As a fan of
professional football, this is an exciting time of year. It’s playoff season.
There are 32 teams in the league and at the end of the regular season only 12
teams extend their season into the playoffs. As of today there are only four
teams left. This weekend two games will occur, and the winners of those two
games will face off in the Super Bowl during the first weekend of February.
One of the things that
make the playoffs so exciting is that anything can happen. This past weekend
the team with the best record in the league was eliminated by a team that
barely made it into the playoffs. While many of the games in the regular season
are blowouts or otherwise unexciting, each team in the playoffs has earned the
right to be there. The level of play is elevated and the games are more
interesting to watch.
When you’re watching a
great game, it’s a shame that one of the teams has to lose and be eliminated.
As the game draws near to the end and it becomes more evident which team is facing
elimination, you see the desperation as they pull out all the stops. They think
bigger; they take more risks. The really
exciting games are the ones that aren’t decided until the last play of the
game. When teams are neck-in-neck, they both raise their level of play, and the
players sometimes seem to find another gear as they push each other to perform
at their highest potential.
How is this like the
Christian life? Think of it this way: a football game isn’t over until there’s
no time left on the game clock. Sure, there are cases where games go to
overtime, but the vast majority of games end when the clock runs out. Just like
a football game, a Christian only has a finite amount of time to be on the
field, making plays for the team and for the coach. After the clock runs out,
the impact of the individual’s efforts cannot be changed. What’s done is done,
and it’s too late to go back and add anything to it.
While we don’t have the
advantage of seeing how much time is left on the clock in our lives, we can
still make efforts to “up our game” and play to our full potential. Are you
disciplined in your spiritual diet (do you consume good things and avoid bad
things)? Are you surrounding yourself with people that push you to operate at
your highest level?
When we’re done with
this life, we’re going to want to be able to say “I left it all out there on
the field.” Don’t keep anything in reserve; use it all up before the clock runs
out. If you do that, believe me, the coach is going to take notice.
In the military, especially in units that operate fighter aircraft, there’s something called a “show of force.” This is a tactic that was used a lot in Iraq and Afghanistan early in our military’s operations in those countries. A show of force is when a very maneuverable plane gets low to the ground, goes full throttle, and flies as close as possible past the enemy on the ground.
If you’re on the
receiving end, this tactic is not something that will physically affect you;
there are no shots fired and there’s typically no ordnance dropped. If you’re
unaccustomed to sudden loud noises, though, it’s something that will make you
wet your pants. The idea behind a show of forces is simply to make you cower in
fear and, at least for a little while, make you stop doing what you were doing
while you question your life decisions.
A few years back I
experienced a spiritual show of force. I had been working for a few weeks to
prepare a talk for a group at church. To use another military analogy, to “red-team”
something means to examine your own capabilities/facilities from the
perspective of the enemy, taking the opportunity to uncover weaknesses and
vulnerabilities. For the talk I had been preparing, I focused on “red-teaming
humanity” from the perspective of Satan and his fallen angels. If you’re
familiar with C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape
Letters, it was kind of like that, but delivered in the form of a
brief/presentation.
At first I thought it
was a cool idea. It was neat to gauge Humanity’s collective spiritual weaknesses.
The problem was that to do it effectively, you have to think like you’re a
member of the bad guys’ team, and that becomes uncomfortable and even troubling
to do for an extended period of time when you have Christ living in you. As the
time drew near for me to present the project, I was excited to share what I had
prepared, but I was very eager to be done with it.
I know I’m jumping all
over the place and mixing metaphors, but I need to throw another one at you.
Imagine you’re on a professional football team, and somehow your team gets hold
of your opponent’s playbook. You’d be ecstatic, but if the other team found
out, they’d do just about anything to keep you from exploiting it. I had put
together a brief that was going to show some of the basic strategies from the
Devil’s playbook. I even thought “you know, leading up to this brief, it wouldn’t
be surprising if I had some sort of experience that was a little outside the
norm.”
I had no idea at the
time, but I was spot on. Less than a week before I was to give the talk, I
experienced the show of force.
