Month: October 2019

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You’ve Made Your Bed, Now Sleep in it

Your decisions have consequences, but don’t let those consequences put limits on you.        

In college I majored in Biology, but I went the first three semesters without identifying what I wanted to focus my studies on.

You can get through your college experience that way, but I wouldn’t advise it. The best part about this route was the blissful ignorance of those first three semesters. I attended a Christian liberal arts college, where as a part of the degree requirements, each student had to complete courses from a wide array of educational topics to round out his or her knowledge base. In those early semesters in college I took courses in anything from Biblical Literature to Psychology to Math to Spanish to Ethics to Macroeconomics to Tennis.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to realize it, but after awhile I figured out that I was running out of these “Gen Eds” to take. I needed to figure out how to fill the remaining five semesters. In an epiphany, I began to understand that I needed to figure out what I wanted to declare for my major. I ended up selecting Biology with an Environmental Emphasis.

As you can imagine, if you want to major in a science, it means you’ll need to take lots of science courses. That’s not a bad thing as long as you start on them right away, but if you wait to get started on them, like I did, it means you’re living, eating, and breathing science classes later on.

After my realization I worked with my faculty adviser to figure out how to make it work. I was a Bio major, but didn’t get signed up for the most basic of biology classes until halfway through my second year. Then I signed up for a four-week summer Bio course with class all morning and lab work all afternoon, Monday through Friday. (My brain nearly melted during that class. I was an average student that just finished my Sophomore year, and most of the other students in the course were Freshmen honors students that had spent a semester abroad and now just needed to catch up.)

Junior year was also packed with science classes, but I still managed to “kick the can down the road” with one of the key requirements for a Biology major: two semesters’ worth of Chemistry. By the time I began Senior year and started getting into Chemistry, I realized that I was in over my head. I couldn’t stand Chemistry. The professors were great, but I had a terrible time grasping a lot of the material. I had waited until my last two semesters to take two semesters of Chemistry. There would be no withdrawing from the class to arrange a more convenient courseload.

It was already a busy year…I had a Senior Seminar to deliver, I was the Vice President of the Paddle Sports club, I had a few work/study jobs, a buddy and I were getting ready to drive out to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I had a weekly workout routine at the gym, and there was general fun to be had (after all, it was Senior year!).

Even with all I had going on, my whole senior year began to revolve around how I could pass Chemistry. I skipped out on some pranks or outings that would have been fun to be a part of. There was a study group that I started attending each time it met. I linked up with one of the Chemistry Majors, who never seemed to sleep, for help on my homework when I was frustrated and at the end of my rope. With plenty of patience he walked me through each problem. Joel, if you’re out there, thanks for all your help! You saved my bacon!

After all of the craziness and mental anguish, I finally passed both semesters of Chemistry. Never was I so happy to complete two classes.

I whine about it, but this was a crisis of my own making. Because of the choices I made, I backed myself into a corner and made my path to success much more difficult. Here’s the tie-in: even when you become a Christian, your problems don’t go away. God loves you and forgives you if you’re truly sorry, but you must still live with the consequences of your past actions.

Becoming a Christian does not remove all the pain and agony you face. In some ways it makes things more difficult. The good news is that a relationship with Christ gives you hope and strength to face each day, even when each day has repercussions of your previous actions.

As one of God’s chosen, He provides what you need to overcome each obstacle. You may have made your circumstances more complex, but He’s the one that is able to supply for all of your needs. Christianity is not an escape from your problems; it is an opportunity to have hope when facing them. Consider that as you work toward becoming the person He wants you to be.

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What Am I?

Photo courtesy of https://medium.com/@joseph.r.pack/the-bourne-transformation-cb507485415c

Last week I posted about how we’re in a war. It can be difficult to see the best way to gird up and fight back, though. How can we be part of God’s plan to overcome the world? Well, I’ll tell you.

When it first came out, I really enjoyed the movie “The Bourne Identity.” For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s about an American that gets recovered while floating unconscious off the coast of France; he has no memory of who he is, how he ended up in the water, or why he has a pair of gunshot wounds in his back.

