When Bright Ideas Turn Out Dumb

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope…” (Jeremiah 29:11)

That’s a great, hopeful verse. Very comforting.

Why don’t we live in that reality of God’s plans? Often, it’s because our big, bright ideas get in the way.

In Genesis, God told Abraham about a plan God had for him.

“...’Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are–northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.’ ” (Genesis 13:14-16)

Abraham didn’t even have a child, and God was telling him this. Later on, God confirmed it again:

“...’Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And [God] said to him:

“ ‘So shall your descendants be.’ “ (Genesis 15:5)

So Abraham and his wife got together and talked it over. They felt they were obviously too old to have kids. Abraham was about 86 and his wife, Sarai, was 76. They discussed the ideas, and finally Sarai had a bright idea.

“The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant, Hagar. Perhaps I can have children through her.”

Let me fast-forward this story a bit.

You’ve heard about the trouble in the Middle East right now, right?

That’s where it started. Right there. Sarai and Abraham’s bright idea.

I read a true story, “Son of Hamas”, about the oldest son of one of the seven men who founded Hamas. This son converted to Christianity and ended up working as a double agent for Israeli intelligence until he finally left.

“I know the intricacies of this war better than anyone,” he wrote. (I’m paraphrasing.) “It really boils down to the conflict between Hagar’s son, Ishmael, and Sarai’s son, Isaac. That animosity between those two brothers is what’s causing all this bloodshed today.”

According to how Sarai perceived it, 76 was too old to have a kid. But she hadn’t counted on God.

God waited until Sarai was NINETY YEARS OLD before she got pregnant for the first time in her life.

Talk about a geriatric pregnancy.

God didn’t stop Abraham from sleeping with Hagar. But her son, Ishmael, was not the anointed one. Sarai’s son, Isaac, was. God prophesied about Ishmael: “He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him…” (Genesis 16:12).

Sarai and Abraham’s bright idea, their attempt at ‘helping God out’, is still tearing the world apart today.

I have bright ideas which are also destructive.

Recently, a friend texted me:

“Call Jeffrey about his shoes.”

So I called Jeffrey. He was all excited. He had been praying for new shoes, and out of nowhere, it seemed,

God had provided shoes that were perfectly his size.

What Jeffrey didn’t know was how close he came to not getting his shoes.

I had the bright idea that those shoes were mine. A friend had offered them to me, and eager for new footwear, I’d tried to make it work. They almost fit me. But the shoes cramped the sides of my feet a bit. Finally, a friend asked me to officially measure my feet. 

Don’t judge me, but I had never done that before.

I discovered that technically my feet were two sizes too big for that pair of shoes. 

I would’ve never been fully comfortable in them. If I had kept them, I would have blocked God’s provision for Jeffrey.

The same thing happened with a woodworking business I pursued. The more I pushed, the more I sensed: “This is another Ishmael.” 

Like with the shoes, I was pushing to make it work.

When God brings something in my life, I don’t have to push to make it work.

That’s a good indicator of me trying to make it happen instead of following God in it.

Over the winter, I went to buy some product for my business. I went to a certain area to get the product. I visited one outlet after another. But nothing felt right. I finally settled on something “good enough”. But I knew in my heart it wasn’t God’s best.

God’s not in the best idea I have out of twelve.

God is God. Perfect and complete, lacking nothing. His ways are not my ways.

I got that product, but it wasn’t God’s perfect. That was evidenced pretty quick. It was my “Ishmael”.

When I returned, I let God lead me this time. 

This time, God led me deep into what looked like a wasteland. Somewhere that made no sense to my brain. Just like Sarai had to let go of what made sense to her.

And there, in the middle of what should have been a wasteland, I found it.

On my very first stop searching for the product was God’s “Isaac” for me.

It’s not worth it to push it. It’s not worth it to try to make it fit, like I did with that pair of shoes. Nor do we need to override what we feel deep inside to make it work.

God doesn’t need our help. His perfect Will will be done. He only needs our agreement.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Simplicity: The Gateway to the Divine

It’s so easy to over-complicate God.

I’ve definitely done that a lot. I’ll pray about something, and I think it’s going to take–I don’t know, maybe two hours. Or I’ll have to pray about sixteen times in my closet before God will give it to me. Something like that.

But that’s not what God said.

God said He has everything we need before we even ask for it. (Matthew 6:8)

Dad told me this the other day, and it was really profound.

