This past Sunday, my Vice President and I had a chance to visit a local church for their Women’s Day celebration.  The speaker of the hour was Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the first Afro-American female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church.  The title of her message, “It Don’t Make Sense, But It Works!”,  put a different spin on a biblical illustration that I was pondering for this month’s newsletter that I had entitled “The Final Cut”, another appropriate title for this passage, however, her title won.  The biblical passage is found in Judges 7 and it depicts the account of Gideon as he prepared to go into battle with the Midianites.  God told Gideon that his army was “too large”, which required some steps for elimination.  First, He (God) told Gideon to make a public announcement that anyone who was “fearful” or had any type of reservations could leave and go home.  This reduced the size of his battalion from 22 companies to 10.    Ladies and Gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but I am currently facing some major battles in my life, so it is important that I don’t link up with “scary cats” and “cowards”.  Furthermore, I certainly don’t need the “naysayers” or “pessimists” to tell me “You Can’t Do It”!  “You’ll Never Make It”!  “That’s Impossible”!  When confronted with those negative connotations; it’s time to downsize your troops!

 

 

Once the “pessimists” were eliminated, God told Gideon that he still had “too many” and gave him some specific yet peculiar instructions on how to further downsize his troops, which is the “don’t make sense” part.  He told him to take the men down to the river and to send home the men who knelt down and drank the water from the cup of their hands.  However, He instructed him to keep the men who put their face to the river and lapped the water with their tongues like a dog!  There were a total of 10,000 men who went down to the river to drink and only 300 of them lapped the water like a dog.  So, Gideon cut 9,700 troops from his army.

 

Numerous times I have read this particular passage and was perplexed at the significance of keeping the ones who lapped the water like a dog.  This time I got it and two points clearly stood out in my mind:

 

 

1.  Gideon didn’t need troops; he needed warriors (“a person engaged in some struggle or conflict”)!  O.K. so what’s the differences, you ask?  Troops are a mixed collection of soldiers who have been trained to fight but may not have actually faced combat.  But, warriors have all experienced war and have proven track records. Gideon needed warriors who could weather the storms of life – who had been tried and tested and had stood firm like an oak tree through the test of time.  He needed warriors who had endured bitter cold winter nights, and furnace hot summers!   He needed warriors who had built an “immune system” against all manners of diseases (cold hard disappointments, rheumatic rejections, and pneumonic physical and mental abuse, etc.), He needed mountain climbers who knew how to scale the jagged edges of heartbreak to advance to the top of the mountain peak, and ditch diggers who didn’t mind getting in the trenches and covering themselves with dirt.  He needed committed warriors, who didn’t have “hang-ups” and were determined to win by any means necessary.  He needed “friends” who would stick in his corner through the thick and the thin.  I lost a couple of friends last year and even lost one at the beginning of this year, not by death, but by “forced separation”.  The pain of parting was heart-wrenching; but when different ideologies collide – sometimes separation is the only answer in order to win the war (How can two walk together unless they agree?).

 

 

2.  It’s Not the Size of Your Army; It’s the Weight of Your Testimony:    When the word is broadcasted (and people will talk) throughout the land, of your David and Goliath experience, in how you defeated one of the largest and strongest armies around with only a handful of warriors, the weight of your testimony is magnified greatly.  If Gideon had gone into battle with the 9,700 soldiers, he could have easily attributed his win to the size of his army and or to the status/experience level of his troops; making his feat less news worthy because anyone could accomplish those odds. But when you have minimal or no resources, when you are outnumbered by your enemies, when you use just plain old ordinary people who may not have the “proper” skill set (for those of you who have ever applied for a government job; for some positions you are required to fill out a KSA [Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities] assessment), and when you know that in your own strength you could not have possibly accomplished this astronomical  task, then you humbly bow down and give the glory to the One who make all things possible – The Almighty God.  It reminds me of an old James Cleveland song “Little becomes much when you place it in the Master’s hand!”  The logisticians and pessimists are left scratching their heads saying, “It didn’t make sense, but it worked!”   By man’s standards you should have been defeated, but you won – “It didn’t make sense but it worked!”  People from miles around ask that proverbial question, how did you do it?  What will your answer be?  Will you tell them, that it was the Lord who gave you those peculiar instructions to downsize your army or will you fear that people will think you are strange because you have direct conversations with the Almighty God?    Or will you proudly proclaim “God did it – I know it don’t make sense, but it works”!  Now, you have a track record of your own like Gideon’s, whose triumphant testimony is historically recorded in one of the greatest books ever written.  “It don’t make sense, but it works!”   Whatever challenge you are facing today, I would like to give you this advice – “Seek the Lord, while he may be found, call upon His Name while he is near”.  Trust In Him with all your heart – even when it don’t make sense!