Where He Leads I Will Follow: Staying Faithful

 

Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 6:22

 Peer pressure is a powerful thing. It’s hard to be different, set apart as the Bible calls it. It’s so much easier to just go with the flow, following along with the flow of traffic and going “about” the speed limit. Being that one guy following the rules and going 60 in a 60mph zone is rough. People keep zooming around you. Sometimes they honk. Sometimes you can see the anger and assume the nasty words coming out of their mouths as they slow down next to you to let you know how much they don’t appreciate your choices. Really, they’d so much prefer if you did what they did and kept the freeway smoother and freer flowing. The irony is that the opposite is also true, if they just slowed down and went the speed limit with you it would be just as smooth and free flowing!

 Now, the intention of this post is not to preach against speeding. Our vehicle definitely doesn’t stay below 60 on the freeway. The point is to give you a picture of how hard it is to go against the prevailing culture. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes even dangerous. But when it’s what God’s told you to do, it’s far more dangerous not to. Imagine if Noah had given in to peer pressure, believing his contemporaries and setting down his hammer. Even worse, what if someone had convinced him he’d totally lost it and checked himself into an institution where they could fix him! Where would the world be at today if he had not stood his ground and remained faithful through 100 years of living out what God had called him to?

 I hope that God gave him little signs along the way, little encouragements that showed him he was still doing the right thing and he wasn’t crazy. He does that for me, and I am so very grateful. In my current season of life, I’m dealing with radiation for a brain tumor. At least these days, we have technology that can see inside my head and show that it exists – imagine if we were just surmising that there was something in there! The challenge comes in with treatment. The “standard of care” for my situation is far from consistent or solid. Even my Radiation Oncologist spent the first few years she knew us trying to convince us not to do radiation. Then, one day, her tune changed. Prior to that appointment, I had prayed, asking God that if there was something different, something that should be dealt with, He would “light it up like a neon sign” so that my team wouldn’t miss it. When my image came up on the screen in my appointment – there was my sign! And hers too, evidently, as it got the attention of my doctor. Despite such clear indications, it didn’t take long for me to start to doubt. Maybe we’d jumped the gun. Maybe we didn’t really need to do radiation. Maybe I was exaggerating my symptoms, and it really wasn’t all that bad. So, I prayed again and asked God to show me for sure if this was the right time. I woke up the next morning so terribly ill I couldn’t sit up. Then, a few days later, my counselor and I prayed that God would make His path and plan clear and that I would have peace about it. Not an hour later, my doctor called me up (something that had never happened before) and told me she thought we needed to move up my treatment by three months. I was faced with a situation most people, especially me, couldn’t fully understand. I was on a path I didn’t quite know what to do with, and couldn’t necessarily defend to others. But God helped me along the way, giving me what I need to continue on.

Here’s the Thing: The Bible doesn’t tell us whether God did this for Noah, but I hope He did. Scripture shows this pattern often enough—and I’ve seen it in my own life—that it’s reasonable to recognize it as part of how God works. In any case, no matter how counter-cultural, how unbelievable what you hear from God is, you’d better follow it anyways! Otherwise, you might find yourself neck-deep in flood waters when you could have been safely housed in an ark.