Imagine you’re at the top of your game and you are successful
in everything you put your mind to. You have a great reputation, you have a
great job, you have a great family, and your volunteer work makes a difference.
Money isn’t a problem, and you lack nothing.
Does this give meaning to your life?
Long ago the world’s richest and wisest man took it upon
himself to seek out the meaning of life. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon
decided to investigate how to achieve fulfillment in life. First he tried
living a life of pleasure, but learned that this wasn’t the answer. He studied the
generalities of life and upon reflection was disappointed that death comes both
to the wise man and the fool. He implemented public projects on an enormous
scale, only to conclude that his lifetime of achievements could easily be
wasted after his death if his successor squanders what he inherits.
Very aware of his own mortality, Solomon realizes that this
life is short; it’s fleeting. We busy ourselves with many projects and
endeavors, but in the end we all pass through and then move on from this life.
Many times in the book of Ecclesiastes does Solomon exclaim “meaningless! It’s
all a chasing after the wind!”
The book is almost depressing; he spends 12 chapters
exploring different aspects of life in hopes of finding fulfillment, only to
realize that even our most notable achievements will be forgotten after a few
generations. Then at the very end of the book, almost as an afterthought,
Solomon abruptly gives us his conclusion. These two verses, only two verses out of the whole book, provide
us insight into what he’s learned. If you give up reading the book before the
very end, you miss out on Solomon’s “secret of life:”
Let us hear
the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for
this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every
secret thing, whether good or evil. –Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
After years of experiencing everything life has to offer,
Solomon concluded that your purpose is to please God and to live in such a way
that you will not fear judgment.
I don’t have the time or space to go into all of God’s
commandments here, but I’ll summarize them this way: love God and love people. Each
of these topics can have books written about them. It’s a lifelong endeavor, though;
there are always opportunities to keep getting better at it.
If you’ve got the “love God” portion down pat, it’s time to
“love people.” There are people everywhere you go. You know what I’ve
discovered? A lot of them are hard to get along with. It can be draining to
interact with them! That’s probably why so much of the Bible talks about how to
live and deal with others. Here’s the neat thing: you’re equipped to do it. You have everything you need to
do what you’ve been called to do.
For many of us, that calling has to do with making someone’s
life better somehow. That’s one exciting (yes, exciting) thing about the
Coronavirus-dominated time we’re living through…there are new opportunities to
love on people in ways that are not normally available. All you have to do is
look for them; you’re in the best position to see them and act on them.
Fear God and keep His commandments, and remember that He’ll judge all of your works. This comes from a lifetime of reflection from the wisest man who ever lived. Just a little something to keep in mind if life gets a little too meaningless for you.
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?
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
Once I finished
college, I didn’t do anything related to my academic major. I needed a job, but
didn’t have anything professional in mind, so I moved back in with Mom and Dad
and worked construction.
Since I had worked
construction the past few summers, nothing felt different initially. Doing the
job as a college grad didn’t feel any different than doing the job the previous
summer. It didn’t really seem strange until the end of the summer, when I
ordinarily would have prepared to head back to school. To help mark the
occasion of our entry into the “real world,” a college buddy and I decided to
go skydiving.
We made some
reservations, then showed up at the airport one Saturday morning early in
September. We signed the waivers, took the short class, then waited our turn.
We signed up for tandem
jumps. That’s where you’re connected to an experienced jumper that’s trained to
do two-person jumps. You don’t have to focus on any of the flight plan, what
your altitude is, etc. All you have to do is go along for the ride and enjoy
yourself. My tandem instructor was Frank. He took us over to the tiny plane
we’d use and walked us through the steps we’d later take when exiting the
aircraft. After that we squeezed into the plane, took off, and started the
climb to 10,000 feet.
(I paid extra to have my jump recorded, so there was a jumper with a camera and video camera on her helmet that went along. Unfortunately I don’t have a digital copy; it’s still on VHS format, so I can’t show it here. I can share some of the pictures though.)
There were six jumpers
and a pilot crammed into a little Cessna. As we reached 3,000 feet, the door
opened and one of the guys jumped out. I’m not sure if I was aware of this at
the time or not, but it turns out this man was Don Kellner, who was (and still
is) the world record holder for the number of sport parachute jumps. At the
time, he had about 30,000 jumps or something ridiculous like that. In order to set
and build on his record, he’d be on just about every plane that went up, and
most of the time he’d hop out around 3,000 feet. He’d skip the freefall and
deploy his parachute right away. They called this type of jump a “hop ‘n pop.”