I was at a gas station,
getting my car inspected. There was a spot inside the gas station where people
could hang out while their cars were in the garage. I was sitting there, doing
stuff on my phone, when the door opened and someone walked in. I didn’t look
up, but I heard a woman start speaking strangely. I assumed two people had
walked in, or that she was speaking to someone nearby. There are a lot of
weirdos around, so I didn’t look up; I assumed she was speaking to someone she
knew. Still looking at my phone, I was surprised when she reached down and
touched my arm. I was startled to look up and see her staring down at me with a
pretty intense look.
She seemed a little bit
like she wasn’t playing with a full deck, if you know what I mean. I don’t even
remember what she said next, but I totally blew her off. She walked past me and
sat down on a chair behind me.
I wasn’t sure what to
make of the whole situation, but as I refocused on whatever I was doing on my
phone, I started thinking about some of our pastor’s main themes of his
then-current series: don’t stay silent; engage.
I kind of worked my way up to it, then turned to face this woman. I was caught off guard to see that she wasn’t sitting like a normal person. She was sort of sliding off the chair, rigid, with both arms stretched behind her unnaturally and her head tilted far back.
I plowed ahead anyway.
I asked her about one of the strange words I remembered her saying. Thus began
a bizarre encounter that I don’t even remember very much of. I do remember that
without me giving any indication of my spiritual beliefs, she started ripping
on Jesus Christ pretty hard. She behaved very unnaturally and aggressively
tried to persuade me that Christianity was false and misleading.
This went on for a few
minutes, and I can’t even tell you how glad I was when the guy told me that my
car was ready. I didn’t even care whether it passed or failed; I popped up out
of my seat and started walking his way. The woman suddenly became very adamant
about touching my hand. “Let me shake your hand.” I declined, and she extended
her hand quite urgently, saying “I need to touch you.” I later recounted these
events to my pastor, and when I asked him what that part was all about, he
explained that some people believe they can transfer spirits from one person to
another by touching. Now, because God only allows demonic forces to go so far,
I don’t think that would have been a concern, but let me tell you…I had
absolutely no problem skipping out of there without saying a cordial goodbye.
Friends, I don’t know
if this has occurred to you, but we’re in a war. There’s a whole lot out there
that our senses cannot perceive. Looking at the last 10, 20, or 30 years, it
seems like the dark forces are the ones making all the moves and all the noise
(has our country moved toward or away from Christianity during that time?). To
use another metaphor, imagine there’s a fire that needs to be put out, and that
God’s Holy Spirit takes the form of a nearby lake. The water to extinguish that
fire is present, but without something the Holy Spirit can fill, a vessel of
some sort (Christians), the water does nothing to fight the fire. Please don’t
misunderstand me; I’m not
saying that God is powerless without us, but I am saying that He chooses to
work through us. When we allow
God to work through us, we become that cup, that jug, that bucket, or that fire
hose that gets filled with the Holy Spirit and gets to have a front-row seat
when God fights the fire. Are you going to be a part of something big when God
invites you along to strike at the powers of darkness, or are you going to put
your feet up and watch TV?
Here’s part of one of
my favorite Bible stories from the Old Testament. When an enemy king and his
army tried to attack Israel, God spoke through the prophet Elisha to warn the
Israelite king, who was then able to effectively counter the enemy’s moves multiple
times. Naturally, this frustrated the enemy king, and he wanted to capture
Elisha to increase his chances of success. The most exciting part of the story is
the perspective of Elisha’s servant:
One
of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in
Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” So
he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.” And it was
told him, saying, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” He sent horses and chariots and a
great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and
gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And
his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered,
“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened
the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire all around Elisha.
-2 Kings 6:12-17
There’s more going on
than what you can see. You’re smack dab in the middle of a war. While it’s very
important to have a sober respect for the enemy’s power, don’t be put off by a
show of force. Ask that God “fill this vessel,” and that you have the boldness
to live out your faith and your calling. When you do, there’s no telling how
God will use you to fight the enemy’s fire.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. -1 John 4:4
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.
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.
This post will likely be censored or unavailable for readers in east Asia.
At the end of World War
II, many nations across the globe were exhausted, in physical and financial shambles,
and/or struggling to define their identity. One of those nations was China.
