We live near
Washington, DC, where traffic is a part of life. When we want to go visit
family that lives far away, sometimes we get up very early and hit the road in
the wee hours of the morning. After the initial excitement of stealing away
during the night, the kids usually settle down, lulled to sleep by road noise.
The last time we took a
trip like this in our minivan, everyone settled in soon after we got on the
highway and the inside of the vehicle was quiet. That’s when we noticed an
annoying squeak that happened each time we hit a bump in the road or the
vehicle’s chassis twisted slightly. It came from somewhere near the second row
of seats, a squeak that was quiet, but loud enough to be annoying if you’re
trying to fall asleep. We tried to track it down and stop it, with no success. After
awhile the kids were able to tune it out and fall asleep.
We eventually arrived
at our destination and had fun with family over Christmas. On several occasions
while we were there, I drove the van around town, just doing errands or driving
us to friends/family’s houses. I’d actively listen for the squeak, and it was
often audible, but it was hidden in the sound of the kids laughing, the current
conversation, or whatever was playing on the radio.
Just like the still
small voice of the Holy Spirit, the squeak is always there, but you have to actively
listen for it if there’s a lot of other noise going on. It doesn’t stop
squeaking, but it’s a lot easier to hear when there are no distractions. If
there’s a lot of other noise in the mix you have to deliberately focus in on it
to notice it. It’s much harder to get a fix on it if you have to pluck it out
of the background.
Are you having a
regular quiet time where you get alone with your prayer and devotions, away
from all the noise and distractions? If not, don’t be surprised that you don’t hear
from the Holy Spirit.
You’re an expert on
you; you know you better than anyone else. Take the steps you need to create
the right environment. If your phone is a distraction, shut it off during this
time. If you need to wake up earlier, before others are up and moving around,
maybe that’s the way to go. If you’re a night owl, finding the right time
before bed might be your sweet spot.
I’d urge you to do what
it takes to make your quiet time work. How agonizing would it be to one day
find out that God was whispering to you all along but you couldn’t hear Him
because of all the noise going on around you?
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
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At Air Force Basic
Training, there’s a stretch where recruits spend time in conditions that
simulate a field deployment. Instead of focusing on Air Force customs,
academics, how to salute, march, etc., trainees focus on some of the
fundamental skills necessary for functioning in a combat zone. It’s here that
trainees first fire weapons, learn about field hygiene and first aid, etc.
One of the more
memorable activities is learning how to use a gas mask. Trainees spent the
greater part of the day learning how to properly don a gas mask, when to put on
a chemical suit, and generally experience how cumbersome it becomes to perform
routine tasks while wearing a heavy suit in hot weather and trying to take a
drink from a canteen while wearing a gas mask.
We spent most of the
day learning how to use the equipment properly, and the culmination of the
experience was “getting gassed.” We put on our equipment and filed into a square
room that had a pedestal in the middle of it. Each group that went into the
room stood with their backs against a wall. There were some instructors that
gave us directions and then came around to inspect the way we had donned our
masks. At the end, one of the instructors walked to the pedestal in the middle
of the room and activated some tear gas on it.
It’s a little
unsettling to see a big white cloud rising and filling the room. Tear gas…isn’t
that the stuff they use on rioters? You start to instinctively hold your
breath, but you eventually decide to give this gas mask thing a try. You take
some little breaths just to make sure you’re not going to start coughing like a
maniac. The air smells weird, but you can breathe it. You don’t seem to have any
reaction so far, so you start breathing deeper. Before long you’re breathing
just like you practiced earlier in the day, and you’re able to function in a
chemical environment.
Then the fun part
comes. It would’ve been nice to experience an environment like this, then walk
out the door and say to the instructors “thanks fellas, that was pretty cool to
see.” If we had done that though, the lesson wouldn’t have been cemented into
our minds. In order to make the lesson stick, the instructors wanted us to understand
how well our equipment was protecting us. To help us do that, we filed toward
the exit door in pairs. Still in a gas-filled room, we were directed to remove
our masks and provide a verbal response to a question the instructors asked us.
They wanted us to have to breathe in the stuff our equipment had been
protecting us from, and this aspect of the training helped us remember the
experience in a much more vivid manner. I know I wasn’t able to finish
answering the instructor before I started coughing, and he waved me out the
door and into the fresh air.
It’s one thing to know
something in your mind, and it’s something different to experience it. There
were plenty of other times in the Air Force where I donned gas masks during
exercises, but that was the only time I’ve ever had to use a gas mask to actually
protect myself from something that threatened harm to my body. The more you use
the equipment, the more comfortable you become with it.
It’s the same thing
with following Christ. We “practice with our equipment” by building a
relationship with Him. That means spending time together: reading the Bible,
spending time in prayer, and removing unnecessary or harmful things from your
life.
As you walk with
Christ, you’ll find that He gives you assignments to do. Rather than giving you
something you think is easy to do, however, He likes to challenge you. Those
challenges stretch you and make you lean on Him to do the things you can’t. Sometimes
they’re physically easy to do, but they take a certain boldness to complete.
Others are completely beyond you, but you find that once you step out in faith,
the pieces start falling into place because He’s paving the way for you. Much
like the gas mask training, the trust you build in this endeavor enables you to
overcome the worry and preoccupation of “will this work when I need it to?” As
a result, with His power and support you’re able to operate and excel in
environments where you can’t even breathe on your own.
