As a Christian, have you ever wished you’d had a greater hand in leading someone to Christ? Maybe you had general discussions about God with non-believers, or even prayed with them, but you’ve never been part of “closing the deal.”
Well, don’t despair. God doesn’t usually do major works in someone’s life all at once; He usually does His work over the course of time. Some people might only require a short path on their way to deciding to follow Christ, needing only a few conversations or teachings from the Bible. On the other hand, other folks require an extensive amount of steps before yielding to Jesus. They may hear the truth multiple times, they may acknowledge that the theory of evolution doesn’t explain everything, and they may assent to the idea that despite “having it all,” there’s still something missing. It takes people varying amounts of time to work through that paradox.
God works in some pretty amazing ways. We never know if someone’s going to become a Christian, and if they do, how many “steps” it will take to get them there. The important thing to remember is that whether it’s three steps or 705, each one of those steps needs to happen before they bow their knee to the Lord. Being a part of any of those steps helps them get to the end of the journey.
If you interact with someone in a God-honoring way at any point before they accept Christ as their Savior, take joy in participating! You may not learn in this life what happens to that person’s eternal disposition, but then again, you may have brought them a step closer to seeing them again someday after this life is over.
So even if you don’t pray with someone to accept Christ, don’t give up on helping them work toward that goal.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. –Galatians 6:9
Just a quick note today. Congratulations to President-Elect Trump and all those who supported him.
As we all know, elections are contentious issues in our country. Just about half of the country is guaranteed to be disappointed. Many times the winning candidate will speak of unity, or about “being a president for all Americans.” I think that’s noble, but things often go off the rails and that notion falls by the wayside quickly.
So today, I ask that if you’re a Trump supporter interacting with those who supported Vice President Harris, please don’t gloat or spike the football. It could be family, friends, coworkers, or the person you see at the grocery store. Maybe it’s at the Thanksgiving table in a few weeks. If we truly want to move forward as a country under the banner of unity, it’s not helpful to throw a victory in anyone’s face. Let’s assume we’re all Americans and want to move closer together, not further apart.
Maybe this post is reaching you a day or two late and you’ve already been an instigator in some of those “victory!” conversations. I ask that you build people up, not tear them down. Criticize ideas, not people. If an apology is in order, please follow through with one.
And if nothing else, at least the political ads are over now!
I wouldn’t say I’m an authority on the issue, but it seems to me there’s a natural pattern of progression and growth Christians follow.
Before I get into that, I feel it’s important to state God works according to His plan and schedule, not ours. If someone spends much more time in a given phase than someone else does, it could be because God wants it that way. It could also mean they’ve stalled in their growth, but if that’s the case I feel it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to hound them, not ours (though I’ll concede there’s a difference between lovingly confronting someone and hounding them).
I’m going to describe the Christian’s progression in five phases. Again, I’m not an expert on this, it just seems like this is a regular pattern based on my observations. The lines can easily get blurred. People might skip ahead, revert back, or repeat some of them, but in general, it seems to consist of the following pattern.
The first of the Christian’s phases is conversion. No surprise here. This is the switch from Satan’s kingdom to the Lord’s kingdom. It’s that recognition and acceptance of reality: “I’m a sinner, and I can’t meet God’s standard of perfection.” It’s here they recognize their shortcomings and their need for Christ’s sacrifice. Hell lost another one, and it makes the angels celebrate.
The second phase is thankfulness to God. Often there’s a sense of “there’s nothing I can do to repay Christ for the gift He’s given to me.” That can be very difficult for some people to accept, especially those who’ve worked hard to earn what they’ve got. Those people may spend the rest of their lives in this second phase. A heart full of genuine thankfulness and praise is often a hallmark of this phase. Think of the thief on the cross next to Christ. He spent a small fraction of his life as a believer, yet it seems to perfectly dovetail with God’s plan.
Third is a dedication to living a God-honoring life. People in this phase read the Bible and soak up its lessons, becoming a new creation in Christ. This phase can look very different for people. While Christ breaks the bonds of addiction for some almost instantly, others walk a long road toward recovery (with Christ walking alongside them every step of the way, even if they never fully get there). Some people turn their backs on their old ways or non-Christian friends and leave their surroundings while others become infused with Christ and bloom right where they’ve been living. For some this could mean fleeing an oppressive environment for one more conducive to cultivating a Christian life. I think of converts to Christianity in areas of the world where such declarations are dangerous; once you can no longer hide your conversion even if you might want to, you’re probably at least in this third phase.
