I love expressions. You know, the things people say so that they can drop just the right clich\u00e9 at the right time and appear wise.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all got them. Some we read from a book, others came through generational transmission (from your parents, that is), and still others found their way into the storehouse of our collective memory via the world\u2019s greatest resource of miscellaneous knowledge… email forwards.<\/p>\n
Here are a few you might recognize:<\/p>\n
There are some interesting expressions in the Christian world as well. Again, some are helpful and others, not so much.<\/p>\n
Expressions can be useful, but they can also be a little dangerous. Personally, I think there should be a three-day waiting period before using one, kind of like handgun laws.<\/p>\n
After a couple of days, and a little bit of thought, some of our trite\u00a0\u00a0little \u00a0expressions might not seem to fit the moment so well.<\/p>\n
Still, there is one expression I think works both in the spiritual and non-spiritual realm. And, I haven\u2019t been able to poke a hole in it, yet.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the old expression that says, \u201cDon\u2019t get the cart before the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m sure there are some problems with the expression that I\u2019m unaware of since I am not a horse, or a cart person. But, on the surface level, this expression really works for me!<\/p>\n
I see the wisdom in making sure that we always do first things first, and working smarter not harder (hey, there\u2019s a couple more).<\/p>\n
One of the reasons I really gel with this expression is because I can see it quite clearly taught in Scripture. Although there are many places we could point to, I was recently reading the book of Joshua and a single verse jumped out at me that matches this expression.<\/p>\n
In Joshua chapter 9, God\u2019s people are taking the promised land by force. They are having military victory after military victory. As they roll across the land, a group called the Gibeonites try to do an end-run around them, realizing that there\u2019s no way they could beat them militarily.<\/p>\n
3 <\/em><\/sup>However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, <\/em>4 <\/em><\/sup>they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. <\/em>5 <\/em><\/sup>The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. <\/em>6 <\/em><\/sup>Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, \u201cWe have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
7 <\/em><\/sup>The men of Israel said to the Hivites, \u201cBut perhaps you live near us. How then can we make a treaty with you?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
8 <\/em><\/sup>\u201cWe are your servants,\u201d they said to Joshua.<\/em><\/p>\n
But Joshua asked, \u201cWho are you and where do you come from?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
9 <\/em><\/sup>They answered: \u201cYour servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard reports of him: all that he did in Egypt, <\/em>10 <\/em><\/sup>and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan\u2014Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. <\/em>11 <\/em><\/sup>And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, \u2018Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, \u201cWe are your servants; make a treaty with us.\u201d \u2019 <\/em>12 <\/em><\/sup>This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. <\/em>13 <\/em><\/sup>And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
14 <\/em><\/sup>The men of Israel sam<\/em>pled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. <\/em>15 <\/em><\/sup>Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Pretty sneaky those Gibeonites, eh?<\/p>\n
The rest of the story shows that Joshua had to uphold the agreement, and it led to years of difficulty. God had promised them the entire land, but now they would have to share it because of this agreement.<\/p>\n
You did catch the verse that is connected to our clich\u00e9, didn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n
Verse 14 says, \u201cThe men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oops.<\/p>\n
They interviewed the enemy.<\/p>\n
They made careful and astute observations of what they saw.<\/p>\n
They even sampled\/tested with their other senses what they thought their eyes were seeing.<\/p>\n
The men, as a group, made a decision, implying that a meeting took place. They probably even voted!<\/p>\n
The end result? Disaster.<\/p>\n
Everything looked good, sounded good and even tasted good (or, tasted bad in this case unless you\u2019re fond of moldy bread), and the decision seemed a no-brainer.<\/p>\n
There was just one problem.<\/p>\n
They left God out of the equation.<\/p>\n
They got the cart in front of the horse.<\/p>\n
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the process of them seeing, talking, testing and agreeing. It\u2019s just that they were looking to, speaking to and deciding with the wrong people.<\/p>\n
Long before their test results were brought back to the committee of \u201cthe men of Israel,\u201d they should have inquired of the Lord.<\/p>\n
For all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, feel free to read books, attend conferences, seek advice, test the waters and use the brain God gave you. But, don\u2019t get the cart before the horse.<\/p>\n
Make sure in each and every decision you have that you inquire of the Lord. That means we need to:<\/p>\n
\n
- spend time in prayer<\/li>\n
- earnestly seek wisdom in the Scriptures<\/li>\n
- and, almost always… wait<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Whenever you get these things out of order, it will undoubtedly make things more difficult than they need to be.<\/p>\n
Just like pushing a rope (hey, there\u2019s another one).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love expressions. You know, the things people say so that they can drop just the right clich\u00e9 at the right time and appear wise.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all got them. Some we read from a book, others came through generational transmission (from your parents, that is), and still others found their way into the storehouse of our collective memory via the world\u2019s greatest resource of miscellaneous knowledge… email forwards.<\/p>\n
Here are a few you might recognize:<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t beat them, join them. This works pretty well until you\u2019re talking about the IRS. They\u2019re really not looking for recruits.
\nGive them an inch and they\u2019ll take a mile. Actually, this one works for the IRS, too. No further comment (Just kidding IRS guys, I don\u2019t mind paying taxes to be a part of this great country… please don\u2019t audit me).
\nGive them enough rope to hang themselves. To me, this one is just a little too morbid comment on, and it just doesn\u2019t make sense. Isn\u2019t a shorter rope better for hanging. Not that I ever want to find out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,239,242,241,238,53,59,65,240,78],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crosseyedlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}