The Immovable Rock...2

As annie was saying in yesterday's post:

"God is not so much interested in our producing "results" as the results he produces IN us."

Yep...there have been some immovable rocks in my life.  There still are.  Nobody likes situations...events...people...that have us pushing against the same damn rock for years and years.  Seemingly nothing changes...and perhaps the changes in us are so subtle we don't even notice them.  Or perhaps we do.  I see changes in me as a result of some of the serious rock pushing I've done over the years.  Doesn't adversity introduce a man to himself?

And if God had flat out told the guy in this story that there was no way he was ever going to budge that rock....would his efforts have been as enthusiastic?  Thus, the changes God intended in/for the rock pusher would have never occurred.  A good example of this principle in action is demonstrated in the book of Ezekiel.

God gave Ezekiel an assortment of arderous busy work to complete in order to illustrate and symbolize the destruction ahead for Jerusalem. I'm sure his assignments also brought about some heavy duty changes in Ezekiel too...something God, no doubt, also had in mind.  Some of the things God required of him?  He commanded him to lie on his left side for 390 days, followed by lying on his right side for 40 days.  After that he was to lie on his back, arms bound, to illustrate the helplessness of Jerusalem against the Babylonian attack.  There were more unpleasant tasks that followed..tasks worse than pushing on a rock.  He was required to cook his food over cow dung, dig a hole in the wall of the city and do some pretty weird things with his hair that involved shaving and cutting and burning.  Worst of all, he was required to give up his beloved wife when God "took her"and not mourn her death.  This was to symbolize the grief the Jewish people would experience, a grief that God would not permit them to outwardly mourn.

If God had informed Ezekiel ahead of time that there was not a chance anyone would heed his words, would his efforts have been as enthusiastic?  Would he have completed his duties with as much resolve?  Would they have reaped the same results?  To coin a phrase Sister Helen Prejean, the nun of Dean Man Walking fame used in her article, "Would Jesus Pull the Switch":

God is a mystery, but one of the definite characteristics of God is that God is sneaky.

Isn't that the truth?  I may have used that quote in a post not too long ago...but it is so true.  So succinct.  God is sneaky.  He rarely tells us if the rock we are struggling against is ever going to budge. He simply says, "Keep pushing."