I didn’t see it coming, so all I knew was that the door blew open without
warning and a guy fell out.
The rest of the climb
to altitude was uneventful. It was my buddy and I, our two tandem instructors,
and a videographer. They kept the mood light by making plenty of jokes, so that
we’d stay loose and not seize up when the door opened and we stuck our heads
outside the plane and looked down.
The time finally
arrived. We shuffled around inside the plane to get connected to the
instructors. We went over a few last-minute things, gave a final thumbs-up, and
then they opened the door.
Inside the plane it got
windy and much cooler than it had been on the ground. We inched up to the
doorway, and the videographer actually climbed outside the plane and hung from
the wing strut while she waited for us to exit. Frank shouted in my ear, I did
what he had showed me on the ground earlier, and out the door we went.
This is the only part that feels like you’re falling
There’s really not a
good way to convey what it’s like to freefall. It’s unlike anything else. There
was only a brief fraction of a second where there was any falling sensation,
and that was as you fell out of the plane. The ground didn’t seem like it was
rushing up at me at all. It was just windy, loud, and amazing. You can judge
for yourself just how miserable I was.
We fell for about 30
seconds, reaching a max speed of around 120 mph. It didn’t feel that fast,
because there were no references other than people falling at the same speed
(it’s not like you fell past a bird or a hot air balloon at 120 mph, for
example). It was smooth. The video shows that Frank and I did some goofy stuff
and made weird faces (imagine what kind of silly stuff you’d do if someone
pointed a leaf blower at your face). Then Frank deployed the main chute, and after
the rapid deceleration the loud rush of air gave way to a gentle breeze and
relative silence as we slowed down to about 20 mph. He then gave me an aerial
tour of the surrounding area as we continued our descent. Five minutes later we
were safely on the ground, and I was ready to do it all again.
I fell over a mile and a half straight down and lived to tell the tale
I was hooked.
Eventually I went back and did it again, and I’ll share more skydiving stories
in the future, but for now here’s what’s important. When you jump out of a
plane, there’s no doing it halfway. There’s no way to stay in the plane and at
the same time experience what it’s like to leave it midair. You either leave
the plane or you don’t, and the two outcomes are vastly different.
Despite what many
people seem to think, access to Heaven is based on an either/or criterion: you
either have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, or you don’t. Here too,
the two outcomes are vastly different. If you don’t have that relationship,
you’re not going to get into Heaven.
“That’s incredibly
intolerant!” It’s okay to think that, because it is. I serve an intolerant God.
For some reason that seems to shock people. God doesn’t tolerate our antics and
rationalizations. I can’t really blame
Him. Why should He? Imagine you had a child that wanted nothing to do with you,
yet demanded all the benefits of being associated with you. On top of that,
they replace you with someone else and still want the rights and privileges of
being your child. How tolerant would you be?
These days there seems
to be very little in terms of pure black and white. Just because the world
looks at things with a “everything is relative” mindset however, doesn’t make
it true or mean we get to water down God’s truth. There ARE absolutes. One of them is that the only
way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ.
People will decry this
view as having a lack of inclusivity. I’d counter that Christ was one of the
most inclusive historical figures ever.
He went out of His way to reach the dregs of society; He violated cultural
norms by empowering and addressing women directly; and He advocated for fair treatment
of foreigners.
The difference is that
Christ wanted all people to hear the truth so they could make their own
decision. He wanted everybody to have access to this information regardless of
their background or standing. What they did with it was entirely up to them,
but He wanted everyone in the world to know that the only way to God (and
Heaven) was through Him.
You either have that
saving relationship or you don’t. There’s no doing it halfway, and there’s no
middle ground. The good…no…the great
news is that you’re welcome to start that saving relationship right now. Even
if you think you’re beyond saving or that you’ve done things that are too
terrible to be forgiven, He won’t turn you away.
Maybe you’ve never
prayed before, but if you’re open to this, pray this prayer along with me:
Dear Jesus…thank you so
much for loving me even when I don’t deserve you at all. Lord, come into my
life, change me, break me, make me new, make me whole…forgive me. Purify my
heart. Jesus I believe you died on the cross and rose again three days later.
