Unconventional Conventions
As I sit here pondering the wonderful things our God has created, a few thoughts are running through my mind.
Sometimes unconventional things just work so well. Wow. Sometimes you don’t think of taking something in a certain direction, but then when it works, it works!
Amazingly, when God is involved, unconventional is the name of the game.
Unconventionality is something our King is quite familiar with. God usually does things in quite unexpected ways. And sometimes, He tests His followers to see if they really believe what He promised.
Look at Abraham and Isaac. The binding of Isaac seems sadistic in some way, but it was all a test to see if Abraham truly believed in God’s promises to make him into a great nation through his descendants.
If Isaac were to die, there would be an end to the promise.
But Abraham knew in his heart that God doesn’t lie when He promises things, so he took Isaac anyway, and assumed God must be able to raise the dead to life, because nothing is impossible with God.
This is the viewpoint the author of Hebrews held in the New Testament:
“He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Hebrews 11:9 [ESV]).
When Joseph had his prophetic dreams about his entire family bowing down to him, his family didn’t like what they heard. But it doesn’t matter what our families think if God’s purposes are to be fulfilled.
God used the fact that Joseph would share those dreams (because it didn’t matter how it affected your life back then, if God showed you something about the future, you were expected to share it in those days) and his family’s reaction to get him to where he needed to be, when he needed to be there. It was all part of a grander plan.
Joseph needed to have those dreams to enrage his brothers, to draw him to the Ishmaelite traders, to send him to Egypt, leading him to Potiphar (who knew Pharaoh), which then placed him in the dungeon where the kings’ prisoners were held, which led to his interpretation of the dreams of the butler and baker—ultimately causing Joseph to be remembered when Pharaoh himself had a dream.
After Pharaoh’s dream had been explained, Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt, and his dreams were fulfilled after 22 years of waiting when his brothers bowed before him.
Then he had a bit of fun with them, to get back at them, but ultimately, to test their character in an unconventional way. Unconventional just works!
Is prison the normal path to royalty? Of course not!
But our God isn’t a normal-working God. His ways are far above our own, and we as three-dimensional humans will never understand those ways in full.
Don’t be afraid of the unconventional path. It’s where our King does His best work, and where we as His followers might do ours.
An unconventional novel written only in letters might be better than a prose-driven narrative of normal exposition and narration (The Screwtape Letters comes to mind).
An unconventional choice in a song might make some of an artist’s best work.
If God places you somewhere and you don’t understand why, prayerfully consider His plans for your life.
Conventionality is often boring. Our God does things the best way, and He does things in ways that are not average or predictable.
You might even be inspired to write an article or post based on something that had nothing to do with the subject based on His unconventional methods to teach you something.
May you be blessed always.
