not too short

There's a thing that sportscasters say when announcing football. Sometimes, when a receiver can see a tackler closing in, he'll choose protect himself rather than really extend going after the ball. Some announcers call this getting alligator arms - he's not reaching, he has short arms. It's a comment that suggests a lack of bravery.

I thought of that this morning while reading in Isaiah 59. Verse 1 says, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear." I think this verse was meant to convey that God is big enough to save, but the reference to short arms, with the connotation in football of reluctance to extend oneself, communicated to me this morning that he is also willing.

That's a phrase from the Army - willing and able. I never doubt that God is able to save, but I do sometimes wonder why he would be willing to.

I end up reflecting on the fact that too often I project myself onto God, that I assume that because sometimes I’m reluctant to do something, God must sometimes feel that way too. In fact, I’m often reluctant in two areas: obedience to God, and service to his people. Since that’s true, it would be natural for God to look at me and think, “Well, I could save him, but I don’t really want to.”

But, thanks to Jesus, God wants to save me, not only in the sense of salvation from my sins, but also in the sense of saving me from the traps and snares of this world. I have only to ask – his ear, as this verse also says, is not too dull, he will hear – and he responds.

It’s embarrassing to think that this truth I know so well, that God hears and is willing and able to save, doesn’t really define my day-to-day reality. I talk to other people, I trust myself to work things out. I think of God seldom.

Maybe that’s why life so often seems hard.