Redemptive Ramblings

Nearly 20 years ago, I preached for the first time. The day before I was supposed to preach, I still had only gotten a general topic from God: Courage. At the same time, we were in the middle of our second adoption and had felt called to change our paperwork to say we wanted to adopt a sibling set rather than one child. The idea of a sibling set scared me immensely. I knew it was what God said to do, but I knew we would get children rather than babies. And the idea of adopting children who were already beginning to have an opinion and might not like me was super intimidating.

As I was walking out of the house to go try to get ready to talk about courage, Greg handed me a book by Mark Batterson, called “In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day.” The tagline included the word “courage,” and he thought it might help me get ready to preach. I sat in the Student Center reading it and realized that the main idea of the book was exactly what God wanted me to preach about. I grabbed my pen and wrote, “The call of God on your life will always be bigger than you think you can handle.” As I was finishing the sentence, my phone rang.

It was the adoption agency. Four days after we submitted our revised paperwork, they had a placement for us. As I listened to them describe the two girls who needed a family, my eyes landed on what I’d just written. And I knew that I was experiencing a God set-up. God, using Batterson’s book, had given me the reminder I needed just in time for the call that He was giving me, the call that would change my life.

The book centers around the life of Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, one of David’s mighty men. The story on which the title is based is found in 1 Chronicles 11:22:

“There was also Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it.”

Benaiah was called to protect the people of Israel. David’s mighty men were the fiercest and most feared soldiers in the land. He took this call so seriously that he chased a lion into a pit. Really wrap your mind around that with me for a second. That means that he (1) got the lion to run away from him, (2) ran after it, (3) jumped into a pit on top of it, and (4) killed it in the pit. If you think about that, it’s astonishing. He was working against overwhelming odds, but his calling was to protect the Israelites, and this lion was a threat to those people.

Throughout the books of 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles, Benaiah shows up repeatedly. Each time, he is obeying the king’s orders and protecting the king’s people. He had a specific calling, and to fulfill it, he had to trust and obey the king. By the end of his career, Benaiah was the leader of Israel’s entire army under King Solomon. His obedience to his calling and the king’s orders led not only to miraculous events (like jumping on a lion in a pit and living to tell the tale), but also to greatness in the kingdom of Israel.

We each have a specific calling from the King, too. Mine included adopting, loving, and raising those two girls the adoption agency told me about. In the process, I have seen God’s miraculous hand more times than I have time to write just now. I’ve also become greater than I was in a Kingdom where greatness is measured by God-honoring love and compassion. The work God has done in me in the past 20 years through my children has changed my heart to be more like His, and I’m so grateful that He called me to something that seemed so far beyond what I could do.

What is it that God has called you to do? He has a calling on each of our lives, and if we are to live into it, we must be ready to listen and obey the King. You may know what the call is and be hanging back in fear. Step out boldly! You may be unsure of the call and be hesitant to Today, I pray that you will listen to the King and obey His call for you.

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