Stiff-necked
More than twenty years ago, a young lady and her mother ran a red light and slammed into a friend of mine as we were going through an intersection. I was in the back seat of his Suburban. She was going 65 mph, and we were the second vehicle through the intersection. I knew almost immediately that I was hurt — not severely hurt, but my shoulder and my arm were numb. However, the other car was totally demolished and so we rushed to make sure the folks in the other car were OK. After a trip to the hospital, everyone turned out to be okay — very shaken up, bumps and bruises, but not disastrous injuries.
I was, however, left with a stiff neck from time-to-time. Over the years, I’ve had therapy, decompression and several other things done to help alleviate the problem. Now I just make sure I stretch several times a day and everything is fine. No problems … until a few days ago.These last few days have been one of the “from time-to-time” periods in my life. I’ve had that sorry ol’ stiff neck. It’s getting better every day, but I can tell you that it makes me grumpy, impatient, and a bit of a “whiny baby” — okay, my family might drop the line “bit of a” for the words “a big ol’ whiny baby.” Most of all, I’m not very open to suggestions. I try to be pliable and cooperative, but I know I’m not. As I said, what I am is grumpy, impatient, and a bit of a “whiny baby.”
This morning, I woke up thinking about all that God said about stiff-necked people — click here for a list. The image refers to an ox or donkey that would stiffen its neck and refuse to cooperate while yoked to do work or haul a cart. As we say around these parts, “they’d bow their neck up” and refuse to do what you want. This image of a “stiff-necked” became a living metaphor for God’s people and their unwillingness to respond to God. He would try to do good for them. He would call them to obedience. He would try to prevent destruction from happening to them. Instead, they would become stiff-necked and go their own way … and disaster would fall on them.
The interesting thing as I read these passages and their context, however, is that my self-admitted description of having a stiff neck was as applicable to the Israelites as the ox and donkey explanation. God’s people were grumpy, impatient, and a bunch of “whiny babies.”
Ouch! Convicting! I don’t want to be like those hard-headed and rebellious people.
So the question that I have had to face this morning does not have to do with my physical condition of being stiff-necked — that will pass in another day or two — but it has more to do with my spiritual condition of being stiff-necked.
About what parts of my spiritual life am I grumpy, impatient, and a “whiny baby”?
Where am I spiritually stiff-necked?
Why do I bow my neck against the will of the Lord?
But maybe the most important question for all of us, “How am I going to be more pliable and allow God change me and mold me to His will?”
Your blog reminds me of giving all I have to the Lord. I pray every morning that I will do His will and His work, but somehow the daily chores and activities seem to be mundane and not His call.
I believe my selfish (stiff necked) nature gets in the way of softening and opening my heart to hear His voice. My good friend Tammy has purposely given time in her day to the Lord. She sits in peace and silence, praying and reading His word. I believe that is the first step that I need to take. I need to listen for His voice and not my own.
Donna
Donna
17 May 08 at 12:27 pm
Hmmmmm. After reading the list. I come to the conclusion that we humans are a race of stiff necked people, as stubborn as any donkey could be. It must be with great patience that our merciful and forgiving God waits on us…In saying that and knowing it as well, it would seem that there are a great many of us, myself included, who whine alot more than we have cause for…I know from my own experience that I walked for a great many years hearing the Lord’s call to return to a close relationship with him with my next stiffened and bowed so hard my chin must have been dragging on the ground. Yet when I turned to Him in focus and gave my heart and soul in attention to Him, He responded without a moments notice in ways I would never have imagined…I think it’s simply a matter of training oursleves to be looking and listening for God’s presence in everything we do…I know, That’s an easy thing to say but doing is really difficult…But the more we practice it the easier it gets…And at the rate I’m going I’ll never be as proficient at as I would like to be…
David
19 May 08 at 12:42 am
Phil,
As I read of how the pain of your stiff neck affects you, even how it makes you grumpy, I understand it well, yes even the whiny and grouchy part, no matter how hard you try not to be that way.
One way the chronic pain in my neck affects me is that it hurts badly enough at times that I become quite angry, not at anyone, not at God (I am thankful to Him that I was not paraplegic, as I would have been, if the problem had not been caught when it was); the pain of it just has that affect when it gets so bad at times.
So then I have to wonder, does my sometimes stiff-necked ways make God pretty angry? Does it pain Hm, perhaps more than my chronic, often severe pain does me?
You have given a real-life example that gets my attention. Thanks. Something I needed to think about.
a friend
19 May 08 at 6:16 pm