Ok, so I am a crazy charismatic that sometimes does things strangely just because I am weird, but I sometimes do strange things because God tells me to. A good Ruth of mine says that my life reminds her a lot of the Old Testament. I guess that is part of way I get a good deal of peace when I read through the books of the prophets. Right now I am reading through Ezekiel (which might I add I have been TERRIBLE at spending time in the word recently so feel free to pray that God makes me do it. The last 2 days in a row God woke me up long before my alarm. On days like that I have no excuse to not read the Bible. It has been really nice.). Today in Ezekiel 4 I read something that I found really encouraging and joy producing.
Ezekiel 4:1-3 (NASB)
1"Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.
2"Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around.
3"Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it This is a sign to the house of Israel."
Okay, now I realize that the average bloke might look at this as very straight forward and pretty suckie for the house of Israel. I see that, but I also like to look at the relationship between God and his prophets. Sometimes God has be kinda do stuff like this and I don't get why until later, sometimes he'll tell me to do stuff like this and reveals why as I am doing it. Since God has him write Jerusalem on it, it is pretty clear Ezekiel got the picture right away. But still, God basically told this grown man to get down, presumably in the dirt and "play" with bricks and plates, and make walls and ramps and pitch little miniature camps and "play" war. This act was profound, because it was a stern warning and prediction, but the way God chose to display it was very kinesthetically geared and almost child-like. I am having trouble putting words to why I find this encouraging and blog-worthy, so forgive me if I am not conveying it very well. I strongly believe that God communicates with everyone of His kiddos in the way that is best for them. there is evidence for that in just the ways he speaks to the prophets and speaks through them. Some of them do a lot of talking, whereas others like Ezekiel do a lot of miming and strange physical representations for things, etc. God seems to talk to me like He is with Ezekiel here. Part of me wonders how much Ezekiel had to wait to find the answers to each of the metaphors and how many were instantaneous, and how silly he felt making siege ramps and little tents up to attack a brick while he was sitting in public on the dirty ground (or at least that is how I picture it).
I guess it helps me feel like I am not alone in my... originality. :) Not alone in my strangeness. And it reminds me of some good times when God spoke and I understood, which gives me hope for those complicated and life-involving metaphors that haven't been explained to me yet.
