Month: October 2018

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Leap of Faith

USMC Confidence Course

When I was in Air Force Basic Training, we spent about a week at a mock deployment location. Up until that point Basic had focused on learning rank, Air Force customs and courtesies, how to conduct yourselves as Airmen, how to wear the uniform, etc. The goal of this “Warrior Week” was to introduce trainees to some of the things they would be likely to encounter in a deployed environment. This is where trainees first use a gas mask, where they eat their first MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat), where they first fire an M-16, and the week generally serves as an introduction to a variety of other things that they might need to understand when deployed.

This week is also when trainees go through the Confidence Course. The Air Force cannot control the background, knowledge, or skills of its enlistees, but it can provide the same training and experiences to everyone that joins its ranks. The Confidence Course is intended to present trainees with obstacles that they have to somehow overcome. In the process it builds in each trainee a sense of confidence in having been able to accomplish each task, so each person feels able to take on more difficult tasks, which is good because the most difficult challenges are toward the end of the course. None of the individual obstacles are particularly difficult, but the odds are that every trainee is likely going to have to face something they’ve never done before.

One of the more memorable obstacles for me was one where you had to swing on a rope to get across a pool of water. This is no big deal and it’s actually kind of a fun thing to do, except for the fact that the rope is too short for you to grab while standing on the edge. The person that went before you stands on the far edge of the pool and swings the rope to you, but since it’s not going to make it all the way to you, there comes a point at which you have to jump to meet the rope. Also, if you don’t jump, the rope will swing back and forth, with a little less momentum each time. Your best opportunity is the first one.

Rope swing element at the US Air Force Academy’s Confidence Course

As you grow and mature in your relationship with Jesus, you find that this obstacle may be an example for you. It’s a wonderful and beautiful thing when someone accepts Jesus as their Savior, and that relationship needs to deepen and grow. There comes a point, however, where believers must use their talents, abilities, and resources for the glory of God’s kingdom, and to help others learn about how He offers them an eternal gift. Sometimes the tasks set before believers will seem impossible to accomplish on their own, but they need to remember that they are NOT doing it on their own.

It is possible for believers to kill their own opportunities by waiting. There’s often something that’s in short supply, usually money or time. “I’ll start my new ministry when the money’s in place.” “This is a very busy time in my life, I can’t start something new right now.” What a lot of people don’t realize is that God may be deliberately withholding the resources you need until you demonstrate to Him your commitment. Sure, He knows your heart, but knowing your heart is a lot different from witnessing your resolve. Like the rope swing, you need to trust that if God has challenged you to do something, the things you need are going to be there at the time you need them, but you’re not going to reach them if your feet don’t leave the ground.

Sometimes you have to jump before you can get a grip on the rope.

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Go Back to What You Were Taught

A couple of guys during lifeguard training

At age 15, I started lifeguard classes. The group of us lifeguard trainees had an instructor named Linda. Linda was our teacher for everything from lap swimming to academics, first aid and CPR to practicing hands-on rescue techniques in the pool. There was an enormous amount of material to learn, and she was a very hard instructor. During the course, she learned the weaknesses of all the students in the course, and she would ask us the questions she knew we’d have difficulty answering, both as individuals and as a group.

That was a very strange summer; one of the students was a pastor, and he had a pretty busy schedule. My family took a vacation outside the country for a few weeks, and I also attended a youth convention in Colorado. There were a few other scheduling conflicts too, if I recall correctly. As a result, our training schedule was pretty chaotic and wildly inconsistent. Whenever we convened for our first class in awhile, we had to review what we had learned up until that point. We had to practice the first aid and CPR skills once again. We had to get back in the pool and return to our habit of lap-swimming. All of those “first-in-a-long-time” classes provided opportunities for us to demonstrate how much we forgot or didn’t know.

During the reviews, and then during the regular classes, Linda would pose questions in ways that made you question what you thought you knew about the material. You’d go to blurt out an answer because you thought it was an easy question, but she asked it in a way that made you second-guess yourself. As time went on, though, the material became ingrained in our minds and in our muscle memory. We became confident in our knowledge and our actions, and we were able to face increasingly complex challenges.

