Author: Tim

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All Thrust and No Vector

Ever meet somebody that’s just sort of all over the place? They’ve got all kinds of vim and vigor, but they seem to be missing a purpose or outlet for that energy. A good way to describe them might be to think of them as a balloon you inflate, but before tying a knot in it, you let it go and watch as it flies all over the place without apparent direction.

In the Air Force we had a saying for people like that. We’d say they’re “all thrust and no vector.” The apostle Paul has a different take on it; he describes it as a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul explains that even if you’re spiritually gifted and have perfect doctrine, it’s all for nothing if you’re using those assets for the wrong reasons or you have the wrong motivation. Christians in the early Corinthian church were unsatisfied with the spiritual gifts they possessed, or jealous of the showy or flashy gifts that others had, so they started arguing and bickering. It got to the point where they would do “spiritual” things or things that Christians are “supposed” to do, but they did it for the sake of appearance rather than out of love.

Paul’s point here is the importance of having the right attitude in performing ministry. It is to be done out of love for God and love for others. All other reasons for doing it are like that resounding gong: just noise.

You have a specific mix of spiritual gifts so that you can fulfill the purpose God’s given to you. The same holds true for Christians with other combinations of spiritual gifts. There are people out there that need you to do your thing, but before you do, make sure you’re doing it for the right reason. Check your vector before engaging the thrust.

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Fortune Favors the Prepared

A college buddy and I took the opportunity in February of 2002 to drive from New York to Utah in order to attend the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Bobsledding is one of the hallmarks of the Winter Olympics, and it’s fun to see. Since the track is so expensive to install and maintain, however, organizers sought other ways to make use of the venue. That’s partly how the sport of luge came to be an Olympic event. Luge athletes lay belly-up on a one-person sled and go sliding feet first down the track. (Then somebody thought it would be a good idea to put two people on one of these tiny sleds.)

  • Bobsled
  • Luge
  • Luge doubles

The 2002 Olympics saw the introduction of a new sport that used the same track: Skeleton. This is an event where an athlete runs down the track as fast as they can, then dives onto a tiny sled. Once on the sled, the competitor is laying on their belly, flying head first down the track with their chin just a few inches off the ice. Of the three different sports that use this venue, Skeleton competitors seem least concerned with clinging to sanity.

Photo courtesy of NBC

We didn’t attend any of the Skeleton runs while in Salt Lake City, but during out time there we were well aware of what happened in the Skeleton competition. Everywhere we went, there were magazines and newspapers (when those were still popular) with American Jim Shea on the cover. He showed up in the highlights of just about every Olympic video we saw for the rest of those games. If I’m not mistaken, Jim was America’s first third-generation Olympian; both his grandfather and father competed in Winter Olympic events in their day. Jim actually won gold in Skeleton that year.

If you saw Jim without knowing anything about him, you’d probably have no idea that he was an Olympian. He looked like he could be your next-door neighbor or some guy that you see in church. He didn’t look terribly athletic. There were a few qualities he had, though, that helped him win this event. When it came to competing in Skeleton, Jim Shea possessed intensity, passion, and drive.

In no way do I want to sound like I’m diminishing the athleticism of Skeleton competitors. The biggest athletic output that occurs during a Skeleton run takes place at the beginning, when the competitor sprints down the track and jumps onto the sled. For the rest of the run beyond that, it’s focus and body control; leaning this way or that way, sometimes grazing the ice with a toe to make a small correction, all while trying to control breathing on a sled that’s flying down a track at up to 80 mph.

Jim Shea approached his Olympic run with ferocity. He wasn’t a “hope for the best” kind of guy. I later saw a picture of him that demonstrated how he approached the run that earned him a gold medal, and that image stuck with me:

This is a man that knew where he wanted to go, knew what he needed to do in order to get there, and focused all of his mental and physical resources so that he had the best chance of succeeding during his single opportunity to make it happen. While people have all different kinds of personalities and some will never be as driven as others to succeed in their goals, it’s the quality and type of preparation and planning they put into it that will help drive their success.

