Month: September 2021

Posted on

What Level of Talent are We Talking (Part 2)

In 2018 I felt called to do something very uncharacteristic. I felt like God was leading me to start blogging.

After wrestling with the idea for a little bit, I got a blog set up. At first I didn’t know what it was supposed to look like (I’m still figuring it out). It started out recounting adventures from my younger days with an added biblical tie-in, but has since evolved to include other things as well. This blog has been up and running for almost exactly three years now. This is post number 188.

DareGreatlyNow doesn’t have a huge following. It doesn’t even have a large following. Some entries have been read or shared hundreds of times, others less than 10. Sometimes I’m excited about a post I’m writing, other times writing is a chore.

It’s not easy. I usually spend a couple of hours a week writing new entries. After some days at work, I’d sure like to be doing something else. It’s a tricky thing…I initially felt God calling me to start this blog. I’ve had some personal experience writing regular updates on extraordinary or exciting events in the past whose list of recipients quickly ballooned to hundreds. Well I figured “it’ll be just like that!” Well, truth be told, it’s been nothing like that. The subscriber list has slowly grown over time, but even though I’ve received some feedback here and there, I’ll likely never know the degree to which God’s used these posts to work in someone’s life.

Despite all the negatives that go along with it, I can’t stop just yet. I definitely felt called to start it, but I haven’t yet felt called to quit doing it. Giving up might be easy, but quitting a calling wouldn’t reflect well upon me as someone that considers himself a dedicated Christ-follower, nor would it bring honor to my Savior, the one that put this task on my heart.

This past week I read some footnotes about one of Jesus’ famous parables that helped remind me of what I should do. In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells the parable of the master entrusting three of his servants with large sums of his money before he departs on a trip. I’ve written before about this Bible story, but sometimes reading the same thing at different times in your life can help things hit home in different ways.

Most of us know the parable. The master charged the three servants with different amounts of money, according to their ability. The first two guys, entrusted with about 375 pounds of gold and 150 pounds of gold respectively, worked hard and doubled the amount of gold they oversaw. The third guy, in charge of roughly 75 pounds of gold, went out and hid it in the dirt, rather than put in the effort to turn it into something that benefited his master. When the master returns and links up with the three to get an update, He’s pleased with the first two guys, but he’s miffed at the third guy, who didn’t even put the gold in the bank where it could collect interest.

What I’d like to focus on here is the first two guys. Can you imagine being so diligent that you double the value of something just by being persistent? Earlier this week the price of gold was $1,750 per ounce. That price, times 16 ounces in a pound, times 375 or 150 pounds means that the first guy was entrusted with $10.5 million and the master put the second guy in charge of $4.2 million, and both of those guys earned a 100% return!

Here’s the part I want to focus on, though. The master was obviously pleased with their performance. For the guy that turned $10.5 million into $21 million, the master said “That’s great! I’ll put you in charge of more, but for now, come celebrate with me!” (“Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”) Know what he said to the second guy? The guy that “only” turned $4.2 million into $8.4 million? He said the exact same thing.

Do you know what that means? It means that God’s looking for faithfulness in His servants as they perform the tasks with which He’s charged them. He’s looking for them to demonstrate consistent effort even when it’s not convenient, not just something that starts out with good intentions and then fizzles out after awhile. Faithfulness is one of the fruits of the Spirit that we’re all to demonstrate as our walk with Christ deepens.

Know what else it means? It means those same servants should perform those tasks with the full expectation that God will use their efforts to do something great for His kingdom. Not only that, but those servants should serve in the effort fully expecting they’ll one day be put in charge of something bigger. Being faithful in our callings prepares us for future callings.

So…do I believe the Church will collapse or the sky will fall if I stop writing entries for this blog? No, but if I stop prematurely, I believe that someone down the road (maybe me) will somehow get short-changed. The third servant in the parable was put in charge of about 2.1 million dollars. Think he got a second look the next time the master was going out of town?

