Plus God

By Belinda

Last week I wrote about my initial defeatist response to what seemed like a big task. Fortunately I woke up the next morning and remembered a truth believed, but all too rarely practised in my life: One human plus God has no limitations. 

And I decided to take God at his word.

This was important, because I, like everyone else, influence those around me. I think we would be surprised if we realized how much we do. Our families, co-workers; Church Body; people you might not even guess, are watching. Subconsciously the atmosphere around us can be picked up in even a short interaction.

Attitude is more contagious than measles, and for those of us who lead, it is even more critical to guard.

Waking up to the bigness of God and the irrelevance of my inadequacy meant that by the time I presented the challenge of last week to my team, I was pointing them in the right direction--God-ward.

I remembered the thrust of an address by Bruxy Cavey at a gala dinner I'd attended. He spoke of God's plan for accomplishing things on this earth being in partnership with people and that whenever God wants to do anything, he looks around and asks himself, "Now who am I going to do that with?" 

This seems highly inefficient to me when I think of how he spoke the world into existence with no help at all, but I love the way Bruxy explained this counter-intuitive method God has of getting his work done on earth.

He used the example of an adult baking with a child. Anyone who has done this knows that you have to make a decision--is this about efficiency--or relationship? God does things in partnership with people because what he values most is relationship.

And the wonderful thing is that the perfect relationship is a trusting one, where we say "Yes," and he says, "Great, let's go!" (forgive the poetic licence) and we step into a level of exhilarating adventure such as we would never experience by looking down at the waves and remembering we forgot to take swimming lessons.

As Oswald Chambers says in the January 29th reading for My Utmost for His Highest

God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should do”-and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance.

When it was time to share the challenge with my team, I acknowledge that humanly speaking it seemed daunting, but that only made it "God sized." It meant prayerfully moving forward in utter dependence and expectation.

There were no detractors. We are in for an adventure. Stay tuned.