A long ago friend shared something with me long ago. And I have found it to be a useful piece of counsel to share with others through the years, I almost exclusively use it with single people who are wondering if they are ever going to find Mr. or Mrs. Right. BUT it hit me a while ago that really the counsel is good for anyone who feels caught in the middle of a huge waiting game with God or more accurately is disgruntled with God because they aren't getting to do what they think they should be doing "for" God. The counsel comes directly from Genesis 24 and the story of Isaac and Rebekah. (Click here to read the real story) The Beth Brief (quit snickering, I can be brief when I wanna be) Summary is this: Abe wants his boy to get a woman. Abe sends his servant to get the boy a woman. This makes the servant nervous so he asks God for help picking the right woman. God helps, the servant picks a woman, and the boy gets the girl.
And here's where you go...WHAT?!? Okay fine. I folded under the pressure to prove I could be brief but let me expand a wee bit more. Abe didn't want his boy, Isaac, to be without a woman when he (Abe) died. And for whatever reason Isaac wasn't looking for his own woman so Abe took it in his own hands and sent his head servant out with instructions to not return unless he has a woman for Isaac. The scared ?, intimidated ?, nervous ? servant implored the God of his master to help him by showing him through a specific sign who the Mrs. Right was. A woman showed up to water her camels and fulfilled the specific sign (think of it like God pointing a finger at her and saying to the servant, "THAT'S HER."). She agreed to marrying Isaac, sight unseen (and that's a whole different blog), and Isaac got himself a woman.
Okay. Now that you've got a wee bit more of the story let's dig in.
So many times when this passage is taught in churches the focus is the faith of the servant. Or it is about Isaac and Abe in some way. Rarely is Rebekah looked at. Guess what? :) I'm looking at Rebekah.
If you read the real story, answer this question: what was Rebekah doing when she showed up at the watering hole to water the camels? The surface, duh Beth answer is she was watering the camels. Okay BUT who told her to water them? Well, her father of course! So what was Rebekah doing? She was being obedient to her Father by doing what he asked. She wasn't sitting around waiting for a better task to come along or for someone else to come around to do it for her. It isn't said in the story if Rebekah was also wondering about Mr. Right. Was she also keeping her eyes peeled for one? Or was she indifferent to the idea (which I hardly doubt considering the importance her culture placed on being a wife and bearing children)? I wish we could have a little more of Rebekah's take on this whole circumstance. But we don't. All we have is what we have. So let's go with it, because we can.
Let me ask you a question, and at first you might be tempted to answer with a, "Duh, Beth..." but resist the temptation and think before you speak please! :) What has God asked YOU to do...today? Right now at this very moment? What "camels" has he commissioned you to water today? Now here's another question, how exciting or personally fulfilling do you think it was for Rebekah to be watering the camels? (Not to mention the amount of time and work it takes to water a herd of camels!) And so transfer that question to yourself, how exciting or personally fulfilling is it for you to be where you are at right now? When God asks us to obey it isn't so we will be excited and personally fulfilled. He's got a bigger plan and a bigger mission in mind than our personal excitement or fulfillment. It isn't about us, it's about HIM. Rebekah wasn't watering the camels because she was personally excited about that task or personally fulfilled by it. She was doing it because she understood obedience to her Father. Do I understand obedience to my Father? Do you? "But Beth..." But Beth nothing. You know what has excited me about watering the camels God asks me to? That I obeyed him and didn't moan and groan while doing so. You know what I have found personally fulfills me? When I obey my DAD with a pure and joyful heart. See, some camels that God has asked me to water haven't been so fun. They've "spit" at me, they've gone "stubborn" on me, I've been under appreciated by them, the watering hole was hot and dusty, the isolation just about did me in. But funny thing. On the other side of the watering hole was something I couldn't see, only God knew about and it changed my life forever. Rebekah's life was changed forever by obeying her Dad and showing up at the watering hole. Is it possible that my life, that your life could be changed by a pure and joyful obedience to God's request to water camels? Is it possible? Yes.
Yes it's possible when we aren't begrudging the Lord for the camels he's asked us to water while we wait. That's the other side of this. We want to be doing bigger, better, and what we think are more important things "for God" than this watering hole we feel stuck at right now. Hmm. We have placed a value on the types and kinds of work there is out there to do. And we think that because God sends off to water a big camel that we will always water big camels so we get disappointed, irritable, frustrated when he then asks us to water what we perceive to be small camels. Just a quick question that I've had to answer already so I thought I would pose to you: who are you to tell God which camels are more important than others? Do you realize that whining to God about the perceived small camels you are watering right now is basically telling him that he doesn't know what he's doing? So you feeling gutsy enough to tell God that he isn't sovereign? Because that is what you are saying to him.
I've sat in counseling offices and counseled women in a "professional" setting and I've sat in coffee houses and counseled women in a "casual" setting. For a (very) short season it felt like a demotion of sorts. To go from being officially recognized as a counselor to well, counseling by word of mouth! I felt whiny about it until I held my first un-official counseling session in a coffee shop and that shut me up. God so clearly showed me the benefits of the coffee house "watering hole" over the office one that I came away relieved to not be stuck in the office one anymore! Perspective. It felt like I was going from big to small but in God's reality I was being promoted. I'm gifted administratively. I'm wired to be an admin assist and let me tell you, I am a GOOD one. So why aren't I someones admin assist and instead sitting behind a front desk spending my working hours greeting people? I mean, God didn't I do good enough watering those big camels? Why would you ever ask me to sit behind a front desk and virtually let my admin skills go unused? Why God have you forsaken me? (You all know I'm just saying all this to make a point right?) The front desk might seem like small camels and a small watering hole to me or to others BUT it's no less important than the job I have done before as an admin assist, which some would say was big camels and big watering hole. Perspective. What if the watering hole you say and feel "stuck" at right now is actually a promotion in God's Kingdom? Are you still going to begrudge God because you have a higher view of yourself than you ought?