Assuming I’m currently entrusted with this lowest-value task (the one-talent version, rather than the two- or five-talent version), instead of hiding it under a rock or burying it in the dirt, I’m going to put some effort into remaining faithful to the task, fully expecting to one day be entrusted with something bigger.

God charged me with a task. I don’t know what He wants to do with it, but here’s what I know: outcome is God’s responsibility, and obedience is my responsibility. That takes a lot of the pressure off me! I can’t possibly know what God’s got planned for this blog or why in the world He prompted me to start it, but that’s okay, because that information isn’t necessary in order for me to follow through on the assignment He’s given me.

Is there something you’ve felt called to do, but have given up on it? Please consider having another look. It could be your first step in God moving you along to something bigger.

Posted on

How Does He Bounce Back?

It’s been a rough few weeks for President Biden. Let’s take stock of the current political situation.

A stalled domestic agenda. The botched Afghanistan withdrawal. The first time ever that France recalled its ambassador to the US. Rising inflation. The crisis on the southern border (both the normal border crossers and now the Haitians huddling under the bridge in Texas). Trying to manage the optics of mandating vaccines for Americans while releasing unvaccinated illegal immigrants into the US. Even the press is starting to politely turn against him.

Many politicians view election results as the American public delivering mandates. That is, if there’s a large party swing after an election, it’s normally interpreted as the public saying “we want to go in the other direction,” and giving the new majority party license to do so. There’s a problem though. It’s one thing if your political party trounces the other; that outcome suggests the American public is willing to go along with your proposed agenda. However, in this case, this majority is one of the slimmest majorities in recent memory. In fact, the House majority is the narrowest it’s been in about 75 years. In the Senate, party lines are as close as they can possibly be; if a single Democratic senator disagrees, becomes incapacitated, or otherwise doesn’t show for a vote, Dems won’t have enough for even a simple majority, and that simple majority requires using the Vice President to break a tie. Despite this incredibly narrow margin, Democrats have approved and are pursuing highly controversial agenda items that would normally only be undertaken when holding significant majorities. (In the 2010 midterms, for example, after Democrats signed the controversial “Obamacare” into effect, President Obama admitted to the House taking a “shellacking” when they lost about 60 seats to Republicans.)

President Biden’s poll numbers are taking a beating. My sense is that it has to do with his identity crisis. Historically (prior to serving in his role as Vice President), Joe was pretty moderate. Why is it that he’s now gone full radical left? I’d guess it’s because, while he may have his personal political views, the people around him know how to persuade him to do what they want. Joe Biden is a likable guy, but he’s obviously not the one calling the shots. It seems he’s not permitted to engage in unscripted events, and he’s repeatedly made remarks about how he’s “not supposed to” interact with the audience or take questions. This is, like, puppet government stuff (think “Weekend at Bernie’s,” but set in the White House).

If I’m a democratic strategist, I’m looking at this situation and thinking that it’s probably best to wring everything possible out of President Biden (in terms of agenda), but then do my best to make sure someone else, maybe with a more moderate record, is the Democratic nominee running in 2024 (maybe Virginia Senator Mark Warner, if he can raise his profile between now and then).

The problem for Democrats…if Joe Biden leaves office for any reason during this term, Vice President Kamala Harris gets promoted to the big chair, and she’s not yet ready to carry the torch in a Presidential election. She might be ready by the time the election nears, but there’s still much work to be done. It took her a full three months to even visit the border after her boss put her in charge of the border crisis. That’s a fail, even if the border visit didn’t actually accomplish anything. She recently embarked on an official tour through Asia, which should give her some more experience with foreign policy. Time will tell if she’ll be groomed for the role of President.

Let’s say you’re a strategist working for the democratic “kingmakers.” You have President Joe Biden, a man with plummeting poll numbers, but you can pretty much get him to do whatever you want him to do. That benefit isn’t worth anything if he’s voted out of office, however. You’re almost definitely going to have a Republican-controlled House of Representatives after the midterm elections, and possibly a Republican-controlled Senate. What’s your call here? Do you go all in, trying to implement a Democratic wishlist that will get you voted out in the short term, but perhaps return you to office in the long term, or do you focus on trying to retain the White House even if it means tossing Biden (and possibly Harris) overboard in favor of a new ticket? Who do you have on the bench that can be used on the national stage?

