Facing Rejection

It’s a human response; we all want to fit in. Nobody likes to be rejected, especially not by people that we like or respect. It’s inevitable, though; no two people are going to have complete agreement on every possible topic of discussion.
Many places that I have worked have a strict policy that thou shalt not discuss sex, religion, or politics in the workplace, simply because these are where most of our hot-button issues are. These are the topics that can get people the most upset or outraged the quickest. The real problem here is that sometimes these subjects really need to be discussed. I have tried to stay away from politics, here, because I don’t feel that it is the purpose of this blog to discuss politics; religion is generally enough of a hot-button issue all by itself. I know some churches and other religious organizations form political organizations, because they feel strongly that religion ties into politics (and, to a very great extent, it does), but the IRS tends to frown on religious organizations taking political positions. A religious organization can lose its tax-exempt status by advocating a particular political candidate, but a political organization can get tax-exempt status as long as it is not religious, even if it has ties to a religious organization.
The point is, some people are very sensitive about some things. If you tell someone that the religious beliefs that they grew up with are not good enough to carry them into eternity, at least a few of them will get upset. If you try to share Jesus with someone, they may not appreciate what you are sharing. Does that mean you shouldn’t share? of course not. Scripture commands each of us to do the work of an evangelist. What you shouldn’t do is take people’s response to the Gospel personally. There will be many that won’t like it; that’s a given. There will be some whose lives will be changed dramatically. Some will even make it to Heaven because you took the time to share with them. If you worry about people rejecting the message, though, then you won’t share, and the consequences will be dire. If God lays it on your heart to share with someone, then do it.
It’s understandable if you have bad feelings about people rejecting God’s will. Samuel had a hard time with that in his day. God had to remind him that the people were not rejecting Samuel; they were rejecting God (1 Samuel 8:7). Out of all the things that have changed since Samuel’s day, one thing that has not changed is people’s willingness to obey God (or lack thereof). Some people are, and some people aren’t, and I suspect the ratio between the two groups has remained constant since the beginning of the world.

Balaam

In Numbers 22, there is an interesting story about a man named Balaam. It seems that Balak, king of the Moabites, had heard about the Israelites coming out of Egypt, and that God was tearing down any opposition to them along the way. Balak was worried that the Israelites were going to roll right over him and his people and there was nothing he could do about it. Balak had heard about this guy Balaam that had some kind of power, and whoever he cursed ended up in bad shape, and whoever Balaam blessed ended up prospering. So Balak thought to hire Balaam to curse Israel for him, so that they would, essentially, self-destruct, and solve Balak’s problem. Apparently the idea of creating an allegiance with the Israelites never occurred to him (Of course, in those days, forming an allegiance usually meant an exchange of money, and Balak probably thought he couldn’t afford an allegiance with such a powerful people).
So Balak’s messengers came to Balaam, and made their proposal. Balaam told them to stay the night, and he would give them an answer in the morning. Balaam did something that a lot of people would probably consider odd; he prayed about it. I wonder how many of us, if offered a huge moneymaking business opportunity, would stop to pray about it? “Why, that’s a no-brainer! Surely God would want me to have the money, so that I can better support His work…” It strikes me as particularly interesting that Balaam was not an Israelite, yet he clearly had a relationship with the one true God. How does one outside the true faith develop a relationship with the true God? I’m not sure that I have a good answer to that, but I think that it shows that God has always been accessible to everyone, even in a time when most people didn’t think that he was.
Balaam had a conversation with God, and God told him not to go with these men back to Balak. So, Balaam told the men that God wouldn’t let him go. These men went back to Balak, and told him simply that Balaam wouldn’t come; they did not explain why. The why might not have been important to Balak, anyway; Balak seems to have thought that this was a negotiating tactic. So Balak sent more men, with a bigger financial offering (I would think that he could probably have bought an allegiance with Israel with that amount of money, but he was in the mindset to do things his way—actually, I suspect that if he had sent messengers to Israel offering a simple non-interference treaty, that is, I won’t mess with you if you don’t mess with me, the Israelites probably would have gone for it, as long as there were no Moabites living in the Promised Land, and as frightened as Balak was of Israel, he might have been willing to forcibly evacuate any of his people that were living in the land that the Israelites claimed).
So, now Balaam is meeting with more powerful men in Balak’s kingdom, and they are offering him more money to come curse the Israelites. He tells them that he will not go against God; whatever God tells him to do, that’s what he’s going to do, no matter how much Balak offers. Again, Balaam invites them to stay the night, and again, he prays. This time, God tells him that, if the men ask again in the morning, then he should go with them. So Balaam gets up in the morning and saddles his donkey. He doesn’t wait to see if the men will ask, he gets ready to go. Now here’s a guy that, just hours before, said that he wouldn’t do anything more or less than what God told him to do, and now he’s going beyond his instructions.
Is he in trouble? Well, an angel met him along the way, only the angel was invisible to him. Balaam’s donkey saw the angel and took evasive maneuvers. Balaam, not understanding why his donkey wasn’t following his instructions, got upset with the donkey, and began to beat her. God opened the donkey’s mouth, and she asked Balaam if he had ever known her to disobey him. At this point, Balaam began to realize that something weird is going on (cue Twilight Zone music), but he still didn’t get it. God made the angel visible to Balaam, and explained that if the donkey hadn’t disobeyed Balaam, then Balaam would have paid the ultimate price for disobeying God. The angel even goes so far as to suggest that the donkey would have been better off obeying Balaam—at least she wouldn’t have gotten beaten.
Balaam, of course, repented, and told the angel that he was going back home. The angel told him, no, go ahead and go with these men, but keep in mind what will happen if you don’t do exactly what God tells you to do. Balaam assents, and he goes with the men.
Balaam meets with Balak, and Balak shows him the Israelites, and asks him to curse them. Balaam tells Balak that he will not do anything that God doesn’t want; and he tells Balak to prepare a sacrifice unto God. Balak does that, and Balaam pronounces a blessing on Israel. Balak, understandably, gets upset, but Balaam reminds him that he said he could only do what God would have him to do.
Balak leads Balaam to another mountain, and says that perhaps it will please God to curse them from there. Long story short, no matter what Balak does, Balaam will not speak a word against Israel. The harder Balak tries to get Balaam to curse Israel, the more Balaam blesses the Israelites.
The points we can take away from this are: Just because one has a relationship with God, it doesn’t necessarily follow that one is in the right religion. On the other hand, just because one isn’t following the right religion, it doesn’t necessarily follow that what one has to say about God is wrong, or even that God can’t speak through that individual. Also, if one has instructions from God, one should follow those instructions to the best of one’s ability. Also, if you think you’re doing the right thing, but things keep going wrong, you might want to take a minute and check to see just who it is you are fighting against. There are sometimes barriers to doing the right thing, but perseverance and God’s help will get you through, but God will also try to keep you from doing the wrong thing, but if you ignore Him long enough, He will eventually let you have your own way, but the price for that may be more than you were expecting. So pray about it; you don’t want to fight against God.