The fourth phase is stepping into one’s calling. All Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts at the moment of salvation. Taken together with their natural inclinations and interests, these characteristics generate opportunities for Christ-followers to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. It’s when they step into the role they were made for. This is where they live out Romans 12:1, becoming a living sacrifice. A big part of getting to this step is realizing you don’t need more training. You don’t need to pursue any more degrees. You already have everything you need to start doing what you’ve been called to do. It’s time to get out there and impact the world through your God-given calling, whatever that is. It’s not your job to feed the 5,000; it’s your job to bring the loaves and fish.
Finally, phase five is mentoring. Christian mentors have been believers long enough to offer the benefit of their experience as they see brothers and sisters in Christ struggle with various challenges. It’s difficult to overstate how life-giving it can be when, while facing something incredibly difficult, you find someone who’s been where you are and perfectly understands your fight. I think of infants’ moms wrestling with post-partum depression, overwhelmed immigrants in a strange new land, couples struggling to adapt to their new marriage, and young pastors getting ready to throw in the towel. The beauty of this phase is it doesn’t take any special training. You probably already possess the hard knocks experience required for the role. You just need to be open to coming alongside someone who needs you.
Again, I want to emphasize the importance of not turning this into an ego thing and judging success by the phase number reached. Each of these phases has their own brand of challenges and God custom-builds different people for different roles. Maintain humility and do your best to live a God-honoring life in whatever phase you find yourself. Do your best to do what God made you for, and phase numbers won’t matter.
This one’s kind of tricky because it’s easy for this post to get crass quickly. I’m talking mostly to my sisters in Christ here. I have to say right up front…the information in this post has the potential to be very helpful for others if you use it well, but you can also harm them tremendously with it. Please, please, please…use it for good. If it turns out you’ve been doing some of this stuff unknowingly, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. If you use it with bad intentions though, you’re going to have to stand before the Savior and answer for it someday.
In some way or another we’re all guilty of saying to ourselves “that’s not how I think” or “that thought never even occurred to me.” Okay, well, that might be true, but not everybody thinks (or doesn’t think) the same way as you. Believe me, this is a thing.
Have you ever just been going along, minding your own business (even trying to be on good behavior), when BAM! A thought from left field comes and completely derails you? Sometimes you know what triggered that derailment, other times it’s a mystery. Now imagine discovering you’re the one that derailed someone else in that same manner.
Unfortunately there’s no way to look at someone and accurately judge their character flaws, so you’ll have to treat the following statement as if it’s true all the time, because you just don’t know. While it’s certainly not universally true, a lot of us men are pigs. There’s not really an easy way to say this. Ladies, many of you are making your brothers in Christ stumble because of the wardrobe choices you make.
Here’s the part I’m trusting you to use good judgment with. When it comes to the female form, our piggish eyes tend to be drawn to at least one of three areas (aside from your lovely eyes, of course): chest, caboose, and legs. I know this from years of being a guy and from years of being around guys in the field of construction and in the Department of Defense. If you’re blessed in one or more of these three areas, believe me, there are lots of dudes that are very, very happy for you, even prompting some to spontaneously praise the Lord. Unfortunately, there is a very large number of men out there that struggles with lust, and the struggles that come from our sisters in Christ seem to be unnecessary.
Now some will balk and say “oh, come on, it’s nothing they don’t see everywhere.” While absolutely true, that’s the problem. If you let a guy see a little too much, it’s one more knick in the “death by a thousand paper cuts” idea. The choice of whether or not to indulge in sinful thoughts or actions ultimately lies with the individual, of course, but if you’re his sister in Christ, the way you dress shouldn’t prompt thoughts that shouldn’t be there. Shouldn’t a man be safer from temptation-inducing thoughts when he’s around a fellow Christ-follower?