As the story unfolds we try to solve the mystery alongside him, but what’s very interesting is that even though he can’t remember who he is, certain skills come very naturally to him. He speaks at least three different languages, he ties complicated knots without knowing why he knows how to do it. He excels at hand-to-hand fighting, combat driving, and use of various weapons. He’s got serious skills, but doesn’t have a clue about the purpose behind applying them.

Obviously he fits into a larger story, but when we meet him, he’s just a guy with skills trying to figure out his place in the world. He’s a highly skilled, but uncertain fellow without a purpose.

Does that sound like you?

We all come pre-loaded with different talents, skills, and gifts. Some have obvious application (leadership or teaching, for example), while others seem like little more than amusing party tricks. We can use them for our own benefit in some cases, but it’s important to remember that we were given specific skills for a specific reason.

What’s the definition of a gift? An excerpt from the video below says that it’s “the thing you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort.” It’s something that comes naturally to you; something you can do without even trying. It doesn’t have to be something spiritual or church-y. Running focus groups; skateboarding; comforting hurting people; competing in triathlons; interior decorating; creating various forms of art; plumbing. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, but by pursuing your gift or using your talent right now, God will position you in a place He wants you to be at just the right time in the future. Many people turn or run from their gift because it’s something they don’t want to be gifted in, and they pursue something that “makes more sense” but doesn’t fit who they are. If that’s you, I urge you to stop chasing something you’re not meant to be and embrace the tools you already possess. You have them for a reason.

Our mystery American from the movie eventually discovers what he is, and having that context makes him more comfortable in his own skin; learning more about the background of his skills gives him purpose and structure to help him apply his skills. Christians have the same thing. After you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior, your purpose is no longer to find God, it is to glorify Him. You want to know how to be a part of that? Do what you were made to do: use your God-given talents to live your life in honor of Him.

Think of a tool that goes unused: a hammer that doesn’t strike; scissors that don’t cut. These are tools with unmet potential. It’s not up to the tools to be used in the right way or envision the details of what they’re used for; that’s the craftsman’s job. As “Christian tools,” we don’t need to be overwhelmed by trying to discover what the plan is; we only need to place ourselves in the hands of the Master and be used the way He sees best.

I’m including a link to a motivational YouTube video. It’s a little lengthy (about half an hour), but since it’s audio only, you don’t need to watch it as it plays. It’s a good listen while folding laundry, working in the garage, cooking dinner, working out, or driving. It can give you a better idea about how to honor God by employing your gift(s).

Know someone that would like to read this? Pass it along to them! New content posted every Thursday.

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This Isn’t a Game; This is for Real

In the military, especially in units that operate fighter aircraft, there’s something called a “show of force.” This is a tactic that was used a lot in Iraq and Afghanistan early in our military’s operations in those countries. A show of force is when a very maneuverable plane gets low to the ground, goes full throttle, and flies as close as possible past the enemy on the ground.

If you’re on the receiving end, this tactic is not something that will physically affect you; there are no shots fired and there’s typically no ordnance dropped. If you’re unaccustomed to sudden loud noises, though, it’s something that will make you wet your pants. The idea behind a show of forces is simply to make you cower in fear and, at least for a little while, make you stop doing what you were doing while you question your life decisions.

A few years back I experienced a spiritual show of force. I had been working for a few weeks to prepare a talk for a group at church. To use another military analogy, to “red-team” something means to examine your own capabilities/facilities from the perspective of the enemy, taking the opportunity to uncover weaknesses and vulnerabilities. For the talk I had been preparing, I focused on “red-teaming humanity” from the perspective of Satan and his fallen angels. If you’re familiar with C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, it was kind of like that, but delivered in the form of a brief/presentation.

At first I thought it was a cool idea. It was neat to gauge Humanity’s collective spiritual weaknesses. The problem was that to do it effectively, you have to think like you’re a member of the bad guys’ team, and that becomes uncomfortable and even troubling to do for an extended period of time when you have Christ living in you. As the time drew near for me to present the project, I was excited to share what I had prepared, but I was very eager to be done with it.

