... even from God ...
And for that they are extolled as positive examples:
"I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent, and give [the LORD] no rest till He establishes, and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (Isa 62:6, 7).
" 'Yet,' [the unjust judge in Jesus' parable said], 'because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.' Then the Lord [Jesus] said, 'Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?' " (Luk 18:5-7).
In Israel today pushy people are called "nudniks." It is not a Hebrew or Aramaic word; it is a Yiddish one, related to the English word "nudge," i.e. push. "Nudnik" just got adopted into the modern Hebrew vernacular because it is so apropos. You see, Jews as a people and Israel as a country tend to be nudniks ... at least in comparison with most Gentiles. That is one of the reasons why they are hated by so many ... and one of the reasons why they tend to get things done in this world.
Jesus the Israeli/Jew was and remains to this day a nudnik. Think about it. He could have healed people on any day of the week, but he purposefully and persistently chose to do so on the Sabbath. Why? Simply in order to challenge certain groups of, in particular, Pharisees who were too restrictive in their Sabbath HALAKHOT (i.e. legal interpretations and applications of the Torah/Law to life). Take for example the woman bent over for eighteen years (Luk 10:13-17). Jesus could have waited until sundown that same day to heal her. She could've waited too ... after eighteen years! He was at a morning synagogue service, which usually beginning at about between 9-10am. It was toward the end, around noon, when the teaching and discussion goes on. He could have waited six or seven more hours until sundown, when the Sabbath in Israel ends. And nobody would have objected. Yet he chose to push his point and therefore healed this woman mid-day on the Sabbath, in front of the whole assembly ... on purpose. Nudnik!
He could have been less challenging in a lot of ways. He would've lived longer on this planet had he been less pushy. But Jesus is a Jew, an Israeli ... our Savior ...
Nudnik!
Even today Jesus relentlessly pursues people until he wins them over ... even when they object. Even when they expressly tell Jesus that he is not welcome in their lives, he keeps intruding. Probing. He won't ... he can't take no for an answer. That's what he did to me ... pushed and pushed and pushed ... until I knew that I needed him. Jesus wore down my resistance. Nudnik!
Same with Paul. Same with the other Apostles. Jews ... All nudniks! If they hadn't been so pushy they might have lived more comfortable lives. More people might have liked them better. They wouldn't have had to die so young or have gone to jail so often. But what could they do? The Apostles all knew firsthand that the gospel was (and remains) the power of God for the [eternal] salvation of everyone who believes ..."to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom 1:16).
So they pushed and pushed and pushed. And they changed the world. Nudniks!
There is a time to push and a time to lay low. "Love does not behave rudely" (1Cor 13:5) ... but neither does love always take its cues from the surrounding culture/s when it comes to what is actually considered "rude." That is obvious enough from the loving examples of our Lord Jesus and from his Apostles et al. Therefore, when we consider someone around us to be pushy -- a nudnik -- we should perhaps ask ourselves some simple questions:
"Is what this person is pushing for wrong, right, or at least neutral?"
"Am I reacting negatively to the 'packaging' or to the substance of what this person is pushing for?"
"Can I think of some biblical examples for the sorts of things this person is pushing for?"
"How much of my definition for what it means to be negatively 'pushy' is really derived from my culture as opposed to its being derived from, informed by, and tempered by Scripture?"
Furthermore, we should all learn to be a bit more pushy ... in the good way. If we do, we will notice a couple of things: (1) More people will get irritated with us, and (2) We will get more things done in this world.
It is a myth to believe that when we're flowing in the Spirit then things will just naturally fall into place without effort, pain, or negative reactions from others. Again, we need only review the lives ... and deaths ... of Jesus and his Apostles to put that myth to rest. So push on fellow nudniks! ... flow and push ... push and flow!!! Few things in life change without the application of force to matter. Will against will. The overcoming of inertia by supplying and applying energy.
So, in the name of our Savior, let's get busy changing the world around us by being pushier people ... starting today! :)
-Michael Millier
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