When I was in high school, I had an early release schedule that allowed me to get out at noon. I did not play the rest of the day. Instead, I was given a job, by a friend’s dad, at Plaza Pontiac (Tucker, Georgia – no longer exists) that I took willingly.
My responsibility was to clean up all of the new cars that were sold and waiting to be delivered that day or within the week. This was in the late 70’s when car sales were booming – especially the 10th Year Anniversary Black & Gold Special Firebird Trans AM. (Can you imagine being a teenager and getting to drive as much as you wanted a car that had a 455 cubic inch engine with a Hurst 4 speed? Yeah, the one that Burt Reynolds drove in “Smoky and the Bandit.” I was in that movie – well not me but my work. All of the gold Pontiac Lemans Police Cars and the 2 Black & Gold Trans AM Firebirds were cleaned by little ole me. Plaza Pontiac donated those cars for the filming of the movie. Why two? One of those Trans AM Firebirds was totaled in the movie. OK, enough of that rabbit trail).
Everyday, I was given a list of cars that were my responsibility to find on the lot, drive in, wash, detail and drive up to the front for the new owner to pick up. Then, at 5 o’clock pm every day, my boss would ask me this question – Did you get your job done?
Charlie Shy, my boss, left work at 5 pm every day. He would ask, before he left each day, the same question to make sure I was doing what I was suppose to do. When I answered Charlie, his response was always the same, …”Show me don’t tell me.”
I learned something very valuable about this interchange between Charlie and me. It does not matter what you say if your actions are different. “Saying and Doing” are very important and should always be the same.
Jesus Christ asked his disciples a very penetrating question about the subject of “Saying & Doing” … “Why do you call me, ‘LORD, LORD,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).
God has an interesting way of testing His LORDSHIP in our lives. Just ask Abraham and his excruciating walk up Mt. Moriah for the sacrifice of his only son, Isaac. Just like us, Abraham had known what it was to mistrust God, earlier. But, this time he passed the test.
Jonah failed his test. Yet, God exercised His LORDSHIP anyway, even though Jonah was less than cooperative. Jonah placed limits to God’s rule and authority in his life. Jonah held onto some illusion that he had a right to govern his own life. Like us, Jonah wanted a measure of independence. Like us, Jonah wanted the privilege of being God’s own possession without the responsibility it entails.
It is a huge burden to try to govern ourselves when we have so little information about our true selves and future directions. We are not the Creator … we are the created.
What would Jesus say about His LORDSHIP in your life? Have you set limits on His authority in your affairs? Whatever limits you have placed on God’s LORDSHIP in your life; expect Him to test them. God will always try to stretch you out of your assumption that you are in control of your life.
Oswald Chambers once said, “The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.”
I am learning that it is good to have direction. Yet, it is not good to have self-direction that dictates where you will allow God to place you or what He will have you do – which is “being driven.”
God wants us to be led by His Holy Spirit. He wants us to not just call him “LORD” but to do what He says. There must be equality with what we say and do and we must follow where He leads.
