A Task from God

(Note: - This Blog is not an "I hate Sara Palin" blog. I am trying to grapple with a bigger issue for which she is directly associated - rightly or wrongly - with)

From the Bryan/College Station Eagle – Letters to the Editor:
http://www.theeagle.com/letters/Letters-for-September-19 from Johnnie Griffin

America needs leaders willing to call on God:

Corbet Perkins' letter (Eagle, Sept. 17) is another example how people are grabbing at anything to smear Sarah Palin. He took a statement and twisted it to make the talking points of the liberals.

He wrote, "According to the Associated Press, Palin said the Iraq was is 'a task that is from God.'" What Sarah Palin said was "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

Twisted people making twisted statements need to be questioned and not accepted as face value.

Our country needs leaders like Sarah Palin who are not ashamed to call on guidance from the Almighty.


What she said – word for word…..

“That our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That is what we have to make sure we are praying for that that plan is God’s plan.”

OK so neither the “talking points of the liberals” or the outlet that Mr. Griffin used provided the correct quote. Interesting how both of them take her words and use them to imply what each side wants them to emphatically represent.

What I understand her to be saying, and really only she can substantiate or rebut my take, is that we need to pray that this path is truly the path God wants us to be on. If it is, like she and Mr. Griffin hope is the case, then all is good in the eyes of God. If it is not the correct path, then God will show us the error in our ways. By continuing to pray under the contention that they want to follow God’s plan only when God tells them that it is not his plan will they change course.

Because they pray to follow God’s path they are absolved of responsibility if the path they chose is wrong. After all why would God send them down a wrong path if they prayed to follow his plan? If it is indeed the wrong path surely God would tell them. So this must be the right path and all of the others who believe God is telling them it is the wrong path must not be as connected to God as they are.

And therein lies the problem with waiting for God to send you some sign emphatically telling you to change course. This brings up a great joke I remember hearing a long time ago that illustrates my point.

A man fell overboard from his little boat and was thrashing around in the water when another boat pulled up.

"Jump in," shouted the boater. "We'll save you."

"No", cried the drowning man, "God will save me."

The scene was repeated twice more, before a helicopter finally arrived and hovered over him. Once again, the man refused help on the same grounds ... God would save him.

The man finally drowned and as he crossed the Pearly Gates he gazed into God's eyes with obvious confusion.

"I placed my faith in you and you let me drown," he complained.

"Let you drown?" exclaimed God. "I sent three boats and a helicopter."


So the question I would like to pose is how do you know when it is a task that is from God or a task that fits with what you think God would want? How would you know, and, would you be receptive to the message telling you it was not if it came not from the mouth of God directly to your ear but from some other subtle less conspicuous way, say, from the death of a child – as so called “collateral damage” - resulting from carrying out the task you pray is from God?