Learning and practicing CPR

Linda was a hard instructor, yes, but if I had the choice to go back and do it differently, I would not. I believe that the lessons Linda taught saved lives, and I’m sure that people retained the skills she taught them very well because of the way she did it. I’ll write more about it in a later post, but almost 20 years after I first learned these skills from Linda, long after my certifications had expired, I found myself in a situation where someone’s life depended on me remembering what I learned in those courses. My most recent refresher classes were with a different instructor, but when I needed the knowledge the most, I didn’t think of my most recent refreshers, I thought back to Linda’s instruction. The teachings came flooding back to me, exactly when I needed them urgently, and it’s my belief that I thought of her teaching rather than others’ because of the fervor, the absolute intensity with which the knowledge was drilled into my head, which was a hallmark of Linda’s courses.

If you are a Christian, you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and are now capable of doing things that you cannot accomplish on your own. You have been commissioned by God to do great things. You can have an impact on an international level if you let Him use you. But as you press on with, or as you begin, this journey, don’t forget the basics. Study God’s word with fervor. Learn from a trustworthy teacher. As you go through your Christian life, you will encounter things that are lies, that are deceptions, and that are downright dangerous. When you find yourself in those situations, your response will come from the training you’ve had and the instruction you’ve received. Reputable Bible teachers, wise and trusted Christian friends, preachers and authors will all have an influence on the way you think and the way you perceive things. In the course of doing great things, don’t neglect these disciplines. You have to remember though, that if you want the answers to be there when you need them most urgently, you have to put in the time up front.

If it’s not your regular practice, dare greatly by cracking open your Bible and by praying to God about what’s on your mind. You might need to get your spiritual house in order before you move on to amazing things.

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Fight the Need to Breathe

Learn to kayak in calm water before you hit the whitewater

The college I went to had a lot of programs and clubs that were geared toward adventure sports. The school’s gym had a pool, but the hallways that bordered it had windows so you could look in and see what was going on. A couple of nights during the week, I’d be walking through the gym for one reason or another and look through the windows to see a bunch of people kayaking around in the pool. During my junior year I finally wandered into the pool area during one of these sessions. The people in this club, called “Paddle Sports,” were whitewater kayak/raft enthusiasts.

I’d never kayaked before. It’s a little intimidating to see people practicing how to right a flipped kayak (while inside it), especially when that neoprene thing around their waist looks like it would make it difficult to get out if you really had to. I ended up walking into a pool session to check it out one evening, and the people seemed friendly enough. It wasn’t long before I was squeezing myself into a kayak and sliding off the deck into the pool.

For safety purposes, the first thing they had me practice was getting out of a flipped boat on my own. Until you get a feel for how a kayak handles, especially during a turn, it’s easy for the boat to flip over. Practicing this move first gives you confidence to start paddling around the pool and knowing that you can get yourself out of a jam if you flip over unexpectedly.

Once I was ready to move on to another skill, it was time to learn how to right a capsized kayak. This is where it got tricky, because not only do you have to coordinate a number of motor functions so they execute at the right time, but you also have to become comfortable enough with the process that you can suppress your survival instinct. Many people are able to lean far back during the maneuver to make it easier to roll on the long axis, and lots of beginners are able to figure out the right way to snap their hips to make the boat begin to roll, but what really takes a lot of getting used to is the idea that your head needs to be the last part of your body to come out of the water.

In order to make the roll work while you’re upside down, you position the paddle on the surface of the water by feel, you snap your hips while pulling against the paddle, and you lean back so your head nearly hits the stern during the roll. If you try to make your head come up first, it’s not going to work because the weight distribution and momentum just aren’t right. If you try it you might be able to gasp a quick breath, but you’re right back down again. When that happens you slowly move the paddle into position again, but the situation is more urgent now; that last gasp wasn’t a deep inhale. You start to focus on how badly you want to breathe, rather than the synchronization of the moves that needs to occur. You give it another shot, but if you lead with your head again, at best you might get another short gasp. If that happens, panic sets in and there’s much less of a chance that you can pull off the move on the third try. Part of the reason is that now there’s almost no focus on the technique; you only think about how you probably don’t have enough air to both give it another shot AND bail out if you fail.

Even with help from a teacher, this roll didn’t work because the guy led with his head

By then most people “pull their skirt” and slide out of the upside-down boat, happy to be in a pool rather than in the middle of some rapids somewhere. For most beginners, this experience of being panicked becomes crucial in understanding exactly why it’s so important to leave their head underwater until the end of the roll, and in helping to do something that feels completely unnatural: leaving your head underwater when all you want is air.