Now I’m not saying you need to wear a burqa or puffy clothes everywhere, not at all. Here are some things I’ve noticed, though. In church, I’ve seen dresses or tops that are a bit more low cut than they ought to be. Is that dress or are those pants a little too tight in the rear? I’ve seen dresses or miniskirts with hemlines higher than the wearer’s extended fingertips. Probably the most common “visual stumbling block” to your brothers in Christ out there now is the prevalence of leggings/workout pants. I totally understand wanting to avoid loose-fitting clothes when working out or participating in activities where you don’t want clothes flapping around, but if you’re not engaged in anything like that and you’re walking around in skin-tight pants out in public, you can see how this might be a problem for a guy who’s trying really hard not to look. Heaven help us when we go to the gym and there are attractive, fit women wearing clothes that draw attention to all three of these areas. Again, the individual man is responsible for his thoughts and actions, but he can’t always control the things that prompt certain thoughts. Imagine if you’re a recovering alcoholic and when walking down a busy sidewalk, store owners are handing out samples of booze. No, alcoholics know they need to avoid certain places, but for “lust-aholics,” church, along with environments known to be populated with a high prevalence of Christians, should be safe places to be.
If you’re already aware of this phenomenon and dress in a way that makes it easier on us, thank you. Fellas, I’ll bring you back into this now. I’d ask that you, along with your ladies, please influence your sisters, daughters, nieces, and granddaughters with these things in mind.
For the young ladies out there, your clothes go a long way in determining the type of guy you attract. Dress like you respect your body and you’ll probably attract one that treats you better over the long term. Dress like you want guys to ogle your body and you’ll attract the kind that might treat you really well in the short term, but the nice treatment probably doesn’t last real long and you’ll likely end up going through more relationships. Believe me, the quality guys will notice too, but they’ll be crowded out or intimidated by the chuckleheads licking their chops while circling you.
Now, within the context of marriage…how do I say this? Green light. Full throttle. Go to town, especially if you worked hard for it. Christians don’t need to be prudes. Have you read Song of Solomon? If you got it, flaunt it (to your one and only). Try to make the hubs say “God created woman, and he saw that it was goooooood.” Desire is a powerful thing, and marriage is the only place God intended it to be fulfilled. For both husband and wife, don’t give up and throw in the towel on your appearance after the “I do’s.” Honor, respect, and appreciate one another for the long run, in all kinds of ways.
Finally, for those out there that may be struggling to find their calling…maybe someone reading this needs to consider trying the very challenging task of designing or making new lines of very fashionable, yet perfectly appropriate clothing. It could be any type: street clothes, professional clothes, athletic apparel, you name it. Give it a shot. God will probably bless you if it’s your calling.
On a lighter note about the differences between male and female bodies…
(If you’ve got an extra minute or two, have a read over the diary entry below. If not, feel free to skip it.)
We’ve all got quirks. They start when we’re young, but they don’t always resolve themselves as we get older (sometimes they become magnified). I think this becomes most evident in long-term relationships.
My wife and I have been married for over 17 years now. We definitely have quirks of our own. Some of them are stereotypical for men and women, others are maybe more specific to us as individuals. By way of example, if I’m looking for something specific in the refrigerator, I can open the door and turn the fridge upside down trying to find it, even looking right at it multiple times, and still not see it. Then my wife comes along and with a “seriously?!” expression, homes in on it in under a second and a half. At the same time, she can have a song in mind, and it sounds just like the real thing inside her head, but when she tries to hum it, no matter what it is, it always comes out sounding like Smooth Criminal.
I’m blessed to have a spouse that’s pretty easy for me to be married to. Even so, we have to deal with differences of opinion, different perspectives, and quirks in general. She’s very patient and polite when I hear a random voice inflection or odd combination of words or music notes that somehow reminds me of a movie scene from my childhood, or some bizarre scenario reminds me of a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, and then I take an unreasonable amount of time to provide the context and summary of that scene or comic, which ends up being pretty unremarkable.
While not true in all cases, by and large, men tend to have a more compartmentalized mental arrangement as they go about their day. If you could peek inside our brains, you might see our conscious focus addressing only one thing at a time. There’s the wakeup routine. Then comes the commute. Then he’s at work, thinking about work stuff. Afterwards he has to run errands on the way home. All of those things tend to stay within their respective zones without much bleedover unless some sort of unusual circumstance affects things. My mind works this way most of the time, and is very helpful when it’s time to put certain things on hold. When I leave work, it’s time to stop thinking about work. When it’s time to sleep, I stop thinking about stuff and I’m usually out within two minutes of closing my eyes.