In the future you may only get one shot to make it happen. Are you preparing for success in achieving your goals, or are you just hoping for the best?

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Bride of Christ

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It’s often viewed as a time to pause and reflect on the “special-ness” of the important people in your life.

While the celebration of love is nice, our culture seems to have adopted the idea that “anything goes” in the name of love, and that finding true love means everything after that point will be perfect. Love stories end with the main characters living “happily ever after.” The unfortunate fact is that taking two imperfect people and placing them in a relationship will always yield less-than-perfect results. Sadly, many committed relationships crumble despite the noble intentions of those involved.

People who have known great heartache can therefore best appreciate the idea of a love that will not fail.

In Bible times, weddings worked a little differently from the way they do today. Back then when a couple became engaged, the groom-to-be departed to make preparations for the wedding, their living arrangements, and their future together. The bride-to-be remained with her family while this took place, and she waited for the groom while he made preparations. Without texts, emails, or any other expedient form of communication, she would have to wait and be perpetually ready for her groom to show up and whisk her away to their wedding and new life together. Imagine not only having no input on the details of your own wedding, but also being left completely in the dark about when it would even take place!

This is the situation where we currently find ourselves. We’re waiting, and we don’t know for how long. In my last post I wrote a bit about the importance of the Church. The Church is sometimes referred to as the “Bride of Christ.” Jesus has gone on ahead to make preparations, but He fully intends to return for us, the Church:

…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:2c-3.

Now that’s a kind of love we can celebrate.

Like in Bible times, we receive very little information about the details of when the Bridegroom is planning to come back. Even though we live in an era of instant gratification, lack of a specific date on the calendar actually changes very little about what’s important in this case. It’s important to remember that while waiting, we are to remain faithful and we are to remain ready, no matter how long it takes. It is imperative that we watch with expectation and with anticipation, ever on the lookout for when our Lord will make His return and escort us to a deeper phase of our relationship with Him.

The question is…have you stopped making yourself ready? You know in your mind that He’ll come someday, but it probably won’t be anytime soon, right? I mean, it’s been about 2,000 years since Christ walked the earth; what are the odds that He’ll come during this lifetime?

What you decide to do is up to you, but I’ll pose one last question to you today. Are you living faithfully for the one to whom you are betrothed?

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Ever Look at Bad News This Way?

Let’s be real for a moment.

If you’re a Christian, the world sometimes seems like it’s getting darker. The culture is becoming more and more godless. Today’s young adults are less and less interested in attending church. Many local churches are dead or dying, and many of those still around are consumed with arguments over what kind of music to play or what should or should not be present on the stage during the worship service, rather than reaching the lost.

This is exciting stuff.

You read that right. This is exciting. Why?

Because the Church (capital “c”) is God’s plan for reaching the world. Regardless of the current state of affairs, the Church is going to emerge triumphant. That’s a fact. If the times we’re living in are making today’s local church bodies less and less relevant in reaching the lost, that simply means that the Church we see today is not the version that’s going to be most effective in performing the mission. It means we’re in a time of transition to something new.

So what does that future version of the Church look like? I can’t tell you.

It’s not that I know and I’m withholding the information from you; I can’t tell you because I don’t yet know the manner in which you’re going to be a part of helping the church evolve. In other words, it’s exciting because the Church is going to be effective in new ways because you, as a Christ-follower and part of the Church, are going to change how the Church approaches the problem of delivering the Gospel to people who haven’t heard it before.

Don’t look at the current state of affairs and see despair; look at it and see that opportunities abound! At its core, Christianity is about two things: loving God and loving people (after all, only a handful of the 10 Commandments pertain to our relationship with God; the vast majority of them deal with our relationship with each other). In what way(s) are you able to develop a relationship with someone for the purpose of glorifying God?