Living a life for Christ can be a lot like this. At times you have to fight against your own instincts and learn to prioritize your own needs lower than you otherwise would have. Sometimes the ability to do this only comes through failures or painful experience, but that experience helps you understand exactly why you need to do things differently. As time goes on and you intentionally spend time developing your relationship with Christ, you learn to act in ways that the world finds unnatural, but that you have come to understand as necessary for God’s glorification.

If you feel God pushing you a certain direction, but you’re avoiding it for no other reason than because it doesn’t seem like what a rational person would do, fight the need to breathe. It could lead you places you wouldn’t have expected.

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I Need Something More

Cleaning up the coast of Maine

After I finished college I went back home to live with my Mom and Dad in Pennsylvania. I had earned a Bachelor’s in Biology with an Environmental Emphasis, and I minored in Outdoor Recreation. The tough part was that I didn’t really know what to do with it. The events of 9/11 took place just a couple of weeks after I started my senior year of college; I couldn’t see myself moving into a career in forest/wildlife management or facilitating team-building on a ropes course after the world had changed so drastically, but I also didn’t want to run off and join the military. With no direction, I defaulted to moving back in with Mom and Dad.

I had no idea what the end result of that choice would be. I had no way of knowing what would eventually happen, but I ended up living there for about a year and a half before I left for the Air Force. To earn money, I worked construction for a local home builder. I learned a lot of stuff working that job, but when you’re single, live with your parents, and have a decent income coming in, it gives you some opportunity to explore some additional hobbies or try some different things out. During this time I paid back all of my college debt, volunteered to work with my church’s youth group, did a lot of kneeboarding on the river, bought a new (used) car, took up skydiving, and took trips to Maine and Australia.

Kneeboarding on the river

It was definitely unique in the sense that I had very little responsibility, but at the same time I was restless. There was no direction; nothing to throw my energy toward. I tried a variety of things to kind of see if any of them seemed like something I’d want to pursue further. I tried some stuff that I wanted to do, and it was fun, but it still felt like I was made for more. I needed something that was…bigger than just me.

As time went on, the idea of joining the Air Force grew on me. By that point I had at least experienced an introduction to rudimentary medical courses, skydiving, scuba diving, swift-water swimming, long-distance swimming, shooting, and generally spending a good amount of time in the great outdoors. I began gravitating toward the idea of joining an Air Force career field called Pararescue. These are Air Force special operators that are combat medics trained to enter enemy territory to locate, stabilize, and rescue downed aircrew. It seemed right up my alley!

Just knowing that they were a type of special forces within the military made me hesitate though, and I think I was probably afraid of the high failure rate. I opted for something a little less intense. I graduated college in May of 2002, and in May of 2003 I signed on the dotted line with the Air Force, agreeing to enter the career field of Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Specialist.

In order to guarantee that I’d have a slot trying out for that job, the recruiter let me know that I’d have to delay my entry into service. I signed in May, but didn’t leave for Basic Training until that December. I still had about six months left of doing the same stuff I had been doing, but knowing that there was something bigger coming helped me to feel more settled. I had found a few ways to push my limits in the past, but joining the Air Force in this capacity was going to allow me to really open up the throttle and see how far I could go. As you’ll see later, I got plenty of opportunities to push my limits, and the parts that were really exciting were where I exceeded what I thought were my limits.

Many times we impose our own limits. We don’t know where they came from, but somehow we taught ourselves to stay away from those limits, because we might get hurt or exhausted trying to reach them. By putting them in the context of something that’s beyond ourselves, though, things are a little more attainable. Isn’t it funny how when presented with a challenge, many Biblical characters immediately provided excuses? When called to speak for God, Moses blamed his speech impediment. Jonah ran the other way because he didn’t want God to spare the Ninevites. Instead of being crowned Israel’s first king, Saul went and hid. Many times we’re the same way. Those guys were all imperfect, but they went on to do great things when enabled by God’s power.

It’s no different for you and I. We’re called to do great things for God’s glory, but if you look back on your life, you may be able to remember some of the reasons you’ve cited about why you wouldn’t be the right person for whatever your calling is/was. Not only are you intentionally limiting yourself, but you’re missing out on incomparable adventures. Saying ‘no’ to God doesn’t help His kingdom grow. On the other hand, think about how much God’s glory is put on display when some feeble, unqualified human instrument agrees to go where God sent them, only to experience improbable success. It’s there, waiting for you.

