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As I pulled up to a traffic light, I came up beside an old red and white pickup truck that had seen better days. On the left side of its back bumper was a sticker,
“Relax … God is in control.”
Boy, did I needed to be reminded of that truth! It was if God was personally speaking to me. I smiled at the thought of God using the imperative verb “relax.” He has never used that particular word to talk to me before. I felt the warmth and comfort of the words flowing through my spirit – “God is in control.” The command to “relax” pinpointed exactly where my emotions were supposed to be but weren’t. In my heart I could hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me,
“Michael, relax … God is in control.”
After I confessed to having a “God is not on the throne” moment, a peace came over me, and my mental tachometer was no longer red lining in my brain and my A-fib heart returned to a “purr with a hiccup.”
Was there plenty of stuff to worry about? Sure enough. Would my worrying change anything? Sure enough, me but not my situation. I definitely had no control over my circumstances, but I was stressing out as if God had no control over my circumstances either! At any moment I was expecting to collapse under the weight of my burdens. I know you have never acted or felt this way, but would you mind if I share some insight with you?
The Holy Spirit gave me an encouraging rebuke to realign my thinking of my situation in light of God’s sovereignty in the affairs of men. I was reminded that nothing enters my life unless God personally approves or orchestrates it. I get much more comfort from that truth than believing a lie that something can get to me without God’s approval, but at times I forget about the approval part!
Peace is never to be found in the “God is not on the throne” moments, only stress. Every time God speaks to me during my "rattled" moments, there are at least three verses of Scripture brought to my attention: Gen 18:14; Rom 8:28, ESV; Heb 13:5. This is fundamental stuff, but no matter where we are in the Lord or how advanced our plays in life become, we should never lose sight of the basics of God’s power, purpose, and presence working in the lives of His beloved children.
I knew better than to lose sight of those basic truths, but how often do we need to hear what we know again because we take our eyes off of God in certain situations. I certainly chose to go horizontal rather than vertical with my outlook that afternoon. God graciously chose to speak to me from an unexpected source. That red and white pickup truck would be referred to as a “clunker” in these parts. But on that particular day, it was the prettiest looking vehicle in the intersection that happened to be driven by a “back woods” looking dude!
Since moving to this part of Tennessee, I have come to define a redneck as one who is lacking in self-awareness. Such a definition is not confined to eastern Tennessee, however, for rednecks are to be found everywhere! Everybody knows somebody who is lacking in self-awareness. People often see them as somewhat less culturally refined.
I could envision a church here with coon dogs out at the front entrance and a few scattered abandoned cars littering the landscape. In the vestibule the guns would be checked in at the gospel gun rack (to prevent accidentally shooting the preacher), and the choir would be dressed in camouflage robes. The walls would be lined with hunting trophies of the congregation of deer, bear, boar and other game. Come to think of it, deer targets scattered around the church property would be a nice touch if only pink flamingo figurines were planted all around the church yard, too!
Getting back to my story on that afternoon for I am going somewhere with all of this; I pondered about why God chose a clunker driven by a person who fit the physical description of a redneck (naturally I’m judging here) to deliver to me a message of God’s sovereignty. Apparently he liked the sticker, but so did I. If you have something in common with a redneck does that make you a redneck?
Anyway, there was something else God was teaching me here. God sure can be clever with our biases (Mt 7:2)! I was lacking awareness, too, not self awareness but lacking God awareness! I wasn’t practicing the presence of God in my life. How many of us are like that?!! By my own definition of a redneck, God was judging me, righteously of course, of being a Christian redneck, a genuine believer who lacks God awareness in his or her life in any situation. I’ve been humorous to soften the blow, but most of us are nothing more than Christian rednecks going through our daily routine of living as if God was not present just like me driving down the road. Now, it doesn’t seem so funny.
We sport spiritual camouflage that says we are Christians, but we don’t practice the presence of God in our lives. That makes any of us unequivocally a Christian redneck whenever we do this. How else do we explain all the self-induced stress and lack of peace? It is the result of “God is not on the throne” living. If you lack peace and contentment in your Christian life, you might just be a redneck!
“Even out of the mouth of rednecks He perfects praise” (Realization1:6); this is camouflage country where I live after all. At least physical rednecks are genuine, Christian rednecks are not. I ain’t got no coon dogs out on the front porch, but I turn into a Christian redneck every time I take my eyes off God! Brother Isaiah, tell me those words again. <><
