Voodoo Child

"I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

Baker Mayfield, this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, is too small to play quarterback. He wasn’t offered a scholarship at any top tier school, so, as a freshman, he walked on to the campus of the University of Oklahoma, his first choice, and took the starting job away from students who had been given full athletic scholarships.

Lord knows, he’s a voodoo child.

In an interview, a sports announcer stated that he had heard Mayfield started keeping a list of things people told him he couldn’t when he was in grade school. Mayfield acknowledged that he has such a list. He uses it for motivation. Nobody has the right to tell you what you can’t do. Nobody has the right to tell you about your limitations and weaknesses. Often people are inclined to make statements of this sort, especially in financial matters, because of the limitations they have chosen for their lives.

“A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

If you hang around conservative Christians, you will hear this proverb presented in a way that focuses on the Sovereignty of God and the limitations of man. Recently, I heard Wayne Cordeiro, the founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii put a different spin on this aphorism. He believes, that plans and stepping belong to man and directing the steps of a man in motion belongs to God. He emphasizes individual responsibility, telling a leadership training class not to wait for instructions or a job description from the senior pastor, but to make a plan, and then, just do it. He assures his audience that once in motion, God will be faithful to direct your steps and correct your plans.

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.”

Zerubbabel was the leader of the first Jews to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity. For two years, he started rebuilding the temple of God. After completing the foundation, local tribes, Samaritan immigrants returning from Babylon, and a lack of financial support for the Persian empire stopped construction for seventeen years, a great mountain indeed. Then the Lord sent the prophet, Zechariah, to encourage Zerubbabel and his construction crew. The Second Temple was completed, dedicated, and once again Israel celebrated the Passover in the presence of God in his temple.

If my Christian readers will offer me a little literary freedom and grace, let me say, “Lord knows, he was a voodoo child.”

What can you accomplish, not only in this new year, but in the rest of your life? I don’t know. That is between you, God, and the people who love, support, and encourage you. Today, right now, pick out something that you want to do, something you believe you can do, then put on your shoes, open the door, and start walking.

Who knows how far you can travel before it is time to move on to the world to come. Maybe, at your funeral, one of your friends will shake her head and say, “Lord knows, he was a voodoo child.”

Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
Chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island
Might even raise just a little sand
'Cause I'm a voodoo child
Lord knows I'm a voodoo child
Jimi Hendrix