Historically speaking, the President’s party loses House seats in midterm elections. (It’s just how it goes; it’s more of an anomaly when this does not happen, like when Republicans gained seats during the 2002 midterm elections…in the wake of 9/11 and the start of the conflict in Afghanistan.) My original prediction would have been that even though it’s predictable, President Biden will get saddled with the blame for losing the House and maybe the Senate, then in the midst of that blame game, the powers that be will demand a Democratic primary for the 2024 election, which he will not win. Judging by the way the press is openly questioning the White House, though, that plan may take too long.

I’m not saying that this part will happen, but it’s something to keep an eye on. There are four Republican House members that are planning to introduce articles of impeachment against President Biden in respect to the Afghanistan debacle and the catastrophe that’s happening on our southern border. They can introduce whatever they want, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to go anywhere. If we start seeing these articles get traction from Democrats, it won’t mean they believe there’s dereliction of duty going on; it will mean that they’ve wrung what they could from Biden and now it’s time to get rid of him in the hopes of having a better shot during the next election. It’s not the way the system should work, but it may be the way it gets used. Again, time will tell, but I don’t think Joe Biden will serve a full four years.

I don’t really like doing political posts here, but I feel it’s important to keep up with what your government is up to. The way I see it, this is more “political analysis” than posting political material.

A lot can happen between now and the next presidential election, and I expect that it will. I don’t believe that President Biden will run for re-election, but at this point I don’t know how that set of circumstances will unfold.

Posted on

Letting Go

Today’s post comes to us courtesy of a guest author, my wife! Enjoy!

On a vacation with my family I tried rock climbing for the first time. They had it set up with an automatic belay system… meaning there wasn’t an actual person spotting you if you fell, there was just the system.

I am not a fan of heights, but I also love adventures, so I geared up and was ready to give it a go. All harnessed in, I started to climb. They had someone there ready to point me to foot and hand holds if need be. They also told me to only climb part of the way up the first time and practice letting the belay system catch me so I could get used to it.

As I reached my halfway point, it was time to let go. This is where it got dicey for me. You see, I wanted to hang on to the wall, and feel the rope catch my weight BEFORE I let go. I wanted security, but no matter how much I tried to hold on to the wall and “sit” in my harness there was no feeling of security, only slack in the belay system. I was going to have to completely let go in order for it to engage and catch me. Some of you already see the tie-in here, ironic huh? I needed to let go in order to be caught. I had to trust the system would do what it was built to do. I couldn’t do it any other way. No matter how much I wanted to do it while still holding on, I couldn’t.  So, gritting my teeth I pushed off and let go (and fell splat, ha, just kidding), the rope caught as it should have and lowered me to the ground. I was able to keep going, climbing higher the next time. I even learned to kinda like it, and tried again the next day with Tim!

Isn’t this so us in our growing in our faith and trust in our Savior? God is continually, patiently working to build our faith. He knows each of us so well. We have little falls and nudges where we get to “try out” letting go before the really big ones come. During these times God shows He is faithful again and again. Our faith grows and so do the differing callings He places on our lives. There are bigger steps and leaps of faith, pushing us out of our comfort zone many times, and relying on our God’s strength in the midst of our weakness. God is always there to catch us and will never leave us or forsake us. He promises this!  (Hebrews 13:5) He is also completely honest with and tells us that we will have trouble and face trials (John 16:33), that we will be tested and tried and stretched. He is refining us, and I don’t know about you, but I think we tend to get lazy when all is well; it’s the trials, or even the scary callings or nudges from God that pulls us back to His arms. We always need Him…we’re just more aware of it in our flesh during the times of desperation, or in the face of our inadequacies.

