Dear God, Please Strike Them With Lightning…

As I have been reading through my YouVersion daily reading plan of the Gospels with my wife, I have been reminded of so many things.  Jesus really was amazing.  He was revolutionary.  Crowds followed Him everywhere.  12 guys got backstage passes.  Really cool stuff.  But the one thing that has been hitting me the most this week is that those 12 disciples who were chosen by Jesus Christ Himself to be the early leaders of the church were NOT perfect.  Really, a lot of the time they were quite ridiculous.

• They freaked out when someone else was preaching in Jesus name.  (Is that ok, Jesus?  Are you sure?  Because I’m pretty sure they were Methodists.)

• They had the Savior of the world on their boat and almost completely fell apart because they thought they were gonna die.  (Ummm…Jesus?  You might wanna wake up because the waves are really big.  What?  No!  It’s not time for surfing!  We are drowning!)

• They saw miracle after miracle, but as soon as He told them to gather up food for the 5,o00+ they doubted again.  (Seriously?  They don’t want Long John Silvers.  No one really eats that.)

But I think my favorite so far has been from Luke 9.

They came to a Samaritan village to make arrangements for his hospitality. But when the Samaritans learned that his destination was Jerusalem, they refused hospitality. When the disciples James and John learned of it, they said, “Master, do you want us to call a bolt of lightning down out of the sky and incinerate them?” Jesus turned on them: “Of course not!”

Luke 9:52-55 (emphasis added)

Ha!  I image that Jesus giggled a little to Himself there.  Probably one of those wow-you-are-an-idiot-but-I-don’t-want-to-laugh-in-your-face-so-I-will-cough-and-clear-my-throat type giggles (or guttoral utterances if you prefer the more rugged manly version of Jesus).  Seriously?  Have you not caught on to what He is doing?  You love those that need love.  No bolts of lightning, James and John.  No chopping off ears, Peter.

They weren’t perfect.  I love that!  Because I’m not perfect.  And still they were used to change the course of history!  How amazing is it to know that the God that thought you up and loves you more than you can EVER know can use you even with all our faults, failures, immaturities, and lack of faith?!  So rest in the fact that God has a plan for you.  And even though you have screwed up and will again, He still loves you and wants to use you.

Yes, even despite that time you were pregnant and in a fit of road rage tried to summon a bolt of lightning down to incinerate the car next to you that probably really didn’t do much to you.