Tag: challenge

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To the Class of 2020

Graduations look a little different these days

It’s difficult to overstate the level of disruption the Coronavirus has brought into our daily lives. A few years from now we’ll likely view this period as a lost six months, year, whatever. For many of us, we’ll probably be able to shake off this experience and view it as no more than a strange blip that we lived through. There are simply some things, however, that will be permanently lost. One of the first that comes to mind is the opportunity to walk with your peers at an in-person graduation ceremony.

Whether we’re talking high school or college, your senior year is special. After all the waiting, you’re now in the class that’s at the top of the heap. After graduation, you’ll probably keep in touch with some of your friends, but it’s never quite going to be the same again. In that sense, graduation ceremonies are bittersweet mixes of celebrations and goodbyes. In my mind the lack of an opportunity to partake in a traditional ceremony robs students of closure both in triumphing over the academic struggles and in parting ways with classmates.

To all the Seniors out there, I’m sorry the virus robbed you of this memorable experience. There’s nothing I can do to restore that for you, but this week’s post is in honor of you, and hopefully you can live vicariously through the experiences shared here. It’s nothing major, but hopefully it’s at least fun to read.

One other major thing that distinguishes your senior year from all others is that, as upperclassmen, you’ve got dibs on pulling pranks. It’s important to understand that pranks are usually pretty pointless in terms of what they achieve, but they can be a thrill to plan and execute. The journey is the destination. Very seldom does a prank result in something that alters the course of history, but history is full of memorable “what was the point of that?” pranks.

As a senior in college, I was super busy my senior year (see this post for more background about how I brought this on myself). Some of my friends and other people from my class took part in some antics around the campus, but I just didn’t have the time to participate. A group of my friends snuck into the cafeteria one evening under the noses of the cafeteria workers and swiped a few stacks of the trays students used during meal times. They then brought them to the gym after hours, where one of the participants had “accidentally” neglected to secure a certain door upon locking up for the night. The next morning a whole bunch of meal trays were discovered floating in the pool, and I’m not sure how the cafeteria supplied trays for breakfast.

To our college’s credit (and to our dismay as student delinquents), they had a fantastic prank clean-up crew. I was on my way to class one winter morning, at least a few days after it had snowed, and as I walked along one of the main routes that included a tunnel through one of the buildings, it was odd to see one of the maintenance staff using a snow blower to remove a huge pile of snow near the tunnel entrance. I didn’t think too much of it until later, when I learned that someone I knew and a group of his buddies had filled up the bed of a pickup truck with snow multiple times, and then proceeded to dump the loads of snow in front of this tunnel. (And I know at least one of you is reading this…it was a great attempt, thanks for filling me in on it later!)

We eventually figured out that the diligence of the “clean-up crew” was the largest barrier to the “epic-ness” of whatever prank we would attempt. How frustrating it was to undertake these endeavors only for them to be covered up or countered by the college staff. We had to come up with something more diabolical. (These days I use my creative powers for good. Mostly. I am a dad of three kids, so there’s still some mischief.)

In our last month of senior year, a group of us decided that in order to have a bigger impact, we had to do something that would overwhelm the ability of the cleanup crew to quickly return things to normal. We decided that to get the largest percentage of the student body to see our handiwork, we would target the campus chapel on one of the nights before a chapel session would be held the next morning.

Coincidentally, all of us had work/study jobs as a way to pick up a little money. One of us had a job as a janitor somewhere on the campus. I don’t remember if it was a little at a time or if it was all at once, but one guy snuck a garbage bag full of toilet paper rolls that would be used to TP the chapel. Considering how precious a commodity toilet paper has been over the past few months, this seems like it could be considered a felony today. It also lends some insight into the truth behind why tuition prices keep going up so much.

I didn’t have an appreciation for how wasteful this was until recently

I was still very busy with things to do, but on this occasion I figured out a way to get stuff done while being a part of this prank. We had recently returned from an eventful club whitewater rafting trip, and I wanted to record many of the details in a journal before I forgot them. (You can read about some of those adventures here and here.) Between classwork, activities, studying for finals, and winding down my final college semester, I didn’t have time to effectively capture those memories. I even recorded more of those trip details while sitting onstage during Baccalaureate and graduation.

