Category: Bible verses

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Proxy War

Over the past few weeks I’ve touched on how Satan commonly employs the same handful of tactics. I’ve covered how he wants to keep unbelievers unbelieving, and how he wants to water down the effectiveness of those that have become Christ-followers.

So where does that leave us in this epic spiritual struggle for the ages? Well, a historical anecdote might help set the stage:

After World War II, our ally Russia (then the USSR) started to walk down a different path from ours, and our two nations became enemies. It didn’t take long before both sides amassed enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other (and the rest of the world) several times over. In light of this massive weapons buildup, it became crucial that the two countries avoid a direct conflict, because it could very easily escalate into something with terrible consequences for the entire world.

American tanks facing off with Soviet tanks in Berlin

Most of the developed world split into two camps: one that sided with the Soviets and one that sided with the United States. The two sides had radically different ideologies, and both wanted to strengthen their position and gain additional allies. No corner of the world went untouched by this indirect conflict (or “Cold War”).

Both sides knew that war with one another could quickly escalate to global catastrophe. Yet with both sides armed to the teeth, they couldn’t help but rattle sabers at each other in various ways. Both superpowers turned to supporting smaller groups or nations in fights against someone from the other camp. This led to a series of “Proxy Wars.” The Korean War, the space race, the Vietnam War, numerous conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Oceania were all just different chapters of the same story: the US vs. the USSR.

That’s where we are in the spiritual battle right now. The real story has always been God vs. Satan, but the fight plays out across the globe in chapters, fought through Christians and non-Christians.

You and I are “proxies” in a certain sense. We speak on Christ’s behalf when sharing the gospel, and the enemy’s efforts are sometimes manifested, either intentionally or unintentionally, through other people. What’s so easy to do, and I want to caution everyone against this, is to slip into the trap of thinking that the proxy on the other side, the unbeliever, is the enemy. Absolutely not! Satan is the enemy; the proxy is a soul that can potentially be saved, join the Kingdom of God, and do great things for Him! This is so important. Have a look at what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. – Ephesians 6:12

It’s very important to stress that although all people are inherently sinful, relatively few of them are malicious or openly hostile toward Christ and Christians. God can even take violent, hateful people and turn them into powerful assets for His kingdom (read the story of Saul’s conversion to Paul for an example). There’s nobody that God doesn’t love, and no matter how bad you think you’ve been (or how bad the worst person you can think of has been), God is willing to extend salvation to them if they accept Him as their Savior. We don’t know who those people will be, though, so it’s up to Christians (and this is where we often have trouble) to treat everyone as if God’s working on their heart to reveal Himself to them and bring them to salvation. This is where another Bible verse comes in:

Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. – Matthew 10:16

We’re supposed to be out in dangerous territory, spreading the gospel to people that haven’t heard it, and yes, to people that we believe will reject it or react violently to it. Proxies can harm us in multiple ways. We must balance between being on guard against them while showing them love, compassion, and the truth in the hopes that we help win them for Christ.

One of my favorite sayings is that you do not know what’s on the other side of your obedience. At some point you, as a Christian, will likely feel called to do something that makes you uncomfortable, and that’s by design. The Bible is full of stories of people that God stretched in some way to go do things they thought were impossible. God makes no pledge about giving you cushy assignments. He’ll take care of you…maybe not in the way you’d like, but if you follow through with what you’re supposed to do, you might be surprised at how things fall into place for you.

As I close today, I just want to reiterate that other people are not the enemy in our spiritual struggle; they are the prize! You will do nothing on your own to win them for Christ, but you have no idea what Christ will do through you according to His plan. Boldly accept His invitation to play a part in His master plan. You won’t be able to see where the road leads, but part of growing your faith is taking the first few steps without seeing where you’re going.

God didn’t offer to let us be choosy about the people to whom we bring the Gospel. They all need to hear it, and you might be the only chance someone gets to hear it.

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How Fast Can You Forget?

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been amazed at how quickly the Old Testament Israelites forgot about the role of God in their history. Even the actual people that He led out of slavery in Egypt started complaining about how much better it would have been if they’d stayed slaves, where at least they had variety in their diet rather than the manna that God provided for their daily needs.

