We have come to the last week of our message series, “Unexpected.” As nearly everyone of us knows from experience, despite our best efforts to make plans for our lives, life often does not go as planned. Sometimes the unexpected turns out to be a pleasant surprise. Like a friend stopping by unexpectedly, we might not be able to balance our checkbook like we planned to do that evening, but we really do not mind our plans being changed. Other unexpected events – let’s say like being taken to the hospital by ambulance on Christmas Eve – are not nearly as pleasant. In fact they can be quite stressful.
We have noted that people can respond to the same unexpected event in different ways. Some people face the challenge and thrive, while others do not. The unexpected can leave some people better, and others bitter.
It is the same with our relationship with God. For some people the unexpected leads them to more prayer and a deeper faith in God’s love. While for others, the unexpected causes a rift in their relationship with God.
The purpose of this series has been to offer insights into how we can be more likely the kind of person who allows unexpected challenges to lead to personal growth, and a deeper relationship with God. While we cannot plan for the unexpected, we can prepare ourselves for facing it.
Over the course of this series we’ve learned several lessons from Scripture. First, people who grow in faith in unexpected circumstances grow because they’re connected to a community. Secondly, they see their problem as an opportunity to grow. Thirdly, they accept the reality that God is good, even when life is not. Fourthly, they eventually identify opportunities to use their pain to help others. People who grow in faith while facing unexpected circumstances recognize that their faults and failures do not exclude them from God’s love. Finally, they are in the practice of growing in their faith in ordinary circumstances first.
Today, as we close out the series, we are going to look at times we are given an unexpected responsibility. This can happen in lots of different ways, but we are going to focus on one specific situation; when we speak a difficult truth or advocate an unpopular position out of a sense of responsibility.
To help us with this reflection we are going to look at a passage from the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived about 600 years before Christ. He was a prophet who had a very challenging and unpopular message. In the beginning of his book, he describes his calling into ministry: “The word of the Lord came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
God tells Jeremiah that he has a mission: to be a prophet to the nations. And just as God had a mission for Jeremiah, he has a mission for you and for me. At some unexpected moment God may invite us into that mission and we may respond like Jeremiah: “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!” (Jeremiah 1:6).
God gives Jeremiah a mission but he doesn’t want any part of it. So he starts to make excuses as to why he is the wrong guy for the job – he is too young, he is not a good speaker. We can do the same thing when invited into an unexpected leadership role or responsibility… too busy, too overcommitted, too old, too young.
God dismisses Jeremiah’s objections and excuses. Then he says, “To whomever I send, you shall go, whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them” (Jeremiah 1:7b-8).
Jeremiah is afraid to step up and do what God has called him to do. This can be true for us. Even though we don’t like to admit it, we are afraid. We don’t want to take on a leadership role or a role of greater responsibility because we are afraid we will be saddled with it for life, or we will lose our independence, or we might fail. But the greatest fear of all is the one Jeremiah harbors.
“Do not be afraid of them” (Jeremiah 1:7b). What’s that? The fear of criticism.
God tells Jeremiah not to fear criticism. Why? Because it is an unfounded fear? Not at all. It is all too real. If you don’t want to be criticized: do nothing/say nothing/stand for nothing. Otherwise you will be criticized.
God doesn’t promise we won’t be criticized, God promises, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you” (Jeremiah 1:7b-8).
God says do not fear criticism, because if we are working for him, he will have our back. When we have to accomplish something we are not sure we can do, we are more likely to ask God for his help. In those moments we will probably see more clearly God’s protection and provision.
“Then the Lord extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying to me, See, I place my words in your mouth” (Jeremiah 1:9).
Jeremiah is not all alone and on his own. God is with him. With this assurance God gives Jeremiah his mission. “Stand up and tell them all that I command you against Judah’s king and princes, its priests and the people of the land” (Jeremiah 1:17-18). A challenging mission to deliver a difficult message to the nation. A mission unique among all people in the land. And if he fails to do it, it will go undone.
Same for me and same for you. There is something God wants to do through us that he will not do through any one else. Our role is to respond to the call, to step up and to follow God in those unexpected circumstances. When we do we will see God’s power, protection and provision.