The quick version is
that in the late 1940s the two most powerful groups in China that had worked
with the United States to combat Japanese forces struggled against each other
for control of the nation. The Nationalist group, losing strength and support,
began to flee toward the ocean in order to escape the Communist group. Upon
reaching the Pacific, with the adversary not far behind, the Nationalist
leadership escaped to an island off the coast of China, an island now known as
Taiwan. The Communists went on to establish firm control over mainland China,
and vowed to someday reclaim Taiwan, which they view as a rogue Chinese
territory.
That was 70 years ago. China still intends to reclaim and annex Taiwan, by force if necessary. The Chinese Government knows, however, that if it suddenly grabs Taiwan all at once, the international outcry would be detrimental to its long-term goals, so it came up with a different plan. It’s been slowly exerting pressure on those within its sphere of influence to either support the idea that Taiwan belongs to China, or at least avoid supporting Taiwan in any way. The Chinese populace is not nearly as distracted and forgetful as we are in America, and the idea is that over time there will be so little international resistance that eventually China will reach out and pluck Taiwan for itself and the outcry will be manageable. Unfortunately for Taiwan, there’s evidence that the plan is working.
Don’t believe me? Let
me show you an example.
Not long ago Tom Cruise
introduced a trailer for his upcoming movie, Top Gun: Maverick. This is a
sequel to the original Top Gun movie that came out 34 years before the sequel.
I’ll admit, I’ve watched the trailer a few times and I’m definitely excited to see
the movie some day.
It wasn’t long after
the trailer went public that an eagle-eyed fan noticed something very peculiar.
There’s a brief shot in the trailer where Maverick (Tom Cruise’s character)
puts on an old bomber jacket that he wore in the first movie. The jacket is
full of unit patches that signify some of the assignments Maverick completed.
The fan did a side-by-side comparison of the jacket from the 1986 film and the
jacket from the sequel. He noticed that where the 1986 jacket had a large patch
containing flags from Japan and Taiwan, the 2020 movie replaced those two
portions of that patch with similarly colored ambiguous shapes.
This was not an
accident; it was quite intentional. China doesn’t get along with Japan or
Taiwan. Rather than simply write in a minor plot change that uses a different,
newer jacket, (or even avoid camera angles showing that particular patch) the
people that made this movie decided it would be best to rewrite history in
order to appease China. It would be different if China made the change itself
before allowing it to play in Chinese theaters, but here the actual patch from
the world’s first major summer blockbuster was deemed unpalatable and updated
before it was even released in America. Now the movie posters act like it never even happened,
history is erased, and the people that never saw the original won’t even know
anything happened.
Imagine…this level of
sinister manipulation by “soft power” methods is engineered by earthly minds.
If mere humans can orchestrate this type of behavior, imagine the level of
sneakiness and underhandedness that the most powerful of all angels is capable
of.
Now, before you get any
crazy ideas, no, I’m not saying that China is run by the devil. I think this
instance is an excellent illustration of one of his tactics, though. He knows
he’s headed for an epic clash that he’ll eventually lose. In the meantime
though, he hates God and us so much that his main motivation is to rob God from
receiving glory. He does it through discouraging/distracting Christians from
doing the work God calls them to do and by doing everything in his power to
prevent humans from becoming Christians. That’s it. At the end of the day,
that’s all it is.
Satan knows that a
sudden power grab is too overt and people would too easily recognize it for
what it is. With that in mind, he works a little slower, in smaller steps but
always pushing toward making the world a place where anything goes and
Christianity is labeled as too intolerant and restrictive. Think about how much
Christian influence the United States has lost over the last hundred years, or
even the last 20 years.
When you shape the
narrative, it’s much easier to control the outcome. As a Christian you can’t just
hide your head in the sand and hope things will get better; you need to engage
the culture. If someone tells you that “there are no absolutes,” you can politely
remind them that their statement is self-contradicting. If someone tells you
that “everything in life is meaningless!” you can ask whether or not they
believe their assertion has meaning.
Engage the culture.
It’s your culture, after all. Push back against ideas that run counter to what
you know God would want. It’s not easy and you might be alone, but if you don’t
do it, it won’t be long before Christians end up in a situation with the
adversary posturing to reach out and pluck this isolated refugee enclave so it
can do what it feels is best with this group of troublesome upstarts.