I know I’m jumping all over the place and mixing metaphors, but I need to throw another one at you. Imagine you’re on a professional football team, and somehow your team gets hold of your opponent’s playbook. You’d be ecstatic, but if the other team found out, they’d do just about anything to keep you from exploiting it. I had put together a brief that was going to show some of the basic strategies from the Devil’s playbook. I even thought “you know, leading up to this brief, it wouldn’t be surprising if I had some sort of experience that was a little outside the norm.”

I had no idea at the time, but I was spot on. Less than a week before I was to give the talk, I experienced the show of force.

I was at a gas station, getting my car inspected. There was a spot inside the gas station where people could hang out while their cars were in the garage. I was sitting there, doing stuff on my phone, when the door opened and someone walked in. I didn’t look up, but I heard a woman start speaking strangely. I assumed two people had walked in, or that she was speaking to someone nearby. There are a lot of weirdos around, so I didn’t look up; I assumed she was speaking to someone she knew. Still looking at my phone, I was surprised when she reached down and touched my arm. I was startled to look up and see her staring down at me with a pretty intense look.

She seemed a little bit like she wasn’t playing with a full deck, if you know what I mean. I don’t even remember what she said next, but I totally blew her off. She walked past me and sat down on a chair behind me.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the whole situation, but as I refocused on whatever I was doing on my phone, I started thinking about some of our pastor’s main themes of his then-current series: don’t stay silent; engage.

I kind of worked my way up to it, then turned to face this woman. I was caught off guard to see that she wasn’t sitting like a normal person. She was sort of sliding off the chair, rigid, with both arms stretched behind her unnaturally and her head tilted far back.

I plowed ahead anyway. I asked her about one of the strange words I remembered her saying. Thus began a bizarre encounter that I don’t even remember very much of. I do remember that without me giving any indication of my spiritual beliefs, she started ripping on Jesus Christ pretty hard. She behaved very unnaturally and aggressively tried to persuade me that Christianity was false and misleading.

This went on for a few minutes, and I can’t even tell you how glad I was when the guy told me that my car was ready. I didn’t even care whether it passed or failed; I popped up out of my seat and started walking his way. The woman suddenly became very adamant about touching my hand. “Let me shake your hand.” I declined, and she extended her hand quite urgently, saying “I need to touch you.” I later recounted these events to my pastor, and when I asked him what that part was all about, he explained that some people believe they can transfer spirits from one person to another by touching. Now, because God only allows demonic forces to go so far, I don’t think that would have been a concern, but let me tell you…I had absolutely no problem skipping out of there without saying a cordial goodbye.

Friends, I don’t know if this has occurred to you, but we’re in a war. There’s a whole lot out there that our senses cannot perceive. Looking at the last 10, 20, or 30 years, it seems like the dark forces are the ones making all the moves and all the noise (has our country moved toward or away from Christianity during that time?). To use another metaphor, imagine there’s a fire that needs to be put out, and that God’s Holy Spirit takes the form of a nearby lake. The water to extinguish that fire is present, but without something the Holy Spirit can fill, a vessel of some sort (Christians), the water does nothing to fight the fire. Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying that God is powerless without us, but I am saying that He chooses to work through us. When we allow God to work through us, we become that cup, that jug, that bucket, or that fire hose that gets filled with the Holy Spirit and gets to have a front-row seat when God fights the fire. Are you going to be a part of something big when God invites you along to strike at the powers of darkness, or are you going to put your feet up and watch TV?

