I have been drawing today. I enjoy drawing, especially when it is for other's enjoyment. Naturally, I am my own worst critic. I have been doing art-related activities for as long as I can remember. I've painted pictures of mountain landscapes, sketched epic battles between dragons and knights, and colored portraits of friends and famous folk. I've hand-crafted pottery filled with snakes or the blood of Jesus and woven tapestries that now hang on my wall. I've practiced thousands of hours and generally feel pretty good with what I can accomplish visually when I set my mind to it. But I cannot create pieces of art like my parents. Their sculptures and drawings put me in awe. As I look at their work, I cannot help but think, "I am a man of unclean artistic ability." I am in need.
So are you. We’re all a bunch of very needy people. My fellow artist and poet David once wrote, “Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.” We all need guidance. We all need direction. We all need help in this life. It is a good thing to recognize one’s neediness, for this realization puts one in position to be guided, directed, and helped. Only the needy know they need a shepherd. Only those who realize their need for guidance can be guided.
In a moment of God-inspired musical genius David wrote the first line to arguably the greatest worship song ever written. Out of his neediness David wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd.” All of David’s own talents were not enough. As brilliant as King David was, his own intelligence did not suffice. As courageous as he was, he still struggled with fear. David, the greatest King and leader Israel ever had, knew that he needed himself to be led. He needed a shepherd. And for that, David chose well.
A minister I firmly respect runs a seminary. In his class on spiritual formation he sends his students out for times of prayer, using Psalm 23 as their meditative focus. He instructs them: “When God speaks to you, write it down.” According to him, his experience is that God doesn’t let 40% of them get past verse 1. God asks them the question: “Am I really your shepherd?” That is the foundational question for all spiritual formation, transformation, renewal, and restoration. The answer to that question determines whether a person’s life and ministry will be authentic or inauthentic, relevant or irrelevant. This is because unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain; unless we are shepherded by God, we’re shepherded by some other god (like self; others; money; sex; power). The key question of the spiritual life is, as Henri Nouwen said: Who do you belong to?
The necessary precondition for authentic, relevant God-leadership is: being-led. To lead is to be led. To be led one must heart-recognize one’s great neediness. This is, spiritually, a very good place to be. How do we come to understand this?
I don’t think you can force this idea on people. I believe that the heart-recognition of personal neediness is given to people as a revelation. You cannot command this for other people. You cannot even teach or explain it effectively. It’s a revelation, a wakeup call, that God desires us all to have, but which all do not see. If one consistently abides in God’s presence, God Himself will show you this. It will be like me, admiring my latest sketch, thinking I’ve got my artistic creativity in a powerful place, watching my dad pick up a pen and begin to work, and then comes the revelation of personal artistic-neediness. If I was thinking that I didn’t need more ability and practice to draw like that, that I didn’t need help and shepherding to draw like that, such a thought has been, like a bubble, burst.
In the spiritual life neediness is cool, self-reliance sucks. If I really wanted to draw like my parents I’d need my parents to shepherd me individually. If I really want to be used by God I need to be constantly shepherded by God on a personal levl. Pray for a revelation of personal neediness. God wants to reveal this to you. He will, as you spend time with him.
Your spiritual life and effectiveness for the sake of God and His Kingdom is at stake.
