God the fool

I once owned a mini van that was on its last leg. The tranny needed a lot of work and I didn't have the money. The good thing about the van was it worked well most of the time, but would have little issues. So I took this van to the local junk car dealer and asked him what he would give me toward a trade in. He took the van for a test drive and told me he would give me $1,500 toward a newer vehicle. I found a new car, secured a loan and drove off leaving him with the crappy van. I figure that the van probably died shortly after that and either the dealership or a new owner got stuck with the bill for repair. Not my most shining moment but never the less, I was able to fool them and save my own butt.

This deceptive transaction was only possible because the dealer didn't know about the tranny problems. Had he known he never would have allowed the deal to go through. In our lives there are a lot of things that get slipped past us, but not so with God. So many people think that when an event or situation doesn't go the way they want it too that God has been fooled. When someone doesn't get into seminary or when someone gets stood up at the altar or whatever it is in your life that you believe you know what God's will is for this world. To suggest that God gets fooled or is made out to be the fool would suggest that He is not aware about the plot against His will.

Whenever someone leaves the full-time ministry I always here the same thing from that person's contemporaries. "Oh, that's too bad." It is almost like we have been preprogrammed with that response. It is so common amongst ministers that it might as well not even be said, but it is anyway. This response means that the person leaving the ministry has removed themselves from the will of God. Even though the one sharing the disappointment hasn't spoken with the individual nor have they prayed about the situation, they are mourning. This means the only will for someone's life is to remain in the path that was given to them years ago. This leads to the idea if someone strays from this will, he/she has fooled God and circumvented His will. This of course would completely strip the sovereignty from God and makes God to look like a chump.

I think of people that have left their full-time ministry that they were originally called into and how they are doing. Many of them are well, thriving and still valuable members of their churches. Is it possible that even though someone received a call into a full-time ministry that God will still bless them after they have left? Is it possible that God can still be God if you aren't in that calling any longer? I am challenging you the reader for scriptural evidence of this idea of the lifetime calling. Can you show me where this is in scripture? Perhaps I am just not well versed enough to know. Or maybe we should do away with the "Oh, that's too bad."