One of the things I hate with a passion is having someone stand behind me and look over my shoulder. This is the case whether the person is the love of my life or a total stranger. They could be coming in for a kiss or the kill—it doesn’t matter because it pretty much affects me the same way and I pretty much react the same way.
It isn’t something that I admire about myself. It isn’t something I even fully understand. I think it goes to a much more basic and primordial level than I am able to access. Perhaps it is a protective instinct that God gave us so that we know when an enemy is creeping up on us? Maybe it has something to do with being a preacher and living next to an elder when I first entered the ministry? Maybe it is something to do with having three sons and only one computer for the majority of their lives growing up? Maybe this is just one of those areas in which I am able to exercise my unvarnished jerkiness? Because, believe me, I can be a big jerk if you stand behind me for any length of time!
What would it be like to look over God’s shoulder and watch Him work? Would you be able to follow the billions of things that He is able to juggle all at once? I don’t think so! Would you want to point to out a few things you would like Him to do differently, or faster? Probably! After all, that is part of the jerkiness of the human heart (Yes the word of the day is ‘jerkiness,’ but you may not want to use it in a sentence too often today!).
One of the things that I notice about my own position, as I look over God’s shoulder, is that I tend to evaluate God’s work based on what He is doing in my own life and in the lives of the people I know intimately. The problem with this limited perspective is that I am not very objective. I am too close and too familiar to really get a good view of God’s handiwork. But, if I find myself looking over God’s shoulder in a slightly different direction, then I am usually able to see that God really is completely amazing and marvellous in all of His infinite goodness and power.
It is kind of what it is like when you watch your own kids grow up and then you visit a friend you haven’t seen in a while. A couple of years have gone by so when you see their kids, you are shocked by how big they are and how much they have matured. Meanwhile back home, your kids have grown just as much but seeing it happen little-by-little, every day has blinded you to the full extent of their growth.
Well, last week I had the opportunity to look over God’s shoulder in a slightly different direction because we had a ministry team at Keele from Athens IL. They were here to help us with the VBS we were hosting, along with Maple Leaf Christian Church, which is a Portuguese speaking church-plant led by Jose and Regina Fernandes.
This group from Athens were not the normal-type group you would expect to come up to help with a VBS. Not that I know what a normal-type group looks like anyway. Normal and I haven’t been on speaking terms for a long, long, time! The team was led by a young couple, Chance and Ginger. Chance is the Associate Minister at their home church. Ginger was our VBS director and so organized that I thought about kidnapping her to become my indentured organizational slave.
I immediately fell in love with this couple. They were amazing in so many ways! But then there was Doug, a retired elementary principle, and his wife Sharon, and Marsha and Roberta. These guys were a bit more ‘seasoned’ than I was expecting. In fact Roberta, I believe, is looking at the possibility of a great, great, grandchild in the near future.
Throughout the week I got to know these wonderful, warm-hearted people. All of them could have been back in their air conditioned homes enjoying retirement and family and the good old summer time, but instead they decided to come to Toronto, a big city in another country, in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, to work with a couple of churches they had never been to, with a bunch of kids they have never seen.
All of them had more energy than I. All of them were instantly loved by all of our people. All of them sacrificed, not only a week of their time, but their comfort levels as they stepped out in faith to make a difference in a part of the kingdom they didn’t even have on their radar before their visit.
Throughout the week I heard their stories. I heard about their struggles, their disappointments, their challenges, their dreams, and most of all, about their faith and how God had proven Himself faithful, time and time again.
When you look at their picture, you probably think. “What a nice bunch of people.” Nothing much probably would stand out to you, but you would be missing the fact that everyone one of them are heroes because they continue to listen and follow and step out in faith. Most of them have gone past the age of having to prove anything. What they do now is out of love for God’s Kingdom and those who have yet to enter its doors. Real heroes don’t wear costumes, (except for Doug, the giant panda). They just continue to be open to God looking over their shoulder and pointing them in the way they should go. Nothing opens your eyes to God’s reality more than normal people doing extra-ordinary things out of their love for God. Last week my eyes were opened very wide indeed!
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