So where are you? Are you on a mountain ready to conquer the world? Flying free? Don’t forget to lean into God and thank Him for the gifts He has given you. Remember to do all for the glory of God and point to Him and praise Him. Your gifts and talents come from your Maker. Don’t stop looking to Him. Build those disciplines and know your Bible so when life hits you hard you can keep your feet planted on your firm foundation, which is always Christ alone.

Or, maybe you are in a different phase: clinging to the wall, afraid to let go and trust, afraid to step out into the new and unknown? Maybe you’ve already let go…you’ve taken the leap and feel like you’re free falling and not getting caught at all? You are feeling battered and bruised, let down and confused at what has happened?  Some things that helped me during these times is looking back and remembering, just as God told the Israelites, to set up stones so they could remember and tell their children of His miracles and faithfulness (Joshua 4:4-7). We also should “set up stones.” We do this by recounting His awesome works, looking back at our life and taking account of His blessings and His gifts, writing down His past faithfulness to remind us in the present, looking for scriptures that encourage our heart and remind us of who our God is and all He did for us! Take your eyes off your circumstances and put them back on your great God. I heard someone recently say “He didn’t save us to then leave and abandon us to our trials all alone,” so even when it seems you are alone or don’t understand why you are going through what you are, cling to the fact that Your God died for you to save you, and He sent us His spirit to live in you, so once you are His you are never alone. Rest in the fact that our God doesn’t change, in an ever-changing culture of what is right and wrong our God is faithful and true, He beckons us to leap and trust and promises an eternity in Heaven with Him.

So yes, we will get bruised and battered in this life. We aren’t in Heaven yet, but as we climb may we keep our eyes fixed on our Savior and remember He is really the only trustworthy one that will never let us down. This fallen world will hurt and disappoint, give false promises, and lead us astray from what truly matters, but our God is always there. His death at the cross and His resurrection secured our place in Heaven if we only believe in Him as Savior. So come what may on this earth, when we are His, we are attached to the most amazing secure belay system imaginable, and our God will always catch us. He already has. Remember this life on earth is temporary, don’t get too attached or swept up in things that don’t really matter, the stuff we won’t take with us. Only the people around us matter. We have an eternity ahead of us! So be brave and live for a God that came down to save you. Love others well. Shine for Him and remember He is worth letting go for. Whatever it is God is telling you to do I dare you…go do it! It will be the best choice and ride of your life, because His plans are way better than ours. Always!

God bless you and thank you for taking the time to read.

Posted on

What Makes God Worthy of Praise?

Why do you praise God?

This past summer I heard a speaker challenge his audience to, during prayer time, be specific in the reason we’re giving God praise. He explained through the analogy of a parent that we don’t necessarily crave accolades from our kids, but when they express thankful to us, it’s nice to know specifically what they’re happy about. This led to the speaker’s challenge…take the time to praise God for one of His specific attributes at a time.

I’ve tried this, on and off, for a couple of months. It turns out God’s got quite a few praiseworthy attributes. He’s merciful, compassionate, full of justice, truthful, Holy, etc. It’s, you know, all those things you heard since Sunday school. I haven’t approached this exercise with any specific plan; each time I do it, I just pick one that I’m thankful for at that time. As I’ve done this, it seems that one of the attributes I keep coming back to is steadfastness. God doesn’t change. He’s the same today as He was back in the first descriptions of God in Genesis.

I’ve seen a lot of change. I’m at a place in my life now where I wouldn’t exactly call myself old, but let’s just say I’ve missed the boat if I wanted to make a career change to become a professional athlete. I’m old enough that I’ve used pay phones and I’ve lived in a world without the internet. In terms of inventions and technology, the world has changed quite a bit just in my lifetime.

It’s amazing how much public perception can change, too. This coming Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of one of our nation’s darkest days. In the weeks after September 11th, 2001, you simply could not find hometown heroes that were placed on a higher pedestal than firefighters and police officers. These were the people who, at great personal risk, rushed toward danger and confusion as everyone else staggered or ran away from it. Children were inspired to grow up and put on the uniform, having no idea that once they did, the public, including some newscasters and national-level politicians, would be calling for them to be defunded because of their overt racism, inappropriate tactics, and arrogance that the laws they enforce are intended to improve the lives of only a portion of the citizenry they claim to protect.

