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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?
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Who In the World Do You Think You Are?

Ever feel like God’s placed a burden on your heart, and it involves you doing something that you have no business doing? (If so, you’re in good company…Abraham, Moses, Noah, etc…)

“That’s absurd,” you might say, so you brush off the idea. For some people that’s the end of it.

For others, the idea lingers. You don’t outright shut the door on the possibility, but you might not do anything to move toward the goal, either. So it hangs out there for months, years, or even longer, just waiting until you allow other circumstances to kill the idea or you begin to take more concrete actions to commit to, or achieve, the goal.

Taking the perspective of God’s opponents, what would be your attitude toward the people who seek to fulfill these aspirations? As long as they’re not making any meaningful efforts, you probably wouldn’t care; but what about when they start committing to achieving those goals? That’s when you’d want their heads filled with thoughts like “Who in the world do you think you are? You have no business doing something like that! You’re not qualified in any way to even attempt to do something like that!”

You might feel ill-equipped to perform God’s tasks. Good. You’re supposed to. My friends, that is exactly what makes the idea so full of potential as far as bringing God glory. By way of example, what glorifies Him more…when a life-long highly skilled warrior defeats a giant soldier, or when a shepherd boy defeats a giant soldier?

My schooling is in the sciences and leadership. I took a basic writing course in college that was mandatory for all students, and a few other workshops about writing for the workplace. I barely know how to look someone up on social media. I’m no more qualified to write a blog about God working through imperfect people than I am to host a televised game show. When God placed the burden on my heart to start a blog that spurs Christians on, you can imagine my skepticism.

Here’s the thing, though: obedience is our responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. That’s very important, so I’ll say it again…obedience is our responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. If you’ve been burdened with a task that you know is Heaven-sent, don’t fixate on all the things that are going to need to be overcome. That’s God’s territory and is beyond what you can see. The part you should focus on is taking action, even if it means taking the first/next step without knowing the destination or what the end goal looks like.

It’s now been a year since I started blogging on this site. This is my 84th post. Some posts touch on times of high adventure while others are more mundane and relate to an everyday kind of experience. With all of them I’ve tried to articulate some sort of life lesson that can be used to encourage you to allow God to use you for His glory more than He’s using you right now. I’d urge you to read the Purpose page that describes how the blog got its name. It’s all meant to help you take action when you recognize “you know, I think I know what he’s talking about. I feel like God’s nudging me to…” In the absence of a nudge, I want to encourage you to use whatever combination of spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has given to you. These gifts are to be employed for the very simple reason that God is glorified when His creation…you…does what it was made to do.

I want to help you live the life you were meant to live.

In closing, I want to explain a little bit about how this website works. If there’s a particular topic on this blog you’d like to read about, there are ways to sort through previous posts. Almost every post belongs to two categories. One category identifies the activity (whitewater, ropes, SERE Indoc, 2002 Winter Olympics, etc.), and is meant to set the stage for the point I want to pass along. The other category is the “moral of the story” (God can use you more than you think He can, Hang in there, Don’t let fear hold you back, Growing in Trust and Capability, etc.), and is the real purpose behind each story. You can see a list of categories at https://daregreatlynow.com/home/.

Another method of perusing the site’s posts is by using the same link to look through different tags. Tags aren’t quite as organized as the categories, but they might help you find what you’re looking for. They’re available at the same link.

I’d also love to hear feedback from you. What do you like or not like about DareGreatlyNow? Do you have any ideas that would make these posts easier to share or be available to more people? Finally, do you feel like you’ve been given a burden that you know you’re supposed to pursue, but you’re having a hard time coming to terms with it? Sometimes it helps just to tell someone, even if you do it anonymously. Feel free to comment on the page itself or email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.

You were meant for great things, but you have to remember that you’re only a vessel. Let God be in charge. Be obedient to what He’s called you to do, and He’ll take care of the rest.

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God Wants You Dead

When I was in college I took classes in Outdoor Leadership, which included developing skills in both technical areas and in leading individuals and teams toward outcomes. One day our class was learning about how to properly set rope anchors for rock climbing. Obviously, it’s very important that your equipment catches you if you fall off a rock face, so our instructor was teaching us how to secure the safety rope to a number of anchors we had established at the top of the cliff.

The instructor, Kevin, demonstrated a variety of ways to attach safety equipment to boulders and trees at the top. He made a point to emphasize that we’d need to establish three solid anchors before being able to proceed. “That way, if one of them fails, you’ve still got two. Even if two of them fail, you’ll still have one more.”

