Judges 6

Happy Groundhog Day, Swerve readers! Glad you clicked through and found me today. (Metacognician followers, you can check out Swerve to see my guest post over there!) On my blog, I read a chapter of the Bible each day and share how it speaks to us today, or to me anyway. Today I picked one in honor of six more weeks of winter. (Or is spring coming early? Haven't heard yet for sure.) I'd love you to stop and read the chapter and then let's dig in.

What's not to love about Gideon? (Forget about that tragic deal later with his gold vest that gets worshipped, that wasn't really his fault.) I admire his humility, his obedience, and his gutsy willingness to take action on things that flat out sound crazy. But in this chapter, we get a peek at a his faults. And I find that refreshing. He was hiding out so he could feed his famaily without getting robbed by the Midianites. (Knowing how completely freaked out the Midianites are later about him makes this such a nice detail for God to put in.)

Suddenly, he's confronted by a heavenly messenger who addresses him the way God sees him. Not as a coward, but as a mighty warrior. In verses 11-16, note what a crazy contrast there is between God's view of Gideon and his situation and Gideon's own view. Isn't it ridiculous how off our self-awareness can get sometimes? How we focus on stuff like where our family came from or our background or our educational failings or our past shortcomings or our weaknesses, and all God can see is the amazing things He wants to do through us? God saw potential in Gideon that he didn't even know was there. And I suspect, that God sees the same thing in each of us. I mean, I probably won't run into battle with 299 guys armed with trumpets, jars, and torches anytime soon, but I wonder what God does see in me that I can't see from the bottom of this wine press. While I'm standing here ankle deep in crushed wheat, what does God see in me from His position outside of time and space hovering above the circle of the earth?

The part that sort of reminds me of Groundhog Day though is the fleece shenanigans. Seriously Gideon, an angel just made his lunch burst into flames! You just drop kicked the town idol and got a tough nickname for it that you'll carry for the rest of your life. And you seriously need not one, but two more signs from God? You're going to count on some soggy wool to determine whether spring is on its way for sure?

We can laugh at Gideon's insecurities pretty comfortably from here in front of our computer. But he was about to lead his people against their oppressors. That is kind of a big deal. But I bet some of us are facing something that feels every bit as scary. I know I am. Even if what I'm most afraid of is if I really have the chops to obey and trust God to do what He already told me He was going to do. That's probably more like what Gideon was afraid of, too. Not death so much as failure. Anyone else out there facing that besides me and Gideon?