Women, on the other hand (again, not in every case, but more often than not), have “spaghetti brains.” There are no different sections of the brain that conscious thought is split into. It is literally everything, everywhere, all at the same time. There are individual lines of thought that touch on wildly vacillating topics. One may lead to the next, but they may just as easily have nothing to do with each other. All of the following thoughts can occur within the same minute: “Where did I put that thingy I don’t need anymore?” “I can’t believe Charlotte thought I took her yellow sweater in 7th grade; I should look her up and see if she’s sorry.” “Puppies!” “Don’t forget to pick up snacks for the kids’ soccer team.” “LAUNDRY.” “I’d eat a bug if they let me sleep in tomorrow.” “My bra hates me.” “Lose weight, lose wei…CANDY!” “Children are a gift of joy wrapped in toil.” “Organize 1,087,017 pictures into a slide show.” “The check engine light came on.” It’s a constant barrage of swirling and churning thoughts that would bring me to my knees. My wife and I can go to bed at the same time, but she’ll be awake much longer than I am because a lot of those thoughts need to fizzle out before sleep comes.
You can imagine that the communication styles of these two vastly different brain structures also require some give and take. I can do some multitasking, but I prefer to focus on one thing at a time. If I have an idea about something else while I’m working on my main task, I write down the other thing or email it to myself, so that I can focus harder on it when I have an opportunity. In conversations, I look for transitions to help prompt me that we’re moving on from one topic to a different one. I find that sometimes I’m ill-equipped to handle my wife’s communication needs. She can unleash a conversational stream of consciousness that I can’t possibly follow along with, covering a myriad of topics in a single breath. I struggle to see the connection between the different topics we’re zooming through. If I had a video of myself trying to keep up, I think I’d see myself listening with one eye squinted shut tight and the other bugging out of my head as I try to hang on just a little bit longer. Yet this conversational style is effortless when she’s among her sisters or close friends, while us brothers-in-law/husbands use about a fifth of the words they do (on a good day) and just kind of nod periodically.
These are some fun examples, but they’re meant to help illustrate the following point. We are different, and while sometimes those differences are great, other times those differences drive us nuts. Humans in general are hard to get along with, much less live with. Even so, God put a whole bunch of us here. A lot of the Bible is about how to get along with other people. Marriages are the basics for family life. I understand that not everyone is blessed to have two parents married to one another, but that’s what God intended. Those marriages require work, and they often require grace.
Our culture today says that you should be you-focused. “Do what makes you happy! You deserve it!” In reality, marriages are “we-focused.” You’re a team, and teams need to work together to move forward. You’re not perfect, and your spouse isn’t perfect. That’s why you both need to extend some grace and flexibility. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
One time when I was pretty young, one of the neighbors hosted a bunch of the neighborhood kids for a backyard campout. I don’t remember the group size for sure, but there were probably about four to six of us that had a campfire and spent the night in a tent.
This was my first time sleeping outside (it’s probably a stretch to call it camping), but I had grown up with lots of campfires. We had a roaring bonfire, and we kept it going for awhile. I’m more of an early riser than a night owl, so it didn’t take long for me to turn in for the night while a few of the other guys stayed up around the fire.
The next morning I was one of the first to wake up. The tent was humid and stuffy, so I headed outside. With nothing much else to do, I wandered over to the campfire pit. The fire had gone out, but the stones and ashes were still warm. Using a stick, I stirred the ashes around, looking for embers that were left over from the previous night.
I found a single ember that wasn’t much larger than a spark. As soon as I uncovered it, it started glowing brightly. As a fire dies down, a layer of ash settles on the hot coals and creates a blanket that prevents the coals from getting fresh oxygen. The coals use up whatever air it can reach, then go into a dormant, smoldering state until either the fuel or air run out, or more fuel and air become available. When I uncovered the ember it the fresh oxygen revived it, but it was about to run out of fuel. I looked around nearby and found some dry leaves and pine needles and set to work trying to rekindle the fire.
With some patience and fanning, the leaves and needles soon began smoking heavily, and finally caught fire. I grabbed more nearby kindling and began building the fire to the point where it was crackling. By the time everyone was awake, it was roaring again.
All of us have sin in our past. Some have a past that includes addictions of some sort, which is very difficult to ever be completely free of. It could be drugs, alcohol, pornography, or any number of other vices. A percentage of those people are able to overcome the worst of it, but they know they must completely turn their back on that addiction if they are to remain free of it. If you know someone that’s a recovering alcoholic, for example, and they haven’t had a drink for many years, it’s a bad idea to encourage them to celebrate a special occasion with “just one” small drink.
