Weak Knees

As a kid I loved the TV shows and movies Don Knotts were in.  He was always a good hearted guy that had knees that would go weak or shaky when he came across something that was new or scary.  He was the nervous little sheriff deputy on the Andy Griffith Show, the scared little newspaper reporter in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, a small town kiddie-ride operator accidentally recruited in The Reluctant Astronaut, the dentist with the Shakiest Gun in the West, the bumbling bank robber in the Apple Dumpling Gang, the timid husband in the Incredible Mr. Limpet, the nervous motorist in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, the nervous clerk in Move Over, Darling, and the little nervous landlord in Three’s Company, etc.  In the end he would usually prove himself and get the job done that needed to be done. 

Maybe I always enjoyed his movies, because he reminded me a lot of myself.  I sometimes take on a project or job and then get very nervous about doing it.  I go weak at the knees.  Maybe I am feeling led to sing a song at church and just before I get up to sing the butterflies are fluttering and my knees are shaking.  Soon I am thinking about backing out of my commitment to sing.  I pray and ask for strength and God helps me to get through the time on stage.  I may not have been totally comfortable through the whole experience, but my obedience brought about God’s results.  I might take on setting up and leading an outreach event to the community, but then my weak knees start shaking again.  I am afraid I won’t have a enough workers or supplies.  I am afraid that no one from the community will come out.  I am afraid I will mess up the event.  Then God encourages me on and it all works out ok.  Gideon in Judges 6: 11-16 almost appears to have my weak knees:

¹¹ The Angel of the LORD came, and He sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine vat in order to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² Then the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and said: “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” ¹³ Gideon said to Him, “Please Sir, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the LORD brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” ¹⁴ The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you?” ¹⁵ He said to Him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” ¹⁶ “But I will be with you,” the LORD said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”

The Lord did the same thing for Gideon that He will do for each of us who are following Him.  He will ask us to do something for Him.  He will tell us that He will strengthen us for the job He has assigned to us.  Then He will often times listen to us tell Him how we can’t do the job.  How our skills or family line or past make us weak.  Then after listening to us, God will say to us, “But I will be with you.”  That is where our weak knees should stop shaking.  God is all powerful and all mighty.  Wisdom should tell us, “What more do we need to know, but that our Lord will be with us?”  So don’t be scared or nervous.  Let God be your strength.

Who You Gonna Call?

I think whether you have watched the movie or not you remember the theme song from Ghostbusters “Who You Gonna Call?”.  Seem to be one of those catchy sayings that everybody still is saying 27 years later.  The beginning of the song goes, “If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS. If there’s something weird and it don’t look good, Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS.”  We have something better than 3 weird Ghostbuster guys to take care of protecting us when things look strange, weird or scary in our lives.  We have Jesus.  Sometimes we seem to forget He is right there in our lives waiting to help.  We start to panic and worry and try to figure things out on our own.  God doesn’t want us independent and trying to take care of everything ourselves.  He wants us to remember who He is and call on Him.  Read Luke 8: 22-25.

22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. 24 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

The disciples entered a storm that scared them so much they began to panic and fear for their lives.  Some of them were experienced fisherman and knew what a storm could do at sea.  They probably had good reason to fear.  Can you imagine how the tax collector felt out there in the boat?  Talk about unsure territory for him.  Jesus was asleep and why shouldn’t He be.  After all He is God.  He knows about everything and has control of everything.  Nothing is a problem for Him.  Thankfully the disciples had enough belief in who Jesus was to call on Him and wake Him up and let Him know about their fears.  Maybe they shouldn’t have been afraid in the first place with Jesus in the boat, but they seem to instinctively know He was the answer to their problem.

For us we too should have enough common sense is to call on the Master when we are in the storm.  Wait for Him to take care of it.  Remember who He is and that He will protect us.  If Jesus should choose not to answer the way we would like Him to, we still shouldn’t be afraid and unhappy.  After all He is going to do what is best for us, even if it means physically dying.  What could be better than to go to Heaven anyway?  What are we afraid of?  So who you gonna call?