So I was doing a Bible Study on Gideon and suddenly became encouraged.
There Gideon was with 10,000 men – his number already reduced by over 2/3- looking down at what was probably an army of hundreds of thousands that he was supposed to defeat. The chances of him winning the battle looked slim-to-none already.
THEN God was all “Naw, Gideon. That’s too many resources for you. Don’t want you and your peeps to get on your high horse and think you had anything to do with it when I win this for you.” [from the New Rachael Translation] Then God reduced Gideon’s army to 300.
3. Flippin’. Hundred.
A comically impossible number to defeat the many many thousands. But (spoiler alert!) they won.
God took a “valiant warrior” (as the angel called him) who was behaving like a coward, appeared to him while he was doing a menial task (threshing wheat in a wine press) and had him take only 300 men to defeat a ginormous, orc-sized army.
And that army was pretty large.
This was encouraging, because I have been thinking a lot about fundraising for the Race. I look at my paycheck v.s. my bills. I look at my car that’s almost literally held together with duct tape and praying it lasts through July. I sit at my job and pray that they won’t downsize the staff each time we lose a client. And I look at this seemingly gigantic amount of money that we need to raise and think about all the extra cost that comes with it.
Here I am, with the power of Christ in me, behaving like a worried coward every time I spend money to fill up my gas tank. And, yet, God still called me to go into the world and help His people for 11 months. He set me on the hill and I am looking down at that army of $16,285, with only a shabby wallet with some crumpled dollars and a bit of scrimping and saving to defeat it.
I know several (if not all) of you are in the same position when it comes to finances. Gideon’s story can be an encouragement- his story is our story, too! We have purposely been put in a place where we know that we know that we know that the victory didn’t come through our own strength or genius in fundraising or financial wizardry. And that’s actually kind of a cool place to be.
Anyway, Gideon’s story encouraged me, so thought I’d share in case it encouraged anyone else facing their own giant army with nothing but a small posse.
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to this mission so far! It has seriously been so encouraging to feel supported in this crazy adventure that God has called me on! If you’d like to contribute financially, you can do so online by clicking the “Support Me” tab at the top right of the page. You can also be praying for me and my team as we prepare to take to the world. Wanna know where I’m headed? Check out my last blog here!
