God’s Toolbox

     Anthropologists tell us that the thing that makes man distinct from other animals is that he is a user of tools.  He is able to devise tools and use tools to accomplish what he himself would not be able to do alone.  And it is amazing the tools we invent.  Think of the powerful instruments we create to lift things that need to be lifted, move things that need to be moved, build things that need to be built, demolish things that need to be removed.  Everyone of us has extraordinary powers because we have extraordinary tools – we can travel fast, communicate fast, eat fast, play fast, work fast and still be sitting down while we are doing most of it.
     But tools can get us into trouble, too!  I recently read about the men who used a blowtorch to break into an ATM.  Of course, they ended up torching the money inside.  The tool they used defeated the very thing they set out to do.
     And I think some of the tools we use in the spiritual world can get us into trouble, too.  We can have an extraordinary sense of power and confidence, a belief in our giftedness, in our knowledge, in our latest and greatest programs, campaigns and technology.  But that’s just the rub when it comes to the Kingdom of God.  It’s not tools that we use that accomplish things in that world because we ourselves are the tools, God’s tools.  In fact, it is God who is the great Tool User.  Eugene Peterson puts it this way in his translation, The Message.  As Jesus sends out His disciples on mission, he says, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment.” (Luk 9:3-4)
     I am a tool, not just a tool user, created by God to do something that He needed to get done.  He designed me, invented me, created me and now shapes me so that I fulfill my mission.  I, myself, am the means God uses.  And what is it that enables God to use me?  The Apostle Paul’s response is simple, weakness.  The formula is simple, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”  God simply wants to use people who have come to the end of their rope, because the less there is of them, the more there can be of God.  When all that I am and all that I have falls before God in absolute humility and dependence and surrender, then I become a tool God can use.  Too full of myself I become too unavailable to God.
     This changes the way I see life, don’t you think?  Life is continually teaching me how much I need God’s presence, and I often resent the lesson.  But in fact, this is THE lesson, the fundamental lesson in fulfilling my assignment.  It’s my own personal story of needing Jesus that Jesus will use to change the world.  If this is missing, then every tool I use to do God’s will won’t work.  It just won’t.  And if you try, like the men who used a blowtorch to open the ATM, what you will find is charred ash.
     So I have recommitted myself, not to using tools, but being a tool.  I offer myself to God and surrender my power, my abilities, my inventions, my self-confidence, my reputation, my resume.  I offer myself to God to hammer me, break me, melt me, and remold me until I am simply and most basically a man who knows His God and is filled by Him.

Today’s Quote 4/4/07

I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it.  GK Chesterton