Here’s part of one of my favorite Bible stories from the Old Testament. When an enemy king and his army tried to attack Israel, God spoke through the prophet Elisha to warn the Israelite king, who was then able to effectively counter the enemy’s moves multiple times. Naturally, this frustrated the enemy king, and he wanted to capture Elisha to increase his chances of success. The most exciting part of the story is the perspective of Elisha’s servant:

One of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” So he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.” And it was told him, saying, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” He sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. -2 Kings 6:12-17

There’s more going on than what you can see. You’re smack dab in the middle of a war. While it’s very important to have a sober respect for the enemy’s power, don’t be put off by a show of force. Ask that God “fill this vessel,” and that you have the boldness to live out your faith and your calling. When you do, there’s no telling how God will use you to fight the enemy’s fire.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. -1 John 4:4

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Too Small To Make a Difference

We’ve got a fireplace at home, and we like having fires once it gets cold. Buying or collecting wood for the fireplace can be a hassle though, and this year we happened upon a different solution. Earlier this summer a nearby neighborhood cut down a lot of trees and sliced the trunks into slabs, leaving them to rot throughout the neighborhood. I actually enjoy splitting wood by hand (especially after aggravating days at work), so I went and picked up a bunch of them and brought them home for splitting and burning.

The problem is that I don’t have an efficient method of splitting the wood. Most people know what an ax is, but not everyone knows what a maul is. A maul is kind of like a sledgehammer with a wedge on one side. When I first started splitting wood earlier this summer though, I didn’t have a full-sized maul. The one I have is meant for splitting pieces of wood that have already been split, but are still a bit too big for the fireplace. It’s kind of a hand-held “mini-maul.”

This tool is great for splitting branches or small trunks that are, say, the diameter of a coffee-can. Once you get into dealing with slabs of trunk though, it becomes much more difficult.

I had a slab I was determined to split up, but it was so big I couldn’t even put my arms around it. Nonetheless, I put it on top of another piece and started looking at the natural grain of the wood, then started taking shots at it. At first the mini-maul just bounced off the wood. A few more shots, and each time the mini maul bounced. Each time the tool struck the wood, though, it left a pock mark. I started striking the slab in a way that the pock marks lined up to create a fault line across it. I didn’t really feel like I was making much progress, so I turned the slab and started doing the same thing in a different direction. Then I did it in yet another direction.

I struck the wood over and over and over again. Sometimes the tool bounced and other times it started penetrating into the wood. I was out there for a long time. My hands got sore and hot, like blisters were starting to form. I was tired, and eventually my shirt was so soaked with sweat that it had almost no dry spots, and I thought about packing it in. I must’ve left nearly a hundred pock marks before anything began happening.

Finally, the sound of the impact changed, and a crack emerged. When it did, it breathed new life into my effort.

Once the crack was established, it was easy to exploit into a split, and things moved quickly from there. After splitting it in two, it only took a few shots to make additional splits in one of the two sides. Those smaller chunks became infinitely easier to break into the size I wanted, often in a single blow.

In the end, this little tool was able to deliver enough targeted force to smash a strong, sturdy slab of oak into about 35 splinters that were shadows of what they once were. All of them were done in by the persistent strikes of a tool that was “too small” to do the job.

It’s an alarming spiritual analogy for those things we do that we know we shouldn’t be doing. It might not be anything major, but it happens again and again. Call it the straw that broke the camel’s back, or call it death by a thousand paper cuts. It’s something that doesn’t seem too bad, in and of itself. It’s not a crushing blow, but it’s something that delivers targeted strike after targeted strike against your Christian walk and, if it’s not stopped, has the ability to cause major damage to your spiritual health and relationships.

Maybe it’s gossip. It could be reading a certain kind of novel. Maybe it’s a glance that lingers longer than it should. Perhaps it’s tension in your marriage that goes unresolved and festers. Doing these things a single time is not something that’s devastating to your spiritual walk, but each of them is something that leaves a pock mark. You may have even told yourself “it’s not a big deal, it doesn’t hurt anybody.” Well, maybe doing it once isn’t a big deal, but have you only done it once? Consider whether your pock marks are aligning in a way that will lead to cracks and problems in the future, maybe soon.

Is there something you’re doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing? If you’re wrapped up in something that hinders your ministry or God-given purpose, even just a little bit, it can affect your ability to make your maximum impact for Christ’s kingdom. Like athletes that train hard to compete at a high level, cut yourself off from things you know aren’t helping you. Don’t run for third place, or for second place; run to win.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. –Hebrews 12:1-2

I demolished each of these pieces of wood using that mini maul. If you feel you’ve stripped the unneeded junk out of your life, how can you help the “other pieces of wood” around you to do the same, so that they can better resist the onslaught of strikes that hit them every day?
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Who In the World Do You Think You Are?