You are my savior and one day I will live with You forever. But meanwhile, help
me to stand for you. To shine for you, to make a difference and let your truth
be known. Use me Lord, Holy Spirit fill me to overflowing. I love you so much!
In Jesus’ name, amen.
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I’ve got three kids.
I’ve had my share of seeing one or more of them knowing that they ought to tell me something, even though they
don’t want to.
You can see the nervous fidgeting, their eyes looking anywhere but at you, and you know right away that the longer they take to tell you, the worse the irreversible damage might be somewhere. Did they flush something weird down the toilet and now it’s clogged and overflowing all over the floor? Did they pick up a fish from the fishbowl and accidentally drop it on the floor? Did they accidentally hurt their brother or sister, who now needs help in a hurry?
Your mind goes crazy
thinking about all the things that could
be wrong, and all you want to do is find out the truth so you can take
immediate action if you need to. As the kiddo stands there, searching for the
right way to break the news to Dad, it’s maddening to see them slow down even
further, hinting at things to gauge how Dad reacts to different approaches. On
the inside you’re screaming “just TELL me already!”, but you know that will
stall the truth even more, so you have to cover any appearance of urgency and
gently coax it out of them without looking mad.
Have you ever been in a
situation like that? All you want is the truth. It might be at the doctor’s
office after some test results come back. You see them start to hem and haw,
uncertain about the best way to deliver the news. All the uncertainty you’ve
been wrestling with has created more anxiety, and all you want to do is yell
“just TELL me already!”
Have you ever felt that
way on a grander scale? Not just for a blip during your past, but over a much
longer span of time. You’ve had your ups and downs, but it feels like there
ought to be more. Maybe you have a nice family, a nice house, you even have a
great career, but it still feels like something’s missing, or that you’re waiting
for the other shoe to drop. What’s this life all about? You don’t even care how
it’s going to make you feel; you just want someone to tell you the rest of the
story.
Well if you want it,
here it is.
You’re not good enough.
I’m not talking about not being good enough at your job, at being a nice person, or at not burning the crust in the oven. I’m talking big picture. When everyone, including you, was born, they were set on a course that does not lead to Heaven. And why? Because nobody’s perfect. Heaven only accepts perfection. Even if folks are good people that lead good, moral lives, after this life they are headed for eternal suffering and anguish. It’s not good news, but this is the sound of the other shoe dropping. If you don’t believe in the afterlife, I understand how it might sound kooky. Here’s the thing though…have you ever been on the other side of death?
There’s good news about
all this: there is a sure way to change course. There is a way out of this default
eventuality.
You’ve heard the name
Jesus Christ. You may even have said it a few times, but who is He? He’s God’s Son…the
power of God incarnate…all the power of God in human form. If He lived in
Heaven, why would God show up as a person on Earth?
It’s kind of an odd answer: to withstand your punishment and serve your sentence on your behalf. Christ was perfect and fulfilled all of God’s laws flawlessly, but was wrongfully accused and executed. He spent a full day in Hell, taking my place, taking your place, taking the sweet grandma down the street’s place, taking the death row inmate’s place. Then He conquered it: He came back to life the third day after His death. By doing this He broke the power of Hell. Out of love, Jesus Christ now extends a hand to everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, orientation, national origin, regardless of everything. None of that matters, because each of those people falls short of perfection. By accepting His invitation, you switch sides…you’re no longer destined for eternal suffering and sorrow regarding this missed opportunity. People that take His hand are clothed in His perfection; they are destined instead for a joyous future in God’s presence alongside others that have made the same decision.
Some will tell you that
many roads lead to Heaven. I’m sorry, but that’s simply not accurate. A
relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to ensure an eternity in Heaven.
He even said so in John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Now I just want to
explain something. My writing is simply not compelling enough to convince
people to make this decision. If you feel something tugging at your mind and
heart, though, that’s God working on you. I’m just the method He’s using to
reach you. Please don’t ignore the pull…Christ can whisper to you, but He won’t
force you to switch sides. You don’t have anything to lose, but you have
everything to gain.
Maybe you’ve never
prayed before, but if you’re open to this, pray this prayer along with me:
Dear Jesus…thank you so
much for loving me even when I don’t deserve you at all. Lord, come into my life,
change me, break me, make me new, make me whole…forgive me. Purify my heart.