This is my one hundredth post! Many thanks to my
faithful readers, and to those that just stumbled upon this site. I hope you’re
somehow blessed by what you read here! Feel free to share on social media or
email, or leave a comment. You can also email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.
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.
Want to hear some really exciting news? It doesn’t take much for God’s spiritual power to
be available to you.
Not long ago I was
reading in the book of Ephesians. It’s hard for me to read Paul’s letters. He
sometimes gets so excited that he starts a sentence focused on one topic, gets
distracted and sort of rambles on about something for awhile, then ends up in a
totally different area. To me, a single sentence of Paul’s can seem like the
Israelites wandering around the desert. Despite all the detours though, he
eventually arrives at his destination.
I’m blessed to have a
study bible that explains a lot of the text, context, and/or traditions of the
day that help me understand the text as it was originally written. In Ephesians
3:14-19, Paul expressed to his audience his desire that God would make His love
and fullness known to them. The part I want to zoom in on is verse 16: “…that He would grant you, according to the
riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the
inner man…”
Having a study Bible
helps me quite a bit when it comes to catching the main theme of what Paul’s
saying. For this verse, notes from the McArthur Study Bible say “Spiritual
power is a mark of every Christian who submits to God’s Word and Spirit. It is
not reserved for some special class of Christian, but for all those who
discipline their minds and spirits to study the Word, understand it, and live
by it. Although the outer, physical person becomes weaker with age, the inner,
spiritual person should grow stronger through the Holy Spirit, who will
energize, revitalize, and empower the obedient, committed Christian.”
Isn’t that amazing? If
you discipline yourself to regular study of the Bible and heed what it says,
God grants you access to something you didn’t have before. It’s extraordinary just
how ordinary it is. That brings me back to my point at the top of this post. It doesn’t take much for God’s
spiritual power to be available to you. Discipline yourself to study the Word, understand it, and
live by it.
Skipping ahead in
Ephesians to chapter 5, verses 15 and 16, Paul tells us how to spend our days: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not
as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Zeroing
in on that phrase “redeeming the time” in the notes helps lay out how we are to
be purposeful in our lives. Again, from the McArthur Study Bible: “The Greek
word for “time” denotes a fixed, measured, allocated season; with the definite
article “the,” it likely refers to one’s lifetime as a believer. We are to make
the most of our time on this evil earth in fulfilling God’s purposes, lining up
every opportunity for useful worship and service. Be aware of the brevity of
life.”
Be intentional in how
you spend your time, energy, and resources. To borrow a spinoff saying I saw on
tee shirts back when Reebok’s slogan was popular, “Life is short. Pray hard.”
The year 2020 is still
shiny and new, and it’s not too late to start working on some good habits. In
your life, if you combine the concept of “study the Word, understand it, and
live by it” with the concept of “redeeming the time,” you’re going to see some
exciting developments. God prompted me to write this, then He prompted you to
read this, and where it goes from here I don’t have a clue. That’s the beauty
of it though; even though you and I may only see a piece or two of the puzzle,
it’s all building toward a bigger picture. The key to it is that you and I have
to put forth some regular effort.
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.
Man, when I was a kid,
the final few days before Christmas were an exciting time. We didn’t do Santa,
so we had the presents sitting out under the tree for days, or even weeks,
ahead of time. As Christmas got closer, the pile under the tree got bigger.
Normally I was pretty
good. Sure, I’d pick up the presents and give ‘em a shake every now and then,
but usually didn’t do anything too crazy. There was one year, though, where my
parents headed out for the evening, leaving my sister and I home alone with all
those presents under the tree.
I don’t remember what I
was looking for, I think I was just excited about the opportunity to try out an
idea I’d had earlier. Soon after the coast was clear, I brought out the
scissors and the tape. Using one of the scissor’s blades, I carefully sliced
the tape on one of the presents with my name on it. I was able to open up the
wrapping paper enough to see what was hidden inside, then fold everything back
up the way it was and put a new piece of tape right over the one I’d cut. Only
a very careful inspection would reveal what had happened.
I went through most of
my gifts this way. I learned what was waiting for me, then restored all the
wrapping jobs. My sister, meanwhile, only wanted to know about one of hers. For
the life of me, I can’t remember any of the things I snuck a peek at, but I
remember that my little sister, with the “keys to the kingdom” that her devious
older brother offered her, was perfectly content to know for sure that she was
going to be receiving the animated version of “Beauty and the Beast” and didn’t
care to find out about any more until it was actually the appropriate time to
open them.
This time of year, with
many new memories of time spent with loved ones, is generally thought of as one
of the happiest seasons. But then it’s all over. The gifts are exchanged,
everyone travels back home, and the decorations are all put away. There’s really
nothing wrong with celebrating with the special people in your life, but it’s
very important to realize that everything here in this life is temporary. Lower
your expectations for how happy this world will make you.
Even something that’s
bright, shiny, new, and sparkly on Christmas morning soon fades in either its
actual luster or the level of interest you have in it. That’s why it’s so
important for people seeking true happiness to place their hope and joy in
Jesus Christ, someone whose luster will never fade.
This is my last post of
the year. I hope you all enjoy special time celebrating Christ’s birth with
loved ones this week. Rest up and enjoy some downtime!
Thanks for reading; I
wish you all a Merry Christmas!
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
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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.
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?
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.