Don’t be intimidated by the hurdles you see, but don’t be afraid of success, either. Accept God’s invitation to step into something larger than you.

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Expect Opposition

Capture the Flag…

I used to help out with youth group at our church after I finished college. One night we were playing Capture the Flag. A sidewalk ran between the parking lot and the church. The way we played, the sidewalk served as the boundary between the two sides. Each team had a flag that they put deep in their own territory. To win, someone on your team had to get to the opponent’s flag, grab it, and make it back across the sidewalk. Get tagged by anyone, and you go to jail, even if you’re holding the flag.

It was fun to see the different strategies people used. Most of the time people would venture just over the line, and see how far they could get before someone chased them. Sometimes people would just saunter across and act like they were on the other team. Once in awhile everyone would bunch up and make a run for it, with the outer people protecting the people on the inside of the crowd.

I remember one time we had a pretty slow-moving game going. The only action was at the border, where people would act like they were about to take off running into enemy territory, without ever actually doing anything. I don’t even know how he got over there, but suddenly I noticed a guy on my team, Chris, snag the other team’s flag and start hauling back toward our side. He cut, he juked, and got past all but one person.

There was just one girl between Chris and the sidewalk. She was all that stood in the way of Chris sealing victory for our team. From where I stood, I certainly couldn’t make Chris run any faster. I noticed that the lone defender didn’t yet notice what was going on behind her, because she was busy making sure that I didn’t take off into her side.

There was only one thing to do. Since she posed a threat to Chris’s victory run, I decided to do my best to distract her. All she needed to do was put a finger on Chris before he got to the sidewalk, and it would be over for us. I had to do anything I could think of to prevent her from turning her attention on him.

It didn’t matter what gender she was. It didn’t matter what race she was. None of that superficial stuff was important. The only thing that mattered was that she had the power to threaten our victory, and she was quite capable of spoiling our win.

If you’re a Christian, you have an enemy that is willing to go to great lengths to prevent you from operating at full capacity. Not only is he foaming at the mouth with visceral hate for you, but he’s intelligent, cunning, and patient. This is the worst kind of enemy there is. If you are actively following God’s calling for your life, this enemy will do whatever is in his power to distract, harass, and demoralize you. DO NOT LET HIM STOP YOU. You’ve been called to something too great for you to be stopped, sidelined, or benched. Christ’s power – the power that lives in you – is infinitely greater than your enemy’s.

In the game of Capture the Flag, it’s worth pointing out who I did NOT care about. As Chris made his dash for triumph, there were plenty of other people on the opposing team, but most of them were either unable or unwilling to play a pivotal role at that point. It’s the same thing in Spiritual Warfare. If you’re pretty much a Christian for only an hour a week on Sunday mornings, let’s be honest, you don’t pose much of a threat to the enemy. On the other hand, if you’re out there telling people about Jesus, if you’re someone who helps minister to others, if you’re someone who tries to spur other Christians on, I can guarantee that the enemy sees you as a threat, and he will almost certainly expend resources to try to derail you somehow. Challenge yourself to answer the question “am I worth distracting?”

If you believe that becoming a Christian meant that your life would become easier, I’m sorry to burst your bubble. Don’t expect things to get easier in your Christian life; expect them to get harder! The thing is, though, that as you grow and mature in Christ…as He brings you through progressively more challenging assignments, you learn to trust Him. You have hope. You learn to recognize that the distractions will fade if you just…hold…fast. Whatever it is that’s in short supply – the strength, the financial resources, the endurance – it will be there when you need it. Just…hold…on.

And because I know someone will want closure…yes, we won the game. I ran into enemy territory, intentionally staying a little too close to the defender. I figured I’d lure her one way, and Chris would go the other way, but instead Chris kept me between him and her. Either way, he made it back to the border and we won the game. But don’t let that little story distract from the point I’m making. Through all the stuff of life that can choke out your efforts to glorify Christ and His kingdom…keep your eye on the prize. Just…hold…on.

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Are You a Carrier?