Can’t think of anything? Start out with this: make friends with at least one person in every decade of life. Regardless of what decade of life you’re currently in, imagine the perspective you can gain by interacting with someone who has the black-and-white outlook of a child, the idealism of a teenager, the enthusiasm of a twenty-something, the ambition of someone in their thirties, the experience of a mid-lifer, the expertise of someone in their fifties, the hindsight of a sixty-something, the clarity of what’s important in life of someone in their seventies, and the wisdom and life experience of everyone else. Whether or not all those people are Christians, you’re going to learn something, and they might too.

The Church is changing, and that’s not a bad thing. If you see a spot where the Church should be doing something but isn’t, you may have just found your calling. The entire purpose of this blog is to come alongside you, put a hand on your shoulder, tell you that God is capable of doing amazing things through broken and imperfect people, and encourage and exhort you to use the resources and spiritual gifts God’s provided…all for the purpose of reaching the lost and glorifying God. You’re not only capable of helping the Church meet the world’s current needs, you were designed to.

The exciting part is that even though (and perhaps because) the Church will evolve, it’s going to reach people in ways it hasn’t before. So by all means, if you’ve been prompted to or are toying with the idea of doing something unconventional, yet purposeful…please…start pursuing that course and see where it goes.

I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. –Matthew 16:18b.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. –Ephesians 3:20-21

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What’s That Sound?

We live near Washington, DC, where traffic is a part of life. When we want to go visit family that lives far away, sometimes we get up very early and hit the road in the wee hours of the morning. After the initial excitement of stealing away during the night, the kids usually settle down, lulled to sleep by road noise.

The last time we took a trip like this in our minivan, everyone settled in soon after we got on the highway and the inside of the vehicle was quiet. That’s when we noticed an annoying squeak that happened each time we hit a bump in the road or the vehicle’s chassis twisted slightly. It came from somewhere near the second row of seats, a squeak that was quiet, but loud enough to be annoying if you’re trying to fall asleep. We tried to track it down and stop it, with no success. After awhile the kids were able to tune it out and fall asleep.

We eventually arrived at our destination and had fun with family over Christmas. On several occasions while we were there, I drove the van around town, just doing errands or driving us to friends/family’s houses. I’d actively listen for the squeak, and it was often audible, but it was hidden in the sound of the kids laughing, the current conversation, or whatever was playing on the radio.

Just like the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, the squeak is always there, but you have to actively listen for it if there’s a lot of other noise going on. It doesn’t stop squeaking, but it’s a lot easier to hear when there are no distractions. If there’s a lot of other noise in the mix you have to deliberately focus in on it to notice it. It’s much harder to get a fix on it if you have to pluck it out of the background.

Are you having a regular quiet time where you get alone with your prayer and devotions, away from all the noise and distractions? If not, don’t be surprised that you don’t hear from the Holy Spirit.

You’re an expert on you; you know you better than anyone else. Take the steps you need to create the right environment. If your phone is a distraction, shut it off during this time. If you need to wake up earlier, before others are up and moving around, maybe that’s the way to go. If you’re a night owl, finding the right time before bed might be your sweet spot.

I’d urge you to do what it takes to make your quiet time work. How agonizing would it be to one day find out that God was whispering to you all along but you couldn’t hear Him because of all the noise going on around you?

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

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When You Can’t Even Breathe

At Air Force Basic Training, there’s a stretch where recruits spend time in conditions that simulate a field deployment. Instead of focusing on Air Force customs, academics, how to salute, march, etc., trainees focus on some of the fundamental skills necessary for functioning in a combat zone. It’s here that trainees first fire weapons, learn about field hygiene and first aid, etc.

One of the more memorable activities is learning how to use a gas mask. Trainees spent the greater part of the day learning how to properly don a gas mask, when to put on a chemical suit, and generally experience how cumbersome it becomes to perform routine tasks while wearing a heavy suit in hot weather and trying to take a drink from a canteen while wearing a gas mask.