Of course, someone asked the question. “What if this one goes, that one fails, and the other one goes, too?”

Kevin looked at him, confused. “You mean if all three of them fail?”

“Yeah.”

“Then God wants you dead.”

When you have a God-given task laid out in front of you, it’s certainly a good thing to spend time planning and preparing, but there comes a point where you’re prepared enough and it’s time to get moving. Kevin didn’t want us to establish four anchors, or five. Three was enough. The chances of all three anchors failing was so low that setting more of them would have been a waste of time. If we spent time focusing on more than three, that time took away from our actual reason for showing up at the cliff that day.

It’s possible to take so many safety precautions that it becomes too cumbersome to do anything. There comes a point at which you are suitably prepared, reasonable precautions have been taken, and you’re ready to leave the comfortable behind. The only thing that remains is for you to take action.

By all means plan effectively. Expect problems and make backup plans if necessary, but don’t let perpetual planning stop you from getting started. If all the necessary pieces are in place, it might be that you are the only thing holding you back. What are you waiting for?

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You’re Not the First

Here’s a paddler going over a 10+ foot drop

By the start of senior year of college, most students are thinking about their last classes and life beyond their degree. I was thinking about it being my last year to take advantage of all the institution’s adventure sports programs.

I was into kayaking and whitewater rafting at the time. Coming back to college at the end of summer meant that the water in the local creeks and river was still warm. For kayaking, that was nice, but it was also the time of year where the flow rate was the lowest, so a lot of creeks and rivers were either too low or too slow to be enjoyable. Thankfully, we had a solution for that.

Not far from the college was a man-made lake with a concrete dam. The lake provided summer boating opportunities for visitors and residents. Every year, about this time in September, the dam operator dropped the lake’s water level roughly 10-15 feet to kill most of the shallow water algae over the winter. That way the water in these areas the following spring and summer would stay clear of excessive plant growth.

The faculty adviser for the college’s paddle sports club, a guy named Tim, was in touch with the dam operator. The operator was pretty cool about releasing the water in a time and manner that Tim would request. If we wanted a longer, sustained flow, this guy would accommodate us. If we wanted a bigger, shorter burst, he’d make it happen. The two would agree on a schedule for when the release would begin, and prior to that date’s arrival, Tim and a few other people would walk down through the creek bed with chainsaws to clear potential obstacles. It was a custom-ordered whitewater run!

I had only become interested in kayaking the previous academic year. I’m not sure why, but I got it into my head that I wanted to go over a drop in a kayak. A drop is just like it sounds…it’s a sudden change in the elevation of the creek/river bed. It could be a shelf that spans the whole width of the body of water you’re going down, or maybe a formation where one side of the river has a big drop while the other side has a more gradual slope. As it turns out, this run had a drop of probably 4-5 feet right at the beginning…great for a first-time drop. When I got the invite, this is the feature that sold me.

The day arrived and I met up with a few other guys. One of them, a maintenance guy at the college, was named Charlie. Charlie’s hobbies included woodworking and generally “MacGyvering” things. He carved his own wooden kayak paddle. He also fashioned a wooden bumper for his car when it needed to be replaced. His family hosted a number of us for dinner once, and his kids showed off a system of pulleys that allowed them to raise or lower their beds depending on whether they wanted more floor space or to go to bed. Charlie was going to walk me through my first drop.

We drove to the lake, geared up, and carried our boats down to the creek. We put in just downstream of the spillway, and the drop wasn’t far beyond. Charlie had walked me through the process a bit, laying out the mechanics of what needed to happen and the order in which they needed to happen. Much like I had learned years before, it was important to not reduce speed as you approach the drop.

Charlie was going to be the first to do the drop, so I could see where to do it and how to approach it. He worked out a signal with me before he went over the edge. A drop of 4 or 5 feet isn’t that much, but when you’re sitting in a boat that’s barely on top of the water, your eyes are only about two feet off the surface, so it looked much higher. After Charlie went over the edge, I wouldn’t be able to see him. Once he was safely down and he was ready for me to proceed, he’d stick his paddle up in the air and wave it back and forth, and that would be my “green light.”

Deciding that we were both ready, he went for it. He started paddling and kept going, right up until the bow of his boat dropped, his stern popped up out of the water, and he disappeared over the edge. A few seconds followed, and then I saw one end of a hand-carved wooden paddle stick up in the air and start waving around. It was my turn.

