Everybody Has A But

There were three things I remember not being allowed to do as a kid (well three things that really stick out in my mind now as I reflect back on my childhood.

            1.  Can’t watch Married with Children

            2.  Can’t watch the Simpsons

            3.  Can’t say the “B” word – which happened to be butt in my family.

My response…I was never in the house in the evenings to really watch TV anyway.  I was usually outside playing cops and robbers until dark.  Thankfully, TV wasn’t really a part of my growing up, unless the Rangers were on TV because that meant I could stay up late with dad because we had to finish watching the end of the game.  However, I did have a big sister and she really got on my nerves sometimes.  And when it came to the “B” word, I just had a hard time complying with that rule.  Butt, butthole, and butthead were some of my favorite descriptors for her (love her to death now).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I was fairly difficult to handle as a little brother, and once I have kids of my own, you can be pretty sure the above 1-3 will be on their list too. 

It really drove my mom nuts when I would use the “B” word and it got under my sister’s skin so good.  I really hate to admit I got some kind of sick satisfaction by being able to aggravate them so easily.  Mom would always say, “Ross Marion, we do not use that word!”  In my mind, what’s the big deal?  Everybody has a butt! 

I don’t have kids of my own yet, but one thing is for sure – they won’t be allowed to use the dreaded “B” word.  I even feel like I’m headed for a grounding as I write this because mom would not approve of my word usage. Sorry mom, guess I don’t feel too guilty because I’m writing it anyway. 

Sure, everybody has a butt.  It also seems that everybody also has a but.  As dangerous as butt is to sibling rivalry, so too is but to our faith as Christians.  As a good father, I think God would ban the “b” word because he knows just how detrimental it is to our faith. 

One of our older brothers of the faith learned this lesson early in the biblical narrative.  His name just happened to be Moses, and he spoke the awfully dreaded “b” word.  God heard it and he immediately banned it.  “No but’s allowed.”

The story happens in Exodus 4:10-13.  “But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”  But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”

What's Moses' problem?  Maybe it's stuttering.  Maybe he's lost his fluency with the Egyptian language.  Maybe he's become accustomed to blue-collar grammar amongst the shepherds.  Whatever his problem, legitimate or illegitimate, it certainly is not enough to deflect God from his path of action.

Moses’ repeated attempts show he is trying to free himself from God’s call.  Moses feels like he playing the central role in the deliverance of Israel.  What Moses doesn’t understand is that God cares more about the Israelites than he does, and God is fully capable of directing the means to bring about their freedom. God calls Moses to carry out his work for his people.  Moses’ response…"Uhh, God don’t you know I kind of have this stuttering issue.  God…I’m not the most eloquent of speakers." 

Here appears the holy God of the universe to Moses and calls him to a task.  He’s showed his presence through a burning bush, given Moses a couple of other signs that he is with him, and tells him he will be his mouth.  Holy God will speak for him.  Moses’ response…"uhhh Lord, can you send someone else?"

I often wonder if our but’s are asking of God the same question.  He is calling us to work and our response is to ask him to send someone else.  Are we crazy?  What are missing here?  It’s all about an identity crisis. We have to stop looking at ourselves instead of looking to God.  That was the problem for Moses, for Gideon, for Jeremiah, for Jonah, for Peter, etc.  Peter failed when he took his off of Christ.  Moses had every but in the book and so too did Gideon.  Jonah was full of excuses and reasons not to do what God wanted.  What did God do?  He used all of them despite the but’s.  Our problem is that we are often but-heads.  We’ve got to get the but’s out of the picture so the cans of God come through. 

Our circumstances cannot be the determining factors in our response to God’s calling. God is not just with us, but in us, and we are in Christ.  We are all called in order to be sent out on a mission. 

Moses’ objections are inconsequential…not BUT’S allowed. 

We have to start thinking exciting thoughts.  God gave us an imagination because he wants us to be dreamers.  However, the dream is useless if we never seek to live it out.  Just look at the missional imagination of the men who lowered the paralytic through the roof.  Without creativity and vision, that man may never have walked.  If we try to sum up life by what we can do, it’s flat out going to be boring.  We’ve got to start believing in what God can do through us.  Missional imagination looks past ourselves and into the living God within us.  A rejection of God’s calling is a rejection of Christ within in.  It’s a living oxymoron.

Everybody has a but.  We are all a little spiritually clumsy and don’t know everything there is to know about faith.  One thing we do know…God doesn’t approve of the “B” word.  If selfish, it’s faithless, and it removes his power to use us in the ways he has dreamed up. 

Moses was just like us.  He was normal, with flaws, and a little uncertain.  God used him anyway!  It is an extraordinary call that comes to ordinary men in ordinary settings.  It is in our inability that God does some of his best work.  Periods of discomfort, doubt and unrest are nothing more than the honest strugglings of God’s people, and it is precisely through such a process that the Lord strengthens us for the task ahead and causes us to grow to meet greater challenges. 

You may be an imperfect follower of Christ, but the perfect Christ lives in you.  In him, your identity is formed.  In his image you were made.  To his mission you are called.  No but’s allowed.