Boy, I’m a fan of those Marvel
superhero movies. I’m not nearly as big a fan as some of the people out there,
but it’s been fun to keep up with each new movie and see how the stories
unfold. My wife and I went to see the first one…Iron Man…when it first came out
in theaters in 2008 (she’s a cool wife). That was back before we had kids. Now,
11 years and over 20 movies later, the whole “Avengers” franchise came to a
head with its most recent installment, “Avengers: Endgame” this past spring.
It’s been very interesting to
observe, because while each individual movie was its own story, each one also
contributed to the telling of a larger story that was always looming in the
background. You’d probably be okay if you missed one or two of the minor
movies, but if you hadn’t seen any of them before and you just walked in and
watched the latest one, you’d be completely lost and you would have missed out
on so many of the details.
In the superhero movies, the good
guys always win, right? Well normally yes, but that’s not what happened last
year with “Avengers: Infinity War.” At the end of that movie, the team of
superheroes had been defeated soundly. Many of them were killed, and everyone
on the planet (and beyond) had to endure the consequences of the heroes’
failure. It was a far cry from the fun, upbeat “save the world” superhero movie
Marvel usually produced. When my wife and I went to see that one, we actually
heard kids in the back of the theater, crying.
After watching “Infinity War,” we
had to wait a whole year…until just a few weeks ago…to find out what happened
next. We knew they couldn’t just end the story like that; the good guys have
to win! We knew that by the end of “Endgame,” it would all be okay and the
heroes would be back on top, but we didn’t know what path the story would take
to get there. We could even make some solid guesses at a few of the major plot
points, but we had no idea how the movie would fill in all the details.
Photo courtesy of comicbook.com
My friends, though it’s a strange
comparison, this is exactly what it’s like being a Christian and serving the
God that created the universe. The Bible lets us know that things are going to
get very dark and bleak in the years ahead. Even right now, I’d say that during
this time period in history, fewer Americans than ever before value God or
attending church. Christianity is viewed as an intolerant and archaic belief
system that’s essentially just a bunch of rules about what you can and can’t
do. The influence of church in today’s society has weakened to the point where
even people within the Christian community pick and choose what they believe
from the Bible, or twist what it says in order to justify tolerating things God
hates. I just recently heard about the president of a seminary here in the
United States who does not believe in the virgin birth or that Jesus rose from
the dead. How far have we decayed that a person with this type of belief system
could be president of an institution that educates future pastors?
There’s good news though. The good
guys will win. What’s really interesting is that the church is still
God’s plan for the world. Christ redeemed the world, but it’s the church’s job
to get the word out. In order to let people know about it, God’s “Plan A” is to
use the church, and there is no “Plan B.”
Do you know what that means? This is
the exciting part…it means that even if the church as we know it completely
dies out and loses all influence over today’s culture, it will morph into
something new and more effective that reaches people with the news of how
unsaved souls can gain salvation through Christ. The book of Revelation
foretells of a revival toward the end. This means that the evolving
church…whatever it looks like at that point…won’t just do an okay job, it’ll
rock at it with God’s help.
Well that brings up an interesting
point. If the collective church is going to undergo so many changes, how will
we know what we’re supposed to do? If you’re really serious about studying the
fall of the church’s influence and the tough times ahead, it’s easy to stress
out. I find that the easiest way to not stress out about it is to simply follow
God’s prompting when you feel it. (You’ll know it when you feel it.) In Matthew
chapter 10, Jesus instructs the disciples about how to conduct themselves as
they go out and spread the message. Notice how he discourages worry here:
“18…and
you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony
to them and to the Gentiles. 19“But when they hand you over, do not worry
about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what
you are to say. 20“For it is not you who speak, but it is
the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”
It’s as if He’s saying “I have a
plan. I’m going to have you be a part of it. All you have to do is whatever I
tell you, and it’s all going to be okay.”
At this point, some people would say
“sure, but that’s for other people…pastors, missionaries, people who get paid
for it.” Nope. It’s for everyone that follows Christ, whether it’s your
occupation or not. We’ll all be given opportunities to be part of the plan, and
all we have to do is whatever task He sets before us.
The good guy wins in the end. We can
guess at some of the major plot points, but we don’t know how the details will
get filled in. There will be epic struggles, and we’ll lose some friends far
too soon. In the end though, the wrongs will be set right, the tears will be wiped
away, and we’ll all celebrate together when it’s over. Isn’t that the team you
want to work alongside and contribute to?