We spent most of the day learning how to use the equipment properly, and the culmination of the experience was “getting gassed.” We put on our equipment and filed into a square room that had a pedestal in the middle of it. Each group that went into the room stood with their backs against a wall. There were some instructors that gave us directions and then came around to inspect the way we had donned our masks. At the end, one of the instructors walked to the pedestal in the middle of the room and activated some tear gas on it.

It’s a little unsettling to see a big white cloud rising and filling the room. Tear gas…isn’t that the stuff they use on rioters? You start to instinctively hold your breath, but you eventually decide to give this gas mask thing a try. You take some little breaths just to make sure you’re not going to start coughing like a maniac. The air smells weird, but you can breathe it. You don’t seem to have any reaction so far, so you start breathing deeper. Before long you’re breathing just like you practiced earlier in the day, and you’re able to function in a chemical environment.

Then the fun part comes. It would’ve been nice to experience an environment like this, then walk out the door and say to the instructors “thanks fellas, that was pretty cool to see.” If we had done that though, the lesson wouldn’t have been cemented into our minds. In order to make the lesson stick, the instructors wanted us to understand how well our equipment was protecting us. To help us do that, we filed toward the exit door in pairs. Still in a gas-filled room, we were directed to remove our masks and provide a verbal response to a question the instructors asked us. They wanted us to have to breathe in the stuff our equipment had been protecting us from, and this aspect of the training helped us remember the experience in a much more vivid manner. I know I wasn’t able to finish answering the instructor before I started coughing, and he waved me out the door and into the fresh air.

It’s one thing to know something in your mind, and it’s something different to experience it. There were plenty of other times in the Air Force where I donned gas masks during exercises, but that was the only time I’ve ever had to use a gas mask to actually protect myself from something that threatened harm to my body. The more you use the equipment, the more comfortable you become with it.

It’s the same thing with following Christ. We “practice with our equipment” by building a relationship with Him. That means spending time together: reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and removing unnecessary or harmful things from your life.

As you walk with Christ, you’ll find that He gives you assignments to do. Rather than giving you something you think is easy to do, however, He likes to challenge you. Those challenges stretch you and make you lean on Him to do the things you can’t. Sometimes they’re physically easy to do, but they take a certain boldness to complete. Others are completely beyond you, but you find that once you step out in faith, the pieces start falling into place because He’s paving the way for you. Much like the gas mask training, the trust you build in this endeavor enables you to overcome the worry and preoccupation of “will this work when I need it to?” As a result, with His power and support you’re able to operate and excel in environments where you can’t even breathe on your own.

This is my one hundredth post! Many thanks to my faithful readers, and to those that just stumbled upon this site. I hope you’re somehow blessed by what you read here! Feel free to share on social media or email, or leave a comment. You can also email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.

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Play Like There’s No Tomorrow

Graphic courtesy of WEBN/NFL

As a fan of professional football, this is an exciting time of year. It’s playoff season. There are 32 teams in the league and at the end of the regular season only 12 teams extend their season into the playoffs. As of today there are only four teams left. This weekend two games will occur, and the winners of those two games will face off in the Super Bowl during the first weekend of February.

One of the things that make the playoffs so exciting is that anything can happen. This past weekend the team with the best record in the league was eliminated by a team that barely made it into the playoffs. While many of the games in the regular season are blowouts or otherwise unexciting, each team in the playoffs has earned the right to be there. The level of play is elevated and the games are more interesting to watch.

When you’re watching a great game, it’s a shame that one of the teams has to lose and be eliminated. As the game draws near to the end and it becomes more evident which team is facing elimination, you see the desperation as they pull out all the stops. They think bigger; they take more risks. The really exciting games are the ones that aren’t decided until the last play of the game. When teams are neck-in-neck, they both raise their level of play, and the players sometimes seem to find another gear as they push each other to perform at their highest potential.

