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A New Chapter Begins

Congratulations! You have officially made it through Christmas, New Year’s, and if you haven’t already, you’ll probably be getting back into the normal routine soon.

For some, 2018 was a great year with uplifting stories and good fortune. Others have experienced loss or heartache and are happy to close the book on this past year. Wherever you are, we’re now taking our first tentative steps into 2019. The year that lies ahead holds unforeseen challenges as well as circumstances you can choose to interpret as either sweet or sour.

In a previous post I said that God does not force you to do great and impossible things; He invites you to come along and be a part of them. If you choose to turn down the invitation, don’t be confused when you wonder why you’re not finding more to this life.

To kick off the blog for 2019 I’d like to include an excerpt taken from a book I read this past year. It’s by a man named Erwin McManus, called The Last Arrow. The book takes its name from an Old Testament story where the king of Israel sought out the prophet Elisha to plead with God for protection against approaching enemies.

One of the odd instructions Elisha gave the king was to take some of the arrows he had and strike them on the ground. The king then complied, but stopped after striking three arrows on the ground. This angered Elisha, who said “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” The king’s heart wasn’t in the effort, and he gave up too soon.

When an archer has a quiver full of arrows, they are not doing any good until they’re in flight. Regardless of how cool they look, a group of arrows still in a quiver only represents potential. They do not serve their purpose until they come flying off the bow. During a time when they ought to be used, an arrow that remains in a quiver is an arrow that’s been wasted.

Most of us naturally attempt something with less than full commitment, or we naturally maintain a bias for inaction. In other words, we don’t begin something unless we receive “a clear sign” that we’re supposed to embark on a new undertaking. We’re modern-day versions of Gideon, rolling out fleeces on the ground and waiting for improbable signs that will help us avoid acting on opportunities set before us, even if we recognize them.

Instead, what if we maintained a bias for action? What if we alternatively had the attitude of “I’m going to keep going until I get a clear sign to stop?” Another way of thinking about it is to “Go until you get a no.”

Wherever you are in life, don’t give in to the doubts you have. Don’t allow the excuses to pile up and sway you. “I’m too old.” “I’m too young.” “I’m too hurt.” “I’m too busy.” Whatever your “I’m too” is, don’t let that stop you. If you’re breathing, you can employ the gifts God’s given to you.

From The Last Arrow:

“The great tragedy that I have witnessed over and over again is that we keep underestimating how much God wants to do in us and through us. Too many of us have believed the lies we have been told: that we’re not good enough, we’re not smart enough, we’re not talented enough, we’re just not enough. One of the facets of God that makes him extraordinary is his ability to do the impossible through ordinary, everyday, common people like you and me. This book has one intention: that whether you win or lose, succeed or fail, live a life of celebrity or anonymity, that when you take your last breath, you will know without reservation that you have given everything you have, everything you are, to the life you have been entrusted with.”

There’s more out there. You were made for more. As we start 2019 I’m going to continue exhorting you to accept the challenges God has already and will continue to lay before you. Accept His invitation and prepare to be amazed at the power of God working through you.

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Playing To Not Lose

Hopefully you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Some movies just go with certain holidays. I’m sure many of you either have a tradition of watching certain movies around Christmas or Thanksgiving. For me, the movie “Rocky” (and by extension, the rest of the Rocky movies) are Thanksgiving movies.

There’s a movie that just came out this past week. Although I haven’t seen it, “Creed 2” is the latest in a line of movies that involve the boxing character Rocky Balboa. I’m a fan of most of the franchise (they could’ve skipped “Rocky V”), so I’ll piggyback off of the latest release to make a spiritual point. 🙂

I didn’t ever really think that I’d have to include a spoiler alert for a movie that’s about 40 years old, but if you don’t want to know how “Rocky” or “Rocky II” end, you may want to watch them before finishing today’s post.

