When I see the lamppost it always reminds me of one of my favorite book series, of course by C.S. Lewis, which we now call the Chronicles of Narnia. In the second book, we are taken into England during World War II when a group of children are sent into the country to flee the German bombing of London and wind up staying in a large old house. In this house is a wardrobe, and in the wardrobe are a bunch of coats hanging up where they have been for many years. But during a game of hide and seek, one of the children pushes her way back to the back of the wardrobe only to find that the hanging coats end and she suddenly touches snow-covered tree branches. She steps out into another world full of strange creatures, forces of good and evil, and a solitary lamppost in the woods.
After convincing her siblings to come with her into this world, they are involved for quite a number of years in freeing this land, Narnia, from the evil witch that has ruled the land for many years and who has maintained winter during her entire reign. In the end, these 4 children become kings and queens in Narnia and are able to rule through adolescence and into adulthood. That whole time, the lamppost remained alone in the woods, burning brightly and marking the place where they entered the new land.
In the end, the children, now adults, are on a hunt one day and come across the lamppost that they had forgotten about. They find themselves clawing their way through a thick stand of brush only to discover that they are now touching coats, and finally they push their way out of an old wardrobe into the same room that they had left seemingly long ago. However, they quickly find that they are children again and that no time has passed since they left.
To me, our lamppost is a reminder of what the Lord can do in anyone's life. Like the children, we were going through life doing our own thing only to be enticed into a space that we had never been before, then to discover that it led to a land that we could never imagine. Like in the story, our lamppost marks the place where God had us land in this new place. It also is a reminder that, like the children, we may at some point go past the lamppost one last time and be taken somewhere else. God is allowed to do that, you know.
I'm not saying that I think we will go back to Texas at some point. I really don't believe that. For whatever reason, our life there seems to be over, although I know enough now to not state anything about my life with absolute certainty. I really don't even know what the next hour of my life will be like, so how could I even talk about a distant future? What I am trying to say is that the Lord might, just might, continue this journey that he's taking us on into a new and different place.
Now, let's return to the original questions.
Why does the Lord ask us to do things?
Why and under what line of reasoning should you and I say yes to what the Lord wants us to do?
To find some answers, we of course have to examine what the Bible has to say about it.
Why did God ask Abram to move his family to a new land?
Why did God ask Abram to sacrifice his son, the one promised to him for about 30 years, on an altar?
Why did God chose Moses, Gideon, Sampson, and David to lead His people? All were deeply flawed.
Why chose Saul to help establish God's Kingdom after Jesus left the earth? This guy was a murderer and a zealot.
You and I tend to focus only on the results. Didn't Saul/ Paul have great leadership capability and zeal? Sure he did, and he was a good choice for the work. Didn't David show amazing devotion to the Lord? Without question. God Himself even said that David's heart was "one after his own." Didn't Gideon turn out to be a fantastic military leader. He was. Wasn't Sampson a natural leader in his own right? He was. Look at all of the people who followed him. Wasn't Moses humble, and didn't he keenly listen to what the Lord told him? He did, probably better than most people who have ever lived.
But if you and I stop there, we've missed the whole point. God doesn't use people because He needs their skill set. God doesn't actually need you and I at all. His Kingdom doesn't unravel if someone doesn't do what He says, and He doesn't wring his hands expectantly when you and I are considering whether we will obey or not. If we make a mistake, a building doesn't crumble in the Heavenly realm, and it doesn't set back the plans for 100 years.
The reason why God does things in you and me, and the reason why He asks you to do things for Him, is...are you ready for this? Because He wants to be in your life, and wants you to know Him for who He is.
Think about it. Yes, Moses was used in the single greatest event in the history of Israel, the event that the Lord himself referred back to in the rest of the Bible over and over again. But look at how close Moses got to the Lord during that time. He spoke to God in a conversational style, in burning bushes, on mountains, in the wilderness. He got to do that all of the time, and became so close to the Lord that it says that when he died, the Lord himself buried him in a secret place in the mountains.
Look at Gideon. He was a coward who was hiding from the invading army of people until God gave him a task to fulfill. He lead armies, and he led a few people who conquered an army of several hundred thousand. Over that time, Gideon learned to know the Lord and to trust Him with bigger and bigger things.
Look at Saul/ Paul. The Lord completely turned this guy's life around. He learned who God really is, learned about His purpose for the world, and followed that path down a road of hardship and pain. And in the end he was probably one of the most joyful people who ever lived in spite all of the hardship because he knew the Lord so intimately.
You can say the same thing about Abram/ Abraham. The Lord took him through successively greater tasks and accomplished a much greater purpose for millions of people in the life of this one guy. But what Abraham would tell you is that he learned to know the Lord during that time. He didn't even get to experience the end result of God's plan for His people because he died before it came to pass. But he did get closer to the Lord and in the end was referred to as "God's friend."
My life has so far been patterned after that of Abraham, and that isn't lost on me. Would God lead me to the Northwest just because He wanted to see if I would do it? Yes He would. And He would do it because He has more of Himself for me to discover later. The first step on a life of obedience to the Lord is obedience right now. And in just the sheer act of moving here, I'm a lot closer to the Lord than I was several years ago. Yet I still have far to go with Him.
Be assured that whatever the Lord wants you to do now is more about His relationship with you than it is about what you will accomplish. What He wants more than anything else is for you to know Him. You and I have a hard time believing that, but it is true. He doesn't need you. Instead, He wants you. You didn't choose him first. He chose you first. You didn't die for Him first. He died for you first.
Hopefully as you hear the still, small voice of the Lord speaking into your life, you will listen and be curious about Him. You hopefully will choose to follow simply because the King asked you to follow, not because of the task. That's what He wants from you and me. He is on a mission in this world and chooses to invite us to participate in that mission here, but the benefit isn't the number of people who are saved, the good works done, the people loved, or the brokenness healed. Those things are all beautiful and wonderful, but they can't be pursued as a goal or an end. No, the benefit in getting to participate in these things is in getting to know the Lord Himself, and that is what He ultimately wants to do in you.
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