Many years ago I heard a story about a man and his donkey. The man was trying to lead the donkey into town so he could carry supplies back to his home. The donkey had other ideas. He chose not to go into town and simply sat down in the middle of the road and refused to budge.
The man first tried coaxing the donkey to get him to move; then he progressed to yelling at the donkey; and finally he resorted to cursing the donkey. When none of this worked, he alternated between pulling on the donkey’s reigns from the front and pushing the donkey’s behind from the back.
After a period of this activity, all unsuccessful, a stranger walked up to the man and said, “The donkey won’t respond to that kind of prodding. You have to treat a donkey with love and compassion. Only through gentleness will the donkey obey.”
The exasperated man told the stranger he would do whatever it took to get the donkey into town and asked the stranger to show him how it’s done. Without hesitation, the stranger picked up a log from the side of the road and whopped the donkey upside the head. The owner of the donkey, who was as expected very upset by this cruel attack on the stubborn animal, yelled at the stranger, “I thought you said you have to treat the donkey with love and compassion and gentleness.”
“That is true,” the stranger calmly replied. “But first, you have to get his attention.”
There are many stories in the Bible about God getting the attention of His people when they chose not to do things His way. We read about Jonah and his time in the belly of a big fish. We’ve learned about Pharaoh and the progressively stronger warnings delivered through God’s servant Moses. And, of course, we all know about the great flood where God spared only Noah and his family from His wrath and in the process got the attention of all mankind. And there are more stories where God tried to get His people to turn from their disobedient ways through his warnings.
Looking back over my life, I can recall times when God sent someone to try to coax me into getting my life or some part of my life in line with His will. Unfortunately, like the donkey, I either missed the intent of the message or simply refused to take the messanger seriously. And as a result, I too have been “whopped upside the head” more than once in my life by God trying to get my attention.
How about you? Has God ever had to resort to more drastic measures to get your attention after giving you several chances to respond to His call? I suppose we can all remember a time or two when God finally got our attention in a most profound way after trying to use a more subtle approach. You know, as I think back, I can say without question that in every case, God has always been able to eventually get my attention. As I write this, I’m thinking, maybe there’s a lesson here. Maybe we should be answering God’s call on the first ring. It sure would be a lot less painful.
Thom Fishow
August 1, 2010