One night a couple of weeks ago I got home a little later than usual. I walked up the steps, and as I stepped onto the porch was startled as I almost stepped on a toad. In seven months, that was the first time I’d seen him, and the question in my mind was, “How in the world did he get there?” From ground to porch there are nine steps, each one anywhere from 8-10” in height. And the toad was small. As I tried to imagine him stretched out as long as possible, I couldn’t vision his being able to reach much more than 5 or 6 inches at the most.
After that night, I began to look for him regularly. And he is always there. When I check at 8:00 he hasn’t yet arrived, but when I check back at 9:00 he’s there. So, sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 he arrives. I’ve never yet managed to catch a glimpse of him on the journey. When I look out the door in the morning, around 6:30, he’s long gone. In my simple world, this was a mystery. Where did he come from? How in the world did he manage the steps? And what motivated him to make the journey?
Then it hit me. I looked at the porch just outside the door. It was littered with dead gnats, flies, moths, and the like. And I remembered that every time I go in and out of the door at night they fly all around me. The porch lights attract them, and… and it was this entomological buffet that was apparently attracting my warty little friend. He could sit from dusk ‘til dawn below those porch lights and eat until he was full. And so fulfilling was his feast that he would risk life and limb twice each day to negotiate those steps which separated him from his dinner. The preacher in my head then started thinking…
While that little toad was willing to place his life in jeopardy every night to obtain a meal that satisfied him less than a day, there are many Christians today who are unwilling even to risk personal comfort for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Yet Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24 NASU). Dr. Jesse Northcutt, my preaching professor in seminary, would often quote from the book of Philippians. It seemed that his favorite passage was Philippians 2:5-8 (NASU):“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” As he used to paraphrase it, he’d say, “A call to follow Christ, is a call… to die.” To die to self. To die to selfish desires. To die to personal agendas. It is a call to surrender all of self to the one we call Lord.
Many churches today could learn a few lessons from that toad- perseverance, tenacity, and sacrifice just to name a few. And if a toad could do that for something as fleeting as a few bugs, how much more should the people of God be willing to risk all for something as wonderful as God’s Kingdom? Can you imagine what could happen if all of God’s people everywhere made that sort of commitment?!
After that night, I began to look for him regularly. And he is always there. When I check at 8:00 he hasn’t yet arrived, but when I check back at 9:00 he’s there. So, sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 he arrives. I’ve never yet managed to catch a glimpse of him on the journey. When I look out the door in the morning, around 6:30, he’s long gone. In my simple world, this was a mystery. Where did he come from? How in the world did he manage the steps? And what motivated him to make the journey?
Then it hit me. I looked at the porch just outside the door. It was littered with dead gnats, flies, moths, and the like. And I remembered that every time I go in and out of the door at night they fly all around me. The porch lights attract them, and… and it was this entomological buffet that was apparently attracting my warty little friend. He could sit from dusk ‘til dawn below those porch lights and eat until he was full. And so fulfilling was his feast that he would risk life and limb twice each day to negotiate those steps which separated him from his dinner. The preacher in my head then started thinking…
While that little toad was willing to place his life in jeopardy every night to obtain a meal that satisfied him less than a day, there are many Christians today who are unwilling even to risk personal comfort for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Yet Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24 NASU). Dr. Jesse Northcutt, my preaching professor in seminary, would often quote from the book of Philippians. It seemed that his favorite passage was Philippians 2:5-8 (NASU):“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” As he used to paraphrase it, he’d say, “A call to follow Christ, is a call… to die.” To die to self. To die to selfish desires. To die to personal agendas. It is a call to surrender all of self to the one we call Lord.
Many churches today could learn a few lessons from that toad- perseverance, tenacity, and sacrifice just to name a few. And if a toad could do that for something as fleeting as a few bugs, how much more should the people of God be willing to risk all for something as wonderful as God’s Kingdom? Can you imagine what could happen if all of God’s people everywhere made that sort of commitment?!
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