The Rocky movies are American classics. The early portion of the series is about how a down-on-his-luck amateur boxer, Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone), gets a dream shot: to take on the world champion, Apollo Creed, for the world heavyweight boxing championship.

Rocky’s not a great fighter, but he can sure take a beating and keep on going. At the end of the fight, Rocky loses, but he’s still standing after 15 rounds of being pummeled by the world champ, blowing away everyone’s expectations. Apollo won the fight according to the judges, but he didn’t actually defeat Rocky in the eyes of many spectators.

In the second movie, the champ receives hate mail from critics that think he’s a fraud. He’s upset at being accused of faking the fight, of carrying this “bum” through an entire bout. To prove to the world that the Balboa fight was just a fluke, he pursues a rematch with Rocky. He intends to destroy Balboa so he can show everyone that Apollo Creed is still worthy of being called a champion. Balboa eventually agrees to a rematch, and the two slug it out once again.

(I’m sorry, I’m a big fan of Rocky, so I’m including a fun clip just to show you what kind of guy he is. In this clip, he’s on his way to his rematch with Apollo Creed, but he wants to make a quick stop and link up with his priest, Father Carmine. He’s already running late, but being the great theologian and philosopher that he is, he has his priorities.)

Of course, the rematch with Creed goes to the fifteenth round again. By this point, Creed is way ahead on points; all he needs to do is stay away from Rocky and he’ll win the fight, but he’ll be no better off than he was after the first fight, so he continues trying to knock out Balboa. Both men are exhausted, have swollen faces, and lack any semblance of footwork at this point. At the end they’re just standing toe to toe, swinging with everything they’ve got left to try to land knockout punches on their opponent. In a true Hollywood moment, they simultaneously land punches on each other, leading to a double knockdown.

The referee began counting. If they both got to their feet before “10,” they’d return to the fight. If only Creed got to his feet, he’d win the fight and retain the title. If Balboa was the only one that made it to his feet, he’d win and be crowned the new heavyweight champ. In this situation, the rules stipulate that if nobody gets up by the time the referee counts to 10, the fight ends in a draw, and whoever holds the title will retain it by default. Dazed and drained, both Creed and Balboa struggle to get oriented and begin trying to stand up. I’ll embed a clip of the end of the fight at the bottom of the post.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make. There’s a difference between “playing to win” and “playing to not lose.” As Christians, we’re called to bring Jesus to all that don’t know about Him. Those that accept Christ as Savior cross over from spiritual death to new spiritual life. Our “default setting” when we’re born is a life of sin that we can’t escape on our own; we need to make a transition to escape a fate of eternal separation from God after we die.

If you believe the Bible, you believe that Satan is prowling, looking for souls to divert and devour. He doesn’t need to convert anyone, because they’re already his. All he needs to do is prevent conversions from happening. So in that sense, all he needs to do is play to not lose.

Here’s where we come in. It’s our job to work toward those conversions, offering people the truth and a way out of their default course. It’s not an easy thing. Every person reading this post has a different collection of talents, resources, social circles, and spiritual gifts at their disposal.

Even though they don’t know it, there are people counting on you to carry the truth to them. Some will be open to it, others won’t, but it’s going to take more than a half-hearted effort to make a difference.

For their sake, play to win.

(The part I mentioned starts around 1:30, but I’m including the whole final round.)

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Happy Thanksgiving

Today I’d like to do something a little different.

I’ve been posting to this blog for a little more than a month and a half now. Even though I’m the main author, I don’t think that I should be the only one with some input.

In the coming weeks, I’d like to figure out a way to enable some discussion. It’s fun for me to think back on some of these experiences, but my main goal in sharing these posts is to encourage you to step out in faith to act on the idea(s) God’s been placing in your life. While I believe it’s good for me to start the discussion, I believe the real value is going to be in readers echoing the points I highlight; I think people would benefit from some “testimonials” from other people that they, too, have experienced the things I’m writing about.

