Scattered

In the Old Testament, the rebellious cry of God’s people was “give us a king”. In post-constantine Christianity (318 AD) that same cry has changed to, “give us a pastor”. We want to be led by others even though God says He wants to be sufficient for us. We just don’t like the way He becomes part of our lives so we opt for some authority figure to tell us what we need to know or do. The very nature of God interacting with us is so different than what we would expect. Jesus simply sat with sinners and that mystifies us to this day.

The nature of man is revealed way back in the story of the building of Babel. Gene 11:4 (NIV) Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

We don’t want to be scattered and have to rely on God for our daily bread. It’s more than interesting that God was not pleased with their desire to not be scattered. I think He knows that attitude of needing to belong eventually snuffs out our desire to be led by Him.

Gladys Aylward is a great example of someone being willing to be scattered. Her story flies in the face of formal church systems that want to wrap someone up in some form of a box prior to sending them out on the mission field. With no support whatsoever, she used her life savings to buy a one way ticket to China. Hollywood thought her story was so intriguing that they made a movie starring Ingrid Bergman, called the Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

Pastors generally instruct people to be responsive to God’s leading in their lives but what they really mean is that they want people to follow them and interpret the doing as following God.

I don’t like the feeling of being scattered and yet God has declared that not wanting to be scattered is against His desire for our lives.

Gulp.