For this prank, I was going to be the lookout, with a walkie-talkie, who journaled during the dull parts. This was a unique situation, because although two of us had walkie-talkies (the lookout and one of the TPers), I would be the only one talking. I ended up using different voices to pretend to be a couple of different people on the radio who were playing some kind of game nearby, and we had established certain words ahead of time to indicate how safe it was to participate in the hooliganism. The guy on the other radio would listen to my babblings, keeping an ear out for these code words.

I sat at a spot where I could see most of the entrances to the chapel, and saw the pranksters moving one or two at a time toward the door they’d arranged to enter. A few of them carried garbage bags. They got inside and got to work. I think someone else heard my radio’s transmissions though, because a few people showed up in the area looking like they expected to find someone. A security guard eventually made his rounds, and even stopped to chat with me. I’m sure it was unusual, though probably not the weirdest thing he’s seen, to find a college student writing in a book in the dark. He probably put two and two together the next day, but we didn’t get caught that night. I gave the TPers as much time as I could to do their thing, but little things kept adding up, and I eventually gave the signal to scram.

We all met back up afterwards, and the TPers were very enthusiastic about the feat they’d accomplished. I didn’t get to see the final results of their work, but they told me they’d been running around up in the catwalks and loft, tossing TP through the chandeliers and other hard-to-reach places for all they were worth. “Man, they won’t have it all cleaned up for a week!”

I don’t know if I ever looked forward to a chapel session so much. The next day as I walked into the chapel, there was no sign whatsoever that Team TP had even been there.

Thwarted again.

Class of 2020, pranks may not have been at the top of your to-do list, but you probably didn’t get to do all the things you wanted to do before your last day of in-person class. That’s not the end for you, though. As you move into your next phase of life you’ll have setbacks and you’ll have triumphs, but the most important thing will be for you to keep plugging away, even…no…especially if there’s more “rough” than “smooth.” I believe you can do it, and that this will shape your outlook even after things pick back up again. Good luck, God bless, and best wishes as you make the most of the opportunities you encounter.

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You’re the Key

Those are all keys behind him

When I was really young, my dad was a maintenance guy at a Christian conference center in eastern Pennsylvania, and our family lived on the campus. Groups of people from churches in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania would come and attend retreats at this place. Once the groups departed, somebody had to walk around to all the rooms that had just been vacated, and make sure all the lights were turned off and the heat/air conditioning weren’t blasting in a vacant room. Sometimes that duty fell to my dad, and every once in awhile he’d take me along.

As a part of the maintenance staff, Dad had a key ring that was chock full of keys that opened just about anything and everything on the whole complex. It could be a master key for all the guest rooms in a given building, the key to the room in the gymnasium where they kept all the spare basketballs, the padlock to the room in the basement of the snack shack where they kept a bunch of electronics and motors, or a little key to adjust the thermostat in the meeting rooms. If you needed to open a lock anywhere on the campus, there’s a good chance my dad’s key ring had a solution.

As a kid, it was impossible to keep track of the differences between all the keys. A few of them stood out from the others; maybe some were shinier, bigger, or the head had a distinct shape or color. To me, though, most of them were indistinguishable from one another. If someone plunked me down in front of a random locked door somewhere on the campus with that key ring, it would’ve taken a good deal of time by trial and error for me to open it. Dad knew what each one did, though.

Now imagine that every Christian is a key on God’s giant key ring. There’s a door, or maybe a group of doors, that you have the ability to unlock (or lock). It’s your purpose; it’s what you were made for. You can be jealous of what other keys were built for, but it sure isn’t going to help you fulfill your role any better. You might even try to function in a lock you weren’t designed to operate, but it’s not what you were made for. Some people are dissatisfied or in denial about the lock in which they fit, and they want to choose their own lock.

Sorry Pardner, it doesn’t work that way.

There’s a lock out there for which you are the key, and you might encounter your lock during this unique time in history. The Man holding the key ring wants to use you according to His schedule, but if you’re unwilling or are too focused on a lock for which you’re not the key, you’re missing your calling. My request to you would be: work the lock you’re built for.

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Unprecedented

Skydiving is an awesome experience.

