The Holy "TaskMaster"

Jamie and I have started watching a new TV show called TaskMaster. It's a British show where each season five comedians go through a series of crazy tasks, and the audience watches the videos of their attempts.

Tasks can be simple things like "Project this frozen pea as far as possible using any means necessary. You have 10 minutes." Some participants simply threw the pea as far as they could. Others used homemade slingshots. Another hired a taxi, put the frozen pea in the back seat and told the drive to drive as far as possible in 10 minutes.

Another task was to place three large exercise balls in a giant hula hoop. The problem was the balls were at the bottom of a hill, the hula hoop at the top. Contestants would take two of the exercise balls up (because that's all they could hold) and place them in the hula hoop, but when they went back down to get the third, the wind blew the first two off the hill. Another contestant recruited some passersby to help. Another walked up the hill, grabbed the hoop, and brought it down to where the balls were.

In other words, it's a show about watching funny people attempt nonsensical tasks (content warning for language, though).

Imagine going about your day and suddenly a person in a giant chicken suit runs by, or you see a blindfolded lady carrying an armful of watermelons through a park while wearing several hats. Without understanding the context you may wonder the person's motivation... or question their sanity.

However, did you know there is a biblical parallel to this? There are several stories in Scripture where God asks one of his followers to do something that simply didn't make sense to the person at the time. Imagine being told by God:

"Sit in this cave and wait for birds to bring you food."
~ Elijah in 1 Kings 17

"Lay on your left side for 390 days."
~ Ezekiel in Ezekiel 4

"Name your child Unloved."
~ Hosea in Hosea 1

"Wear the same pair of underwear for many days without washing them, then take them off and hide them in a cleft of the rock for many days, then retrieve them and show everyone."
~ Jeremiah in Jeremiah 13

"Walk around naked and barefoot for three years."
~ Isaiah in Isaiah 20

"Reduce your army from 32,000 to 300 and then fight the most powerful army in the world."
~ Gideon in Judges 7

These are all things that God commanded his followers to do, and none of it made sense at the time. God had a purpose for his instructions, but each one of his followers had to decide to trust God's instructions even when they didn't understand the purpose behind them.

God reminds us:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

~ Isaiah 55:7-8

These words from God leave us today with the same choice as all the people mentioned above, albeit likely not in as extreme circumstances. Whom do I trust?

Understandably, we can hear God incorrectly, or apply what we hear incorrectly. If I heard what Jeremiah heard, I would definitely question whether or not I was hearing God correctly.

So to say "I trust the Lord" does not mean "I will turn off my brain and my logic." Rather, it means I will submit my logic to the logic of God, which can be different from mine. And if we're not sure as to what we're hearing, it is OK to pause and ask for confirmation.  But the time may come when we say, "This may be boldness or foolishness, but I think the Lord is leading me to do this, so I'm going to do it."

A simple example: Jesus says generosity sets us free and helps us be fully alive. That may be easy to hear when life is uncomplicated and finances are great, but when life is messy and finances are tight, it's a little harder. Can we still maintain a generous spirit even when we feel constrained in our finances, or time, or energy?

PAUSE and REFLECT: The first question we need to ask is, "Am I listening?" So, are you? Do you listen for God in his Word, or in the conversations you have with others, or in the "nudging of your spirit" (i.e. gut feelings)? If we're not taking time to listen then the rest is irrelevant.

The second question we need to ask is, "Am I trusting?" We may be listening, but once we hear and we're reasonably sure it's God speaking to us, do we trust that God's guidance is good and right, even if it doesn't make sense to us at the time?

Finally, the third question we need to ask is, "Am I doing?" We may be listening, we may even trust God in what we hear, but are then following through with the steps of obedience he asks? It is this last step and only this last step that will lead us to transformation. But we have to do the first two steps to reach the third one.

Am I listening, am I trusting, am I doing? Put another way: Do I hear God, do I believe his words to me, do I obey them?

Chances are low that God will ask you to show everyone your underwear. Chances are also low that God will ask you to throw a frozen pea as far as you can (although you never know...). Chances are high that at some point God will ask you to do something that doesn't make sense to you at the moment.

How will you respond?

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Photo by Gez Xavier Mansfield on Unsplash