A Funny Way Of Working

by Paul M. Carhart
Originally published, Raw Confession Online, 1998

God has a funny way of working. Actually, it probably wasn't too funny to Goliath when David beaned him in the face with a rock or to Pharaoh when the angel of death took his first born son. However, sometimes when I look back on my life and see what He was doing the whole time I was blundering along, I have to just shake my head and laugh.

When I was a teenager, I always wanted to play in a band. My friends and I put together a group and began writing rudimentary songs. Of course, when you're fifteen years old, you haven't experienced a whole lot of life that you can share with the world so our songs were pretty substance-less.

Eventually, I grew up and decided that the whole rock & roll dream was a myth and that it wasn't for me. Instead of pursuing music, I went to school to become a graphic designer and ended up attending a Harvest Crusade with some of my fellow students and re-dedicating my life to Jesus. I told God, "I don't need to be a musician, I just want to serve You."

It's funny how when you give something up to God, when you resign yourself to doing what He wants you to do, that's when God shows up and takes over the party. I can't help but think of Abraham and Isaac. You see, not even a month after my re-dedication, I found myself joining a Christian rock and roll band. It wasn't Raw Confession. In fact, we didn't even have a name and we only played two gigs. We didn't write music. Instead, we took established praise and worship songs and spruced them up into rock songs.

Again, I have to crack up at how God guides us when we submit something to him. Eventually each of the band members went our separate ways but soon after we split up, I found myself playing the very same songs in my church's praise band. The very same praise band that I eventually became the leader of. Very funny, Lord. After I left that church to go elsewhere, I found that I again needed to give it all to God. I wanted to make sure that I didn't just want to be in a spotlight in front of people. I told Him, "Lord, if you want me to continue to play in a band, then YOU show me where."

Not much later, I saw an ad at a local Christian bookstore for a bass player. It was almost too easy. I met with Chuck and later Nathan and before I knew it, I was in the band. Nobody wanted to move too fast. We all wanted to pray about it and be certain that it was God's will. But after the first two nights, I think we were all pretty sure of what was going on. I joined Raw Confession about two weeks before I officially became a band member. And God is still cracking me up as He shows us the directions in which he wants the band go.

You see, God knows what has gone on, what's going on and what is going to go on ... not only in the big global, universal, picture but in each and every person's individual life as well. He gives us talents and he gives us a desire to use that talent. Many times, we humans are confused about that and we desire to use our talents without recognizing why we have that desire and who gave us the talents and abilities in the first place.

It is not wrong to want to use your talents and abilities. If you have a special talent or ability that you feel you need to use, don't feel ashamed of wanting to use it. Work on it. Polish it. Go to school to hone it because God does want you to use it ... that's why He gave it to you. Then, give it to Jesus. Offer yourself and your talent up as a sacrifice to Him and watch what He does with you and it. It is a humbling experience to watch yourself do things and be a part of things that are so much larger than you are.

When you've done that and seen what God can do with your abilities, you'll see that it really is a waste of time trying to do it without Him. And you'll agree that God definitely has a funny way of working.

And if you're anything like me, you'll shake your head in laugher too.

Related Information

This article was written for the Raw Confession website back in 1998. Although I'm no longer a member or Raw Confession, the article still holds true. If you have a gift, it was given to you by God and He wants you to use it.

I think the article holds up over time and I wanted to re-present it here.

- Paul M. Carhart