TD Jakes - Embracing God's Unexpected Assignments
Underestimating the difficulty of the assignment will get you in trouble. Underestimating the difficulty of the assignment is, in part, a fault of our mentors because they often made it look easier than it really was. Not wanting to murmur and complain, they made it look more simplistic, but when you actually took the job, when you actually had the baby, when you actually got married, when you actually started the business, when you actually started the career, it was not as glamorous as dating. Dating is far more glamorous than marriage. Dating is filled with Tic Tacs and deodorant and cologne and niceties. Marriage has bad breath, sharp words, and unexpected situations: «It’s too cold in here; turn the heat up!» «It’s too hot for my people over 50; turn it down!»
The discrepancies in our comfort have become so paramount that now we sleep in the same bed but occupy different sides so you can tilt up while I tilt down and you can regulate the temperature. We can’t even agree on the temperature in the room. We do not understand that hard places are given to strong people. The question is: can God trust you with a hard place? I know He can trust you when everything is falling into place, but can He trust you during a layoff? Can He trust you through a repossession and while you’re moving back in with your mama? Where is your praise now while your enemies are saying, «Where is your God?» Your God is saying, «Where is your praise?» Or do you only love me when I play Santa Claus in your life?
As long as I’m coming down the chimney, you’ve got cookies, but what happens when God does not show up the way you expected Him to? Can you still be assigned and uncomfortable? Can you be assigned and be miserable? Now, I’m not talking about the things you assign yourself to because some of this stuff you got into, God didn’t assign you to. Your lust assigned you to it; your sin assigned you to it; your pride assigned you to it; your ego assigned you to it; your overinflated confidence assigned you to it. But I’m talking about the times that God has assigned you to a hard place and you’re rebuking the devil and pleading the blood and trying to cast out devils that are absent from the situation because it was all right in spring, summer, and fall. But now, winter has set in, and you’re not dressed for a hard place.
I’m wondering if you understand that if it were easy, anyone could do it. I said if it were easy, anyone could do it. If it were easy, anyone could be a great parent; if it were easy, anyone could be a great husband; if it were easy, anyone could be a great wife. The truth of the matter is some of y’all are hard to be married to. Just keep looking straight ahead; I’m going to get you through it without a scratch. Hard mothers-in-law? Yeah, I know they’re coming over for dinner next week; it’s going to be all right. Hard father-in-law? And now you’ve got to serve somebody who complains about everything you do. «That’s not the way I make my potato salad!» «What did you put in this?» Assigned to a hard place, assigned to a boss who gives you a task to do, takes all the credit, and never acknowledges you. Assigned to a hard place, you drive to work speaking in tongues because you considered it the job you prayed for.
Now you’re speaking in tongues, trying to endure the answer God gave you because now you realize that the paycheck doesn’t matter because you’re assigned to a hard place. You don’t yet realize that people are fickle, so you bought into their praises, and you bought into their adoration, and you thought you were liked, accepted, loved, appreciated, and validated—but you didn’t understand that people are fickle. These are the same people that Moses stopped from dying by lifting up the Brazen Serpent in the wilderness. These are the same people that Moses prayed for until bread loaves fell from heaven. These are the same people that Moses cast a tree into the bitter waters of Mara and caused them to drink healthily. These are the same people that an 80-year-old man was walking through the wilderness with, and he had not had a drink of water either. See that part?
No empathy for the fact that Moses’s mouth was dry, no empathy for the fact that Moses was just as depleted and old. These are the generations born in the wilderness; they’re half his age, young enough to be his children, maybe a quarter of his age, and they are complaining about an old man who never made them leave Egypt. This is the man that prayed in such a way that not one of their children died while all of the Egyptian firstborn sons were destroyed. But we get amnesia when we get uncomfortable.
Oh, you don’t believe it? But keep living; people will forget everything you did because of one thing you did and throw you completely away. These are the same people who are calling him, attacking him, blaming him, and assaulting him. They are the same people who later will cry at the bottom of the mountain because he’s dead. We deify the dead while we crucify the living. Some people don’t get wonderful until they are gone. Oh my God, then I really appreciate you! Until you roll over and that side of the bed is empty. I’m talking about the fickleness of people.
The procurement of the promise doesn’t negate problems. With every promise we just got through shouting about, they will not come without problems, obstacles, setbacks, delays, trauma, and adversity. You thought you were going to eat the figs and the pomegranates without stress? You thought you would drink the water without dryness? And by the way, you’re not the only one who’s thirsty. Everybody in the text is thirsty; the people are thirsty, Moses is thirsty, and God is thirsty for the praises of His people. He has nothing to drink but complaint, and everyone in the text is dry and still moving. You’re not a full-grown man until you can walk dry. You’re not a real woman until you can walk dry.
Dry means your needs are not being met, legitimate needs. Dry means you don’t get things the way you want them to be. Dry means you can’t control the external circumstances around your life, and you must make progress under pressure. Progress under pressure—is there anybody in here that knows what it’s like to make progress under pressure? And yes, we get frustrated over our haters because our haters think our walk was easier than it was, and they envy us for things they would not endure, that they could have had, but they quit; they died in the wilderness. But with parched lips and a dry tongue, they kept on moving. One thing I have learned in life is keep it moving! Keep it moving! Do not sit down and bask in how you feel about it to the degree that you delay your assignment. Investigating your emotions should not delay your assignment.