A Different Story

I picked up a couple of three movie DVD sets the other day while my wife and I were grocery shopping at our local Walmart Supercenter.  One is a John Wayne adventure set and the other contains three Tom Selleck westerns.  As we watched some of the movies over the three day holiday weekend, I observed that both actors were very similar in the portrayal of the characters they played. 

Both were quietly confident in their abilities, always tended to take a positive perspective on whatever situation they found themselves in the middle of, be it a laughing matter or a life and death stand, and were level headed with an expected sense of humor.  In many of the movies they played opposite to a character that was always looking at the negative side of what life presented to them.  But in the end, our hero’s always won the fight, got the girl and rode or drove off into the beautiful sunset!

It was easy for me to contrast the attitude of the leading man in each of these movies to the situations and people we played opposite to in the movie of our life over the last few years.  We’ve experienced interactions with those who always tend to look at the negative side of just about every step we’ve taken, through the totally undecided and those who have agreed and fully supported us along the way.

A statement in The Message Bible’s paraphrase of Numbers 14:24 stopped my forward motion just like the ropes thrown around the necks of the long horned steers did when the cowboys in the westerns we watched lassoed them for branding.  It declared: “But my servant Caleb – this is a different story.”  The writer then goes on to quote the Lord who described that difference by explaining “He has a different spirit (or attitude); he follows me passionately.  I’ll bring him into the land that he scouted and his children will inherit it.”

Caleb’s response to the challenges ahead must have been like a breath of fresh air to God!  One thing that we have noticed is that those who have not agreed with and complained about our various actions of faith are NOT like a breath of fresh air!  Their comments and even their very presence is tainted with a sense of sorrow instead of EXPECTANCY and EXCITEMENT over the truth of God’s Word working in my wife’s body.  I could still pick up that sorrow in some recent correspondence.

I sometimes find it difficult to understand how Christians can be anything but EXPECTANT and EXCITED and have a positive attitude in knowing what God Word says about any situation they face.  Proverbs 15:30 informs us that “Good news refreshes the body.” (God’s Word ©)   Another translation says “A good report makes the bones fat.” (MKJV)  I can’t think of better news and a greater report than the truth of God’s Word… can you?

The Bible tells us that Caleb’s story was different than the other people who saw the same thing that he and Joshua did.  The difference lies in the attitude in which they observed their surroundings!  I think that the ten spies still had a slave mentality when they came up against a formable foe, while Caleb and Joshua had a victor’s mentality!  Caleb and Joshua looked through the eyes of faith that were confident and fully trusting in the strength and integrity of God’s words to them through their leader Moses.

Caleb and Joshua looked at the giant grapes hanging on the abundance of vines in the land.  The other ten couldn’t get passed the giants around them.  Caleb and Joshua saw the positive blessings and truth of God while the others only saw the potential problems.  Caleb and Joshua professed a different story… and they were the only ones that eventually won the fight, got the promised blessings and rode off into the beautiful sunset of their lives.

Think about it for a moment here… What kind of story do you tell?  Is it the based on what you physically see around you or is it based on the strength and integrity of God’s Word.  Is your story one of hopelessness and sorrow or one of EXPECTANCY and EXCITEMENT?  Which would you rather have?  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What or Whose STORY am I expecting to tell today?”