July 5, 2023
Some years ago, I made a trip to Paidha, Uganda, to teach Bible classes to a group of students. I took along some Christian books and articles that I wanted to use in my classes, with plans to give a class on the theme of letting God work through us. That topic is very dear to my heart, as I find it encouraging when the Lord chooses unexpected people to do His work, and then helps them to not only do it, but to do it brilliantly!
Moses complained to the Lord that he wasn’t a good speaker, yet God chose him to be the one who would lead the Jews out of Egypt. It’s been said that public speaking is considered the number-one fear of the average person. The number-two biggest fear is death. Jerry Seinfeld once joked, “That means that to the average person at a funeral, most would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.” Well, all joking aside, you can imagine that Moses had to have a lot of faith for him to believe that God knew what He was doing when picking him for a job that important. And sure enough, the Lord came through for him!
There was also the apostle Peter, who seemed at times to be a real hothead. He often got into arguments, and he famously denied knowing Jesus right before He was crucified. In spite of this, God still used Peter to reach thousands of people after he received the Holy Spirit. By that time, we can be pretty sure that Peter knew it was only the Lord’s power working through him that enabled him to touch so many people’s lives.
God never seems to be choosy about only using people with loads of talent, vast experience, the right background, or even those who are upstanding members of society. He rather likes to find someone unexpected, and then He does something wonderful through that person, so that everyone will know it is His doing. With this in mind, we can conclude that one of the most important qualities that the Lord needs in us is that we are willing.
One article I read to the students in Paidha on this subject of being willing used an oil lamp and a faucet to explain the concept of being a conduit of God’s work. The article read:
“When I was a boy, there were kerosene lamps in every home, on every table. They had lovely glass bowls for the oil, so you could see the wicks and the level of the oil, so you could know when to replenish the oil. The lamps burned best when full of oil. When the oil got low, too much of the wick would be out of the oil for the wick to be thoroughly soaked. Then the wick itself would begin to burn faster, and the lamp would give off smoke.
“We are sometimes like a lamp that has burned too long and lacks oil. We try too hard, work too long, and try to do everything ourselves. That doesn’t work for long. We need to immerse ourselves in Jesus, who is our ‘oil,’ and let Him burn to light the way, because if we try to do that ourselves, we’ll soon burn out.”1
The writer of this article was talking to people in a Western country, so he went on to say, “Most people don’t know much about oil lamps anymore, but something that everyone can relate to is a water faucet.” He went on to explain how the faucet doesn’t supply the water or create the water pressure; it’s merely a channel to let the water through. (This was another example of being available and willing.)
But I had to chuckle at this example of the faucet, because in Paidha no one has running water. Showers are taken using jerry cans—one filled with hot water and the other with cold water. But everyone had oil lamps for light, since there was no electricity.
So I simply changed the sentence to make it more applicable. I read, “Now most of you know about oil lamps, but something that not everyone has seen is a water faucet.” Thankfully, everyone understood the concept that I was explaining.
Another way to think about this principle is like God being whatever groovy music player you have. He’s got a massive song collection and the perfect playlist, but He needs a way to play it. You are like the headphones or speakers. You don’t have to create the music or come up with the playlist, but you have a very important role to play in getting the music to the listener. We have to remember, though, that although the speakers play an important role, without the music source, they’re pretty useless.
That’s the same with us when we’re wanting to pass on God’s love and message. In fact, Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That’s easy to forget sometimes, because the Lord gave us an amazing brain and the ability to do so much. It can be easy to think that we’re pretty great on our own, and sometimes we can forget just how much we need the Lord’s help.
I once visited a family in Namibia in southern Africa. They were teaching Bible classes to a friend of theirs, who also happened to be the national chess champion. He would come once a week and teach their kids classes on chess strategy, and those kids would compete in local competitions, winning lots of medals. The children became phenomenal chess players!
I played against the youngest child, who beat me hands down every time. We both had all the same pieces and we followed the same rules, but his strategies and tactics were way better than mine.
If you’ve played chess you know that some pieces can only move one space at a time. Some can only move one direction, and others are limited to diagonal movements or L-shaped movements. The queen can move in a straight line in any direction and as far as she wants. You could say that the queen is more powerful or useful than the pawns, but the fact remains that unless the chess player decides to move the queen, she’s stuck. Plus, like every other chess piece, she is still easily defeated if moved the wrong way.
I like to think about my life in similar terms to this chess game and the instruction of the national champion. I may think I know what I want for my life and sometimes even know how to get it, but I’ve learned from experience (a good portion of that being mistakes) that if I don’t look to the Lord (my Champion) for training, guidance, and wisdom, I can quickly make a mess of things.
But if we move in step with Him, the Lord can engineer things that are way beyond our power! He can set up things that seem to be “coincidences,” but which turn out to be key events. Or He can have us in the right place at the right time for something amazing to happen.
Take some time to include Him in your planning and daily life and you’ll see that things will work better, run more smoothly, and be less stressful. You just have to be the wick, the faucet, or that yielded chess piece, and let God do all the strategizing, as He leads and guides you through the ins and outs of His master plan.
This article was adapted from a Just1Thing podcast, a Christian character-building resource for young people.
1 “The Oil Lamp,” More Like Jesus (Aurora Production, 2001).
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