Hero

Are you a hero or a zero? A success or a failure? A winner or a loser?

Meet an ordinary man called Gideon; aka "Loser Boy". He's the weakest son of the least-important family; and he's hiding in a winepress - a hole in the ground - hoping no one notices him. Not much of a hero. But he's a man that God uses to his honour and glory. It's a great story. A true story. And one that has masses to teach us and our young people today. Which is why we're so excited to be launching a brand new book for teenagers this week all about the actions of God in the life of Gideon: Hero by Jonty Allcock.

Here's a sneaky peek at the start of chapter 4:

Idolatry

That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.” So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrifi ced on the newly-built altar! They asked each other, “Who did this?” When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” Judges 6 v 25-29

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Life is full of them, and they can really stress us out. You go shopping: “Shall I buy these jeans or those ones?” You’re upgrading: “Shall I pick this phone or that phone?” You’re looking ahead: “Shall I go for this job or that job?” You have a bowl of ice cream: “Shall I choose chocolate or vanilla?”

It goes on and on. The other day I went out for a sandwich. I was hungry and simply wanted to eat, but it took at least eight decisions just to get my food. (In case you are wondering: Italian bread or oatmeal? Meatballs or BLT? Cheese or not? Toasted or old?

Salad or plain? Sweet onion sauce or honey and mustard? Eat in or take away? Meal deal or just a sandwich?) I’m not kidding. I simply wanted a sandwich, but the whole ordeal was exhausting.

Why do we find decisions so hard? The answer is simple. The stress all comes from one tiny little word. OR. It might look innocent enough, but don’t be fooled. That one word causes an avalanche of stress. You can have this OR you can have that. There’s the problem. Just think how much easier life is when you use the word AND. I’ll buy those jeans AND those ones. I’ll have chocolate AND vanilla. You can feel it, can’t you? Problem solved; the stress is all gone.

The word OR restricts you, but the word AND keeps your options open. The word OR is dangerous because you might choose wrong, you might miss out. The word AND is safe, because you can’t go wrong—you get the best of both worlds. So this is the game we play. We try to avoid the OR decisions. We stick with AND.

This, it would seem, has been Gideon’s approach to life. Why just follow one god? It’s much better to keep the options open. His dad has an altar to a false god called Baal AND a pole for worshipping another called Asherah AND probably some more as well. This is an AND family.

There are plenty of idols to choose from.

Do you see how easy this is?

Now the Lord God of heaven has shown up.That’s fine—he can be added to the list; there’s plenty of room. Life is happy—no stress here.

Except that God is not happy. Listen to the command he gives to Gideon.

“Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God.” Judges 6 v 25-26

God isn’t playing our little game. God isn’t saying: “Please can I be included in your gang of gods? Please can you add my name to the list?” No. There’s a choice to be made. It’s the idols OR God—Gideon can’t have both.

A radical decision is required; ruthless action is needed. Not messing around with God or sitting on the fence, but stepping up to the fight. Being unashamed, nailing his colours to mast and being a man of courage.

Choosing to serve God means choosing to destroy the idols—the decision is that clear. Of course it will be painful; who ever said it was going to be easy? But without it, Gideon will never be transformed.