Saturday, November 15, 2008
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What is Your Woe?
"I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).
Of all of the churches he started, Paul seems to have had the most issues with the Corinthians. He loved them and the life that was there but along with the energy present in this community of faith were a lot of struggles. It was here too that he faced the greatest opposition to his apostleship and his right to lead. He is forced at times to defend the call of God on his life — a call to preach the good news to the Gentiles — that he had received on the Damascus road years earlier. In the midst of one of these defenses of his right of apostleship, he shares something deep inside of himself, something God had planted, that he simply could not escape or deny. He says that he cannot do anything other than preach the good news, in fact, it would be his destruction, a kind of personal disaster, if he did not proclaim the message of what God did for us in Jesus Christ!
Years earlier, the prophet Jeremiah found himself in trouble and persecution because of the word the Lord had given him to proclaim. He had been given a nickname by those who listened to him: "Magor Missabib" or, "Doom and Gloom" in English. So he decided that it just wasn't worth it and he would stop prophesying. Guess what? He encountered his woe, his undoing. And it the end, he was forced to admit, "But if I say, 'I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot" (Jeremiah 20:9).
Even earlier than that, there was the prophet Jonah. He received a very clear word from the Lord to "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it" (Jonah 1:2). What did Jonah do? He headed away from Nineveh: "But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish . . . to flee from the LORD" (Jonah 1:3). Bad plan. Don't follow the call of God with a "but" of any kind. We know the story. The boat. The storm. Jonah goes overboard. The fish (most likely a tuna by the way!). The three days inside. Becoming fish vomit. And the word of the Lord repeated: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you" (Jonah 3:2). And Jonah went and a revival broke out. And Jonah's drama continued.
The whole point of the story. And each of these stories. When God calls us to something, he expects us to obey. And, in the words of Paul, "Woe is me if I do not do what I have been called to do!" Truth is, all of us have been called by God to something. There is some part in the body of Christ that we, uniquely and individually are supposed to fulfill. What is your woe?
For me, I know that it is to search the scriptures and teach the things that God reveals. When I am doing that, I am happiest and most alive. For many years, though, I was like Jonah. On a boat that was going in the opposite direction. And, I don't know totally what God will reopen for me in this area, but Faith Forward is a part of opening the door and saying, "Woe is me if I teach not the Bible!" Life isn't life and it does not go well when we are not doing the thing that God has put on our lives to do. Call it destiny or vocation or whatever you want, the end result is the same. And yes, most likely, walking out what he has called us to will bring with it some struggle and trial and maybe even some persecution at times. Jesus predicted that. We cannot run and we cannot hide it inside. God gave what he gave to each of us for a reason:
"It was he who gave some to be _____________ (you fill in your blank), to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).
"For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable [cannot be changed or taken back or made of no consequence]" (Romans 11:29).
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:4-7).
Each one of us has something that everyone else needs. If we don't know what it is, ask God, he will most certainly reveal it. Ask yourself what your heart longs to do? That can be a key as well. We must offer that very thing or the body of Christ will be lacking. Something will be missing if our part is not there. And we need to see that it is not really our decision as to whether to offer ourselves or not. We have been gifted and called by God and he cannot take it back. Neither should we. Paul's "woe is me" was to preach the good news. Jeremiah's was to prophesy. Jonah must be a missionary. It does not matter whether we think it is big or small. God works all of that out. We each have a part to play. We each have something to offer. And woe is us if we do not do it! Jesus said that a light belongs on a light stand, not under a bushel, so let your unique light shine.
What is your woe? What is mine? The church and the world and the others around us need what God has gifted and called us to be and do. And in a real sense, woe is them too, if we fulfill not our calling!
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