Jesus I believe you died on the cross and rose again three days later. You are
my savior and one day I will live with You forever. But meanwhile, help me to
stand for you. To shine for you, to make a difference and let your truth be
known. Use me Lord, Holy Spirit fill me to overflowing. I love you so much! In
Jesus’ name, amen.
If you’re not quite ready for that, but you’re open to hearing more, I encourage you to listen to this man’s story. We’ve heard of instances where people die for a few moments on the operating table, only to be revived and tell stories of a brief vision of Heaven. But what if we got a brief view of Hell? It’s a remarkable story.
For those with a little less time (or for more encouragement after the first video), have a listen to this song. It conveys why Jesus would give up everything…because the Savior of the World would rather die than live without you.
Even if you’re skeptical about all this, please consider passing this on. If you’re already on board, please share it either by posting it in your social media or by forwarding this link: https://daregreatlynow.com/?p=650
Eternity hangs in the
balance. Will you see someone in Heaven because you helped them get there?
Three or four years ago
our family of five went to see my folks for Easter. It was the time of year
when the winter’s cold was gone and the kids could finally get some time
playing outside.
While we were all in
their backyard one day, I told my wife and kids about some of the places I used
to visit in the woods nearby when I was a kid. On the spur of the moment, we
all decided to take a trip into the forest to have a look for ourselves.
Our kiddos have always
enjoyed being in the woods, but most of the places we’ve taken them have had nice
wide trails that make it easy to get around. There were no trails here, so we
had to find our own way. Without really thinking too much about it, my plan was
to bring them into the woods through one section, then bring them down to see
some cool spots along the creek, and then start coming back up through a
different area.
We got down to the
creek, and I showed them an old well, then brought them to the spot where some
of us slid down a natural waterslide and built dams as kids. I had a childhood
friend whose dad loved golf; in order to work on his swing, he’d stand in his
yard and drive old golf balls into the forest. As a kid, friends and I would
come across some of these golf balls while playing in the woods; they were
always in the same general area, so he must’ve had a consistent swing. J Now, with my own family in tow, I told my kids to
keep an eye out for golf balls. Sure enough, we found at least one.
As we started heading
back, I took them along an easy route I followed when I was younger. It’s a
funny thing though, if you stay out of a forest for 10 or 15 years, you might
be surprised at how much it changes while you’re gone.
We crossed back over
the creek and started heading back up the hill. It started getting tricky,
though, because in our path were numerous thorn bushes I didn’t remember
running into before. We’d make some progress up the hill, only to run into a
spot that was too thick for us to pass, so we’d have to scoot sideways or even
come back down the hill some. There were spots where we could squeeze through,
but I had to step on a few thorny branches and hold back others with one hand
while my kiddos carefully passed through.
It’s not so bad when
you’re tall enough to see over the thorn bushes, but when you’re only about
three feet tall and Mom and Dad don’t seem to know where they’re going, it can
be scary and even overwhelming. My kids started getting worried, even coming to
the verge of tears, so I stopped being delicate with the thorns in order to
move us along faster. Instead of grabbing them with just a finger and thumb, I
pushed them aside and held them out of the way with the back of my hand so we
could make wider openings and move toward our goal a little quicker.
It was slow going, but
the kids hung in there and we finally made it out of the woods. As the panic
subsided, the kids noticed that one of my hands had a surprising amount of
blood on it. I didn’t have any bad cuts, but the thorns had scratched me enough
that it caused the blood to start flowing. It looked much worse than it actually
was, but my daughter was very concerned because of how much blood she saw. Through
her eyes, all she knew was that Daddy was bleeding so that the rest of them
could safely pass through the dangerous spots.
As we had approached
Easter that year, we had been talking more frequently about the suffering Jesus
endured aside from the cross. The beatings, the humiliation, the crown of
thorns, the sheer indignity, and all sorts of other often-forgotten things are still
part of the story. He was so weak from the beating and other types of suffering
that He couldn’t even carry the cross, as the condemned often did. My wife
voiced the connection, using our adventure as an object lesson. It’s like it
clicked for my oldest daughter. He took
my place. I escaped the suffering because someone else did it for me.
I don’t know where you
are in life, or if you consider yourself a spiritual person. None of that
changes the fact that Christ paid for the price of your admission into Heaven.