Those people know themselves; if they’ve decided to completely abstain from the object of their addiction because they know it’s the only way to remain free of it, please respect that. A roaring fire can dwindle to just one small ember, but an ember is all it takes to build a raging and crackling flame once more.
It can be tough trying to find a church you like. I fully recognize that, but sometimes people take things to the extreme.
Churches can be a little too this, or not enough of that. The natural inclination is to look for a church home that meets your preferences. That absolutely makes sense. It’s important not to set the bar impossibly high, though. “The Perfect Church” simply does not exist. Even if it did, it would be ruined once you, an imperfect person, started attending there.
“I don’t like the worship.”
“I don’t like the preaching.”
“It’s not welcoming enough.”
“The people there are too friendly.”
These can all be criticisms of a church, but let me point out that when you walk into a church for the first time, you’re likely to find what you’re looking for. That is to say, if you’re looking for a reason not to like a given church, you’ll probably find one. If you’re looking for hypocritical behavior, it’s probably only a matter of time before you encounter it. If you’re looking for someone to do or say something that doesn’t jive with your preferred code of conduct, yes, it’s going to happen.
Instead, I’d like to propose that you walk into a church looking for solid Bible teaching and a congregation of people that’s imperfect but loves Jesus, loves each other, and wants to spread the Gospel. Once you find that, be on the lookout for a way to volunteer your spiritual gifts in humility. (By humility, I mean exactly that…even if you believe you’re blessed with more talent than whoever is already serving in that capacity, you should not expect to impress everyone and be given the leeway to transform an existing ministry into the version you’d like) A healthy church welcomes new attendees and looks to employ those new attendees’ spiritual gifts and willingness to serve.
Rather than looking for reasons not to attend a particular church, look for the things you know God would applaud about the church and the ways you can fill the role of the missing puzzle piece that makes the church a more complete entity. Christianity isn’t a spectator religion; you’ve got to get involved. Maybe you haven’t found the church you like because the one you’re attending is still missing the thing you can offer.
Who knows? Your contribution to the congregation may be the thing that makes a future newcomer say “yes, this feels like my new church home.”
If you trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, congratulations! You are Heaven-bound!
Don’t forget, though, that there’s a lot more for us to do. There are a whole bunch of people that are not blessed the same way we are. While I’m thrilled that we’ll get a chance to chat in Heaven even if we never meet in this life, now’s not the time to take our feet off the gas pedals. This lifetime is the only opportunity we get to make an eternal difference in someone else’s life.
The obvious question is “well what am I supposed to do?” The short answer is that I don’t know the specifics for your life, but in general terms: seek God’s will for your life. Believe me, He’ll call you to serve somehow if you’re actively seeking. For some it’s being Jesus’ hands and feet by volunteering in a soup kitchen or somewhere you’re desperately needed. For others it’s evangelism either right here at home or somewhere far away.
It’s easy to see how those things serve the Lord, but what if you feel you’re not good at anything like that? Well then do the thing you’re good at, and do it to the glory of God. If you’re good at baking pies, bake pies. If you’re amazing at cutting grass, cut grass. Know engines like the back of your hand? Keep working on ‘em. Even if you don’t see how it serves God, be faithful in the little things and trust Him. Over time your role in the grand scheme will become clearer.
The Body of Christ is like a giant puzzle, with each Believer contributing a piece to the overall picture. None of us know what the picture’s supposed to look like when it’s finished, but you don’t add much to the picture by not pursuing your calling. We’re ministry partners that are still waiting to learn how our individual ministries tie together. If and when we get a chance to catch up in Heaven, let’s make that topic a must-discuss point.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. -Romans 12:4-5
Have a unique talent or ability? God can use it for His glory.
When I was in high school I got involved in rappelling, and that interest further developed in college. I was fortunate enough to be able to take college coursework that provided me with instruction on safely using the equipment used in descending down cliff faces. It was a lot of fun; I started doing some outside-the-box stuff with it, and I’ve written about some of those adventures elsewhere in this blog. While I was in college friends and I rappelled off cliffs, out dorm windows, set up ziplines, and made promotional videos. Some of you may remember the post I made a few months back about rappelling down a cliff in a kayak.
After college, I was no longer surrounded by the same kind of people that “encouraged the crazy.” I moved back in with Mom and Dad for awhile and worked construction for a bit. During this time I helped out with our church’s youth group.
