Wanna do me a favor?

I've gotten in a habit of listening to podcasts of sermons recently, mainly being inspired by my friend Josh Vance, who has listened to some so many times that he can directly quote whole sections!

It's been good to have some other podcasts to listen to instead of my normal geeky MIT opencourseware on biotech stuff or Philosophy Talk from Stanford. Although both are great.

Recently I've been listening to some sermons by Francis Chan from Cornerstone Simi church. I will say that I have gotten a ton out of each that I have listened to. This morning as I was listening to one (Living with Urgency Pt. 1) I really loved the illustration used, so I thought I'd share it with you.

When someone asks you to do a favor for them, what is your typical response?

If you're like me and most other people, you immediately say, "What is it?"

Now, admittedly there are a few people I don't even question, I just say, "Sure, what do you need me to do?" But often the "sure" part is left off til I find out what is required of me.

So Francis Chan asks his congregation in the same manner, if I read you something from the Bible, will you unquestioningly do what it says? Most of us will think, well... what are you going to read us?

Isn't that funny?

We say we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. We believe we should follow what it says, but we still will have some reservations about agreeing blindly to follow it unless we know what we are agreeing to.

Shouldn't we just say yes, whatever is in the Bible we will follow as the word of God, regardless?

The issue that was then pointed out in this part of the message was "don't slander". And although there was a great emphasis placed there, and it is of great importance to take that to heart and learn to truly love those we would want to speak badly about, there is a deeper message being put forth.

What would it look like if we all said no matter what it is, if God tells me to do something, I will do it without questioning it. I'll follow him regardless of whether it fits with my plans. Regardless of it fits with what I want, or what is sensible.

What if we did that for just one day? What could God accomplish through us in that time being totally committed to Him and His plan instead of being blinded by our own ideas?