From the highest heights to the lowest lows in less than 20 years.

On the flip side, God exists apart from all that. He resides outside of time. Ever see those little rolls of paper that they use in cash registers or the old-style calculators? Picture the entire timeline of biblical history, starting from Genesis and extending past us and into the future to Revelation, as being recorded on a giant version of one of those unfurled rolls. Everything in all of history is written down on that sheet, from before Adam’s first breath, to when you learned to tie your shoes, to what you’ll have the next time you eat something.

Now picture that sheet being rolled up, placed in a bottle, and put up on a shelf somewhere in God’s kitchen. To Him, any single point anywhere on that entire timeline exists simultaneously as every other point on it. When we look toward God and say that He doesn’t change, it’s not because He’s staying the same for a really long time…it’s because from His point of view all of human history occurs in less time than it would take for Him to snap His fingers. How much do your attitudes, perspectives, values, and core beliefs change in the amount of time it takes you to blink? (The mind-blowing part is that He is intimately involved in each person’s life at every point on that roll of paper at the same time as the roll is just sitting there in the bottle.)

All the stress, the heights and depths of the emotions we face throughout our lifetimes, makes it easy for us to assume God waffles or flip flops on things the way we would.

Not on your life.

To Him, nothing has changed. We’re all depraved and He offered us a way out. Some take it and some don’t. Though rocked by scandal and watering down of beliefs to conform more with the world, the Church is the plan to spread the Gospel and provide hope to the world. This has continued for generations, and only He knows when He’ll initiate the final phase of human history.

Through it all, nothing about God changes. For that, I’m thankful and give God praise.

What attribute of God will you praise Him for today?

Posted on

Is Anyone Asking These Questions?

Antibacterial soap…is it good or bad?

On the one hand, it kills 99.9% of bacteria. On the other hand, it means that only the strongest…the bacterial equivalent of gold medalists…are left alive to reproduce.

It’s easy to see how this can be a double-edged sword. If you’re about to put in your contact lenses, sure, wash your hands with antibacterial soap. If you just came in from mowing the lawn or working on the car, regular soap will be just fine.

We’ve got sort of a similar case brewing with COVID. We currently have a couple of different shots geared to fight the virus. I don’t know that “vaccine” is the best term to use; a vaccine normally prevents you from contracting the disease it was made to combat. (Think Polio, Smallpox, etc.) Today’s shots are just supposed to make sure that if you catch Coronavirus, the symptoms aren’t as bad as they otherwise would be. It’s true that as the shots became widespread, the number of COVID hospitalizations declined, but they don’t do anything to prevent you from contracting the virus. Reduced hospitalizations aren’t proof that the virus stopped spreading, it could just mean that there were fewer severe cases (which is still a positive!).

These shots have limited efficacy. That is, the shots’ symptom-reduction effectiveness wears off over time. We’re still learning about exactly how long it’s effective, but for this discussion let’s say it lasts somewhere between 6 and 10 months. There’s a growing movement to get a booster shot available to the public. Once that’s available, I don’t know for sure, but I would think it would only provide relief for a similar timeframe, meaning that another booster shot is required every 6 to 10 months beyond that point.

So where are we right now? Well, here in the US, we have a growing percentage of adults that have been fully vaccinated. I imagine that means we have a shrinking percentage of adults that have either never received “the jab” or only got a partial dose. I’m a firm believer that we’ll always have some certain percentage of the population that opts not to get stuck. Realistically, I think 100% participation is very far out of reach, especially if you have to convince people to get on board with a solution that apparently only provides a limited-time reduction of symptoms.

Let’s get real here. The virus is going to continue mutating and evolving. It’s a living thing that will try to survive. We have these shots that are temporarily effective, but we will likely someday have a variant of Coronavirus that can overcome our current shots. If a shot is to be effective at stopping the spread of COVID, there are a couple of things we’ll need that we don’t yet have.