I’ve done two tandem jumps (where you’re connected to a licensed instructor) and 75 solo jumps. I’ve taken off in a plane 77 more times than I’ve landed in one. Cumulatively I’ve racked up just over 51 minutes of freefall.

To those that have never jumped, that might sound like a lot. For those in the know, though, it’s not that impressive. Seventy seven jumps is enough to know what you’re doing, but it’s nothing to brag about.

Contrast that with Don Kellner. He’s one of the owners of the drop zone where I learned to skydive, and is the Guinness World Record holder for most sport parachute jumps. In 2019 Don made his 45,000th jump! He probably doesn’t even remember the last time he landed in a plane.

I can’t find Don’s cumulative freefall total anywhere, but if you can measure mine in minutes, his can probably be measured in days or weeks. He’s performed over 10,000 tandem jumps; if he got 30 seconds of freefall for each one of those, that’s nearly three and a half days of his life he’s spent falling to the earth with someone else connected to his harness. The time he’s spent steering his parachute to the ground is in addition to that. Between plane rides up, freefalls, and parachute rides down, Don’s probably spent more than a year of his life off the ground.

Don and his team turn in his log books to make the record official after every thousandth jump, but in reality every jump Don Kellner makes is a new world record. Nobody has jumped as many times as him; every jump he makes is an endeavor nobody else has ever undertaken. Every single one is unprecedented.

I asked him once if any jump sticks out in his mind more than others, or if he ever had any especially dangerous problems during a jump. He recalled one jump where he tried to deploy his main chute, but when he tried, nothing happened. He then pulled the handle to open his reserve chute. Nothing happened then, either. Hurtling toward the earth without any functioning parachute, Don Kellner resigned himself to his fate. God must have smiled on him that day though, because one of the chutes shook loose and opened on its own, allowing Don to live to tell the tale.

He’s famous for not making a big deal of any particular jump. The folks around him have staged big events to commemorate big, round-number jumps, but leading up to it he always waves off the extra attention and says “just another jump.” It’s important to remember that jump number 45,000 could not have happened without jump number 26,373, without jump 999, or without jump 12.

Like Don, you and I lead lives that are record-setting in their own way. God calls us to a life of service in His honor. No two lives are the same. Each act of service we perform on Christ’s behalf, whether it’s something we’ve never done before or is the 45,000th time we’ve done the same thing, is unprecedented.

Also like Don, we don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to do the things God’s called us to do and what number “jump” will be our last. Sometimes we’re a part of doing something for God that’s surrounded by more fanfare, but most of the time our obedience is tied to things that are relatively unspectacular and rely on our regular faithfulness day after day.

That brings us to today. Each day we wake up presents opportunities to live for and honor God. Right now we live in very unusual times, which means we can collectively be faithful in ways we normally aren’t. I don’t know what that looks like for all of us, but you might already have a pretty good idea of how you can do the work God’s calling you to do.

Quarantines, social distancing, stay-at-home orders, and all the other recent buzz words result in a new (hopefully temporary) version of what we consider normal. There are a lot of lonely, confused, and/or scared people out there. In order to radiate God’s love during times of this “new normal,” we may need to take unprecedented steps to deliver it. From now until COVID-19 is a thing of the past, every day in a sense is a record-breaker in terms of the actions we take. We…you…are breaking new ground here, every day. Take the precautions you need to (and in some cases have been mandated to do), and within those parameters, have a look at practical new ways to love your neighbor.

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ -Matthew 25:40

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Brainstorm!

I don’t know if you or I are going to make it through this COVID-19 thing. I bet that we will, though.

How do Christians band together in a time of social distancing and self-quarantines? It’s an interesting question, and it’s going to take some innovative thinking. This is where the world needs your help.

Ordinarily the term “disruptive” has a negative connotation. “He’s disruptive in class,” etc. That’s not the only meaning of the word, thankfully. “Disruption” can also mean an upsetting of established norms in such a way that it forces a new norm. It’s what happened when motorized vehicles replaced horses. Digital cameras replaced film cameras. Cell phones took over for landlines. Amazon.com came on the scene and drove a lot of brick and mortar stores out of business. The people behind these seismic shifts are known as “disruptors.”