The Bible has this way of covering epic events in
just a few verses. One such story comes from 2 Samuel 23. The text is describing
some of King David’s “Mighty Men.” This section is essentially a hall of fame;
these are the bravest or fiercest warriors to serve King David. In just two
verses, the author describes the feat of a man named Shammah:
11 And after him was Shammah the son
of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where
there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the
Philistines. 12 But he stationed himself in the middle of the
field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory.
The text is light on details, but we can glean some
of the important points. In an environment of panic and fear, everyone started
running away. For all we know, Shammah initially ran away right along with
everyone else. What we know is that at some point he looked around and saw his
countrymen fleeing the enemy, and he decided he was in a position to do
something about it.
There’s so much that’s left out. Was he trying to
simply buy some time to give his comrades the opportunity to escape, or was he
committed to putting a stop to this terror, right here and right now? If he was
running away with everyone else, he probably clenched his fists as his sprint
slowed, then came to a stop. It doesn’t seem like there was anything special
about this particular place, but this was the point in Shammah’s life when he
decided to take a stand. Turning to face the Philistines, he may have thought
to himself “This is it. Enough is enough. It’s time to fight.”
Taking first one step, then another toward the enemy
army, his insolence was an affront to the Philistine warriors. First they sent
out one man, then another, to deal with this ingrate. He likely dealt with them
one at a time at first. As he struck them down, they sent pairs, then trios,
but he dispatched them all. Then they came in droves. We don’t know how it happened;
it doesn’t even say what kind of weapon(s) he had available, but considering
the feats of the other “Mighty Men,” the list is not an easy one to get your
name onto. By making this list, his feats of bravery, skill, and boldness put
him in famous company.
We’ve all got battles of our own. You might witness
some sort of injustice that you have the power to (legally) rectify. You may
have the means, connections, or resources to provide new opportunities where
they are desperately needed. Maybe right now all you have is vision and
passion. There are overwhelming odds everywhere, but the drive within you has
been building and building. When will it happen? At what point will you say “This
is it. Enough is enough. It’s time to act”?
It’s time to stop running and take a stand. The army on your heels is fearsome, but if God called you to action, don’t be discouraged. Turn and face it, take your first steps toward it, and watch God work. Station yourself in the middle of the field, defend it, and allow God the opportunity to bring about a great victory today.
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We live in a capitalist
country that’s driven by creativity and innovation. “The way we’ve always
done it” only lasts until someone comes up with a better way to do it.
Did you know that Kodak
invented the world’s first digital camera in 1975? Even though it doesn’t sound
right, that’s true. But the digital cameras that we know didn’t become popular
until the late 1990s or early 2000s. Why such a discrepancy? You’ll never
believe it. Kodak sat on the technology because executives thought it would
drive them out of the film business.
Back when film was the
way we did pictures, Kodak had a major market share of that industry. The
company let one of its employees try some hare-brained experiment with digital
technology, and he was actually able to take digital pictures in the lab.
Rather than play this hand and better position itself for the future, Kodak
focused only on the present business environment and buried the technology.
Instead of looking where it could go, it tried to prevent the present day from
turning into tomorrow.
There are many
Christians guilty of the same line of thinking. I understand that traditions
are very important, but that doesn’t give license to sacrifice effort to reach
people with the news of what Christ has done for them. The church should not be
the guardian of tradition unless the tradition we’re talking about is inventing
new ways to reach the lost. Solidify evangelism as the tradition, then foster
and encourage new ways of doing it.
The church is not made
of buildings, it’s made of people. The way people in society interact today is
different from the way they interacted 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Looking forward
from where we are now, the way people interact will likely continue to change
in the future. Speaking generally, Millenials or members of Generation Z think
and interact much differently from Baby Boomers or the Silent Generation. Is it
something to bemoan? Maybe, maybe not; I think it’s just the reality to which
we must adapt. It’s an opportunity for Christians to innovate new methods by
which they spread the news. Christians should think like corporate marketers:
how can we spread the message of Christ in an effective manner?
