At one point Noah and his sons get into an arguement about putting a rudder on the ark. It's a fantastic song. However at one point Noah has had enough and declares, "God has chosen us to survive, he promised, so why do we need a rudder?" To which one son replies, "I don't know Papa. why do we need a boat?"
Two questions.
Why do we need a rudder?
Why do we need a boat?
Such a powerful picture of our walk along His Way. He calls us to build a boat and we decide we need to improve upon it. Not only do we want to improve what He has ordained but we want to add something that will give us some control. There-in lies the rub.
Let go and let God? Hardly! Oh, we'll let God but most of us will not let go. We won;t let go of our desire for - well - a rudder. We hang on to "control" even though we have to know it's a mere illusion. That is, if God is really sovereign.
We need a boat - that is the Redeemer. But we want a rudder so we can -- wait for it -- so we can control the boat. To abuse an old hymn:
Take my life and let it be
powered by you and run by me.
or
All to Jesus I surrender
all to Him I freely give
as long as I can control
the way in which I live.
Living "RADICALLY" for Jesus is all the rage. Surrender everything, go to the booneys, give it all away - that's authentic Christianity. Well pal, tell that to Lazarus and Nicodemus and the wealthy women who supported Jesus and the apostles.
Even this "living radically" is a rudder. We're going to "do" for Him whether He has called us to "do" it or not. We are in control, we man the helm. We move the rudder.
God's call to service is similar yet singular. Many do what I do in ministry but no one does it like "me." Oh, we do some basic things that are similar - some even identical but God calls us individually and uses us individually.
BUT
This is not some call to individualism - it is a call to fight the fight to submit to Him and His will individually. In His wondrous wisdom however He called us into a body - there are many of us. He called us individually to become one with Him and one with each other. NOT to become Him or each other.
We are all in the same boat, a rudderless boat. This boat is driven by the Spirit. Rudderless we are at the mercy of the Holy Spirit which blows us here an there at the Father's will. He steers the boat. Unfortunately we want control so badly we fight Him and of course we lose.
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