Looneytoon Logic

God speaks to us in many ways. This morning, He spoke to me while I was watching a simple cartoon.

The scene is familiar. Road Runner races down the dusty street at record speed. He screeches to a sudden halt, paints a black tunnel entrance across a huge rock, then jumps behind the closest tumbleweed and waits. Unsuspecting Coyote follows in heated pursuit and WHAM! He hits the intended target, slithers down the boulder, pathetically flattened by the impact.

It was at that precise moment that God spoke to me. Yep, His words to me were, “You’ve been feeling like that lately haven't you?"

My response was, “Yes Lord, You know I have.” (I must admit, I’m getting better at recognizing those unannounced moments when God speaks!) What happened next was interesting, to say the least.

As the cartoon continued on the television set before me, the curtains in my subconscious were slowly being drawn back to an altogether different scene. It was as if I was being transported to a realm of truth that I had never seen. Instantly, I fully understood something that before, I could never quite grasp. Let me try to explain.

Everything I was seeing was based upon one particular Scripture:

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified through faith." Galatians 3:24 (KJV)

Watching that rather humorous scenario on TV caused me to recall all the times I had hit a dead-end in my spiritual walk. It was like walking through a maze. There were endless twists and turns. I anticipated the next turn would bring the path to escape, but I would only find a tall, thick, hedge staring back at me. My only sanity was in knowing that somewhere there was a path that would lead me out.

The Holy Spirit was attempting to lead me out of an unending maze of my efforts to please God. I was performing good deeds, but I had been spinning my wheels. For a long time, I was going at great speeds only to find myself running into my own black tunnel … the law. Just like in the scripture, the law was my master.

I had always tried to keep God’s commands, only to end up in my own heap of failure. I won’t even tell you how many times I went around the mountain of defeat. All along my Schoolmaster was trying to teach me that it is impossible to keep His commands with my own strength. No matter how hard I tried, I would fail.

One day I actually heard Him say to me, "Why don’t you just stop trying?"

What? Me, stop trying? That can’t be God’s voice … and once again, around the mountain I’d go.

Yet, in the middle of this new insight … I sadly began to see how much God must have been grieved as He watched me stubbornly turn away from His truth. I was determined to run my own course and felt confident that with enough resolve, the next time would be different. Not realizing it, I was leaving Him with no choice. He had to let me go my own way.

That is, until that morning! I woke up and decided to watch a cartoon! God must have said to Himself, “Today my beloved one will not have to make that trip! I’m going to reveal to her all that she needs. I will show her that the answer is to believe that Christ has already done it for her."

It goes on to say in Galatians 3:25-26 (KJV):

"But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

Hallelujah! The wonderful gift of faith has finally arrived! I was no longer in need of such a strict tutor! My graduation was beginning to commence. Even if it meant receiving my diploma from the “school of hard knocks,” it was ok because it was definitely the school of higher learning.

Now, if in the future anyone decides to make fun of me for watching cartoons … I plan on telling them that sometimes God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27).

I thought I was wise, but it took a foolish cartoon to remind me that God’s thoughts are not my thoughts, and His ways are not my ways (Isaiah 55:8).

Copyright © Missey Butler, used with permission.