“Don’t think you have to wait until a later time to find God,” he said. “It’s available right now. If you wait, you won’t receive what God has for you.”

I saw that demonstrated the next day. I had a list of things that needed to be done. But amidst my busy-ness, I was craving fellowship with others.

There’s something powerful about connecting with other believers and talking about what God is doing. Growing up in church, I never understood the point of communion. 

Now I realize what those little wafers and cups of juice represented. Now I realize what Jesus meant when He told His disciples: “Take, eat; this is My Body.”

Believers are the Body of Christ. In the Body of Christ, our fellowship with each other is lifeblood.

Anyways, back to what I was saying. So: a laundry list of things to do, praying about fellowship with others, I was working away.

God, in His simplicity, showed up in the middle of my day.

God stirred me to make a phonecall while I worked. I got on the phone with a believer I knew as I got ready to go shopping. I chatted away while I got in my truck and started driving to the store.

Little did I know, just when God directed me to call, this guy was just getting into town. He was only coming to town for a few hours in that entire week. Lo and behold, I was calling him in that short window.

“You’re in town?” I said, surprised. “Where are you?”

“I’m about to make a turn at the refinery,” he said.

“Are you serious?” I asked him. “That’s where I am.”

God directed me past all knowing to call him and pull up directly behind him. We were heading to the same parking lot. I so much enjoyed watching God set that whole meeting up.

Believers in Communist countries have a great way of keeping the government spies from crashing their underground meetings.

They only meet when and where God directs them. It frustrates the government spies, because they can’t figure out how everyone just knows where to meet.

This felt like that.

We stopped together to eat. I heard about how God was healing his family’s connections. Freeing him from a paralytic inability to express. Filling him with joy and causing him to dance to the Lord, sometimes literally. Building in his life something new that I rejoiced to witness God begin the summer before.

It encouraged me, exhorted me, being able to hear his testimonies. It also challenged me, and stirred my own spirit as I was able to relate what God was doing in my own life.

Even after, God directed my footsteps past my knowing. I just so “happened” to be in the perfect place to pick something up for him he needed afterwards. 

My prayer to be led by God didn’t need to be complicated.

It didn’t take more brainpower or spirituality than a simple request.

I read once about Jesus appearing in a vision to a man. Jesus said: “I always kept things very simple when I explained things. I talked in terms the people could understand. I talked about shepherds, sheepfolds, vineyards, grapes, and so forth. That’s so they could easily understand.”

I’ve seen it true in my own life. If it’s complicated, it’s likely not from God. Not to say God can’t unveil deeper things. As Paul said: “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature…” (1 Corinthians 2:6)

But overall the truth of God is remarkably simple. A foolishness that “puts to shame the wise”. (1 Corinthians 1:27)

I read about a missionary ministering to the Navajo Indians. One giant Native American was particularly troublesome. He only showed to church when he was drunk out of his mind. He’d go on such a rampage when he would, breaking pews and ripping apart the pulpit, the reservation police couldn't even handle him. The man was so large and ferocious, it took three carloads of deputies to deal with him.

One Sunday night, he showed up drunk again. The missionary was preaching especially simply, as many in the audience had little formal education. He preached a simple text, Romans 10:13: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The big man charged the altar.

Alarmed, the preacher and staff were on edge, ready for typical damage control.But once he got there, the giant Native American fell over the altar, and yelled three words:

“Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”

Everyone was shocked. They rushed forward to help him “get saved properly”. But he stood up quickly.

They urged him to get back down and pray or repent more, assuming it couldn’t have happened that fast, given his notorious past.

“No,” he said. “I’m saved.”

“You can’t be saved that quickly,” they argued.

“Weren’t you just preaching about this?” he asked. “You can pray if you want, but God just saved me!!”

That man had a miraculous transformation from that moment forward. The missionary realized he didn’t even believe his own preaching!

As I’ve personally witnessed great men and women of faith, I’ve been surprised by something. 

I’ve been surprised by how ordinary they are.

From the outside, you might overlook them.Yet they have experienced God in ways that would astonish you.

God doesn’t need our complications. He doesn’t need our books on theology or our dissertations on doubt.

The kingdom of God is made so simple, you must become like a child to enter in.

The Wonderful Weight of a Whim

 “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Proverbs 29:18.

“I have a dream…”

What a great opening line!

There’s a reason Martin Luther King was such an inspiring activist. He wasn’t focused on destroying racism. He had a vision for building something new.