I went for it. I started paddling, and got faster as I neared the shelf. As I slid over the ledge, my boat’s bow dipped and for a fraction of a second I was in midair. The bow then sliced deep into the water before the kayak’s buoyancy bounced it back up to the surface. It was easier than I thought, and it was cool!

The thing that made this part of the adventure so easy was that I had someone right there to walk me through it. It was someone who had been through it before, who knew what to expect, and was physically right there to help me in case I got into a jam. In this situation, Charlie mentored me through the challenge successfully, and it was much different than if I had been there by myself and decided to try it and see what happened.

How about you? Do you have a mentor that can help guide you through a situation that’s foreign and scary to you? This life is full of unknowns, but it’s also full of people with lots of experience that you don’t have. Don’t be afraid of taking a shortcut to spare yourself some painful lessons by learning from others’ hard-won experience.

Maybe you’re more like Charlie. You’ve been around the block a few times. You see someone who’s enthusiastic but inexperienced, and it looks like they’re in an awfully big hurry to get themselves hurt or stuck in a bad situation. Why not see if they’re willing to allow you to help channel that enthusiasm into something productive? Don’t do it because you think it’ll make you look good; do it because you can help them.

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Don’t Let Go of Your Single Opportunity

There was a lake not too far away from the college I attended. Some of the college’s classes either took place on the lake or took field trips here. I did some canoeing on the lake for one of the Outdoor Leadership Training courses. The college offered waterskiing during the first half of the fall semester, too.

I don’t remember what course it was; it must have been some kind of Biology or Ecology class that brought us to the Lake one September day. Our class was going to use the same speedboat that the college used for waterskiing to go out into the lake and take water samples at various depths.

There were too many students in the class to bring out in the boat all at once, so we split into two or three groups that took turns heading out to the middle of the lake. The driver, a student named Laura, spent a few minutes driving out to deeper water, a few minutes taking samples, a few minutes joyriding, and a few minutes heading back to the dock to switch out students.

I was in the last group of students to head out on the lake. In order to make room for more students, the professor stayed behind on the dock while the rest of us rode off to the middle of the lake. As we sped along, I looked around the boat. It was very similar to the one I had driven for a few summers and had enjoyed going kneeboarding behind. As providence would have it, on the floor of the boat sat a lifejacket, a kneeboard, and a ski rope.

We started collecting our samples or doing whatever experiments we were supposed to do. I wanted to say something about wanting to give kneeboarding a try, but thought it would be too crazy. As we wrapped up our tasks on the lake, I couldn’t help myself any longer. I forget how I did it, but I asked Laura if she’d be open to letting me jump in the lake to go kneeboarding. To my great surprise, she said “sure.”

I didn’t ask any other questions. I lost the shirt/shoes/socks, emptied my pockets, donned the life jacket, grabbed the board and rope, and jumped into the water. It was cold, but I didn’t care. We got lined up, Laura hit it, and we were off to the races. The water was a lot choppier from the wind than I was used to, but I was kneeboarding in a science class.

We were far enough away from the dock, or maybe around a bend in the lake so that the professor and my classmates on land couldn’t see us. We didn’t want to goof off too long and get in trouble, so after a bit of tooling around, Laura stopped the boat and I climbed back in. We stowed everything and headed back to shore. Come to think of it, I don’t think anyone on shore even knew what we’d done.

There will be key moments in your life where you only have a single opportunity to seize the chance to do something you want to do. There’ll be times when it simply will not happen unless you step out and make it happen. If you hem and haw, you’ll be stuck watching as the opportunity passes you by.

You might have to abandon the norms you’re accustomed to. I didn’t even have swim trunks, but when Laura said she was open to my request, I was in the water with no questions asked, wearing whatever clothes I already had on.

Many times in this blog I’ve written that God will place opportunities in your path to do something great. I’ll use this post to clarify: He will place the opportunity for you to do something great just off your path. God loves the timid, but He also has a special place in His heart for the bold.

If there’s something big, bold, and brash that you feel called to do on Christ’s behalf…don’t sit on it. God might bring an opportunity near your orbit, but you’re going to have to pursue that chance…you’ll need to run after it and chase it down. If you feel called to make it happen, live with abandon. You might even have to jump into the cold water with your regular clothes on.

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Outside That Door There’s a 10,000-foot Drop

This is my hair BEFORE skydiving…

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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Don’t Rob the World of it…

The church we attend is fortunate to have a large amount of musical talent among its congregation.