You might have a message to deliver, and you might not even know it

I lose sight of the sheer number of volunteers it takes to put on a church service. Childcare, Sunday School teachers, greeters, people handing out bulletins, people helping direct traffic in the parking lot, ushers…on and on and on. One time I was talking with a volunteer after church, and he mentioned that he was looking to move on to a different area of volunteering within the church. I asked him what he’d like to move into next, and he named one of our logistical roles, which is obviously a very important role on a busy Sunday morning.

I’m not sure why, but I started talking to him about moving into an area that felt sort of uncomfortable…maybe a little beyond what you feel comfortable doing. It’s like it just happened without any thought. There’s nothing wrong with the role he suggested, and in fact it’s a crucial need at our church. But for some reason, I just blurted this thought out.

He kind of shifted his weight and got a little fidgety. He even said “Oh, maaaaannnnnn.” He went on to explain that someone in church had recently approached him about filling another role; one that was just a bit beyond his comfort level. It turns out that my bringing up this idea was driving home a message that had already been delivered.

The God of the Old Testament is the same God we serve today. Instead of audibly speaking in a booming voice to people like Moses, today He whispers to us…to everyday people. A whisper can be easy to ignore, though, so sometimes He whispers to us a second time, or a third time. It might be a song you hear on the radio; it could be something that jumps out at you in a strange way while reading a book; it might even be a conversation you have with someone at church.

What’s really neat to think about is that, just in passing, you might be a part of God speaking to someone about a divine message that He’s in the middle of sending.

As far as the guy at church I was talking to…I don’t know what he decided. It’s not my job to try to convince him one way or the other. It turns out I’m just one of the messengers. I’m definitely curious, and I’ll probably follow up with him sometime, but I have to remember that there may be cases where I’m a messenger and I don’t even realize it, or that in some situations I won’t be able to learn the final outcome. It’s still exciting to be a part of, though.

I have a clip of a video that can illustrate this concept in a little bit of a different way. You’re gonna have to hang with me on this one, it’s from one of the X-Men movies. If you’re not familiar, some of the people in these movies have fantastic powers. In this scene, a woman named Raven has made up her mind to do something controversial. Her friend Charles, who is not physically with her at the time, desperately wants to stop her. Charles is telepathic, but he’s using a machine that can boost his telepathic abilities to communicate with her. As you watch this, imagine yourself as one of the people in the airport, who has no clue what’s going on. That can be you carrying a message that God is sending to a specific individual.

(Watch the first 60 seconds)

Of course, it’s up to the individual what they do with the message. Sometimes they’ll choose to take it to heart, and other times they’ll do everything they can to ignore it.

If you ever have a moment like this, where you kind of say “I don’t know why I said that,” you may have just been part of sending a message that God wants someone to hear.

On the flip side, if you notice that you’re getting the same message from a few different areas in your life, it’s probably time to take that message to heart.

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When Opportunity Knocks

When I turned 14 my first job was at a Christian Conference Center in eastern Pennsylvania. My parents had worked there my whole life, and I was very familiar with the place, having even lived on the grounds for the first few years of my life. Most of the work I did was odd jobs: mowing lawns, weed whacking, setting up chairs for meetings, and generally the kind of stuff that you can have a 14-year-old do to help a place look nice or get set up for upcoming events. I worked there on weekends and sometimes on weekdays after school, but the busiest time of year was in the late spring and summer.

After I had been working there for a year or so, the recreation manager, Allen, approached me in the spring. He was planning ahead for the upcoming busy summer season, and he was trying to put together enough people to form a class of lifeguard trainees. The idea didn’t really appeal to me, though. I liked playing in the pool as a kid, but the idea of swimming laps and doing all kinds of training, and then sitting in a chair yelling at people to stop running wasn’t something I was interested in. At least with my current job I got to be out of the sun part of the time.

Allen mentioned the idea to me a few more times after that, but I kept turning him down. His final pitch was the most memorable. It was a day of sweaty manual labor. A road around the pool was getting some light posts installed along the perimeter. That meant somebody had to dig a trench between each pair of light posts in order to run a power cable to all of them. I’ll give you two guesses who that “somebody” was, but you’re only going to need one.

I had been swinging a pickaxe and scooping out dirt all morning, and it was hot and humid under the mid-afternoon sun. My shirt was drenched, and I was sore and tired. I had to take breaks more frequently, and sweat was constantly running down my face and getting in my eyes. Along came Allen. He had a little bit of a smirk on his face.