I’ve been able to predict which Presidents would get elected in the last twenty years. From Obama to Trump, I listened. When I heard vision, I knew. That guy’s going to be in the Oval Office.

What’s your dream?

I’ll never forget seeing a Remax billboard:

“What moves you?”

Something that gets me is reading about men and women of yesteryear.

Miraculous healings, revivals that sweep an entire nation, men who have prayed significant world changes into existence.

Those true stories stir my imagination and fire up my heart.

I’m over there thinking: “okay, how did they get there? What did they do? What were the steps?”

And not just that. I mean, my girlfriend accuses me of always wanting the perfect kind of food.

I can still taste the incredible bolognese sauce in the lasagna I ate at a hotel restaurant in Grand Junction, CO, ten years ago.

But that’s me. What’s yours? What do you crave more of?

In some way or another, we all have that same yearning for “more”. God put that into our DNA; it’s a part of Who He is.

Imagination is a really underrated tool in the kingdom of God.

It’s easy to use it in the natural realm. For instance, I recently imagined a whole scenario with how I thought something would go. It was awful. People were yelling, throwing things.

None of it actually happened.

But people will imagine themselves right into sickness or calamity.

The Bible talks about “vain imaginations”. In other words, when you’re not using your imagination correctly, it’s being used in vain

But God gave us an imagination.

Our imagination is the birthplace of desire. We can imagine the things we desire of the Lord.

Guys, we are so loved, our desires, even our common, natural ones, matter to the Lord. It’s what causes God to move on our behalf.

Over and over again, people came to Jesus to impose their desires and needs on Jesus, and over and over again, Jesus was moved by them.

To blind Bartimaues, Jesus asked: “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Matthew 20:32)

To His first disciples: “What do you seek?” (John 1:38)

To the sick man at the pool: “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6)

To the Canaanite woman who would not take ‘no’ for an answer, Jesus said: “Let it be as you desire.” (Matthew 15:26)

Reader, do you want to be made well? What do you seek? What do you desire?

Of course, sometimes these desires had to be redirected.

The Pharisees wanted a sign He was the Son of God(because healing the blind, raising the dead, delivering a man from a devil, etc, wasn’t proof enough, apparently).

Or the mother of the sons of Zebedee desired that her sons be given places of honor in Heaven.

Instead, Jesus rebuked or explained why it wouldn’t work.

But none of these things would have moved Jesus if the desire wasn’t expressed.

God has plans for us as well. BIG plans.

How big are they?

SO big: we can’t even imagine them.

SO big: God has to get us to take us through this crazy school in life to prepare our hearts to walk in them.

And I catch my craziness fighting against these plans.

Over the winter, God moved me to a new season.

(God always has to change it up on me to keep me from getting too comfortable, from getting stagnant in my spiritual growth.)

Now, I felt I constantly had my toes stepped on. And this reaction in my heart kept coming up.

“Bug off. I’m fine. You’re not better than me.”

In other words: self-righteousness.

I knew God was deliberately allowing situations to come up so God could point it out to me.

“You see this ugly root of self-righteousness? I want it gone. Can you give it to Me?”

I mean: I knew better than to actually say it out loud. Most of the time, that is. But thinking it can be just as bad.

Over and over again, I felt that still, small Voice:

“Are you going to let Me have your precious self-justification in exchange for My perspective in this situation?”

It wasn’t easy.

Those words: “I”m just as good as you are!” were on the tip of my tongue.

But I finally swallowed them. I let it go. 

“God, what do You want to say here?” I wondered at last.

A few nights later, I realized what it was. These ones–attacking me! Harrassing me! Publically slandering me!--suddenly became real people. 

Suddenly, I saw them as God saw them. Everything changed.  Compassion took the place where pride had stood. God could finally get to me so that their hurts could break my heart. 

My sister told me of a dream she had about me.

Many were lost, disillusioned. I stood up and began to speak to them, sharing with them openly about my journey.

“I had never seen you that ‘free’,” my sister said.

She had never seen me so inhibited by my human bondages to be able to speak that clearly.

My real struggles and stories set the people free.

For the first time, I was able to act as a clear reflection so people could see God’s love and God’s joy for them, and it changed them.

“I believe everything you’re going through is for that,” my sister told me.

God has a dream about you as well, reader. He has a unique call and plan for you.

And He yearns to hear your desire.

More than you can ask or think, as Ephesians 3:20 says.

Come boldly to the throne room, to paraphrase Hebrews 4:16.

Behold the storehouses of Heaven, and dare to dream.