Every Presidents Day weekend, our high school youth group took part in “Winter Weekend” at a nearby Christian conference center. All the youth groups from our denomination’s district were invited to take part, and it was generally one of the high points of the year for the high schoolers.
Killing a few hours between daylight filming and nighttime filming. Some of the grease paint rubbed off when I blew my nose.
This particular year, the organizers asked Allen, the leader of our youth group, to film a video about some of the rules that would be in effect during that weekend. It was supposed to cover things like curfew/lights out times, not riding in personal vehicles, etc. To make it more fun to watch, Allen decided to add an entertaining twist. He recruited a couple of guys to be the rule-breakers in the video, and he asked me to more or less be the “bogeyman” that always caught them. I dressed in camo and grease paint for the video, and popped out of ridiculous places to catch the guys doing bad things. Then on opening night after the rules video finished playing, the plan was for the two guys to walk out live on stage, looking like they were going to do something shady. My role at that point would be to rappel down from the ceiling, gently touch down behind the two guys without them noticing, tap them on the shoulders, and then chase them out of the room. Honestly it sounded like a lot of fun, so I agreed to do it.
I had some camo gear from the Salvation Army store, and I had some leftover camo paint from something I did in college. We shot the video one cold February day and Allen spliced it together the way he wanted.
On the first night of the weekend, before they let any of the high schoolers into the auditorium, I dressed and geared up, and some people moved a scissor lift into place for me. While people were putting the finishing touches on the stage decorations, I rode the lift up into the rafters above the stage, set up the anchors and rope I’d need, and climbed off the lift onto a metal beam. They brought the lift back down, rolled it backstage, and then opened the doors for the first session of the weekend. I probably sat up in the rafters for 20-30 minutes, waiting for my next part. While I waited I painted my face up in camo, checked and re-checked my equipment, and tried to avoid having the lower half of my body go numb from sitting on a thin cold metal beam.
Once the session started, they welcomed everybody, then went over some of the things you have to cover right at the beginning. Then it was time for the rules video. It had a pretty positive reaction, and I could hear laughter from the crowd during different parts of it. As it drew to a close I slid off the beam and transferred my weight into my harness. Once I was steady I swung upside-down.
The two guys walked out onto the stage, almost right below me. The crowd started going nuts for them (everybody either missed the point of the video or they thought the two guys were cute, I dunno). I waited just a few beats for the crowd to show their enthusiasm and then started sliding down head-first. The rope I used didn’t hang down to the stage; I wore a backpack that held the rope, and I had pre-measured it so that it was just enough to safely get to the ground, but then the tail end of it was easy to pull right through the rest of the gear so I could chase the guys without having to stop.
It was a little strange. As I came into the audience’s view, the cheers of the crowd went quiet while they tried to understand what they were seeing. I came down right in front of the screen the video had been playing on, so they were probably trying to figure out if I was a real person or if they were watching something that was being projected.
I descended low enough to reach the ground, flipped rightside up, and pulled the rest of the rope through my gear so I was disconnected from it. I stepped up right behind the two and tapped them each on the shoulder. They looked at me, gave each other a funny look, and then sprinted off the stage and up the main aisle of the auditorium with me right behind them. The crowd burst into cheers again.
The photographer was a little late on this one, but it’s the best photo I’ve got. You can see my feet criss-crossed on the rope against the background of the screen. The two “bad guys” are just to the left of the “One Way” sign.
Now…did this stunt lead anyone to Christ? I can’t imagine it did. Sliding down a rope upside down just doesn’t have that kind of effect on people. The important thing to remember, though, is that Christianity is a team sport. The speaker that weekend, the various youth leaders, and the counselors leading small group discussions that weekend all did the heavy lifting in that area. All I did was help break the ice and bring a smile to the face of people who were still deciding whether or not they had made a mistake in coming to this retreat.
One of the neat things about Christianity being a team sport is that even though we don’t actually huddle together to go over the strategy, God knows exactly what His players’ strengths are, when to use them, and how to motivate them. Believers that are complete strangers can unknowingly help each other out if God sets it up that way. When He needs someone to move on His behalf, He starts working on some people three years ahead of time, but only 10 seconds ahead of time for others. In the end, His timing is perfect…you just need to say “I’m in.”