Stuff

A couple of points:

First, there's some news about a college student who desecrated a couple of Korans and is now facing felony charges. It seems that this young man snagged two copies of the Koran from Pace University's library and tossed them into toilets. Presumably he attempted to flush them, but they were too bulky. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is understandably upset. The student is being charged with two counts of criminal mischief (both misdemeanors) but with the added zing of New York state's hate crimes law, which makes both charges felonies, since they were crimes directed at a specific religious/cultural group. Personally, hate crimes legislation goes against my grain. It seems to me that if you beat the snot out of me because you don't like my color or you beat the snot out of me to take my wallet, that should be prosecuted the same way. Quite frankly, if you beat me up because you don't like my color, and then take my wallet, it would be pretty hard from the prosecutor to prove that it was a hate crime. I do think that, in America, where we have freedom of religion, that the freedom should include a responsibility to respect other religions. I don't buy into Scientology, but that doesn't give me the right to throw a copy of 'Dianetics' into the toilet--especially if it isn't my copy. Personally, I'm torn. I think this miscreant deserves to be punished, but I also think much more is being made of this than it really is.

Also, the US Senate has done some investigating into Global Warming, specifically, the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works. Their findings are very different from the findings of former Vice President Gore. Is this because it is convenient? Perhaps. One thing I can't get away from, though, is that we have created an awful lot of pollution (both air and water) and we've cut down a lot of trees. That can't be good for the environment, and we have to live here. Let's suppose for the moment that Global Warming is a grossly exaggerated threat. Maybe that's just the threat we need to do what we need to do, if only for the sake of our children and grandchildren. I'm not anxious for Global Warming to be proven wrong.

The FBI served a search warrant on a Senator from Alaska, to search his house for any evidence that he has been getting favors in exchange for advantageous considerations for Federal projects. In the meantime, the Senate is rewriting the law on 'earmarking,' to make it easier to do exactly what Senator Ted Stevens is accused of. Meanwhile, the House has approved a bill that would make it harder to earmark... I'm guessing neither one of those bills is going to become law anytime soon.

Also, a new study indicates that smoking marijuana is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes (at least, on an ounce-for-ounce basis--actually still less dangerous when you take into consideration that nobody chain-smokes pot). And another study indicates that working near an office printer poses similar risks to smoking (tobacco).