The first is a more effective shot. Protection that lasts for only 6-10 months is simply not sustainable. Some people will be very diligent for the rest of their lives in making sure they get a booster every time they hit their window. Others may get one or two, but will stop going after that. My guess is that most people will fall somewhere in the middle. If big numbers of people start skipping the boosters, the overall effort will be rendered less effective.

Second, there needs to be a massive campaign that synchronizes global dosing. Giving everyone the same shot at the same time means global “Coronahealth” is predictable and we could make more definite plans. The problem with that is that it’s a logistical nightmare of epic proportions. Let’s say that every 8 months or so, international organizations administer effective dosages for 7.5-8 billion people. That might someday be possible in countries with well-developed transportation infrastructure, but it would be a herculean lift in more remote areas of the globe where travel is much more difficult or is only possible at certain times of the year. It would certainly be an impressive feat, but even if we do it for a round or two, we’re eventually going to start asking “is this really worth all the effort?”

How about we skip ahead to that point right now? Is today’s madness really worth all the effort? Yes, COVID-19 can be deadly, but in most cases, it’s not. It’s unpleasant and inconvenient, certainly, with many people losing their sense of taste or smell for months, but it’s not as deadly as originally feared.

I’m certainly not an avid consumer of news programs, so I may not be completely accurate about this next part. It seems, though, that all you ever hear about is numbers of new infections. “There were X number of positive COVID tests last week, bringing the cumulative total to doom and gloom.” Well…sure, but then they never follow up after that; they make it seem like that’s the end of the story…all those people are the walking dead and it’s just a matter of time before the virus claims them. My question is: why don’t we hear more data on people that have overcome the virus? How long does their protection typically last? Do average people gain more protection from a low-efficacy shot or from their bodies actually overcoming the virus? To be honest, I don’t know the answer, but it seems like nobody’s asking the question. At a time where “breakthrough cases” are spiking, shouldn’t we be asking some basic questions? Considering all the regular news reports that show thousands of new cases…wouldn’t it be a fantastic development if we learned that only 60% of them had long-lasting immunity after that?

So let’s ask the question: “how do pandemics end?” In order for a disease to die out, it has to run out of new hosts to infect. That can happen in a couple of different ways. 1. Isolate people so that the virus cannot spread from host to host. In the process, every infected person that does not spread the virus becomes a dead end for it. This is why it’s so important to quarantine at the beginning of an outbreak, when it’s still possible to contain it, but it has obvious negative mental health effects that most of us have experienced at some point over the last 18 months. 2. Enough people possess immunity (either natural or synthetic) from the disease that the virus has a hard time finding new, vulnerable hosts to infect. Our current shots don’t provide immunity, so we should be looking down the line to the next generation of medical solutions to provide actual protection from COVID, rather than merely preventing potent symptoms.

I’m inclined to think that a population who received the existing shots is actually prolonging the pandemic. If we could develop a shot that were a true vaccine…something that permanently blocked the virus from infecting the person who received it…that would hasten the end of the pandemic. Biology is funny, though; by introducing a hybrid injection that makes symptoms much more bearable without actually preventing the infection, all we’ve done is give the virus a challenge…something interesting to tackle and overcome. Think Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park. “Life finds a way.” I suspect that this course of action will only extend the outbreak by creating a larger number of COVID variants than we otherwise would have had.

In short, you know best what your situation is. If you want to get the shot, I say go for it. If, for whatever reason, you don’t want to, I don’t think anybody should be able to force you to get it, but you really do need to be respectful and responsible with your social behavior in all aspects of life. At all times, assume you’re carrying the virus and that not everyone around you has as hearty an immune system as you do.

Today’s shots are not going to end COVID. This pandemic is still going to be around until it runs out of new people to infect, and infection rates (including breakthrough cases) will probably rise as the cold months approach. Don’t be surprised if the numbers get worse before they get better, but don’t shut the door on the possibility that the rising number of infections may be what eventually causes the drop in new infections.

Keep your head up. It may take some time, but we’ll get through this!