The Big Picture

When the sun is shining, your neighbors are nice, your kid got all A's, and the boss told you "Good job!" you can preach a sermon on how rewarding it is to obey God. .
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But back in the shadows sits a host of others. They listen to your sermon and wonder what they did wrong. They thought they were obeying God too. They thought they'd be preaching up there right along with you.
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But everything went crazy. The sunny day led to a tornado, the neighbors are suing them, their kid flunked out of school, and the boss just said, "Get out!"
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In many instances, a string of disasters are merely the consequences of a string of bad choices. But what about those who followed God as closely as they could, listened to His voice, took the road less traveled, determined to do it right for the glory of God--and it all led to disaster?
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I've been there. My parents were health-conscious long before it was in vogue. They were actively serving God, devoid of bad habits or unhealthy choices, distilling their water, growing their own food, living clean and right for the glory of God.
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And they each died of cancer in their 60's. Had they missed God? Was obedience a joke?
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When my husband and I had our first child, we knew God was leading us to homeschool. And we obeyed, following Him as closely as we knew how, every year remaining faithful to that calling with our other children as well.
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That first child rebelled against everything good and became our worst nightmare. Had we missed God?
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When a young girl named Mary heard from the angel Gabriel that she had been chosen to bear the Messiah, she instantly obeyed. Enduring childbirth as a virgin, opening herself to public scorn, embracing poverty, living on the run, and eventually watching her firstborn child murdered was probably not what she had in mind. Did she miss God? Did he not care about her pain, her suffering, her heartache?
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Of course He cared. But as much as God cares about our private pain, He cares far more about the big picture. When God tells the prophet Jeremiah that "My ways are not your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways" He was making it as simple as he could for our tiny brains. When he says "higher" he means far more encompassing than we can fathom.
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When we base our obedience on our own understanding, we limit God's ability to use us in His ultimate plan. God requires absolute obedience to His Voice, but doesn't promise the results we think we want. Most of the time, the results we want benefit only ourselves. God wants to use our obedience in the bigger picture.
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Had God allowed Mary's personal sacrifice to alter His plan, humanity would be damned forever. What if he'd heeded her cries to spare her precious Son?
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That's why He insists that we obey whether or not we like or understand it. He knows where we fit into the bigger picture--His picture: the redemption of mankind, the restoration of broken hearts, the conformity of man to the image of His Son.
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When we follow God only when we can see and approve of the results, we are in danger of derailing how God wants to use us in the bigger picture. God's plan will prevail, but it may have to go on without you. Do you really want it to?
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We are responsible only for our obedience, not the results of that obedience.

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And someday, we'll get to see the bigger picture. .
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