How is this like the Christian life? Think of it this way: a football game isn’t over until there’s no time left on the game clock. Sure, there are cases where games go to overtime, but the vast majority of games end when the clock runs out. Just like a football game, a Christian only has a finite amount of time to be on the field, making plays for the team and for the coach. After the clock runs out, the impact of the individual’s efforts cannot be changed. What’s done is done, and it’s too late to go back and add anything to it.

While we don’t have the advantage of seeing how much time is left on the clock in our lives, we can still make efforts to “up our game” and play to our full potential. Are you disciplined in your spiritual diet (do you consume good things and avoid bad things)? Are you surrounding yourself with people that push you to operate at your highest level?

When we’re done with this life, we’re going to want to be able to say “I left it all out there on the field.” Don’t keep anything in reserve; use it all up before the clock runs out. If you do that, believe me, the coach is going to take notice.

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Redeeming the Time

Want to hear some really exciting news? It doesn’t take much for God’s spiritual power to be available to you.

Not long ago I was reading in the book of Ephesians. It’s hard for me to read Paul’s letters. He sometimes gets so excited that he starts a sentence focused on one topic, gets distracted and sort of rambles on about something for awhile, then ends up in a totally different area. To me, a single sentence of Paul’s can seem like the Israelites wandering around the desert. Despite all the detours though, he eventually arrives at his destination.

I’m blessed to have a study bible that explains a lot of the text, context, and/or traditions of the day that help me understand the text as it was originally written. In Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul expressed to his audience his desire that God would make His love and fullness known to them. The part I want to zoom in on is verse 16: “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…”

Having a study Bible helps me quite a bit when it comes to catching the main theme of what Paul’s saying. For this verse, notes from the McArthur Study Bible say “Spiritual power is a mark of every Christian who submits to God’s Word and Spirit. It is not reserved for some special class of Christian, but for all those who discipline their minds and spirits to study the Word, understand it, and live by it. Although the outer, physical person becomes weaker with age, the inner, spiritual person should grow stronger through the Holy Spirit, who will energize, revitalize, and empower the obedient, committed Christian.”

Isn’t that amazing? If you discipline yourself to regular study of the Bible and heed what it says, God grants you access to something you didn’t have before. It’s extraordinary just how ordinary it is. That brings me back to my point at the top of this post. It doesn’t take much for God’s spiritual power to be available to you. Discipline yourself to study the Word, understand it, and live by it.

Skipping ahead in Ephesians to chapter 5, verses 15 and 16, Paul tells us how to spend our days: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Zeroing in on that phrase “redeeming the time” in the notes helps lay out how we are to be purposeful in our lives. Again, from the McArthur Study Bible: “The Greek word for “time” denotes a fixed, measured, allocated season; with the definite article “the,” it likely refers to one’s lifetime as a believer. We are to make the most of our time on this evil earth in fulfilling God’s purposes, lining up every opportunity for useful worship and service. Be aware of the brevity of life.”

Be intentional in how you spend your time, energy, and resources. To borrow a spinoff saying I saw on tee shirts back when Reebok’s slogan was popular, “Life is short. Pray hard.”

The year 2020 is still shiny and new, and it’s not too late to start working on some good habits. In your life, if you combine the concept of “study the Word, understand it, and live by it” with the concept of “redeeming the time,” you’re going to see some exciting developments. God prompted me to write this, then He prompted you to read this, and where it goes from here I don’t have a clue. That’s the beauty of it though; even though you and I may only see a piece or two of the puzzle, it’s all building toward a bigger picture. The key to it is that you and I have to put forth some regular effort.

Will you “redeem the time” this year?

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Too Much of a Good Thing?

One of the first “grown up” movies I saw as a kid was “Back to the Future.” It was a movie about a high-schooler that used a crazy scientist’s time machine to travel back in time 30 years to when his parents were in high school themselves. It was my introduction to the time travel aspect of science fiction, and I thought it was pretty cool.