“You see what you’re doing?”

“Uh huh?”

He pointed to a lifeguard sitting at the edge of the pool with her feet in the water, twirling a whistle around two fingers while getting paid to work on her tan.

“You see what she’s doing?”

“Uh huh.”

“Wouldn’t you rather be doing that?”

He got me signed up for the class.

Sometimes you have to go looking for opportunities, and sometimes God plops them right in your path through someone like Allen. None of my reasons for avoiding the opportunity he presented were all that great; I just didn’t feel like doing it. I avoided the opportunity, but it just kept knocking.

You ever have an experience like that? In addition to the way you see how you might be suited for something, others may have some pretty valuable insight, too. If there’s someone in your life that keeps offering you the chance to be a part of a given ministry, but you’ve been turning them down, have you really stopped to ask yourself why? I’m guessing that it’s either because you don’t feel like that’s what you’re meant to do, or because you might feel like it’s a waste of your talents. If that person keeps singling you out, though, consider giving them a chance. They might see potential in you that you haven’t even thought about.

It could be the start of your ministry sweet spot.

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Half Speed Ahead?

Definitely not me, but that’s maybe how I saw myself…

When I was a kid I rode my bike everywhere. I was all over the neighborhood, sometimes I’d go outside my neighborhood, and sometimes it felt like I went miles without being more than a few hundred yards from where I started.

One day I swung by the house of some friends of mine, but they weren’t home. Suddenly finding myself with an unexpected chunk of free time on my hands, I looked around, hoping to get an idea for what I should do next. The house had kind of a cool porch that was pretty long and narrow, and the end of it dropped off probably about a foot and a half down to their driveway. Sitting there on your bike while waiting for someone that’s not coming to answer the doorbell gives you time to come up with bad ideas.

I didn’t really have any experience doing tricks on my bike, but I thought it would be cool to ride my bike off the edge of the porch and down onto the driveway. This was probably in the late 80s or early 90s, when you started seeing more “extreme” commercials…probably for Mountain Dew or something. BMX was starting to be on TV and in movies a bit more, and those guys could do some pretty cool jumps with their bikes. My morning was wide open, and nobody was going to come out of the house and tell me not to do it. What better time than now?

I visualized it in my head a few times, but probably in slow motion, which came back to bite me in the end. “Ride down the porch, and when you come up to the edge, just keep going.” I imagined myself flying off the porch and landing perfectly on two wheels, then hitting the brakes and skidding into a cool turning stop. And in my mind, that’s when everybody in a nearby house would suddenly look out their window, come out the front door, or drive around the corner to see my amazing stunt, then call my house and tell my Mom or Dad just how cool it was to see me do it. It made sense to me, and now all I needed to do was to give it a try.

I lined up and started slowly pedaling toward the end of the porch. I was a little anxious, but excited that I was about to do something so epic! I pedaled, still slowly, and came up to the edge. Then the reality of physics and gravity taught me a mean lesson: they don’t always work the way I want them to. If the back tire of a bicycle is supported, but the front one isn’t, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what’s going to happen. My front wheel dropped out from under me, and my body got in a fight with the ground. Bloodied up a little, I looked around in every nearby window, front door, and the curve in the road to check for witnesses. Hopefully no phone calls home would be happening after this.

This trick didn’t work for the simple reason that I failed to commit. I didn’t know that it wouldn’t work if I was going slow…it would only work if I was going fast. Intentionally pedaling fast off the edge of a porch takes a certain level of commitment. If I had known that, I don’t know if I would’ve tried it, but a jump like that is only going to work if you can overcome being timid and can build up enough speed to have both wheels leave the edge at nearly the same time. I tried the trick, but because ultimately I wasn’t fully committed, I ended up getting hurt more than I would have if I were totally dedicated to doing it.

If you feel God nudging you toward a certain path, being partially committed might only get you hurt. Pull out all the stops, jump in with both feet, use up the full nine yards, and any other cliché that it takes to convince you to give everything you’ve got to the effort you know He wants you to pursue. Partial effort can easily translate to complete failure.

If you’re coming off a failure, don’t let that stop you from trying again. A lot of times it’s easy to give a half-hearted effort, and then when you fail, you point to that failure and say “see what happened last time? I’m not trying that again!” That’s failing on purpose.