The nitty-gritty of the counsel out of Genesis 24 is this: obey your Dad with a pure heart and a joyful spirit and water the camels he's told you to and watch him reward you in unexpected and life-changing ways.
And here's where you go...WHAT?!? Okay fine. I folded under the pressure to prove I could be brief but let me expand a wee bit more. Abe didn't want his boy, Isaac, to be without a woman when he (Abe) died. And for whatever reason Isaac wasn't looking for his own woman so Abe took it in his own hands and sent his head servant out with instructions to not return unless he has a woman for Isaac. The scared ?, intimidated ?, nervous ? servant implored the God of his master to help him by showing him through a specific sign who the Mrs. Right was. A woman showed up to water her camels and fulfilled the specific sign (think of it like God pointing a finger at her and saying to the servant, "THAT'S HER."). She agreed to marrying Isaac, sight unseen (and that's a whole different blog), and Isaac got himself a woman.
Okay. Now that you've got a wee bit more of the story let's dig in.
So many times when this passage is taught in churches the focus is the faith of the servant. Or it is about Isaac and Abe in some way. Rarely is Rebekah looked at. Guess what? :) I'm looking at Rebekah.
If you read the real story, answer this question: what was Rebekah doing when she showed up at the watering hole to water the camels? The surface, duh Beth answer is she was watering the camels. Okay BUT who told her to water them? Well, her father of course! So what was Rebekah doing? She was being obedient to her Father by doing what he asked. She wasn't sitting around waiting for a better task to come along or for someone else to come around to do it for her. It isn't said in the story if Rebekah was also wondering about Mr. Right. Was she also keeping her eyes peeled for one? Or was she indifferent to the idea (which I hardly doubt considering the importance her culture placed on being a wife and bearing children)? I wish we could have a little more of Rebekah's take on this whole circumstance. But we don't. All we have is what we have. So let's go with it, because we can.
Let me ask you a question, and at first you might be tempted to answer with a, "Duh, Beth..." but resist the temptation and think before you speak please! :) What has God asked YOU to do...today? Right now at this very moment? What "camels" has he commissioned you to water today? Now here's another question, how exciting or personally fulfilling do you think it was for Rebekah to be watering the camels? (Not to mention the amount of time and work it takes to water a herd of camels!) And so transfer that question to yourself, how exciting or personally fulfilling is it for you to be where you are at right now? When God asks us to obey it isn't so we will be excited and personally fulfilled. He's got a bigger plan and a bigger mission in mind than our personal excitement or fulfillment. It isn't about us, it's about HIM. Rebekah wasn't watering the camels because she was personally excited about that task or personally fulfilled by it. She was doing it because she understood obedience to her Father. Do I understand obedience to my Father? Do you? "But Beth..." But Beth nothing. You know what has excited me about watering the camels God asks me to? That I obeyed him and didn't moan and groan while doing so. You know what I have found personally fulfills me? When I obey my DAD with a pure and joyful heart. See, some camels that God has asked me to water haven't been so fun. They've "spit" at me, they've gone "stubborn" on me, I've been under appreciated by them, the watering hole was hot and dusty, the isolation just about did me in. But funny thing. On the other side of the watering hole was something I couldn't see, only God knew about and it changed my life forever. Rebekah's life was changed forever by obeying her Dad and showing up at the watering hole. Is it possible that my life, that your life could be changed by a pure and joyful obedience to God's request to water camels? Is it possible? Yes.
Yes it's possible when we aren't begrudging the Lord for the camels he's asked us to water while we wait. That's the other side of this. We want to be doing bigger, better, and what we think are more important things "for God" than this watering hole we feel stuck at right now. Hmm. We have placed a value on the types and kinds of work there is out there to do. And we think that because God sends off to water a big camel that we will always water big camels so we get disappointed, irritable, frustrated when he then asks us to water what we perceive to be small camels. Just a quick question that I've had to answer already so I thought I would pose to you: who are you to tell God which camels are more important than others? Do you realize that whining to God about the perceived small camels you are watering right now is basically telling him that he doesn't know what he's doing? So you feeling gutsy enough to tell God that he isn't sovereign? Because that is what you are saying to him.
I've sat in counseling offices and counseled women in a "professional" setting and I've sat in coffee houses and counseled women in a "casual" setting. For a (very) short season it felt like a demotion of sorts. To go from being officially recognized as a counselor to well, counseling by word of mouth! I felt whiny about it until I held my first un-official counseling session in a coffee shop and that shut me up. God so clearly showed me the benefits of the coffee house "watering hole" over the office one that I came away relieved to not be stuck in the office one anymore! Perspective. It felt like I was going from big to small but in God's reality I was being promoted. I'm gifted administratively. I'm wired to be an admin assist and let me tell you, I am a GOOD one. So why aren't I someones admin assist and instead sitting behind a front desk spending my working hours greeting people? I mean, God didn't I do good enough watering those big camels? Why would you ever ask me to sit behind a front desk and virtually let my admin skills go unused? Why God have you forsaken me? (You all know I'm just saying all this to make a point right?) The front desk might seem like small camels and a small watering hole to me or to others BUT it's no less important than the job I have done before as an admin assist, which some would say was big camels and big watering hole. Perspective. What if the watering hole you say and feel "stuck" at right now is actually a promotion in God's Kingdom? Are you still going to begrudge God because you have a higher view of yourself than you ought?
The nitty-gritty of the counsel out of Genesis 24 is this: obey your Dad with a pure heart and a joyful spirit and water the camels he's told you to and watch him reward you in unexpected and life-changing ways.
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