“Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only you would greatly bless me and expand my territory! May your hand be with me! Keep me from harm so I might not endure pain!” God answered his prayer. ”
I am not a fan of speed bumps. They interrupt my ride, threaten my pace, and present challenges for a guy who drives modified (i.e. fast and lowered) cars. But this morning God put a speed bump in my path and I couldn’t be happier.
Yesterday, after twenty hours in the air, Shannan and I arrived in Kampala Uganda to join friends from the Pastors Discipleship Network for a few days of seeing God's good work in this city and to celebrate with graduates from our educational partnership.
Uganda is “The Pearl Of Africa,” Kampala its capital and largest city with some 7 million people within its metropolitan circle. Kampala is a mixture of squalid and exquisite; beautiful highways and dusty dirt roads, multinational companies and a thousand mom and pops. This is the land of generous hosts, smiles that light up a room, and the ever-present Boda Boda (motorcycle taxi).
As we drove from the airport in neighboring Entebbe to our hotel, we were greeted with tropical scenery and some crazy traffic. The Grand Prix circuit has nothing on drivers from Kampala. We’re talking side-by-side competition for the lane and the lead. And then there were those Boda Boda drivers toting passenger(s) and products all while contending for blacktop with vehicles that out-wheeled them and outweighed them.
The scenes that greeted me were as juxtaposed as the security of my vehicle (a nine-passenger van) and the dude on the Boda Boda taking his daily death ride. There were palatial homes contrasted with one-room huts with a drawn curtain for a door. There were individuals in air-conditioned sedans contrasted with women walking dirt paths balancing forty pounds of goods on their heads. There was Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh-water lake in the world contrasted with the “stream” on the side of the road filled with trash and sewage, and animals, and kids. There were high-rise towers contrasted with the people turning coals in their street-side cafe’s. It was Bodas Bodas, cars, goats, bulls, businesses, and people people people in a maze of activity.
God, are you seeing what I am seeing? Do you know? Do you care?
This morning, I open the pages of Scripture to pick up where I left off. I’m in Chronicles which on most days is about as exciting as paying my credit card bill. My drive through the pages of Chronicles is much like my ride from the airport to Kampala. Reading this chapter, I see name after name I do not know and cannot pronounce. These are people whose stories, if told, I am not sure I would care to hear. It is the blur of a hundred Boda Boda riders — faces without a history, lives without context; just “extras” setting the scene for some bigger incident in God’s big story.
I thought so . . . until I hit that speed bump!
I read the names of some forty people in just the first eight verses of 1 Chronicles 4. Boring! Then verses nine and ten appear like an oasis in a desert. Two verses about a guy named Jabez.
Jabez was more respected than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, for she said, “I experienced pain when I gave birth to him.” Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only you would greatly bless me and expand my territory. May your hand be with me! Keep me from harm so I might not endure pain.” God answered his prayer.
Jabez is rebuke and reminder that I see humanity as a whole. That’s not the way God views life. God sees people individually; their history and heritage, their lives, hopes, dreams and desires.
Jabez and his story-less cohort helps me understand this.
It must have been tough being a guy whose name means “pain.” Jabez’ mom gave him that name due to the difficult time she had giving him birth. Like the Johnny Cash song, “A Boy Named Sue,” mom’s “kindness” to Jabez was not lost on her son. I suspect he wanted a different name. He definitely wanted a better life, one that included expanded territory, relief from pain and a taste of good times.
And God answered his prayer!
If not careful, my Western eyes might read this passage of Scripture through the lens of comfort and convenience, a purely pragmatic view of my version of “the good life”; you know, swimming pool, nice car, money in the bank, comfy retirement package, warm winters, cool trips in the summer . . . happy wife, happy kids, happy life! But today, I don’t read Jabez that way. Rather, this speed bump on the highway of many names is the theological precursor to Francis Schaeffer’s wonderful description of God, “He is there and he is not silent.”
For many, the bustle of life, the sheer numbers of people, the seeming inequities of it all, act as judge and jury to persuade them that life as they experience it is all a cosmic accident. God is either non-existent or so distant not to really know or care.
Have you ever felt that way? I have!
But Jabez is the Bible's “Not so fast!” to a world system that wants to write God out of the story. Jabez is God’s reminder that he need not recount every story to convince you that he is fully aware of your story.
I used to read Jabez as God’s “gold-star” pupil in the Chronicles Kindergarten Class. The only kid that stood out. Jabez is the A-student your parent’s point to . . . “Don’t you want to be like Jabez?”
Until this morning, Jabez has been the standout whose life encourages me not to be afraid to ask God to show up and show off! And while I don’t want to dissuade anyone from making big asks of God, I’m seeing Jabez more as an exemplar of God’s awareness of, interest in, and work with the entirety of humanity than just God’s star pupil.
And why not, no sooner do I pick up reading in verse 11 and I’m right where I left off in verse eight, just name after name after name. It is as if the chronicler resumes his relentless march of the mundane: Kelub, Shuhah, Mehir, Eshton, Beth-Rapha . . . and the list goes on and on, each just another Boda Boda rider on life’s highway.
But today as I looked more closely, I see Chronicles is not an endless traffic jam of humanity . . . there is a lot of personal detail here:
V14 – Seraiah is a skilled Craftsman from a long line of skilled Craftsmen
V18 – Merid married Bithiah, a daughter of Pharaoh (that must have made for interesting dinner conversations)
V19 – Hodiahg was married to Naham’s sis (why was that worth noting?)
V21 – Er was from the clans of the linen workers
V23 – Shimel was the father of 16 sons and 6 daughters (a busy guy with a tired wife)
It’s not just Jabez that God cares about. Sure, Jabez is singled out, and we ought to pay attention to that. But God knows and cares about each and every one of the other Boda Boda riders on life’s highway. The detail tells me so. And as if to add his holy “Amen” to my early morning musings, I read (also as part of my daily reading plan) Psalm 56:8-9:
You keep track of my misery.
Put my tears in your leather container.
Are they not recorded in your scroll?
My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help;
I know that God is on my side.
God is a record-keeping God because people matter to him! So today I am thanking God for the speed bumps! He slowed me down on that seldom-traveled genealogical path to remind me that his loyal love (Psalm 57:10) is evident for the known and named but also for the “unknown and unnamed” on every Boda Boda covered highway (Acts 14:15-17).
God is that real . . . that big . . . that good . . . to you!