A few generations later, the Israelites were back at their whining. “We want a king! We want to be like the other nations around us!” So God gave them kings. Not every king was good, though, and some of them flat out led Israel away from God. Eventually a good king would come along and try to undo the damage that was done, but it would never quite get back to where it had been before. Asherah poles and high places seemed constantly to be put up and torn down.

God got fed up with it. He gave them plenty of warning, but the Israelites ignored it. Then foreign nations overran the country, plundered the nation, and carried them away as captives to a different land. Even then, decades later, some were able to return and begin to rebuild, but the cycle of abandoning God, then crying out to Him for help continued.

I’d read this when I was younger and think “Seriously? How could they forget everything that God did for them?” The only thing I can think of is that the stories of God’s goodness and provision weren’t being passed down from one generation to the next. As a result, the account of just how good God is…got lost.

So it bothers me quite a bit as I’m watching this happen in our own nation. The United States of America does not have a blemish-free past, but I challenge anyone to find a country that does. When I see mobs of angry people forcibly tearing down or defacing statues or monuments, it makes me wonder if the rioters even know enough history to appreciate the whole context of what those monuments represent. People that try to set the record straight, rather than allow misguided notions of historical tidbits rule the day, are said to use “divisive language.” Hmmmm. Well, facts can be that way, I guess.

Removing monuments will not change our past, but it will help remove our memory of it. When we don’t remember the past, we end up making the same mistakes that people who came before us have already made. “No, no, they removed that monument because they were offended by it!” Um, excuse me, I’m offended by their lawlessness and arrogance to think they’re entitled to make the decision to destroy/deface public property on their own, but why is their offense considered more warranted than mine? Are we not equal? Do I also need to participate in criminal activity in order to be heard?

History is important. When you ignore it, bad things will happen (again). Think about those Israelites. “Haven’t they learned anything?” We’re at the same point now! We’ve become them!

If you’re in an authority role (or even if you’re not), I implore you to please use your influence to encourage people to live according to the law. I understand that there are things you don’t like (there are things that I don’t like, either), and we can work on those things, but we have other methods of addressing citizens’ concerns. If people feel that it’s acceptable to break any old law because they dislike it, and we apply that standard to everyone, well that’s going to get pretty ugly, now isn’t it?

Your country has history, and it’s important to remember it. Sure, I’m on board with revamping some things, but history is not included in that column. We can alter or redesign some statues, but there should be a plan in place to come up with another means of commemorating what happened at that particular monument. You know why? Because history is ugly. Life is messy. In the heat of the moment, not everyone makes the right choice. That’s something that will happen in every country, just about every day, from now until there are no people left to make mistakes. Here’s the thing about mistakes though: you’re supposed to learn from them.

So let’s not be the Israelites. We’ve all made mistakes, and there are things we all could have done better. Let’s not make the error of thinking that we can flush a few unpleasant things and it will change what happened in the past. If we do that, we’ll find ourselves making the same old mistakes again for the first time.

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When a Fail is a Win

Strange times we’re in. While there are many people that no longer have the job they held a month or two ago, many others now work from home. For those folks, the reality is that sometimes they just can’t produce the same quality from home that they’re able to at their normal place of business. I don’t advocate for shoddy workmanship, but it’s important to understand that if you’ve turned in low-quality work of some kind, all is not lost.

We’ve heard many times that God can take terrible things and use them for good. It’s like saying God loves us. We’ve heard it so many times we lose our appreciation for what it means. What if I told you there’s a story in the Bible where God used someone’s poor-quality work to both glorify Himself and accomplish His will at the same time? That might make you feel better when you’re unable to produce the same quality of work you’re accustomed to turning in.

There’s a story in 1 Kings 20 that has a funny little twist. The Bible often glosses over big events in a very short amount of time, and if you blink, you’ll miss it. In this case, the Israelites were at war with a numerically superior foe, the Arameans. Verse 27 says that the Israelites were like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans covered the countryside.