You’ve got the benefit of experience now, and hopefully you learned something about what to do differently this time. If it’s something you’re supposed to do, give it another shot. As long as it’s something God’s pushing you to do, I like your chances of success.

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Where We Are In History

Let’s consider for a moment where we are in history.

Christ came and made a new way for us almost 2,000 years ago. The War has been won, but the battle continues raging today. People pass away every day, permanently ending their ability to decide their eternal fate. We find ourselves somewhere between the early Christians figuring out how they should live, and the End Times, where widespread persecution of Christians will be a prelude to the chaos that culminates in Christ returning. We have no idea if we’re closer to the former or the latter, but we’re to live as though our time is short.

We live in interesting times. Our modern-day lives bear little resemblance on the surface to what we read about in Bible times, yet there’s really nothing new in the way of our shortcomings and temptations. Today’s technology is beyond what Bible characters could have dreamed. The speed of life has only increased since the most recently written words in the Bible. We can drive hundreds of miles in a matter of hours, and we can fly thousands of miles so quickly that we can see the sun set twice in the same day.

The amount of information we absorb and forget in a day is dizzying.

Despite all this, the focus of a Christ-follower has not changed at all. After His resurrection and immediately before he disappeared and ascended to Heaven, the last thing Christ said to His followers was “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Our environment has changed, but our focus has not.

Here’s the really exciting part, and the part that makes me excited for you, and for us. Since Jesus didn’t put restrictions on the methods by which we are to follow that command, our imagination is the limit to the number of ways by which we do it! Can you imagine? Today’s elementary school kids Skype with astronauts in space! GoFundMe sites pop up for any and every reason! We have drones that deliver pizza! That same spirit of innovation and creativity can be used for “making disciples of all nations.”

YOU have been blessed with spiritual gifts! Jesus knew that His disciples were going to be anxious about continuing without Him. To help soothe them, He told them to expect help from the Holy Spirit, who He described as “The Helper” (John 14:26). 1 Corinthians chapter 12 spells out how it’s meant to go. The Holy Spirit brings gifts to each Christian, but they’re not the same combination of gifts for each person.

On top of that, each person has their own personal interests in different causes; it’s something that somehow hits a little closer to home than other causes for you. It might be a heart for the homeless, for orphans, for single moms, for shut-ins, for those in prison, or any number of countless other groups of people.

And then you have talents or skills that you’ve developed with time. Maybe you have a natural knack for languages, or it’s easy for you to do anything musical. Writing, art, academics, working on engines, writing computer code, fixing things, and on and on.

Maybe you’ve never thought about it before, but at the crossroads of these three things (spiritual gifts, interests, and talents) lies your ideal ministry. This is where you’ll be the most excited, the most energized, and the most satisfied to operate. That’s not to say it won’t be exhausting, but it’s where you’ll find the most compelling reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Here’s something to consider. For the rest of your life, the speed of change at this point, right now, is the slowest it’s ever going to be. That means that life is going to change, and that the rate of change will only increase from here on out. New technologies…new customs…new methods of communicating and interacting. What does that translate to? It means that in conjunction with the countless types of ministry mentioned just a moment ago, there is an exponential number of ministry opportunities in this world, and YOU are uniquely and ideally suited to own some of them!

There are things you can do that I can’t, or there are things you’re willing to do that I’m not, and vice versa. That means that somewhere, there’s a ministry role to fill that is waiting expectantly for you to grab hold of it! There’s a place for you to be plugged in…to maximize all of your gifts, talents, and interests! I’m talking about a unique spot in this world that you can slide into and it will be your perfect storm for you to find fulfillment in glorifying Christ, for you to be excited about what you do, to do more than you thought you could, and to reach your God-given potential!

As this world changes, and as the pace of change quickens, recognize that you might be the only person in the world to have the idea you’re having about new ways to reach people for God. Seize that idea! Make it happen as if other souls depend on it, because that just might be the case. The whole reason I’m writing this blog is to give you the push you need to move forward with that idea.

Billy Graham glorified God in amazing ways, and he was the right person at the right time, but the world has changed. His ministry was incredible, but it probably wouldn’t work as well if someone tried it today. Since the old things may not work as well as they used to, it’s time to take new ideas, encourage them, develop them, and dedicate them to God. Believe me, He’ll do the rest, as long as you follow His leading.

It’s time to step out in faith. Dare to do great things!