Blind Melon and the Bible

   Have you ever noticed that the best music was the music that was played while you were in high school? This would explain my dad's love of Steppenwolf and Creedence Clearwater Revival, while at the same time explain why, to this day, I believe that Hootie and the Blowfish (especially "Cracked Rear View") are still incredible and that Better Than Ezra, Gin Blossoms, Matchbox 20 and Weezer all still rock! There was another song that was very popular when I was in high-school called "No Rain" by a group named Blind Melon. I don't think I've ever met anyone who knew all the words to this song, but nearly everyone remembers the video: strange little girl dressed up as a bumblebee dancing on a grassy hill...there is no proof to my knowledge to substantiate my next comment, but by seeing the video, I'm pretty sure that the band smoked a little of that grass from the hill while coming up with the idea for the video! This song (or the words that you know of it!), however, is one that gets stuck in your head and refuses to leave.

   As I was looking back through the passage that we discussed yesterday in our EVERYDAY ELIJAH series, I Kings 18:41-46, it hit me that the song "No Rain" would have been a perfect soundtrack for this particular part of the Bible. The context of this passage is that God, through the prayers of Elijah, stopped up the rain over Israel until they turned back to Him. Perhaps the strangest verse in this passage is "Then Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.'" (vs.41). This is strange to me on two different levels:

1) If I am Ahab, I'm not going to go picnic on a hillside, I'm heading for shelter...but he did not.
2) It seems as if Elijah heard "the sound of abundance of rain" and Ahab did not.

Unless God used some kind of "prophet-doggy-whistle" (a whistle that can only be heard by a prophet due to its high-pitched spiritual frequency that far exceeds the normal hearing and discernment range of the ordinary layman)...which I do not think happened...something else happened that can explain this strange occurrence. That something else is...drum-roll, please...EXPECTATIONS! Ahab had little, to no, expectations that God would lift the rain-ban on Israel. He had been present for God's show-down and victory over the 450 prophets of Baal. Ahab was witness to God sending fire from heaven and consuming the sacrifice, the the water, the rocks, and the dust around the altar. And Ahab stood by as the nation of Israel proclaimed, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" Within a matter of moments, Ahab had all the proof in front of him that he could have ever needed to convince him that God can do anything He wants to do...because He's God. However, Ahab, somehow dismissed the "sound of rain" and came up with some other excuse for what that sound could have been...why? Expectations! To Ahab, God was a god to these people and on that day that god did some pretty stuff, but at the end of the day, that god had little to nothing to do with Ahab's life or the way in which Ahab lived...that god is someone else's god.

Now follow me, one of the greatest traps that Christ-Followers can fall into is the trap of Low-God- Expectation Syndrome...thinking, "God did what He did in that person's life, but He could never do that incredible work in my life" or "It's amazing how God is using that person, but He could never use me like that." or "God's doing mind-blowing things over there, but that could never happen here [insert your address, the name of your neighborhood, community, church, region, state, nation]." Where does this come from? Expectations! Elijah trusted the fact the if God said that He would allow rain to fall again when Israel gets right with Him again, then rain would fall again when Israel got right with God again...and when Israel got right with God again, Elijah KNEW [insert the word "expected"] that it was only a matter of time before the National Broadcasting Service would be interrupting everyone's favorite TV show with that annoying buzzing alert followed by directions of what to do in the event of an emergency! Elijah actually expected great things from God! This explains why when Elijah hears a distant rumble, he knows that God is about to bring a thunderstorm...this explains why when Elijah hears from his servant that there is a lone cloud on the horizon no larger than "the size of a man's hand," he gets ready to outrun a flood.

Expectations usually determine results. For example, have you ever had to go somewhere that you really did not want to go but you had to go...and you had the expectation that you really were going to hate being there? Guess what? The time that you had to spend at that place was probably horrible! On the flip side, have you ever looked forward to going somewhere...and you just knew [insert "expected"] that that event was going to be incredible? Guess what? I bet that event was even better than you expected it to be! The strange thing is, really, that place you had to go or that event you were looking so forward to attending played just a minor role in your outlook. Let me explain, you know that place that you had to go to and it was horrible because you didn't want to be there? Guess what? There were other people at that exact same place that were living at their heart's content! And you know that event that you just couldn't wait to attend and it will go down as a fantastic memory? Guess what? There were other people at that exact same event who hated every moment if it! Same place...same event...different perspectives, due to different expectations!
 
This has immense and profound repercussions on the way we live life! If we expect little from God, we will see little of God, and we will live little lives. However, if we expect great things from God, we will see the great things of God, and we will live greatly because of God. I dare you to begin expecting great things from God! I dare you to settle for nothing less than seeing God at work all around you. I dare you to expect to hear from God when you read the Bible, pray, and go to church. I dare you to be so bold as to expect that God can pick up the pieces of your life and launch you beyond your wildest dreams...taking you places you never thought you would go, placing you around people you never thought you would be around, doing things you never thought you would be doing, living life in a way you never thought possible!        

Wavy Mullets Optional

As I look through the Bible at the type of people that God used to do incredible things for Him, it is easy to get discouraged for several reasons:

1. I am able to read in the Bible about the person's life in its entirety...I know how the story ends and how that person's life was used for future generations later on in the Bible.

2. Because that person is in the Bible, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that he/she had real struggles, real heartache, and was human.

3. My insecurities kick into to overdrive when I place my life up against any of these people.

As I look around me at a 2009 world, I see so many distortions of what a person must be/look like in order to be used greatly by God and for God.

DISTORTION #1:

To be used by God...men, you are not required to wear oversized toupees...women, you are not required to dye your hair pink.

DISTORTION #2:

To be used by God, you are not required to rock the latest in "Christian fashion."

DISTORTION #3:

To be used by God...women, you are not required to wear the Belk's makeup counter...men, the same goes for you!

DISTORTION #4:

To be used by God, you are not required to have perfectly white teeth coupled with a masterfully sculpted wavy mullet.

GOOD NEWS!!! All of these things are optional!

To me, the most encouraging verse in the Bible is James 5:17 "Elijah was a man just like us." Elijah was the man who commanded the rain to stop, raised the dead, prayed that fire would fall from Heaven...and it did, and was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire....no burns, no funeral. On the surface, it would seem like Elijah was so far out of our league, to say the least! Yet, James writes, "Elijah was a man just like us."

The question is not so much, "How much God do you have?" but rather, "How much of you does God have?" The fact is God WANTS to use each of us for His purposes. The variable in the equation is not God...it's us! This is the exact point where religion about God and a relationship with God dramatically part ways. A religion about God would take the statement, "The variable in the equation is not God...it's us!" and seek to "be better," "do more," "look the part," etc. These reactions are all about you and your adequacy...which will always come up short. A relationship with God would take the statement, "The variable in the equation is not God...it's us!" and respond in utter dependence upon God and complete surrender to God. These reactions are not about our adequacy to please God...or for that matter even our inadequacies...but about God's sufficiency in our lives. Elijah was a man who counted on God for everything, and God came through (as He always does!) far beyond anyone's (even Elijah's) expectations.

It is quite convicting to think that sometimes God does not use us more powerfully because we do not trust Him most fully with our moment-by-moment lives. Of course, today is a new day with new opportunities to be utterly dependent upon God and completely surrendered in every area of our lives to Him...but, that ball is in our court.

P.S.

To my Westside Jacksonville, FL friends and all the others I attend the Monster Truck Jam with every February...keep sculpting those mullets as you constantly and consistently give more and more of yourself over to God...I'll be with you soon cheering on Grave Digger and booing Maximum Destruction!