The Lord was kinda mad at the Arameans in this engagement, so he enabled the Israelites to cut down 100,000 of their enemy in one day, and verse 30 says that the rest fled into a nearby city. Here’s where you’ll miss it if you blink: “But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a wall large enough to fall on 27,000 men. In order to have a wall that big fall on so many people at once, we’re talking about failure at a spectacular level. The book doesn’t say anything about how that wall was constructed or what made it collapse; we just know that it happened, it was bad news for the Arameans, and it was all part of God’s plan.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not condoning work that’s intentionally sloppy or poor. If you can’t meet the level of what you’re ordinarily capable of though, do the best you can. There may be a divine purpose for that imperfection later on down the line.

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What is a Life Verse?

I believe all scripture is God-inspired and useful for Christian instruction/education in some respect. I’ll also acknowledge, though, that some portions of it resonate more strongly than others.

Ever read a verse (or group of verses) that really jump out at you? It’s as if that section applies directly to you, and God had you in mind when He inspired the author to write it down. It might be that this section of scripture can be identified as your life verse. A life verse is a verse in the Bible that speaks to you in a profound way, somehow has special meaning to you personally, or otherwise reaches you in ways that other areas of scripture do not.

Sometimes you hear another person’s life verse and you can totally see how it fits them. It makes so much sense that they would have that verse memorized! Just because they claim it as their life verse does not mean it’s exclusively theirs, though. I like to think that if someone has selected a life verse that fits well, it helps illustrate that verse’s meaning to others, who then internalize and appreciate it in a new way. In this manner, a person can become a living illustration to others of what God meant when He inspired that particular verse. In the hopes that that’s true, I’d like to share my life verse with you.

Mine comes from a point in Biblical history where there was a passing of the torch, and the successor had enormous shoes to fill. Humbled, perhaps even fearful of fulfilling the daunting role placed before him, Joshua knew that he could not take Moses’ place without the Lord’s help. Imagine Joshua falling to his knees, unable to lift his eyes, saying “God, I’m so afraid!” It’s as if God reached down and lifted Joshua’s chin with one finger and told him exactly what he needed to hear:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” –Joshua 1:9

There are a few different kinds of “fear.” There’s the kind when someone sneaks up behind you and startles you, but that’s not the kind this verse is talking about. This is the kind of fear that causes anxiety and gives you an ulcer from worrying about it all the time. There are all kinds of things to worry about in this life if you choose to. We currently live in a time, especially as we seem powerless to stop pandemics, where there is much fear. It’s okay to be afraid…until it stops you from doing what God’s called you to do. God has a purpose for your life, and fear is not a legitimate excuse for avoiding it.

I’m not in the business of translating the Bible, and I don’t pretend to be. If I could paraphrase this verse and put it in our vernacular though, I’d probably state it a little more like this: “I already told you, hold nothing back! Don’t be anxious and don’t lose focus, because I’ll be right beside you every step of the way.” It’s easy for fear to get in the way of the tasks God’s called you to do, and it’s a very easy tool for God’s enemies to exploit.

Because of the life I’ve lived, the sights I’ve seen, and the things I’ve done, this verse resonates with me in a special way. It encourages me to work toward not blinking when God throws an enormous challenge in my path. I’m of the opinion that I will always have doubts during those times, but God’s with me every step of the way, and I’m trying to get better at not flinching when I “receive a new assignment.” Assuming I have more tasks to perform on God’s behalf in this life, this verse will help me when I feel inadequate or ill-equipped to do them.

What’s your life verse? Have you shared it with others? Will you share it with other readers in the “comments” section of this blog? There might be a verse out there that your life can provide a perfect illustration for. That would fall under the “love other people” portion of the “love God and love other people” mandate that God gives His followers.

Hang in there, keep the faith, and wash your hands. 🙂

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Be Where You’re Supposed To Be

There’s an old problem-solving technique called “The Five Whys.” It’s simple in its execution. You start with a problem:

We can’t go on the vacation we’ve been planning.

Ask: Why? (Number 1)

We had to spend a big chunk of that money on a car repair.

Ask: Why? (Number 2)

The car broke down unexpectedly.

Ask: Why? (Number 3)

(Sheepishly) Because I haven’t been maintaining it.

