From The Backwoods Pew

Upstream

There once lived a man who had special powers! He had the ability to cause working gas motors to suddenly stop; and just by his mere presence, he could render them useless. Chain saws would stop running, never to start again. Weed-eaters would go hungry, and lawn mowers would sit quietly while the grass over whelmed the yard. At first, the man thought this gift to be a curse, and he would hang his head in frustration. Trees would not get trimmed, dead branches would litter his yard. Weeds began to take over the fringes of his yard, a yard that began to resemble a wilderness. Eventually he learned that the answer to his problem lay not in the removal of this curse, but to accept it. Life was short. If these tools refused to cooperate, who was he to fight fate? As a young husband, he knew that he and his wife did not have the financial means to replace these items; after all, they would just succumb to his “power,” and their money would be wasted. He would wake up at night in fear that the washing machine would be next, but his power seemed limited to small, gas-powered tools.

There was only one thing to do. Go fishing.

At first, he concentrated on a lo cal pond, where he could launch his boat, without the motor, and move about by paddle. But a local river called.

A nice lake was nearby. And so, he began to think about the outboard motor, gas-powered as it was.

Could he trust it? He began to make short trips, always with paddles at the ready. The motor chug ged along like it hadn’t a care in the world. Years passed. The man thought his powers had finally di minished. He no longer had a yard, but the fishing boat and motor work ed great. But then it happened.

One day far from the comfort of the boat ramp, the curse came for his motor…of all days to not bring a paddle!

As the years passed, the man did not abandon his fishing, his little boat, nor his outboard motor. He just simply did not trust them. And so, every trip also included an electric motor, a battery to run it, and oars. And when he put the boat into the river, he went upstream.

Many people today are like that man. They have faint trust in their own vision, and perhaps even less in God. They like the idea of religion, the idea that they are loved.

They enjoy the company of the nice people they encounter when they go to church. But when it comes to faith, they always go upstream.

After all, if faith should prove unreliable, it will be easier to get back to

the ramp. In this way, they never completely rely on faith. God is never completely trusted. They always have a back-up plan.

In the first chapter of I Kings, we are introduced to Solomon, the son of David. He is crowned the third king of Israel in the end of this opening chapter. His father, David, was a man after God’s own heart. But over the first 11 chapters we see a problem develop in his loyalty to God, and to the legacy of his father.

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David.—I Kings 11:4

A loyal heart is one that is completely committed. When the soldiers storm the beach against overwhelming odds, they do so out of loyalty. Maybe it is loyalty to their fellow soldiers, or to a leader, or perhaps to a nation. All they have is committed to this loyalty, as they leave their boat to confront the enemy.

Of King David, it was said by God that he was loyal in his heart to God. Not that he was perfect or without sin, but David was completely loyal to God; he was “all in” when it came to following God. To him, there was no other King.

He prayed for such a heart for his son, Solomon.

“And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep Your commandments and Your testimonies and Your statutes, to do all these things, and to build the temple for which I have made provision.”—I Chronicles 29:19

A loyal heart does not hedge its bets; it does not push upstream. Push ing upstream is our way of staying in control. Men throughout history have stepped away from the ramp, willing to let the boat go where the current takes them. They are willing to be loyal to the God they have placed their faith in. If that meant the gallows, then so be it. If that meant a life of poverty, or a life of turmoil, then they accepted it. Trusting God to take our boat, either by motor or current to that place where we must trust, where our schemes no longer are in control, is the place of loyalty.

The river is before us, and it runs through the wilderness. Do we push off with loyal trust, that God in his sovereignty has our best in store? We must move to surrender control of our lives to the one who knows the river and the wilderness.

Our future is before us, but it demands loyalty.

Don’t worry about the yard and clutter. That’s what kids are for, as long as my power over gas engines

Excerpted from Reflections on Rebellion and Redemption, Bradley W.

Antill author, see this and more at www.onatreeforestry.com