“SHE ALMOST LIVED AN UNEVENTFUL LIFE”

“SHE ALMOST LIVED AN UNEVENTFUL LIFE”
BY: Rev. Arnel Tan

“The she said, “ Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say,”Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up?”
2 Kings 4:28 NLT

The Shunemite woman almost lived an uneventful life. Thank God for His intervention, she did not go on living safe. What is a spiritually uneventful life? It is a life too safe that faith in God is no longer required or needed. It is a life too secure that there is no more room for surprise or shock. It is a life too protected that danger is not familiar. On the outside this life seems ‘ideal’… but what most of us don’t see is that this is a life too afraid. It is afraid to love so it won’t get hurt; afraid to serve so there will be no criticism; afraid to help lest help is rejected; afraid to care, to grieve and eventually, afraid to grow.

Not only the wealthy woman from Shunem treads this path. This is the path that many unknowingly tread in their hearts and through their spiritual journey. To expand the idea further, this is the road many churches tread… so safe and so afraid to obey God! God cannot agree with a kind of life that involves no risk… that requires no faith. Thank God for His timely intervention, we are spared from this kind of life. How God intervenes will forever be a mystery, yet the result is a great adventure of faith.

‘Living by faith’ is not a life of reckless irresponsibility nor is it suicidal… it is enjoying the Presence of God in this journey of life. The journey does not guarantee safety or immunity from pain and pressure… rather, it is leads us to God and to avail of His abundant grace so that we are equipped with hope and Godly enthusiasm. In this journey of faith, God stirs a deep hunger in our hearts like the unexplainable stirring in the eagle’s heart to soar high instead of feeding with the hens. Like a sea lion heeding the call of the waves of the sea for him to be the sea lion he was created to be. As the eagle is called to leave his false nest with the hen; and as the sea lion is called to leave his little pool, God calls each of us to leave our safe lives by surrendering to Him.

Many are so deeply entrenched in their ‘safe mode’ that it now requires that God steps in and pulls us out of this rut. God’s methods are not easy to understand… but by faith we choose not to doubt His motives. If the woman of Shunem never had a son, she never would have learned to care, love and later, to release. Unlike Hannah, she was too afraid to even verbalize to God what she longed for – a son! Her addiction to safety almost denied her the adventure of faith… so when the boy died, all her fears came true. Thank God the boy lived again. You know, even if the boy did not make it, having had a son for a while was worth it all - she knew how to be unselfish… she became a MOM!