By way of example, one
of my spiritual gifts is exhortation, and one of my talents is writing. A
hundred years ago, that combination would result in something that looks very
different from the blog I write today. Back then it might have been a regular
column in a newspaper or magazine, or maybe a book of some kind. The modern
version is something that’s available for anyone in the world to see. While the
methods are different, the goal is the same: encourage readers to live a life
of higher impact for Christ using the gifts, talents, and resources entrusted
to them. In light of that example, visualize the things you can do, and how you
can do them differently than the way they’ve already been done.
As long as we spread
the message, it will take root where and when God wants it to. We’re commanded
to spread the word and make disciples of all nations, including our own. In a
world where everything is relative, there are people that are hungry for truth.
What part will you play in delivering that truth to them?
Programming note: between Memorial Day and Labor
Day, I’ll be cutting back to posts once a week for most of the time. It’s too
early to tell, but that might become permanent. Thanks for reading!
In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells a few
different parables to describe the period of time where we wait for the second
coming. After telling a story about not knowing when it will occur, He launches
into a story about how we’re supposed to act while we’re waiting. It’s the
parable of the talents.
In this case a talent is not a “skill.”
Here it’s a weight measurement. Before coins were used widely, it was common to
use measures of weight for paying amounts of precious metals during
transactions. A talent is about 75 pounds, and the most common precious metal
used back then was silver. In the context of the passage, we can consider a
talent about 20 year’s worth of minimum wage.
Jesus wants to drive home a point each
time He uses a parable. In this one He’s stressing that it’s important not to
rest on our laurels in terms of building God’s kingdom while we pass through this
life. In the story we have a rich man who’s heading out of town for an
undetermined amount of time. He calls three of his servants together and
entrusts each of them with a large amount of money (five talents, two talents,
or one talent), each according to his ability. Each servant is to work at
growing the value of the money he’s been entrusted with while the master is
away.
The master eventually returns, and he
calls everyone together to see what they’ve been able to accomplish. Both the
five-talent and the two-talent servants had gone out, worked hard, and doubled
the boss’s money, and he praised them both for it. The third guy hadn’t even
tried. He went out and hid the money, rather than even bother to put it in the
bank where the boss could collect interest off of the deposit. The one-talent
servant started making excuses, portraying himself as being afraid of the
ruthless opportunist that he calls his master.
“So let me get this straight,” says the
master. “You think I’m a ruthless opportunist…you fear what I’m going to do
when I find out how little you’ve done…and still
the best you can do is dig a hole and hide the money in the ground somewhere?
You didn’t even take the time to go put it in the bank so I could collect
interest?” The master takes the talent from this guy, who has proven himself
incapable of handling this amount of responsibility, and gives it to the
five-talent (now 10-talent) servant, who has demonstrated his ability to handle
it.
There are a few things I think are
interesting about this parable.
First off, the two diligent servants
received exactly the same reward, even though they brought different amounts
for their boss. This demonstrates that the reward is based on faithfulness, not
results. No matter how little (or how much) you have, be faithful with it. Even
if you don’t think it’s much, God can do big things with it if you devote it to
God’s plan (remember that Christ used a kid’s lunch to feed a crowd of at least
5,000). It’s important to remember that the master gave to them according to their ability. No matter
how much you’ve got, be faithful with it.
Secondly, this parable illustrates the idea that as you prove yourself capable of handling responsibility, you’re entrusted with more of it. When the master gave to them according to their ability, he did it with at least the partial intent to develop and grow their ability. Remember that God doesn’t need to see you demonstrate your ability to do something; He already knows better than you what you’re capable of. Demonstrating an ability to handle responsibility is more for you than for Him. At the end of this parable, there was a servant with 11 talents, a servant with four talents, and a servant with no talents. Just from the few verses we see about these men, we know that the first two didn’t always oversee the amount they eventually ended up with. Looking at your own life, have you grown in trust and capability, to the point where you can look back at past experiences and see how they helped lead to areas of greater responsibility later in life? With your current level of faithfulness, might you one day be placed in charge of 20, or even 50 talents?
This is a parable about the tragedy of missed opportunities. Our King, the master in the parable, is coming one day. We’ll be called to account for the things that have been entrusted to us, and we’ll be held responsible for the faithfulness we’re now demonstrating. In light of that accounting, will you be happy to see the Master return, or are there changes you need to make first?
Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV) 14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
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?
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