We can do the same in our everyday life as we do with the lyrics to these songs:
'This year will be different'
'I'm going on a diet, going to lose 5 stone'
'I'm gona have a massive clear out'
But then this year turns out to be the same, we put on two pounds, and we only throw out one T-shirt in place of the five new ones.
Big Gestures.
Epic Fails.
To be honest this has been a steady pattern of my life. Most years at some point I make the bold statement, huge declaration. Then a year on, I wonder where all the time has gone, and what happened in between. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I never start. At the beginning the excitement, the adrenaline, the passion is all there but then it fades and I'm left with empty words. I catch the first few grenades but get bored and want something a little easier, less daring, more fluffy.
So can we counter it? Can I? The answer is I don't know yet, but I'd like too. So as the exam advisors tell you, it needs breaking down into bite-size chunks. When it comes to our life with God, maybe this is what he wants too. First it starts with our attention, then our sin, then 1 by 1 we hand him the areas of our life. Not all at once, gung ho, making promises we can't deliver, but a bit at a time. One foot in front of the other. Our life, one day at a time.
Practically what does this look like? It looks like small acts of obedience and discipline. On a diet, it isn't the original decision or declaration that will see you lose weight, it is the small decision to have fruit instead of chocolate, or to walk instead of drive. Small acts that contribute towards the big picture. As soon as we deviate with the small things the bigger picture gets further away, and things further away seem smaller. The smaller it seems the less important it feels, and when it fells less important we are unlikely to make the right choices in the small things, which would see our Big Gesture fulfilled.
When it comes to our walk with God, we should recognise that he has made his moves already, his big gestures have already started, and we need to respond with the small acts that say 'yes'. Sometimes we turn God into a judge like one off of strictly come dancing, someone who is watching us from a far, waiting for us to perform life well, and then score us a '7'. But the bible tells us that God loved us first, before we stepped onto the dance floor of life.
In scripture the metaphor of the bride and bridegroom is used for the Church and Jesus. It is a great metaphor. What we know about these relationships is that generally and certainly in Jesus times, the proposal to enter into that relationship came from the man. The big gesture of love, the elaborate proposal comes from the man. Type into Youtube 'epic proposal' or something similar and you will see how men go all out to ask the love of their life to marry them.
What we don't look for in these proposals is how the girl says her answer, but instead simply what her answer is. We want to know if she says yes or no, not if she says yes, in an equally epic way, that would seem out of place. The big gesture is made first, second comes the simple act of saying yes.
In Isaiah 6 we see this played out. Isaiah is before God and he doesn't feel worthy, 'Woe to me' he cries. Yet God sends an angel to cleanse his unclean lips, with the symbolic gesture of a piece of live coal. A big gesture from God to say 'I will make you worthy', 'I will cleanse you'. Then God asks 'And who can we send', and now having being made right before God Isaiah says 'Here I am, send me'. A response to the big gesture of God that simply says yes God here I am. No backflips, brash statements, no attempts to prove himself or perform, just a servant ready to say 'Yes'.
This is what God wants; an obedient people, ready to respond to his call. In the divine game of chess, God has made his move, and now it is our turn. Our turn to say yes, not our big gestures, but our small acts of obedience.
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