Coronavirus has certainly upended large portions of our lives and caused us to have to readjust in major ways. Schools and colleges are all of a sudden shutting their doors for the rest of the year. Churches are canceling in-person services. Bible studies and prayer meetings can no longer meet in the traditional sense.

People don’t usually like change. Well, this time around, a virus is forcing change on us all. Things are changing so fast that we don’t yet have established “norms” in the wake of this pandemic. For a lot of folks a major burden of our new reality is the loneliness and lack of in-person human contact.

We were created to be social beings. It’s simply how God made us. Some people need social interaction a lot more than others, but we all need it to some degree. When we’re suddenly unable to socialize in the ways to which we’re accustomed, it’s a major shock for a lot of folks. As Christians, we’re often reminded in scripture to meet together regularly, to “do life” together, and build one another up.

How do we do that when we can’t meet in person? I’ve watched church on my computer for the past two Sundays. I heard recently about a church that held a service at a drive-in movie theater. I think that’s a fantastic idea, but those facilities are not as common as they once were.

This is where you come in. I’m challenging you to think like a disruptor. Because this is an actual problem the world currently faces, I’d really like to encourage you to provide comments here. Here’s your challenge:

How can people still meet together to build one another up without physically being closer than six feet?

Technology is a mixed bag. Now we can have meetings without even being near the other attendees. You have Zoom, Facetime, and Skype, and those are incredibly valuable tools in some respects. Connecting two users isn’t difficult, but it gets a little more complicated if you want to have a dozen people in the same meeting. Also, when you’re stuck in your home, it’s a poor substitute if you’re facing anxiety or depression (to be sure, it’s better than nothing!). What other ways can we leverage technology to decrease isolation? Please post your thoughts!

The phone also works. I’m talking about actual voice calls. Everyone has phones, but nobody calls anymore. For some people, chatting on the phone versus sending an email or text goes a long way.

Then you have in-person meetings. These days I yell to my neighbors from across the street. It doesn’t quite have to be that far, but if you want to honor the authorities’ guidelines of having meetings no larger than 10 people, no closer than six feet together, is there a way to make that happen feasibly? This might be a ridiculous mental image, but it’s a thought-prompt; is there a way to have a dozen people sit close together by building little plexiglass “cells” (imagine a scene from a TV show or movie where someone is visiting someone else in prison)? What if a dozen cars came together in a circle in an otherwise empty church parking lot and everyone on the driver’s side of the car rolled down their windows to have a discussion? (That circle is probably a little too big and everyone would need hearing aids and megaphones, but can we make the idea work somehow?)

I don’t know what the answer is, I’m just trying to get the creative juices going. Right now Christians (and non-Christians, for that matter) need ways of meeting together and helping each other up after they fall or get knocked down. A lot has happened, and a lot of change has been forced on us. How can we implement change on our own to make this situation a little more bearable, especially for the people that need to be around other people?

“How does my idea help?” Well, you’re reading this, aren’t you? I don’t normally have a huge readership, but you’re not the only one that reads this. Your idea, even if it’s incomplete, can spark an idea for someone else. Let’s say you have no ideas. That’s okay, you can still help crack the code on this problem. Will you pass this entry on, either by forwarding it to someone or sharing it on your social media?

You are a string, but we are a rope. We WILL get through this…maybe in part by using your ideas.

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Meaning of Life

Imagine you’re at the top of your game and you are successful in everything you put your mind to. You have a great reputation, you have a great job, you have a great family, and your volunteer work makes a difference. Money isn’t a problem, and you lack nothing.

Does this give meaning to your life?

Long ago the world’s richest and wisest man took it upon himself to seek out the meaning of life. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon decided to investigate how to achieve fulfillment in life. First he tried living a life of pleasure, but learned that this wasn’t the answer. He studied the generalities of life and upon reflection was disappointed that death comes both to the wise man and the fool. He implemented public projects on an enormous scale, only to conclude that his lifetime of achievements could easily be wasted after his death if his successor squanders what he inherits.

Very aware of his own mortality, Solomon realizes that this life is short; it’s fleeting. We busy ourselves with many projects and endeavors, but in the end we all pass through and then move on from this life. Many times in the book of Ecclesiastes does Solomon exclaim “meaningless! It’s all a chasing after the wind!”

