"Ummm…Jesus?": Why God Does The Impractical

Lately, I've been reading about the disciples and genuinely laughing at their dispositions. We like to give the disciples a hard time, but when you stop to think about it....these were super smart businessmen with brilliant minds who were very practical and efficient. 

Just think about any random story involving the disciples. It was always their practical approach, their logic that blocked them from seeing the full picture that Jesus was trying to paint. 

To that end, when it comes to us, sometimes our most “practical” perspectives actually prevent us from seeing the glory of God. 

Take the story of Lazarus. 

Lazarus was sick and dying. His sisters called for Jesus to come heal him...and Jesus just took His sweet time. Not only did Lazarus die, but Jesus took so long that they had time to bury Lazarus. Now, you would think that the minute Lazarus was sick, Jesus just would've gone and healed him. I mean, why would Jesus have Lazarus go through all of that...and not even just Lazarus, cause at least Lazarus was dead. Why would he have Lazarus' sisters and family and friends go through all of that…especially when Jesus knew He was gonna heal him in the end? Ummm...Jesus...does that not seem incredibly impractical?

....and have you not had a "Ummmm...Jesus" moment before? Just completely confused about how or why God seems to choose the inefficient option. Personally, I feel like with some stuff I definitely could've came up with a plan that was a little bit more emotionally efficient…a little bit more “practically” painful…

...and the seeming impracticality doesn't stop there. Talking to His disciples, Jesus says, "I'm glad for your sakes I wasn't there." Glad? What? I can just imagine the practical-minded disciples, looking at Jesus like "Ummmm...Jesus...Respectfully...I think You might've actually lost Your mind this time." 

....but just like God proves to us all the time, there’s a reason for the impracticality. 

In John 11:15, Jesus says He's glad that He wasn't there to prevent Lazarus from dying because NOW they were about to be given “new grounds for believing.” That's literally what the MSG bible says..."you're about to be given new grounds for believing."

Could it be that that particular situation you’re dealing with…the one that seems so unnecessarily hard & impractical…is actually there because God’s about to give you new grounds for believing? Maybe you're actually about to be able to say you saw God move in a way that you've never experienced before…

I’m not saying everything is about to be perfect in a matter of days, but regardless of what happens...no matter how impractical it may seem, God really does have a plan. Sometimes it’s a REAL stretch…almost to the point of feeling like we’re being delusional 😂…but we have to remove our practical perspective and try to see the full picture of His glory. Even a few verses back in John 11:4, Jesus says the whole Lazarus thing happened for the glory of God...so that the Son of God will receive glory from this. 

I know it can seem tough and unnecessarily troublesome, but we just gotta trust that God has a greater intention. He has a plan to bring you into a new experience that causes you to believe Him at another level…simply because you would have seen His glory at another level. 

Listen. You don't have an unsolvable problem, you simply have another opportunity to believe God and experience His glory in a way you may not have ever experienced before. 

I hope he turns your "Ummmm...Jesus?" into a "Mmmm...Jesus!"

In fact, I'm believing God WITH you that you are about to receive new grounds for believing!