GRATEFUL FOR THE GRIPE
I’ve had a TON of schoolwork this week. Worse, I’ve got another week before it’s all done. Between the end of this post and traveling home to thanksgiving Tuesday, I’ve got a twenty page paper, three two page papers, and some other odds and ends to do. I’m SO ready for Thanksgiving in a week.
But I’d like to pause. Thanksgiving is a week from today, Thursday. When that comes NEXT week, we will all be grateful that what we have to do THIS week is over. We will be thankful that what HAS happened is already done. But right now, that what HAS happened is what IS happening. And at least for me, I don’t see any gratitude for it yet. I’ll only be grateful for this work once it’s done.
But is that how God wants it to be? Does God want us to only be grateful at a table next week, or does he want us to be grateful at the desk THIS week? I think God wants us to be grateful for our work AS we do it, not just AFTER we do it.
What I'm afraid of is that our GRATITUDE next week is our GRIPE today.
See, that's what the enemy does. He turns our GRATITUDE next week into our GRIPE this week. Let me tell you—this work has been STRESSING me out. I'm ready for the Turkey, not the Turabian (Christian studies formatting)!
What God does, however, is turn the GRIPE to GRATITUDE and GRATITUDE to GLORY. Let me explain by illustrating what I read about Noah and his ark this week.
Noah was about 600 when God told him to build a big boat because it was going to flood. Up to that point, it had never rained, so it'd be pretty odd to have a flood. Also, Noah had known God SIX HUNDRED YEARS. I've known my best friend a few more than six years and I feel like I've got him figured out pretty well sometimes. Imagine how surprised Noah was when all of a sudden God starts talking flood on him! I'd be like HOLD UP new conversation topic! You want to talk about WHAT? I’m too old for you to keep pulling fast-ones on me. I'd want the old topic, not something totally new. Can’t we just keep doing the alter and tent thing? After six hundred years of following him, I'd be asking for a break, not a new rake (speaking of fall).
So, how did Noah do it?
Noah GREW instead of GRIPPED because he TRUSTED instead of POUTED. He looked at the task ahead of him and took it one step at a time, trusting that the one who gives all tasks knows what he is doing, even if it doesn't make sense in light of what we think we should be doing or what everyone else is doing. Even if we think we’ve obeyed enough times before and this time it just doesn’t make sense or we just don’t want to follow him out on another new and exhausting adventure again. Noah TRUSTED. Noah knew that God knew more. Though he probably thought that boat would never get done and even if it did there wouldn't be a point, he built. So, when you've got a big boat, start to trust if you ever want to float.
Noah GREW instead of GRIPPED because he focused on the BOAT, not the BOAST. Think about it, that boat was huge. I’d have been really proud after finishing it. No one had ever built a bigger boat. If I was Noah, I’d want that thing built just to say I did it. I’d only be thinking about how awesome what I was doing would be once it was done. But by focusing on the big picture like that, I’d have no idea how to get there. That’s why Noah didn’t focus on the boast. He focused on that boat one step at a time. The point for him wasn’t building something big; it was obeying God, one step at a time.
Noah also didn’t GRIPE because he stayed present in the FIGHT. Staying present in the fight is MUCH harder said than done. That man had been around six hundred years. This wasn't his first fight. He had a lot of fights in his past that were probably much easier. He probably WISHED his current fight could be like one of his past fights. He knew how to win his past fights. Oh boy, have I wished my current fights could be like my past fights. When I fight I want to win, and I know I can win when I know what will happen when. Why write another paper, when I’ve already learned how to write other papers? The problem with a past fight though is that winning a past fight doesn't take TRUST. If we don't need trust in the fight, it's not much of a fight. The point of the fight is not winning; the point of the fight is GROWING with God so that we can GLORIFY him.
See we don't GRIPE so that we can GROW, and we GROW so that we can give Him GLORY. Oh boy was the Lord glorified when Noah didn't lose the fight. But all that because he didn't boast and all that because he didn't lose trust.
See, for me, I have spent a good bit of time on the GRIPE instead of in the FIGHT.
I’ve spent so much time wanting to get to the BOAST, I didn’t build the BOAT. The boat is not for a boast.
Lastly, I’ve spent so much time worrying about the size of the BOAT, I almost didn’t FLOAT.
I know we all have a lot of school to do this week. I’ve been the first to gripe about that. I’ll be SO grateful when it is done next week and I can sit in a warm house with family. But before I am thankful for what HAS been done, I’d like to remind us that we CAN enjoy what IS being done. We can turn our GRIPE RIPE and remember that the boat isn’t about the gloat. It’s about our growth and his glory. And once it’s done? It will help others. And for that, I’m grateful. May we trust and fight with all our might, next week AND now.
Besides, our boat this week is much smaller than Noah’s boat. Noah got that boat at 600. Though he’d never built a physical boat before, he had built many smaller boats before. He had stayed faithful with many smaller boats before. For many of us, we are tired of another small boat. We want the bigger boat or at least the degree. But we will never get the big boat if we haven’t learned to float in the little ones first. So don’t complain about the small boat this week, practice for the bigger boat next year. It’s not about the boat. It’s about the obedience and the gratitude. God has given us a little chance to be faithful and rejoice in what he places before us, turning it up to him and giving him the glory for it. You’ve got a free trial run now with a little boat. And for that, I’m excited! Your little boat is for your GROWTH and your GROWTH is for his GLORY. And for that, I’m Grateful.