Ever feel like God’s placed a burden on your heart, and it involves you doing something that you have no business doing? (If so, you’re in good company…Abraham, Moses, Noah, etc…)

“That’s absurd,” you might say, so you brush off the idea. For some people that’s the end of it.

For others, the idea lingers. You don’t outright shut the door on the possibility, but you might not do anything to move toward the goal, either. So it hangs out there for months, years, or even longer, just waiting until you allow other circumstances to kill the idea or you begin to take more concrete actions to commit to, or achieve, the goal.

Taking the perspective of God’s opponents, what would be your attitude toward the people who seek to fulfill these aspirations? As long as they’re not making any meaningful efforts, you probably wouldn’t care; but what about when they start committing to achieving those goals? That’s when you’d want their heads filled with thoughts like “Who in the world do you think you are? You have no business doing something like that! You’re not qualified in any way to even attempt to do something like that!”

You might feel ill-equipped to perform God’s tasks. Good. You’re supposed to. My friends, that is exactly what makes the idea so full of potential as far as bringing God glory. By way of example, what glorifies Him more…when a life-long highly skilled warrior defeats a giant soldier, or when a shepherd boy defeats a giant soldier?

My schooling is in the sciences and leadership. I took a basic writing course in college that was mandatory for all students, and a few other workshops about writing for the workplace. I barely know how to look someone up on social media. I’m no more qualified to write a blog about God working through imperfect people than I am to host a televised game show. When God placed the burden on my heart to start a blog that spurs Christians on, you can imagine my skepticism.

Here’s the thing, though: obedience is our responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. That’s very important, so I’ll say it again…obedience is our responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. If you’ve been burdened with a task that you know is Heaven-sent, don’t fixate on all the things that are going to need to be overcome. That’s God’s territory and is beyond what you can see. The part you should focus on is taking action, even if it means taking the first/next step without knowing the destination or what the end goal looks like.

It’s now been a year since I started blogging on this site. This is my 84th post. Some posts touch on times of high adventure while others are more mundane and relate to an everyday kind of experience. With all of them I’ve tried to articulate some sort of life lesson that can be used to encourage you to allow God to use you for His glory more than He’s using you right now. I’d urge you to read the Purpose page that describes how the blog got its name. It’s all meant to help you take action when you recognize “you know, I think I know what he’s talking about. I feel like God’s nudging me to…” In the absence of a nudge, I want to encourage you to use whatever combination of spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has given to you. These gifts are to be employed for the very simple reason that God is glorified when His creation…you…does what it was made to do.

I want to help you live the life you were meant to live.

In closing, I want to explain a little bit about how this website works. If there’s a particular topic on this blog you’d like to read about, there are ways to sort through previous posts. Almost every post belongs to two categories. One category identifies the activity (whitewater, ropes, SERE Indoc, 2002 Winter Olympics, etc.), and is meant to set the stage for the point I want to pass along. The other category is the “moral of the story” (God can use you more than you think He can, Hang in there, Don’t let fear hold you back, Growing in Trust and Capability, etc.), and is the real purpose behind each story. You can see a list of categories at https://daregreatlynow.com/home/.

Another method of perusing the site’s posts is by using the same link to look through different tags. Tags aren’t quite as organized as the categories, but they might help you find what you’re looking for. They’re available at the same link.

I’d also love to hear feedback from you. What do you like or not like about DareGreatlyNow? Do you have any ideas that would make these posts easier to share or be available to more people? Finally, do you feel like you’ve been given a burden that you know you’re supposed to pursue, but you’re having a hard time coming to terms with it? Sometimes it helps just to tell someone, even if you do it anonymously. Feel free to comment on the page itself or email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.

You were meant for great things, but you have to remember that you’re only a vessel. Let God be in charge. Be obedient to what He’s called you to do, and He’ll take care of the rest.