The book is almost depressing; he spends 12 chapters exploring different aspects of life in hopes of finding fulfillment, only to realize that even our most notable achievements will be forgotten after a few generations. Then at the very end of the book, almost as an afterthought, Solomon abruptly gives us his conclusion. These two verses, only two verses out of the whole book, provide us insight into what he’s learned. If you give up reading the book before the very end, you miss out on Solomon’s “secret of life:”

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. –Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

After years of experiencing everything life has to offer, Solomon concluded that your purpose is to please God and to live in such a way that you will not fear judgment.

I don’t have the time or space to go into all of God’s commandments here, but I’ll summarize them this way: love God and love people. Each of these topics can have books written about them. It’s a lifelong endeavor, though; there are always opportunities to keep getting better at it.

If you’ve got the “love God” portion down pat, it’s time to “love people.” There are people everywhere you go. You know what I’ve discovered? A lot of them are hard to get along with. It can be draining to interact with them! That’s probably why so much of the Bible talks about how to live and deal with others. Here’s the neat thing: you’re equipped to do it. You have everything you need to do what you’ve been called to do.

For many of us, that calling has to do with making someone’s life better somehow. That’s one exciting (yes, exciting) thing about the Coronavirus-dominated time we’re living through…there are new opportunities to love on people in ways that are not normally available. All you have to do is look for them; you’re in the best position to see them and act on them.

Fear God and keep His commandments, and remember that He’ll judge all of your works. This comes from a lifetime of reflection from the wisest man who ever lived. Just a little something to keep in mind if life gets a little too meaningless for you.

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Fortune Favors the Prepared

A college buddy and I took the opportunity in February of 2002 to drive from New York to Utah in order to attend the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Bobsledding is one of the hallmarks of the Winter Olympics, and it’s fun to see. Since the track is so expensive to install and maintain, however, organizers sought other ways to make use of the venue. That’s partly how the sport of luge came to be an Olympic event. Luge athletes lay belly-up on a one-person sled and go sliding feet first down the track. (Then somebody thought it would be a good idea to put two people on one of these tiny sleds.)

  • Bobsled
  • Luge
  • Luge doubles

The 2002 Olympics saw the introduction of a new sport that used the same track: Skeleton. This is an event where an athlete runs down the track as fast as they can, then dives onto a tiny sled. Once on the sled, the competitor is laying on their belly, flying head first down the track with their chin just a few inches off the ice. Of the three different sports that use this venue, Skeleton competitors seem least concerned with clinging to sanity.

Photo courtesy of NBC

We didn’t attend any of the Skeleton runs while in Salt Lake City, but during out time there we were well aware of what happened in the Skeleton competition. Everywhere we went, there were magazines and newspapers (when those were still popular) with American Jim Shea on the cover. He showed up in the highlights of just about every Olympic video we saw for the rest of those games. If I’m not mistaken, Jim was America’s first third-generation Olympian; both his grandfather and father competed in Winter Olympic events in their day. Jim actually won gold in Skeleton that year.

If you saw Jim without knowing anything about him, you’d probably have no idea that he was an Olympian. He looked like he could be your next-door neighbor or some guy that you see in church. He didn’t look terribly athletic. There were a few qualities he had, though, that helped him win this event. When it came to competing in Skeleton, Jim Shea possessed intensity, passion, and drive.

In no way do I want to sound like I’m diminishing the athleticism of Skeleton competitors. The biggest athletic output that occurs during a Skeleton run takes place at the beginning, when the competitor sprints down the track and jumps onto the sled. For the rest of the run beyond that, it’s focus and body control; leaning this way or that way, sometimes grazing the ice with a toe to make a small correction, all while trying to control breathing on a sled that’s flying down a track at up to 80 mph.

Jim Shea approached his Olympic run with ferocity. He wasn’t a “hope for the best” kind of guy. I later saw a picture of him that demonstrated how he approached the run that earned him a gold medal, and that image stuck with me:

This is a man that knew where he wanted to go, knew what he needed to do in order to get there, and focused all of his mental and physical resources so that he had the best chance of succeeding during his single opportunity to make it happen. While people have all different kinds of personalities and some will never be as driven as others to succeed in their goals, it’s the quality and type of preparation and planning they put into it that will help drive their success.