Each week the church holds multiple services, so it’s asking a lot for the same people to be on the worship team week after week for all the services. Volunteers from the congregation stepped up, and as a result the worship team has a good amount of “bench strength.”

When the team is leading worship, there are usually a lot of people on stage. Normally there are two keyboardists, three or four guitarists, a drummer, and some singers. There’s a lot happening during a given song.

I’m not sure why, it’s probably the amount of movement, but my eye is always drawn to the drummer. Like any other role on the worship team, there are different types of people that play the drums. All of them can keep the beat just fine, but while some of them look calm and in complete control of the rhythm, others play with intensity and look like they’re out of breath and are right on the edge of losing musical control.

I always enjoy when one young man in particular takes his turn at the drums. Not only are his arms flailing around in perfect timing, smashing his instruments, but his head also bobs to help keep the beat. At the same time his facial expression conveys his sheer passion for the task.

The drums and cymbals our church uses are electronic; I’m guessing that someone made the decision to use electronic cymbals so that metal ones don’t overpower the rest of the worship team. They make less noise when the drumsticks physically strike them, and the sound system adds it in to the overall mix coming out of the speakers. When I’m sitting in the congregation and this guy is drumming, I can clearly hear the sound of his drumsticks slapping the cymbals no matter where I sit in the room.

This is someone that’s doing what he was created to do, and it’s a joy to behold.

We’re all created with gifts. I heard someone describe a gift as “the thing you do the best with the least amount of effort.” You might make a living from it, but not necessarily. For some people, standing up in front of a group and teaching is something that comes naturally, but for others that idea is terrifying. Some people are amazing hosts/hostesses. It’s possible to be an incredibly empathetic conversationalist and have an occupation where that skill isn’t used at all.

Your gift might be something you think is absurd, or even worthless. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it, but I’ll tell you that you’ll feel satisfaction in using your gifts to glorify God. If you make amazing fried chicken…fry it while giving God glory. If mowing grass in cool patterns comes naturally to you, mow it like there’s no tomorrow. If you write computer code or create algorithms effortlessly, write and create with passion! There’s no telling how your gift will combine with others that are using their gifts, and what that will result in.

What were you created to do? The more important question is: are you doing it? (What good is a drum that can’t be played, or a Lamborghini that sits in the garage?)

The drummer in our church isn’t changing lives or saving souls by playing the drums. I can only imagine though, that if it’s fun for me, an ordinary guy, to watch him play, our Heavenly Father is smiling even bigger to see one of his beloved children employ the talents entrusted to him to pursue his calling. Wouldn’t you like to bring the same kind of smile to God’s face?

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Season of Change

As a kid I always hated this time of year. There’s a mental shift once the calendar gets close to rolling over from August to September. Even if the temperature is in the 80s or 90s, the pool’s still closed after Labor Day. All the fun and relaxed schedules of summer come to an end, and it’s time to once again get into the routine of a new academic year.

As an adult I look forward to this time of year. The heat and humidity of summer (ever so slightly) start to fade, it becomes safer to venture outside without breaking into a sweat, and football season starts up again.

It’s a time of new routines.

Once you’re set in a routine, it becomes difficult to make changes to it. My guess is that if you regularly attend a church, there are either end-of-summer events going on right now or a series of kickoff events for various ministry programs coming up in the next month.

My challenge to you: be intentional about designing your Fall schedule. If you’re like most people, you probably don’t have a whole lot of extra time. If you’re interested in a Bible Study, some kind of home group, or discipleship class that’s starting up soon, you’re not likely to join it once it’s already been meeting for a month or two. If you want to make it happen, do what you’ve got to do so you’re at the kickoff event or the first meeting.

Hello Fall

I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but in about six weeks you’re probably not going to be willing to commit to an ongoing gathering because Thanksgiving is right around the corner. After that December starts and, well, we all know how busy that month can be, so you won’t be able to jump in to anything new until a few weeks into the new year.

Whoa! In two sentences, four months flew by! I meant for this to be a little ridiculous, but I suspect it also rings true for a lot of people. The sole point of this post is that you can’t just let life “happen” to you; you have to take control of your calendar and wrangle it so that you set yourself up to spend time doing the things you want to be doing.

The end of summer is a great time to look ahead. By all means celebrate the fun memories you’ve made over the past few months, but if you spend too much time looking backward, your schedule will be dictated for you.

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How Are You Not Cheating?!

