Huncho
“Isn't it something?” I asked our six-year-old. She stood there shoulders hunched over, face dragging the floor. “What?” she mumbled. She was whining about the mistakes she was making on her violin. As a perfectionist she was unhappy with her performance during practice. She is the type of person who does not like to be wrong but also does not necessarily appreciate correction. She was pouting at my attempt to correct her. Ironically, she was playing the song Perpetual Motion while her face was in a state of perpetual frowning.
“What!?” she whined again waiting for me to answer her. “Isn't what something?” “Isn't it something that you would use the abilities that God has given you to complain? I mean, look at you. Every part of you is participating in this sudden negative attitude you have, from your sloppy posture to your droopy lip. God has given you control over the muscles in your face so that you can form that gorgeous smile and yet you choose to twist your face into a frown. God has given you the ability to make melodic sounds from your mouth and you have chosen to use that ability to whine and complain. God has made you a beautiful, statuesque girl capable of standing tall, shoulders back, beautiful posture and you are mimicking the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It just does not make any sense. I should just start calling you Huncho. You ready to finish this up, Huncho?”
“No! Don't call me that!” she shouted. “Why not?” I asked. “I was just going to call you that whenever you choose to mope around and hunch your shoulders. Is that okay Huncho?” “Stop it!” She shouted, throwing a couch pillow at me. I could see a smile breaking through the scowl on her face as she lunged at me from across the room. “Ok, ok, ok! I won't call you that anymore!” I promised pushing through the pillows, and the child, and everything that had been piled on top of me during this attack, including the puppy who had decided to get a piece of the action. She and the puppy were now using their God given abilities against me.
It comes down to a case of bad management. We have these gifts and abilities that God has allowed and we manage them badly. We do not use them to glorify the Creator. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Mankind is guilty, as a whole, of bad management. Huncho is guilty. You are guilty. I am guilty.
I looked in the mirror the other day examining my frown lines and thought about how they got there. When I was a little girl, adults would tell me to stop frowning. “It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile,” they would say. “You've got a beautiful smile; you should smile more.” “If you keep frowning, the frown will get stuck on your face.” Well, they were right. At 43 years old, I have permanent frown lines. Unfortunately, I am not a cast member of the Housewives of any particular city so the chances of me caring enough to have them removed are slim to none but indeed, they were right and I have no one to blame but myself. I could have chosen to smile, there was plenty to smile about, there was plenty to frown about but it comes down to a personal decision. Will you smile or will you frown? Will you hunch your back or will you stand tall? Will you live your life doubting the Almighty God who created you or will you chill out and trust Him?
“Please, LORD,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10). “So the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD’” (11). Moses’ problem was not mismanagement of his abilities, his problem was not wanting to use his abilities at all. Moses was the son of the Pharaoh's daughter, a Hebrew by birth but he was raised as Egyptian royalty, in a position of authority (Exodus 2). Well, it had been forty years since he had fled Egypt, since he had exerted authority over anyone but some livestock. He could not do what God was asking him to do…could he?
“But he said, ‘O my LORD, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.’ So, the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses” (13-14). God was mad at Moses, not because Moses doubted his God given ability, but because he was unwilling to be used. It seems to go against our nature to trust God. He proves Himself over and over again to us and we still doubt. We doubt, we fear, we distrust, we are unwilling to be used by Him but we do not hesitate to take what He has given us and use it on our own terms.
Now, most of us know the story of Moses, who he is, what He did, how he became willing and obedient and ended up on the right side of history. Happily Ever After, it turned out for Moses, but only after he submitted to God and the plan God had for his life.
God has a plan for your life (2 Peter 1:3). Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We are equipped with everything we need in order to be what God created us to be but it is up to us to use it appropriately. Step forward in every situation with confidence in His strength. Decide to smile and stand tall in the midst of any situation and watch God work things out for our good and His glory.
