Is it time for you to do the 'Gideon Jig'?

Journal-Review
Crawfordsville, IN
October 22, 2009


Have you ever found yourself in one of those places in life where nothing seems to be going right? When your inbox is overflowing with work? And it seems the world keeps dumping more and more in your lap? Do you sometimes feel like your life is a complete failure?

If so, then maybe what you need is the “Gideon Jig.” The Gideon Jig is not a new dance move, but it does require a new attitude. Gideon is one in a long list of Old Testament characters who can bring hope when we’re facing some hopeless situations.

We need to do the Gideon Jig when hope is fading. We need this ancient text to speak to each of us when we’re down in the dumps and down on our faith. No one promised that life would be easy. The pressures can mount on us when we get out of alignment. Perhaps our prayer life slips. Perhaps we allow our busyness to keep us away from the fellowship of other Christians.

Some Christians believe that faith in Jesus Christ is a technique for smooth sailing in life. Jesus calls us not only to get along with one another but to love one another, to forgive enemies, to love the truth which is Jesus Christ more than we love comfort and security, and be faithful to a living, loving God. That’s tough.

Gideon became a man of faith in a world that was literally crashing down around him. Known to the Israelites as a judge, he came through when it counted the most. He was one of the people the Apostle Paul, many years later, would write about in a letter to one of the churches he helped to establish.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29: “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

You see, God takes weak, humble, sometimes fearful people and uses them to do wonderful things. God enjoys doing this! There are many examples of this throughout Scripture. If you are down in the dumps, it is time to do the “Gideon Jig.”

Found in Judges 6, we have the story of this defeated, humiliated and reluctant leader being called by God. Gideon’s people, the Israelites, were not enjoying their time in the Promised Land. Instead of thriving in a land flowing with milk and honey, they were forced to live in caves and clefts in the rock, huddled and too afraid to face their enemy.

In Gideon’s day, nationalism was dead. All that mattered was survival. One Bible translation renders the Hebrew text this way: “So Israel was brought very low because of Midian.” This was probably the lowest they had ever been. The Israelites could not plant their crops because the people inhabiting the land would invade the land, ruining the crops and destroying livestock.

Amid all these defeats and struggles, a prophet is raised among the people. This prophet does two things – first, he convicts them some more about their sins and their need of God, and second, shows them where they have gone wrong. The Israelites had again forgotten God. (Judges 6:6-10)

Finally, deliverance begins when an angel of the Lord appears to Gideon. He says these impossible words: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” No one could see Gideon being a warrior, or, even coming close to being mighty. Gideon gets it off his chest, he replies: “But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us, and put us into the hand of Midian.” (Judges 6:11-13)

How many of us, right here, in Montgomery County and beyond feel like we’re in the land of Midian? This story of Gideon has been repeated (in various ways) through the lives of millions throughout history. It is being repeated today.

Maybe this is the day you need to do the “Gideon Jig.”

Maybe you might be one of those “mighty warriors” God is calling to greater faithfulness? In effect, Gideon is saying, “If the Lord is really with us, why are we in this mess?” The implication is that, if the Lord were really behind us, we wouldn’t be failing.

But when the Lord promised to give Hebrews land, the Lord did not promise it would be easy. When Jesus promised us salvation, he did not promise it would be painless.

A local church leader stands to his feet at a meeting and declares, “If this were truly a Christian church, we wouldn’t be having these problems.” The assumption is that the problems in the church were due to the congregation not being real Christians.

While that may sometimes be true, we need to remember it is not always true in every case. Sometimes we find ourselves in a painful, conflicted and difficult mess not because we’re not faithful to Jesus but because we are following Jesus!

It is time for a Gideon Jig.