You can’t earn it, you can’t pay your own way, and you can’t pay Him back. The
only way to get into Heaven is to use the ticket He bought you. He bought
tickets for everyone, but only a small percentage of people take Him up on the
offer.
He’s holding out a
ticket for you, and He wants you to take it. Will you accept it?
When I was probably 6
or 7 years old, a married couple built a new house across the street from us.
They had moved in, but the house wasn’t totally finished yet. When you’re a
little boy, new houses in the neighborhood are fun because there’s a ton of mud
or dirt piles to play in.
One rainy day I was
playing outside in my yard. I had my raincoat and my big rain boots, so I was
all set. Our yard already had a lawn, so it didn’t really have many puddles.
Since the house across the street wasn’t landscaped yet, it had all kinds of
puddles and mud to go stomping through.
I knew the neighbors,
and they were nice, so I crossed the street and started splashing through the
grossest part of the yard. I don’t think the gutters were installed yet, so the
water ran right off the roof and into the yard, making for some thick, goopy
stomping. My plan was to go knock on the front door to say hi, but it was starting
to be a tough slog. The mud felt like it got stickier and sticker, sucking on
my boots as I tried to pull them up.
It got to the point
where I couldn’t pick my feet up anymore. The rain boots were already much
heavier and clunkier than the shoes I normally wore, and now it got even worse
with the mud’s suction. My boots were stuck in the mud, and I wasn’t going
anywhere.
I started to panic. I
tried shaking them loose, but that didn’t work (it probably made it worse). I
think I was afraid to pull my feet out of the boots and walk across the mud,
scared that my actual feet would get swallowed by the muck. Defeated and out of
ideas, I squatted down (afraid to sit, for fear of getting stuck) and started
to cry.
I don’t know how long
this went on, but soon the front door opened and Joyce, my neighbor, poked her head
out. With a look of worried concern, she saw me in my helpless and pitiful
situation, and right away got some shoes on, came close enough to grab me, and
lifted me right out of the mud.
Cherished readers, this
is the story of the gospel, plain and simple. I was in a mess that I couldn’t
escape on my own. The difference with the gospel is that we’re all born stuck
in the mess, we didn’t wander into it because we made a bad choice.
People have different
reactions to being stuck like this. Some choose to just wallow and enjoy the
mud as best they can. Others look at the situation and focus on it being a
futile, meaningless struggle. To each and every one of us, though, a hand is
extended, offering us a way out of the muck and mire. It’s not forced upon us;
it is merely offered. This hand, friends, is the hand of Jesus Christ.
If you’ve come to
realize that you’re stuck in the mud and would like a way out, I urge you to
look into what Christ did for you. He’s gently knocking on the door of your
heart. He’s not going to force the door open; He waits for you to open the
door. Won’t you consider letting Him in?
It’s better than being
stuck in the mire. What do you have to lose?
Lee with two of his grandkids after returning home from the hospital
When my father-in-law
Lee suddenly had a medical emergency right after Christmas a few years ago, it
caught us all off guard. For almost a week we didn’t know anything, and all we
could do was wait for new developments.
In order to shield the
family at the hospital from having to do all the communicating through texting
and phone calls, I started emailing out updates to close friends and family. The
list of recipients grew quickly though, and soon we had our own Facebook page
to help keep people updated and to pass along specific prayer requests both for
Lee and for the needs of his family. Lee meant a lot to a whole lot of people,
and eventually hundreds of readers received the daily updates I sent out.
There must have been
some people hitting their knees hard in prayer on Lee and his family’s behalf,
because Lee eventually opened his eyes. After spending a few days in a
medically induced coma with a body temperature somewhere in the 80s, his body
had some adjusting to do when he regained consciousness. He was extremely disoriented
and weak, but, at least for now, he was still with us.
We were all thrilled to
see Lee moving in the right direction, but the world didn’t stop turning
because he was in the hospital. My young family was far from home; we were able
to stay in the area for a few more days, but I had to get back to my job. We
had already stayed about a week longer than we had planned, and we couldn’t
stay much longer. Lee was still in the hospital when we left to head back home.
The day we left the hospital, he was weak from a related surgery he just came
through, but was still happy to see us and understood why we had to leave. We
had no idea at the time, but that was the last time we would see him in person.
We made it back home the next day and we closely stayed in touch to hear the
latest news.
