I like to ask God to lead me, too. I’d be happy if his wisdom would get around to recognizing the raise and promotion I could use. But the more serious I get about being led, the seamier the conditions into which he leads me. Unlike Gideon I’ve never thrown out a sheepskin, but an old 40% cashmere sweater did once follow the dewpoint exactly — and besides, the cats got at it. Signs ain’t what they used to be in my neighborhood.
In his essay “Commencement Address,” Milton Mayer warns his audience that while God works in mysterious ways, the devil is no fool: he comes at us in all the disguises of virtue. Mayer was, by my limited lights, accurate.
From what I can tell — and there’s even a good deal of biblical evidence — the Lord seldom leads his children from a path of lesser advantage to one of greater, from a post of great sacrifice to one of great comfort. It’s usually the other way around.
He doesn’t ask us to be stupid, I think. Fools, clowns maybe, in his service; but not stupid. Those who are led to power and riches tend almost always to be absorbed in the system that perpetuates power and riches.
There should be something in the Beatitudes about those who get led up the ladder of success — that they should inherit the pollen, maybe. Or the whitewash concession.
-R. Dirk Jellema
