stand still, be quiet and let God pass and walk upfront. So He can be the one leading and we can follow. To lay our ideas before the Lord and let Him point out wat is not only a good idea, but also a God idea.
Read also: Rest time is not wasted time