In the future you may only get one shot to make it happen. Are you preparing for success in achieving your goals, or are you just hoping for the best?

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Ever Look at Bad News This Way?

Let’s be real for a moment.

If you’re a Christian, the world sometimes seems like it’s getting darker. The culture is becoming more and more godless. Today’s young adults are less and less interested in attending church. Many local churches are dead or dying, and many of those still around are consumed with arguments over what kind of music to play or what should or should not be present on the stage during the worship service, rather than reaching the lost.

This is exciting stuff.

You read that right. This is exciting. Why?

Because the Church (capital “c”) is God’s plan for reaching the world. Regardless of the current state of affairs, the Church is going to emerge triumphant. That’s a fact. If the times we’re living in are making today’s local church bodies less and less relevant in reaching the lost, that simply means that the Church we see today is not the version that’s going to be most effective in performing the mission. It means we’re in a time of transition to something new.

So what does that future version of the Church look like? I can’t tell you.

It’s not that I know and I’m withholding the information from you; I can’t tell you because I don’t yet know the manner in which you’re going to be a part of helping the church evolve. In other words, it’s exciting because the Church is going to be effective in new ways because you, as a Christ-follower and part of the Church, are going to change how the Church approaches the problem of delivering the Gospel to people who haven’t heard it before.

Don’t look at the current state of affairs and see despair; look at it and see that opportunities abound! At its core, Christianity is about two things: loving God and loving people (after all, only a handful of the 10 Commandments pertain to our relationship with God; the vast majority of them deal with our relationship with each other). In what way(s) are you able to develop a relationship with someone for the purpose of glorifying God?

Can’t think of anything? Start out with this: make friends with at least one person in every decade of life. Regardless of what decade of life you’re currently in, imagine the perspective you can gain by interacting with someone who has the black-and-white outlook of a child, the idealism of a teenager, the enthusiasm of a twenty-something, the ambition of someone in their thirties, the experience of a mid-lifer, the expertise of someone in their fifties, the hindsight of a sixty-something, the clarity of what’s important in life of someone in their seventies, and the wisdom and life experience of everyone else. Whether or not all those people are Christians, you’re going to learn something, and they might too.

The Church is changing, and that’s not a bad thing. If you see a spot where the Church should be doing something but isn’t, you may have just found your calling. The entire purpose of this blog is to come alongside you, put a hand on your shoulder, tell you that God is capable of doing amazing things through broken and imperfect people, and encourage and exhort you to use the resources and spiritual gifts God’s provided…all for the purpose of reaching the lost and glorifying God. You’re not only capable of helping the Church meet the world’s current needs, you were designed to.

The exciting part is that even though (and perhaps because) the Church will evolve, it’s going to reach people in ways it hasn’t before. So by all means, if you’ve been prompted to or are toying with the idea of doing something unconventional, yet purposeful…please…start pursuing that course and see where it goes.

I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. –Matthew 16:18b.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. –Ephesians 3:20-21

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Play Like There’s No Tomorrow

Graphic courtesy of WEBN/NFL

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.

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Too Much of a Good Thing?

One of the first “grown up” movies I saw as a kid was “Back to the Future.” It was a movie about a high-schooler that used a crazy scientist’s time machine to travel back in time 30 years to when his parents were in high school themselves. It was my introduction to the time travel aspect of science fiction, and I thought it was pretty cool.

Two sequels followed. A couple of my friends and I all loved the trilogy, and the three of us were constantly quoting different parts of the movies to each other. We even had a “Back to the Future” night for my buddy’s birthday sleepover, where we watched all three movies in one night. A couple of years later I was a roommate with that same buddy at a summer camp where we worked. One night after lights out I recited the script of the entire first movie from memory to him.

This is an extreme (or maybe misguided) example of what an engaged mind can do when it obsesses over something. The three of us were around each other and tossed quotes back and forth so often that they became second nature to us. The things we spent time thinking about became the things most important in our relationship to one another.

In the book of Philippians, Paul tells readers to dwell on the things that are worthy of being, well, dwelled on:

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. –Philippians 4:8 (New Living Translation)

I don’t think “Back to the Future” quotes qualify, but I can see why Paul makes the point. The things you frequently think about are the things your mind is moving toward.

