The Akward Vessel

Here's the deal. I love the Lord, and I love seeking Him. Sometimes He finds pleasure in using me as his vessel. I love that too, can't get enough of it. However the feelings that sometimes accompany post holy usage are less than agreeable. I sometimes get the sense that if the Lord uses me, I need to start being pretty holy. My view of holy isn't exactly dead on though. So on my way down from the lofty clouds of a spiritual experience I usually get a pretty good look at how messy and akward my life really is. I ask myself, "How can a VESSEL of Goooood, still be messed up like this?" Well thank goodness for my Old Testament friends Noah, David, and Lot. These guys were greater vessels and dealt with more drama than I ever will. . . hopefully.
Let's take a gander at these OT studs.

Noah:
God told Noah that He was going to destroy the entire earth in a flood to end all floods, but he wanted to save Noah and his family because Noah was righteous in His eyes. So the Lord told Noah to build The Ark. A ginormous boat that could hold at least two of every living creature on the earth. Now I imagine that the experience Noah had with the Lord when He told him to build the Ark was pretty moving. The other day the Lord wanted me to say something, so he set my inards on fire and fanned the flames until I said it. He set me on fire just to say something, he made a giant fish swallow Jonah to get him to go somewhere, it makes me nervous to think about how the Lord would inspire me to build The Ark. Moving on though, Noah was on this boat with God knows how many stinkin animals, his wfe, the kids, and the kids' wives. This goes far beyond any family trip I've ever been on. I'ld say this trip was rough waters the entire time, hahaha, not to mention it started with the Noah family listening to everyone they ever knew dying outside their boat whille begging Noah to let them in. They may not have liked those people, but that's still got to be upsetting. They spend three hundred and seventy seven days together in the Ark. On the last day they get off and what's the first recorded thing that Noah does? He plants a vineyard and hits the sauce, completely understandable. He had a lot of weight on his shoulders. He was head of the only living humans on the face earth, and on top of that he just received the first covenant God ever made with people. The last instance of Noah that is recorded is in Genesis chapter nine. Noah gets completely tossed and ends up in his tent naked (who was he drinking with?). Then his youngest son, Ham, walks in on him passed out naked and runs to get his brothers so they can all have a laugh at dad. However the two older sons respect their pops and make Ham look really bad by just covering Noah up and walking out having never laid eyes on him. Noah wakes up pissed and curses his son Ham and all of Ham's descendents to and existance of servitude. The whole laughing at him naked I think was just the straw that broke the camels back. Ham probably, judgeing by his reaction to seeing his dad naked, pulled ass clown stunts like this all the time during their 377 day stay in The Ark. He may have even made fun of Noah while he was building The Ark. Who knows? The point is, Noah was deffinitely a vessel of the Lord, and he deffinitely had his share of messy moments and akward times.

David:
David not only had an affair with a lady and knocked her up, but then helped himself to a big old side plate of murder. Not only did all his wives know, but I would bet the whole kingdom found out. David handled it pretty well though. He took the Lord's judgement and then brushed his shoulder off and moved on. I think we could all learn something from David.

Lot:
Lot is probably my favorite example. He was delivered from God's judgement much like Noah was, minus the ass clown son Noah had to deal and Lot's wife who obviously couldn't follow directions. Lot was delivered from a more impressive judgement too. Instead of using water God opened a holy can of whoop ass and brought the fire and brimstone. So Lot escapes to a small town and then goes into the mountains with His two floozy daughters. His two daughters, driven crazy by the deafening roar of an overbearing biological clock, get Lot wasted and SLEEP WITH THEIR FATHER!. I'm pretty sure it would be pretty awful to find out you have been unknowingly dating your distant cousin, but sleeping with parents is over the line. Lot probably never found out either until he was standing before God's judgement seat and the good Lord told him all that he had done. The descriptive power of the word akward falls far short of what is needed here.

I don't mean to make fun of what these guys went through. I just take comfort in knowing that seeking the Lord and being his vessel carries no promise or requirement of perfection or being better at life. So take heart and face those akward times head on. Also these are not the only such stories in the bible. The OT is full of inspiration follies and akward heroes. I encourage you to find your own inspirational OT heroes and share them with your friends