Time went on and Lee
got discharged from the hospital. Since his scare, the only times that I had
spoken with him were in the hospital when he was exhausted or groggy. After he
had made it home and had time to recover some of his strength, he called and
wanted to speak with me on the phone. After getting a little bit of an update
on his progress, he began to thank me. I assumed he was referring to the rescue
breathing I did for him when he initially lost consciousness. Just as I was
about to brush it off, though, he surprised me.
Of course he appreciated
my helping him live long enough to make it to the hospital, but that wasn’t the
main reason he wanted to thank me. He was more thankful that throughout all the
updates I sent out to the masses, I kept the focus on our family being open to
accepting God’s will, rather than forcing God’s will to comply with ours. Lee
didn’t have a problem with intercessory prayer, but he appreciated the balance
I put on the messaging. It turns out that on multiple occasions during his recovery
in the hospital he had read every email I sent out. He was surprised at all he
had missed while unconscious; he enjoyed reading the emails to catch up on all
of it, and he felt that the updates had taken the right approach.
That was the last time
I ever spoke with Lee. A few months after coming home from the hospital, he again
caught us off guard and unexpectedly passed from this world into the next. I’m
not sure if it was God’s plan all along to have Lee recover enough to come home
after his initial scare, or if all of the prayers sufficiently moved God to
give us a few more months with Lee, but in the end, God had His way even when
it conflicted with ours.
At Lee’s memorial
service, as a testament to his character, the church was packed with hundreds
of people. Extra chairs had to be brought in to seat everyone. Lee lived his
life knowing what was truly important while ignoring what wasn’t, and people
recognized that.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up and even be consumed by the things of this life, but it’s important to live in light of eternity. Too often we lose sight of the fact that very few of our daily struggles or any other distractions that preoccupy us will even be a memory once we’ve moved on from this life. The only things that will have eternal significance are the actions you’ve taken to know God and help others know Him too.
How’s your focus? Are you
paying attention to the things that are important? As you go through life, are
you leaving a positive lasting impact on the people with whom you interact?
Never miss a
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Technology today enables us to obtain “analytics” about everything. Most new cars tell you what kind of gas mileage they’re getting. Social media accounts tell you with ridiculous accuracy all kinds of statistics about interactions between you and your connections. You can wear a watch that tells you how many steps you take and how much and what kind of sleep you get.
What if we had
something that tells us how much time (and the level of intensity) we spend
thinking about various topics?
Uh oh. It just got
uncomfortable in here.
Think about this: your
daydreams and wishes may not always come true, but the things you spend your time
thinking about represent the direction in which your life will move. Stated another way, your life
moves in the direction of your most prevalent thoughts. If you received
a pie chart with percentages of the time you spend thinking about different
things, both good and bad, would you be pleased with your life moving toward
the biggest slice of the chart?
I have a full-time job
and a family that includes three kids. Life is busy. After we lay the kids
down, most of the time I just want to switch my brain off and watch something entertaining.
There’s definitely a time and a place for that, but if that’s what you do most
of the time, there’s not much deliberate thought built into moving your life in
the direction you want it to go. A life with thoughts that constantly drift
leads to the kind of life that does the same thing.
Time for another
hypothetical chart. How many hours a week are you a Christian? One hour,
sometimes, on Sunday mornings? Are devotions built into your day? Is there a
group you can join…some kind of a Bible study or home group you can be a part
of? A close friend with which you’re able to discuss the challenges you face in
your Christian walk?
I say this not to shame
anyone, but to help you determine if any sort of changes are in order. There
are five weeknights in a week. Let’s assume that for whatever reason, two of
them are already spoken for, and you have three nights available. Consider
devoting at least part of one of them to this second chart. Put down that book
that isn’t doing anyone any good, and pick up something that’s going to focus
your mind where it should be focused. Instead of channel surfing, there are
plenty of inspirational talks, or even sermons, on YouTube. To get you started,
check out this website’s “Additional Resources” section: https://daregreatlynow.com/additional-resources/.
Your time is valuable.
That means that you probably value the things you spend thinking about during your
small amounts of free time. Do they honor God? Strive to make that happen, and
I promise you your life will move in a better direction.
I hope you’ve either
enjoyed or gotten something out of the things that show up on DareGreatlyNow. Now
that I’ve posted over 30 entries on the website, it makes a little more sense
to explain a bit about it and how the site is laid out.