Two sequels followed. A couple of my friends and I all loved the trilogy, and the three of us were constantly quoting different parts of the movies to each other. We even had a “Back to the Future” night for my buddy’s birthday sleepover, where we watched all three movies in one night. A couple of years later I was a roommate with that same buddy at a summer camp where we worked. One night after lights out I recited the script of the entire first movie from memory to him.

This is an extreme (or maybe misguided) example of what an engaged mind can do when it obsesses over something. The three of us were around each other and tossed quotes back and forth so often that they became second nature to us. The things we spent time thinking about became the things most important in our relationship to one another.

In the book of Philippians, Paul tells readers to dwell on the things that are worthy of being, well, dwelled on:

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. –Philippians 4:8 (New Living Translation)

I don’t think “Back to the Future” quotes qualify, but I can see why Paul makes the point. The things you frequently think about are the things your mind is moving toward.

Now that Christmas and New Years have passed and we’re closer to getting back into the normal routine, I challenge you to “think on” the things mentioned in Philippians 4:8. As far as quiet time with God, prayer, doing Bible readings, or some other type of devotionals, if you’re not someone who regularly practices them, consider building those items into your 2020 routine. If you do them sporadically, but not on a regular basis, consider doing them more routinely.

Try doing them for 30 days in a row. The reason you’ll often hear people talking about doing something for 30 days is because that’s roughly how long it takes to develop a new habit. In other words, if you were going to make this a part of your routine for the rest of your life, the first 30 days would be the most difficult to accomplish; after that it would be habitual and would require less conscious effort to complete.

God can use you for great things. Take the first step toward embracing that calling by spending time dwelling on the things Christ taught and did. Hopefully by this time next year, you’ll be closer to/more in tune with God than you are right now.

Happy New Year!

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Christmas…Surprise?

Man, when I was a kid, the final few days before Christmas were an exciting time. We didn’t do Santa, so we had the presents sitting out under the tree for days, or even weeks, ahead of time. As Christmas got closer, the pile under the tree got bigger.

Normally I was pretty good. Sure, I’d pick up the presents and give ‘em a shake every now and then, but usually didn’t do anything too crazy. There was one year, though, where my parents headed out for the evening, leaving my sister and I home alone with all those presents under the tree.

I don’t remember what I was looking for, I think I was just excited about the opportunity to try out an idea I’d had earlier. Soon after the coast was clear, I brought out the scissors and the tape. Using one of the scissor’s blades, I carefully sliced the tape on one of the presents with my name on it. I was able to open up the wrapping paper enough to see what was hidden inside, then fold everything back up the way it was and put a new piece of tape right over the one I’d cut. Only a very careful inspection would reveal what had happened.

I went through most of my gifts this way. I learned what was waiting for me, then restored all the wrapping jobs. My sister, meanwhile, only wanted to know about one of hers. For the life of me, I can’t remember any of the things I snuck a peek at, but I remember that my little sister, with the “keys to the kingdom” that her devious older brother offered her, was perfectly content to know for sure that she was going to be receiving the animated version of “Beauty and the Beast” and didn’t care to find out about any more until it was actually the appropriate time to open them.

This time of year, with many new memories of time spent with loved ones, is generally thought of as one of the happiest seasons. But then it’s all over. The gifts are exchanged, everyone travels back home, and the decorations are all put away. There’s really nothing wrong with celebrating with the special people in your life, but it’s very important to realize that everything here in this life is temporary. Lower your expectations for how happy this world will make you.

Even something that’s bright, shiny, new, and sparkly on Christmas morning soon fades in either its actual luster or the level of interest you have in it. That’s why it’s so important for people seeking true happiness to place their hope and joy in Jesus Christ, someone whose luster will never fade.

This is my last post of the year. I hope you all enjoy special time celebrating Christ’s birth with loved ones this week. Rest up and enjoy some downtime!

Thanks for reading; I wish you all a Merry Christmas!