What if God Asks Me to do Something Weird?!

I was in Marshall’s with my sister admiring little girls’ clothes. We were laughing atwith each other.

A noise breaks through the sound of our own laughter—yelling. I hear it coming from different locations in the store.

As the intensity of the noise increases, fear rises in my heart.

“Do you hear that? What is that noise, Kelly?”

I look around and see about a dozen full grown Latino men in flannel and dickies, some sporting tear drop tattoos (what we call cholo-wear in California. In case this is specific to California, allow me to educate you: cholo is slang for latino gangster). The men are shouting. A few have megaphones. They are all over the store.

I'd spent enough time living in this world to firmly believe that we either needed to duck underneath the clothes racks or run for the exits.

My heart is racing. My fight or flight responses have kicked it into high gear.

Run? Or Hide?

“Dude, Kelly. We need to get out of here now.”

And then I hear it:

“I just want to tell you Jesus loves you.”

One of the supposed “cholos” hands me a flyer to an event. And then he tells me. “We’re just here to tell you Jesus loves you.”

I am stunned. I don’t want his flyer. I don’t want his Jesus. I don’t want anything he’s offering. I just want out of that store and maybe a brown paper bag to breathe into.

The men were kicked out of the store. As I watched them parade through the parking lot, I saw innocent shoppers briskly power-walking into the stores, hanging their heads, just trying to be invisible to the army of ex-cholo Jesus-lovers. I was perplexed. Is that you God? Is that how You want to be made known? Does that really work?

God didn’t give me an answer. I got the distinct feeling it was between the zealous ex-gangsters and God.

But it did get me thinking.

I want to make Christ known. I want to bury my life to see Christ raised up in me. I want to be that foolish thing that confounds the wise if that’s what it takes. I want to see God move through me so that the only explanation of how it worked is the power of God.

I will be foolish. But I really, really don’t want to be weird.

I don’t want slam through a department store armed with a megaphone because, to be quite frank, it’s obnoxious and it scares people. I don’t want to stand on a crate on a street corner declaring, “The end of the world is near. Turn and repent from your wicked ways.” I don’t want to pray really loudly in tongues for a waitress in the middle of her shift, trying to exert my hands in such a way that she will be “slain in the spirit”—in the middle of a busy restaurant when she reluctantly let me pray for her. (True story. I was that waitress.)

But at the same time, I want to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Because, really, who am I to judge whether or not God asked someone to do any of those things I consider weird?? If but one person comes to know Christ as a result… isn’t it worth it? And shouldn’t I be willing, if God asked it of me? Who am I to do all the sense-making anyways? Aren’t God’s ways beyond our own?

So I have been praying through a list of things that could clarify at least in our own hearts the difference between foolish and weird.

Foolish:

Foolish is abandoning the fear of man.
Foolish is going lower instead of higher.
Foolish is seeking to be last instead of first.
Foolish is upside down.
Foolish doesn’t make human-sense.
Foolish is hiding yourself in God.
Foolish is refusing to make a name for yourself, but rather bringing glory to His name.

Weird is actually the opposite.

Weird:

Weird wants attention.
Weird thinks there is a formula to the power of God. It tries to manufacture what only God can do.
Weird actually makes sense to the weirdo.
Weird is uncomfortable in one’s own skin and overcompensating for it.
Weird wants to be important, recognized.

{Bottom line: The difference between foolish and weird is really found in the motives of my heart. Pride seems to have a funny way of discoloring faith put into action. The best way to avoid being weird is to simply walk in step WITH Jesus.}

What do you think? Anything to add to the lists? And then the big question, can you abandon fear and reason and do whatever God would ask of you??

Looking forward to some conversation on the matter.

By Grace,
Amanda

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