A few years ago, I had the privilege of meeting and hosting singer, Sherman Andrus. He had once been with the Jordanaires, a back-up singer for Elvis Presley, sang with the Imperials and then Andrus/Blackwood. He did a gospel concert at our church and introduced me to a song he called, “One More Night with the Frogs.”
I thought it was a strange title for a song and curiously asked him about it. He explained to me that God loves us so very much, and because he loves us so much, he desires to change us for the better. But sometimes we like to hang on to the ugliness of our behavior because we kind of grow attached to it, even though it is not good for us.
He explained “the frog” aspect of this song and lesson came from the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, when God set the Ten Plagues on Egypt; one of the plagues on the Egyptians were frogs. Frogs got into everything and were totally messing up their lives.
In Exodus, it says “They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.”
The Egyptians tolerated it for a short time, then pharaoh came to Moses and told him to send away the frogs. Moses agreed to ask God to rid the land of the plague of frogs, then asked pharaoh when he would like this to happen. Incredibly, instead of saying immediately, pharaoh said, “Tomorrow.” Thus the song, “One More Night with the Frogs.”
The song goes on to talk about how we want our lives to change and the nasties to go out of our lives, but we are reluctant for God to make immediate changes. We want to hang on to some of those ugly and nasty things a little while longer, just like pharaoh wanted to keep the frogs one more night.
I remember a saying that asks, “why put off tomorrow what we can do today?” The Bible would agree with that question as it states that “Today is the day of salvation,” meaning that today is the day to surrender your life to the Lord and begin walking with him and allowing God to clean up the frogs (or the nasties and the ugly things) out of our lives. We struggle with habits, hang-ups and addictions and other behavior that steals the quality of our life. Jesus said he has come to give us life and life abundantly (Gospel of John 10:10). In other words, Jesus came to offer us a life without all the nasty stuff and the sinful stuff that hinders us and drags us down. He offers forgiveness and heart cleansing and a chance to live life better.
I remember when I first felt a heart cleansing. It was like God had washed the very depths of my soul. The guilt I carried was gone and everything looked and seemed different in my life. The heavy load I was carrying, Christians call, “burdens” was lifted off my chest. I felt the peace and joy of the Lord in my spirit. That might sound strange if you haven’t experienced it, but that is what God can do in your life when he comes personally to live within you and be with you.
I imagine when the next morning came, and God removed the plague of frogs from the people’s homes and beds and everywhere else, there was great joy in all of Egypt. But one might have asked, “why did we have to spend one more night with the frogs when we could have had a frogless night’s sleep?”
For us, the question is why do we have to spend one more night carrying the burden of sin in our life when we can know the peace and presence of God and a forgiven and cleansed heart in our lives? Why do we hang on to ugly and nasty things that destroy us and hurt us and make our lives miserable? That is not God’s intent for us. He desires to forgive us and heal us and give us new hope and life. And God has made this possible through his son, Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us life — life abundantly and life forever in the presence of Jesus. He did this because he loves us. He loves us just as we are, but he also loves us too much to leave us like we are. He wants to help us weed out the things in our life that are harmful to us. He wants to help us learn how to live an abundant life and we can when we seek a relationship with Jesus.
• Dan Wiese is the the pastor Church of the Nazarene.
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