On and off over the
years I’ve had flashes of an idea that is currently embodied in this website.
At first I thought about doing a book, then it morphed into some type of
devotional, and then it showed up here. The short version is that I’ve seen and
done an unusual combination of things over my life so far, or gained unique
insights as a result of doing the things I’ve done. Many of the stories I
relate in the pages of this website are stories that ought to have become faint
memories, but for some reason they haven’t yet faded away. In writing so far,
those memories have come to the forefront and I’ve been able to tie a godly or
spiritual application to them.
Sometimes in life
you’ll encounter unusual circumstances that don’t make much sense until you’re
looking back at them in hindsight. Before you get to that retrospective moment
it can just seem like a disjointed collection of random experiences, but then
something happens to bring it all together.
This is how God works.
Not only does He weave your life’s experiences into a plan (or even a
masterpiece) for His purposes, He also weaves together the experiences of your
life with those of other people’s lives.
Have you ever felt like
you were meant for more than just the life you’re living? When you felt that
way, you probably were meant for more! You might even be
feeling that way right now. Even though the stories on this site jump around
all over the place, the central theme to which they all point is the idea that
God didn’t intend for you to live a life of mediocrity.
If you’re willing, you can accept the invitation, the
challenge, that God has extended to you. You can be a mighty warrior for Jesus
Christ.
That concept can be
fulfilled through many different avenues. If you believe the Bible, you believe
that this world will get darker before it gets lighter. Yet the Bible says that
despite all of that, the Church is still God’s plan to reach the lost. We don’t
seek to conquer or subjugate anyone, or bludgeon them into converting to
Christianity. We’ve simply been commanded to share the news of Christ with
everyone. What they do with it is up to them.
The stories posted here
are meant to encourage…to inspire…to show that big and daring things are
not beyond your reach. Although it is not my aim, it may sometimes sound like
I’m petitioning to be the next spokesman for some kind of energy drink. 🙂 I’ve
written so far about experiences in the Air Force, having a house knocked out
from under me, lifeguarding experiences, going kayaking, flying down a steep
hill on a skateboard as a kid, rappelling out of trees or down cliffs,
adventures in parenting, and figuring out how to go see the Winter Olympics.
Some of the things I
expect to address in the future include more experiences in pursuit of survival
instructor status, medical emergencies, skydiving, an adventure sports trip to
Australia, kayaking over waterfalls, a few near-death experiences, some
kneeboarding, and of course more parenting stories.
These stories are all
meant to say that you can do things you think you can’t. Hopefully they’re done
in an entertaining way. I hope to encourage you to embrace the idea that God
has empowered you to go as far as you’d like with regard to accomplishing
things for His kingdom, and that the limits you impose on yourself or allow to
be imposed on you are not your actual limits. The only limits that exist are
the ones you allow to take hold.
If you haven’t already,
I’d love for you to subscribe, but in truth, I’d love even more for you to pass
individual entries on to people that you think would benefit from hearing them.
The Church today is in a strange place, where it needs to both keep reaching
people through traditional means while at the same time evolving to communicate
with people in new ways to convey the same truth. If you know someone who’s
thinking about moving out in support of one of these directions, by all means
please point them to this blog.
Now that the site has a
decent number of entries, I’ll explain the categories and tags. When you look
at an individual post, down at the bottom of every entry it has categories and
tags listed. For every post, I try to list it under two categories: one that
tells the type of activity it is, and one that tells the spiritual lesson it’s
geared toward. If you look at the site’s homepage, all the available categories
are listed. If you wanted to see all entries I’ve written that have something
to do with stories about my kids, for example, click on “Parenthood.”
Clicking on “God Can Use You More Than You Think He Can” will bring
up all the entries I’ve listed under that category.
Tags do more or less
the same thing, but through a different way and by naming different topics. The
more entries I post over time, the more useful tags and categories will become
if you’re seeking a specific post.
So you tell me…what
do you like about the site so far? What do you dislike? Are the stories too
long? I post on Monday and Thursday mornings; is that too much? Not often
enough? How can I help get people off the sidelines and into the game? How can
I reach more people so they can be encouraged to live a life of higher impact?
How can I get Christians to believe that they have an unparalleled power living
inside them, waiting for them to unlock its potential?
Your comments are
welcome! If you don’t want to comment publicly where everyone can see it, email
me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.