My wife is one of four sisters, and each one of them is married with kids. The four families are spread out across the country, but when we can make it happen, it’s fun to get together.

A few times in the past, after most of the kids go down for the night, the parents have pulled out board games. It usually ends up that the teams get split into husbands vs. wives. The hubbies are able to squeak out wins in some games, but the wives are freakishly dominant when it comes to Pictionary.

I don’t know what it is; maybe all that time spent together as kids developed some kind of shared consciousness or something. It’s actually embarrassing to be on the other team. One of the sisters will be halfway into drawing a stick figure when another one shouts “ooh, ooooh…the Berlin Wall!” “YES! You got it!” Or one of them might draw a circle, and a half second later two of them will simultaneously yell “an apple a day keeps the doctor away!” After that the artist excitedly points at them and shouts “Yes, that’s it!”

Team Hubby just sits there bewildered, looking at the drawing, then at each other. The ladies are either extremely good at cheating and not letting us find out about it, or they benefit from a collection of minds that are on the same wavelength, with a singular focus and common understanding.

Oddly enough, that’s sometimes how Christianity works. I love hearing stories about how God weaves lives together to benefit one or more of them. Believers (and even unbelievers) become answers to urgent prayers. Complete strangers walk up to someone and, prompted only by the Holy Spirit, hand over money that the recipient desperately needed. Collectively, people employ their different spiritual gifts or use their various resources to achieve improbable or unique feats.

At times Christians work together without any earthly coordination. Something from your devotions combines with a “random” song on the radio and something you read (maybe even this blog!) to result in a message that’s being shouted at the hearer.

The hearer asks “what does this mean?” Well, if you’re the one hearing it, you’re the one that’s in the best position to make sense of it. Continue praying and seeking God’s guidance for your life. Not just once or twice more, but each day, multiple times a day, and He will eventually make it clear. Once He does, act on it. It’s your ticket to being a part of the freakishly dominant team.

PS – No, we don’t play Pictionary at family events anymore. The wives see that Team Hubby is getting bent out of shape, so they let us win other stuff and act like we won through our raw talent.

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Need a Boost?

I used to love going kneeboarding. You kneel on a board and get pulled behind a boat, skimming across the top of the water. It’s not as popular as waterskiing or wakeboarding, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

When I was new to it, it was really cool just to get going and go back and forth across the wake. Then you start doing little tricks, like 360s or riding backwards. Then you start hitting the wake a little harder to get some air. Then you start hitting it really hard to see how far you can jump.

After hitting the wake hard and getting a decent amount of air, somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to pull off a barrel roll. Now that I’m older and wiser, I know that we just didn’t have the right setup to make this trick work, but back then I didn’t know it was impossible. I was willing to try it as many times as I could. Each time I wanted to get just a little closer to making it happen, but there was always a point in the rotation past which I couldn’t go.

I tried dozens of times, but always ended up falling into the water without the board rotating around nearly enough. I even bought a video camera (when such things existed) and had someone in the boat film what was going on so I could try to learn from my mistakes. I have film somewhere of me rolling between 180 and 270 degrees over and over again. I’d land on my head or I’d land on my side, the kneeboard would go flying up into the air, and it never once worked out for me.

What none of us knew at the time is that I couldn’t pull off the roll without mounting the rope at a higher point on the boat. The boat’s pylon – the point where the rope I hung onto was connected to the boat – was fine for waterskiing and even basic kneeboarding, but it simply was not going to allow me to achieve what I wanted to do. The professionals that successfully do these tricks use boats with elevated mounts. That way when the kneeboarders hit the wake and make it into the air, the boat is not only pulling them forward, but slightly upward as well. It’s not a lot, but it helps provide just a little bit of extra hang time that makes a huge difference in the person’s overall ability to perform tricks.

People are like that too. Each person is unique in their own story, but there’s usually a ceiling of some kind that everyone hits. It could be trying to find contentment, get past guilt, grant forgiveness, or even trying to establish a ministry. Whatever it is, people need to be connected to something higher than just the basic level. You hit your limit a lot sooner when you’re doing it on your own, and you need that extra boost that only comes from God.

Work diligently and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, but remember to ask God for help and to guide your steps in any effort that glorifies Him. When you work hard to complete the assignment God’s given you, He provides that little boost that makes all the difference. He may not provide it exactly when you want it or exactly how you anticipate it, but He gives it to you. It’s the thing that makes a huge difference in your overall ability to perform His work.

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