The idea is that by the time you’ve asked “Why?” five times, you’ve arrived at the root cause of the problem you’re facing.

King David is one of the most famous characters in the Bible. He had incredible highs and also some very low lows. In the end, this “man after God’s own heart” was an imperfect human, but he always sought God’s mercy and forgiveness.

His most famous shortcoming occurred with a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. Here’s a quick refresher from 2 Samuel chapter 11:

11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.

Bathsheba, of course, became pregnant. David made matters worse by trying to cover it up, and when that didn’t work, he had Bathsheba’s husband intentionally killed in battle. It took a prophet to confront him in order to make him admit his wrongdoing. While there’s much we can learn from David, we’ll focus on this tragic tale and try to apply a lesson to our own lives. Let’s use the “Five Whys” with David’s situation:

David got taken to task by Nathan the prophet for murdering an innocent man.

Why? (Number 1)

David ordered the death of Uriah, one of his faithful warriors.

Why? (Number 2)

He had an affair with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba.

Why? (Number 3)

David saw her bathing on the rooftop and decided that he had to have her.

Why? (Number 4)

He wasn’t where he was supposed to be, fighting with his army at Rabbah.

And here we have the root cause. The text doesn’t say why David remained behind in Jerusalem; it just says that he did. By not being with his army, as was the custom of the day’s kings, it opened the door to temptation, which resulted in adultery, lies, and murder.

While you may not be in charge of an army, there’s probably been at least one time in your life when something bad happened because you were somewhere you didn’t belong.

The lesson here? Be where you’re supposed to be.

If you’re a Christ-follower, God has equipped and tasked you to perform certain functions or roles here on Earth. Once you know what He wants you to do, you can either run from it (think Jonah) or you can work toward it (think Paul). The road is never guaranteed to be easy, but there’s peace of mind when you work toward it. Running from it causes restlessness, unrest, and numerous complications.

The simplest way to avoid all of that? Be where you’re supposed to be.

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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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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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The Land Down Under

Upon graduation from college and unsure of a career path to pursue, I moved back in with Mom and Dad. I worked construction during that time, and since I had low overhead, I was able to make tons of progress paying off my college loans. Free of any major responsibilities and feeling adventurous at this point, I decided to start making headway on my lofty goal of visiting every continent.

My folks had taken me to Europe previously, so I could cross that one off the list. I knew that at some point in the future I was more likely to have additional responsibilities (and might have to pay for additional tickets if I were to go traveling), so I determined it would be good to look at the continents that were the most difficult to get to. I really wanted to visit Antarctica, but I figured it would probably be best to get some general travel experience before venturing anywhere near the South Pole. Deciding that it would be nice to go to an English-speaking country, I settled on Australia.

I found an adventure company that did tours all over the world, and they had a few Australian trips coming up. On the agenda for this particular trip was whitewater rafting, hiking and mountain biking in a rainforest, a few days on the Great Barrier Reef, and ocean kayaking out to, then spending a few nights camping on, an island off the Australian coast. I got signed up for a November trip.

While trees are losing leaves and the weather’s getting chilly in North America in November, it’s springtime in the southern hemisphere. Add to that the fact that the area where most of this trip took place was closer to the equator than Jamaica is, and it looked like I was going to have a tan at Thanksgiving.

That figure is for a direct flight; it doesn’t count connecting flights!

The trip ended up being a lot of fun, and I had some neat experiences. I’ll cover a few of them in the next couple of posts, but for now it’s important to remember that even if you ride in a plane to the other side of the world almost 10,000 miles away, God’s still the same God He was before you left.

Whether you’re having a “Jonah” moment and are trying to run away, or are homesick, afraid, and want to see something familiar, God’s still God no matter where you go.

7Where can I go from Your Spirit?
         Or where can I flee from Your presence?

8If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
         If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

9If I take the wings of the dawn,
         If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

10Even there Your hand will lead me,
         And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
         And the light around me will be night,”

12Even the darkness is not dark to You,
         And the night is as bright as the day.
         Darkness and light are alike to You.

Psalm 139:7-12

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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?