So I urge you: be open to using your unique talents. Even if they don’t directly lead to salvation for someone, you can’t possibly know how your part factors into the furthering of God’s kingdom until after you’ve done it.
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. -1 Corinthians 12:12
I’ve always been interested in the idea that a multitude of individuals can perform their own distinct (and widely varying) jobs to the best of their ability, but someone over them (a manager, a coach, a superior officer, etc.) oversees and puts together those collective efforts to make something really big happen.
Some people take a different view. They think of themselves as running in the rat race. They don’t want to feel like they’re a cog in the wheel. If you derive your life’s purpose from an unfulfilling job, yeah, you’re going to feel like “just another brick in the wall,” as the old song goes.
But what if you derive meaning from God’s purpose for your life? If you do that, it’s a whole new ballgame. It’s often difficult to see in the moment, but as you look backward, you can see that things fell into place and coalesced in a way that helped you get to where God wanted you to be. Sometimes those things are the actions that other people are taking and other times it’s the way events seem to unfold. When it’s all said and done, a lot of things came together in a way that enabled your goal, your purpose, to go farther than it otherwise would have. It’s like you were part of a puzzle, and your piece and all the other pieces had to fall into place for the picture to be completed.
I’m going to shift gears on you a little bit here. When I was a kid I had lots of different books that I got from yard sales, thrift stores, hand-me-downs, etc. One of the books I had was a Flintstones book. I dug around online a little just now, and it was called “The Great Balloon Race.” I don’t remember much of the story, but as you turned the pages, in one of the upper corners of the page there was a picture of Fred juggling three balls. Each time you turned the page, something about that picture was slightly different, but it didn’t really become evident what was going on until you treated the whole thing like a flipbook. Starting at the beginning of the book, Fred walked onto the page and faced the reader. He tossed a ball into the air, then another, and then another. If I remember correctly, each of the balls made a few uneventful loops as Fred started to put on a show, but then he fumbled one of them. You could see his facial expression change as he realized his mistake. When he focused his attention on that particular ball, it made it difficult to keep track of those still remaining in the air. A second ball danced past his fingertips and fell toward the floor. You saw his eyes start to shift toward the last remaining ball in the air, but by now his rhythm was thrown way off, and he had to swipe at it to even get close. That action just ended up batting it off into the distance and out of reach. Left with nothing, he then looked at the reader, shrugged, and walked back off the page by the end of the book.
Our Christian lives are like flipbooks, but the metaphor goes a layer deeper. Just like before, each individual page of the flipbook is a puzzle, and you’re one piece among many. When you’re doing the will of God, your actions are fitting together with the actions of other believers. This flipbook was already in progress before you were born; one day you walked onto the scene, and there were other pieces that connected with you to form a single, larger picture. The pieces connecting with you may have been Sunday School teachers, a grandparent or parent, a friend, a pastor, or maybe someone you heard on the radio or TV. That particular picture may have also included a family or job situation, a specific time or place, or a set of circumstances that led to your acceptance of Christ. Those other pieces, who were themselves affected by other Christians earlier in the book, had an effect on you that grew you in your Christian walk.
Whether your Christian walk lasts for decades or for only a few minutes at the end of your life, you at one point walk onto the scene, and you’ll someday exit the scene. Each page that happens in between is its own puzzle that consists of numerous other “cogs in the wheel” that are doing what God has charged them to do. None of the individual cogs has insight into what the whole picture is shaping up to be or what kind of story the flipbook will tell, but they know that there’s a grand artist that’s in charge and is steering the path of where the story’s going. After all, when God called individual followers into their individual callings, He had their subsequent interactions already arranged in His mind. You do your part, other people do their parts, and God brings it all together.
Someday you’ll exit the flipbook altogether and it will continue without you. Your calling is meant to bring glory to the Lord, and many times that involves inspiring or somehow helping another “puzzle piece” to live out their Christian walk. Be watchful for opportunities to be a piece of another puzzle that’s a page in one of Christ’s flipbooks. One day you’ll be able to reconnect with all the other people that were involved in the same pictures you were, and you’ll be able to watch how the flipbook turned out.
Lord God, You are intimately involved not only with my life, but with the lives of everyone else on this planet. You’re in the process of telling a grand story, and right now, in this moment, we’re a part of the story for a limited time. Thank you for giving us opportunities to be part of the story; please help us to have the boldness and strength to accept Your invitations when they come. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