Now that Christmas and New Years have passed and we’re closer to getting back into the normal routine, I challenge you to “think on” the things mentioned in Philippians 4:8. As far as quiet time with God, prayer, doing Bible readings, or some other type of devotionals, if you’re not someone who regularly practices them, consider building those items into your 2020 routine. If you do them sporadically, but not on a regular basis, consider doing them more routinely.

Try doing them for 30 days in a row. The reason you’ll often hear people talking about doing something for 30 days is because that’s roughly how long it takes to develop a new habit. In other words, if you were going to make this a part of your routine for the rest of your life, the first 30 days would be the most difficult to accomplish; after that it would be habitual and would require less conscious effort to complete.

God can use you for great things. Take the first step toward embracing that calling by spending time dwelling on the things Christ taught and did. Hopefully by this time next year, you’ll be closer to/more in tune with God than you are right now.

Happy New Year!

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Do You Honestly Think That’s a Good Idea?

Even the dogs in Australia are mellow.

When Americans think of Australia, one of the things they think about is the wildlife. Some of the things that might come to mind are kangaroos, crocodiles, koala bears, etc. The tour company I traveled with recognized that, so one of the things they built into the itinerary of our Australian trip was a stop at a zoo that had a lot of these animals.

I’ve been to some zoos here in the states. Things are usually set up so that you can’t get too close, but you usually have an unobstructed view of whatever animal is present. Not this place. It was kind of a cross between a petting zoo and a crocodile kennel. You could hand-feed the kangaroos (maybe they were wallabies), handle snakes, and get close to the emu.

I think the main attraction was probably the crocodiles. The owner was a colorful character. Think of him as an older version of Crocodile Dundee that put on a bit of weight and wasn’t quite so light on his feet anymore. He was fun to be around and took us on a tour of the sights.

I’d guess that this guy had anywhere from six to 12 crocodiles in various chain-link pens throughout the zoo. He brought us around to the various pens, sometimes teaching us about crocs from outside the pen, other times going inside and feeding the crocs a chicken or two.

I was a little surprised by this guy’s willingness to go right into the various pens, and even more surprised at how close he was willing to get to the various animals. He would be within a few feet of the gaping jaws of these enormous monsters, and he’d toss meat into their mouths. He was actually missing a few fingers because he had gotten too close in the past and eager crocs had snapped down quicker than expected.

He seemed so laid back about being in such close proximity to reptiles that could kill him. The only thing he kept nearby was a rake. He used it to scratch the back of some of the crocs to help them relax, but he kept it with him for another purpose. When a croc is getting a little too aggressive and you need to move him back, you can flip the rake around and push on a sensitive spot on their head, and it will back up. We got to see this first-hand when one of the crocs started coming out of its pen. Farmer Dundee here flipped the rake around and pushed the croc back far enough to close the door.

One of the things that struck me the most about this guy was how confident he was in knowing when it was safe and when it was not safe to approach one of the beasts. Again, he was so casual about being in extreme close proximity to crocs that I didn’t know what to think. He actually sat on one of them when he was tired and wanted to take a break.

This guy’s behavior is an example of how we can become so comfortable around danger that we let our guard down and get careless. By the time I met him, this guy had been around crocs for years, but for all I know, he could have been attacked and killed by one of them the next week. You can go for years flirting with danger or something you shouldn’t be around and everything turns out fine; until it doesn’t. You won’t always see it coming, either. That’s why it’s best to simply avoid such situations if at all possible. A few examples might help. If you’re a recovering alcoholic, don’t go meet friends at a bar. Avoid situations where you’re alone with that attractive co-worker. Each of us is more susceptible to certain mistakes than others, but we’re better than we might think when it comes to predicting where things can go south. Let’s assume you’ve got a good head on your shoulders; just because you’re not looking at a guy sitting on a crocodile doesn’t mean you can’t recognize a situation that’s a bad idea.

I don’t blame my crocodile farmer friend for doing what he does, but he has to constantly be on high alert for trouble. Even though he’s had a lot of successful crocodile feedings, he’s still missing some fingers. The lesson here: if you’re perfectly aware of the danger but you intentionally stay near it anyway, don’t expect to come out of it unscathed.

Are there any unnecessary risks in your life you need to stop accepting?