Crimes and Consequences

by - May 27, 2010

I never intended for this blog to be exclusively things spiritual, but, of late, the Lord has been sounding off loudly and often in my life. As it turns out, I need a lot of work.

If you're a CWO girl, please don't read this post. I'm trusting in your honor - don't do it. Just click the little "X" at the top of the screen. You can do it, I know you can. I'm not ready for you to see it yet, because it's about what God is showing me through the study many of you are about to begin. I so want you to be a fresh slate of your own life circumstances and spiritual position to hear directly from God first. I don't want your experience with our study to be colored by or limited to what God is teaching me. So, please, stop reading now. Really.... I still see you.... Go away.... You can come back later, I promise.... Bye, "close".

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Adrian started driving about three weeks ago. There's something about your baby manning the wheel that reinvigorates your prayer life. It's the craziest thing! Anyway, he had to have his picture school ID as part of his documentation to get his Learner's Permit. (No, Adrian, it's not a driver's license...yet.) In the unusual-ness of wearing his ID after school, he somehow misplaced it.

Back at school he had to use a temporary ID for a few days, which peels and sticks. One morning, he left it on his PE uniform after changing back into his regular clothes and headed to his next class. Instead of letting him retrieve it, the teacher made him order another temporary ID, which earned him an after-school detention. So far, I'm okay with this. Adrian has clearly demonstrated that he has some organization issues, and there are consequences for not keeping up with your stuff.

The detention was scheduled for an afternoon during spring training, so he was going to try to have it rescheduled, except that his homeroom teacher wouldn't allow him to go to the guidance office to do it. So, Adrian served his detention, missed a football practice, missed the issuing of practice uniforms, and had to "worm" almost half a football field without the benefit of padded pants and shoulder pads. For those of you, like me, that are not well-versed in coaching torture techniques, this is when you wiggle on your belly without the use of arms or legs, propelling yourself forward like a worm. The only difference is you don't leave a slime trail, you leave a top-layer-of-epidermis-from-your-thighs-and-shoulders trail if you're not wearing any protective gear, which he wasn't.

Really? Humiliation and rubbing off the top layer of skin on top of a two hour after school detention hardly fit the crime in my mind. He didn't download viruses to a school computer, assault someone, or swear at a teacher. He left his ID in another room on campus. Is it too much to ask that a rational, thinking adult somewhere down the line might put a stop to the chain reaction that spiraled out of control at some point? Someone? Anyone to bring a little grace to the situation?

Enter Jonah, the unwilling prophet. God gives him marching orders, and he promptly sails in the opposite direction. What does God do in response to this blatant and complete disobedience? He rescues Jonah and puts him right back on track. It's Grace 101, and God is the Professor (I didn't find at Adrian's school). Jonah actually deserved severe punishment, and God, even still, offered patience and provision, albeit in the form of sailors who throw him overboard, a stormy sea, and a fish with a stomach the size of, at least, a coffin, but preferably a walk-in closet. Would a stocked refrigerator and a bed be too much to ask for?

I'm pretty sure Jonah didn't see any of this as God's grace. He was probably thinking, "I'm in big trouble now," at every stage along the way. When he was being questioned by the captain, when he was getting tossed into a raging sea, and when he began to smell fish breath. At this point, Jonah must have believed the lie. I would have. I have. "I've really messed this thing up. I'm beyond cure. It's over."

On purpose, and by mistake, I've sailed in the direction of disobedience. Even now it feels like the storm is upon us. I've hidden myself in the hold. I've cast off excess baggage. I've tried every remedy I could think of. I'm weary of clinging to the ship, a death trap, thinking therein lies my salvation.

Because there can be no faith without unanswered questions, I cling, instead, to those, and throw myself into the sea of God's mercy. I embrace His rescue, even if it appears to be certain death at the jaws of natural consequences. I will trust the Lord that three dark, wet, and hungry days and nights might really be a life raft disguised to my earthly eyes. We have nothing to fear, everything to hope for, trust in, and wiggle towards. I'm not afraid to be a worm. Not dangled on a fish hook before God's instrument of rescue, or on the forty yard line of life.

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  1. You need to give up bookkeeping.
    You are a writer :) I'd pay to read your blog!
    This would be Angie Geib, btw!

  2. Ok, Ms Dawn...that was a really,really, really hard request for the CWO girls, but I will listen!!! I must say that I am very excited about our next bible study. Thank you so much for all you do. I have learned so much from you and look forward to what God has to teach us next!!!! Love you and see you at church XOXOXO! (Barbara Haynes)