“Can I Have the Squirt Gun Instead?”
Dianne Olsen, Washington
Have you ever had a REVELATION? You know what I mean, when a scripture jumps from your mind to your heart!! Well, the second Sunday of June-BAM-REVELATION!! I was so excited, I wanted to tell everyone I know, and even people I don’t!! So I thought I would share this with you all.
God gave me a picture (with special effects!!). There is an old saying, “when the poop hits the fan!” Well, that is the modified version. People would say, “What are you going to do when the poop hits the fan?” Now, you know those old sprinklers (here’s where the special effects are) that shoot a stream of water and make that chu, chu, chu, chu sound? When I was a kid, I would run to try to get HIT by the stream of water. Stuff “hitting the fan” was like those sprinklers. After that little picture, God spoke a scripture to me, Joshua 24:15-“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve”; and 24:24, “The people said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord our God and we will obey his voice.” Now I always thought of that scripture as meaning to CHOOSE salvation-not a problem, I did that long ago! But I learned that “this day” is EVERY day! Now let’s look at the word serve, it is defined as follows: to be a servant to; to give the service and respect due to a superior (pretty sure that would be God); to comply with the commands or demands of; to treat or act toward in a specified way. Now I see how this means to choose to obey Him, DAILY!!
You know all those scriptures about love, mercy, forgiveness-yada, yada, yada? Isn’t it easy to do all those things when “all is well with those we love”? But then we get hurt, offended, or just plain bruised by someone-and all those “love” scriptures go right out the window!! Where did 1 Corinthians 13 go? “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol; If I have the gift of prophesy, and know all mysteries and knowledge; and if I have all faith as to move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing...... Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant. Does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth....Love never fails.” Those scriptures don’t disappear; they are still there, and WE HAVE TO CHOOSE WHETHER OR NOT WE WILL OBEY THE LORD THIS DAY!! Something happened to my husband and me recently-we were wounded by a fellow believer.
My husband said, “I know we have to forgive him, but....” I stopped him and said that ALL the scriptures about love and forgiveness that I have ever seen have no BUTS!!! The Lord began to show me all the times that “when the poop hit the fan” I CHOSE to NOT serve the Lord-my choices were to be disobedient to the Word, and this can come in all kinds of packages. The truth of it all is this: I will have to stand before God and be accountable for how I handle this situation-the man that wounded us will not be there-just me all by myself-and the Lord will not say, “Oh, I understand Dianne, he hurt you, I can see why you hated him.” NOPE, not going to happen, instead, He will say, “These were my instructions, but you chose to do your own thing!!” Romans 12 and 13 are pretty clear instructions for this!!
I have seen it in lots of situations-a person goes through a divorce, and suddenly the mother or father of their kids becomes a curse word in the home. Guess what folks? If you hate your ex-spouse or boy or girlfriend, YOU will be accountable for it! Did I just hear a “but you don’t understand what a jerk he was, or all the horrible things she did to me!!” CHOOSE TODAY, WHO YOU WILL SERVE!! What a testimony of the love of God we could have to unbelievers and believers alike, if people can see us walk through a hurt with someone, and come out of it loving, preferring, and forgiving one another.
The Word says to love, period. It says to forgive, period. It says to prefer one another, period. It says to walk in integrity, period. It says to not gossip, period. It is a fruit of the spirit-which means that if we call ourselves Christians, love will be EVIDENT in our lives, PERIOD!! There are no exceptions to these words, no one is excluded, and there ARE NO BUTS!!
So I have had to swallow my pride and NOT go around defending myself of all the things this man has said about me, or go for the throat and begin to “share” with people what he had done. I had to CHOOSE to walk away, and walk in love. Has it been easy? It is a lot easier for me with this revelation!! I keep reminding myself that no matter what he does or says, I HAVE TO CHOOSE!! I shared this with my husband and said, “So, when it hits the fan, let’s make that cool chu,chu,chu sound effect with each other to remind us that we have to CHOOSE!” So who do you need to love and forgive today? Chu,chu,chu,chu CHOOSE!!! SHALOM