For some of you, I’m just a guy that writes stories about the crazy things he’s seen or done. For others though, I’m a portion of the overall way God might be speaking to you about something He’d like you to embark upon. I’ll be honest, I have no clue what God would like for you to do, but with your talents, interests, and resources, you can make a profound difference when you fulfill the role God is offering you.

Remember my challenge from the last post: the idea that you keep coming back to, that thing God’s been whispering in your ear that you can’t get away from…tell someone about it. I’m embedding the same video from last time. If it helps, use it as a way to start the discussion with someone while you’re with them this holiday.

I Have To – Promotional Trailer from Christy Fay on Vimeo.

If, at this point you don’t have any ideas of what you’re supposed to do, you can still put your creativity or other gifts to work. Here are some ideas you can work on:

  • Many people that are open to hearing about Jesus and the Bible feel uncomfortable walking into a church; is there a way you can either make church feel less intimidating for them, or is there a way you can bring church to people on their terms?
  • It’s very rare for people to have a “BANG!” kind of conversion experience. The truth is, many people are searching for the truth, and keep coming back to Christianity for one reason or another, but they often need time to wrestle with the things they’re hearing and learning from church and other Christian leaders. Can you think of a way to reach, assist, and encourage those individuals, either virtually or face-to-face?
  • In just about any aspect of life, there are people with abilities and resources, and there are people with needs. Within your sphere of influence, can you come up with a way to match them to each other?
  • The older people among us have seen and been a part of incredible things, and have a valuable amount of life experience. The younger people among us have energy, enthusiasm, and are fluent in technology. How can we marry experience, enthusiasm, and skillsets to accomplish amazing things for God’s glory? If you’re not up for cracking the code on this one, consider making at least one friend from every decade of life, and challenge others to do the same.
  • Help explain to me how to set up a discussion page on WordPress. 🙂 If that won’t work, will comments be enough for readers to encourage and cheer on other readers? Would it work better on the Dare Greatly Now Facebook page?

There are lots of ways to employ your gifts, these are just a few examples that require constant energy and effort from people. I’m hopeful that having fresh sets of eyes will come up with new, creative solutions. If none of them sound quite right to you, and you see some other problem staring you in the face, maybe that’s your calling. You’re the only one that can do everything you can do. If you don’t do it, you’re leaving some of your potential unfulfilled.

Today I have much to be thankful for. One of the biggest things is that God has equipped us with different talents, resources, interests, and spiritual gifts. Not only does He hand us these things, but He gives us the free will to choose to use (or not use) them for His glory. He won’t make you do it by forcing you to become some grudgingly compliant subordinate. He invites you to come along, making you a willing (and often, excited) volunteer!

Another thing for which I’m thankful is the difference that you can make if you accept the challenge God gives you. As a Christian, there’s a power living inside of you that’s greater than you can imagine. Don’t stifle it. Letting it go unused is like leaving a Lamborghini locked in the garage. Turn it loose and get a taste of what that engine can do.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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When Whiplash is a Good Thing

This post is a follow-on to my previous one, which had to do with people that are barely hanging in there, just trying to survive. (https://daregreatlynow.com/2018/11/05/helps-coming/)

Disclaimer: I have to warn you that I like military movies. Sometimes when I’m watching them, I get pretty excited about them and go back and watch the action-packed scenes a few times because I want to get a good handle on what I’m seeing. By their nature, though, they’re violent and often come with some salty language. I’m including a couple of clips below to go along with the post; if you’re not up for all the craziness right now, you’ll probably want the first clip. If my narrative below is too confusing and you just want to see for yourself (and can live with the cursing and shooting), go with clip number two.

One of my all-time favorite “spiritual metaphor” movie scenes comes from a movie called “Act of Valor.” It didn’t set any box office records or anything, but one of the distinguishing characteristics of the film was that the main characters in the movie were portrayed by active duty Navy SEALs. The plot was fictional, but it was based on real-world missions SEALs have conducted.

I know it wasn’t a real mission, but it was still fun to see SEALs doing some of the stuff they do. During the movie a team of SEALs had been sent into some foreign country to rescue an abducted CIA operative. The SEALs got solid information about her location, and they were tasked with recovering her. Her captors were torturing and interrogating her to find out how much the CIA knew about them. Heavily injured, her body wasn’t able to endure much more, and her health was failing quickly.

We’ve all seen movies or heard stories about Navy SEALs, and sometimes the line between what they can and can’t do gets a little blurred. They’re phenomenal at short-duration engagements, but since they usually work in smaller teams, a sizable enemy force will have a good chance of overwhelming them over time. In the movie, the SEALs rescued the CIA operative from immediate danger, but a sizable enemy force was bearing down on them. The rescue team stole a pickup truck and loaded everyone in, taking off just as a number of pursuit vehicles arrived to chase them during a high-speed shootout.

The SEALs’ planned method of extraction was to link up with a SWCC team…essentially a heavily-armed armored speedboat…whose callsign was Whiplash. But they began the assault earlier than planned (before the boats were in position), they hadn’t counted on this level of opposition on the way out, and there was too much happening for the original plan to function as intended.

The SEALs’ driver took off down the road without having an exact idea where he was going. The guy in the passenger seat was trying to navigate and establish radio contact with the team leader, who, along with another SEAL, was running to meet up with the rest. In addition to the barely conscious CIA operative, a member of the team had been shot in the head during the raid and was alive, but unconscious. Another team member was trying to keep him alive and revive him. All the while there’s a guy or two in the bed of the pickup trying to shield the CIA operative and return enough fire to keep the bad guys from getting too close.

The situation just kept getting worse. First they blew through their primary rendezvous point, and the enemy was too close for them to safely pull over at the backup rendezvous point, so they sped past it, too. They even pulled out a surprise or two to give themselves a better chance, but it just wasn’t enough. With no choice, they sped toward their last option, but by this time they had still created almost no separation from an aggressive enemy.

They ran out of road and at high speed splashed the truck directly into a river. They had gone as far as they could and had held the enemy at bay as long as possible, but despite keeping cool heads and performing at a high level, they could not be expected to do any more without some outside intervention. They had accomplished bold, even extraordinary things, but now it looked hopeless; the team had no reasonable hope of making a coordinated last stand against such devastating odds.

Just as the enemy trucks slid to a stop and armed men took aim, Whiplash came roaring around the river bend with guns blazing. Enemy shooters had no choice but to dive for cover as their vehicles got shot full of holes. After pinning down the enemy, sailors plucked the Americans out of the water and into the safety of the boats. As the scene closed, the vessel carrying the rescued team and CIA operative sped off down the river, having accomplished their objective.

(This is the shorter, less crazy version, but might still have a choice word or two.)

(The clip below includes the full pursuit, and is a little rougher on the eyes and ears.)

Have you ever had a day that felt like that? Things started out according to plan, but once one thing went wrong, it got bad in a hurry. Through grit and perseverance you might have been able to keep things from completely falling to pieces for awhile, but eventually the situation caught up with you and degraded to the point where it just wasn’t going to get better without some outside help.

Maybe you were on the other side of things. Maybe you were Whiplash, an answer to somebody’s prayer. Because of you and the help you were able to provide, you helped somebody stave off complete disaster.

Even better, maybe you have the opportunity to be Whiplash to someone right now. You might know somebody that’s already crashed into the water and is looking down the river in desperate expectation, but they can’t see anyone yet. They may not even know what they’re looking for, but they’re looking for you.

It’s time to armor up. Don the armor of God and grab that sword of truth. You’ve got allies (or potential allies) pinned down deep behind enemy lines, and only bold action will pull them out. If you’ve got the opportunity and can take a few hits for the sake of pulling the heat off someone else, step into the line of fire. Be Whiplash to someone. They’re desperate for you to arrive in time, and you’re the best chance they’ve got.

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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.