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.
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.
There’s an old
problem-solving technique called “The Five Whys.” It’s simple in its execution.
You start with a problem:
We can’t go on the vacation we’ve been planning.
Ask: Why? (Number 1)
We had to spend a big chunk of that money on a car
repair.
Ask: Why? (Number 2)
The car broke down unexpectedly.
Ask: Why? (Number 3)
(Sheepishly) Because I haven’t been maintaining it.
The idea is that by the
time you’ve asked “Why?” five times, you’ve arrived at the root cause of the problem
you’re facing.
King David is one of
the most famous characters in the Bible. He had incredible highs and also some
very low lows. In the end, this “man after God’s own heart” was an imperfect
human, but he always sought God’s mercy and forgiveness.
His most famous shortcoming
occurred with a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. Here’s a quick refresher from 2 Samuel chapter 11:
11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.
Bathsheba, of course, became pregnant. David made matters
worse by trying to cover it up, and when that didn’t work, he had Bathsheba’s
husband intentionally killed in battle. It took a prophet to confront him in
order to make him admit his wrongdoing. While there’s much we can learn
from David, we’ll focus on this tragic tale and try to apply a lesson to our
own lives. Let’s use the “Five Whys” with David’s situation:
David got taken to task by Nathan the prophet for murdering an innocent man.
Why? (Number 1)
David ordered the death of Uriah, one of his faithful warriors.
Why? (Number 2)
He had an affair with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba.
Why? (Number 3)
David saw her bathing on the rooftop and decided that he had to have her.
Why? (Number 4)
He wasn’t where he was supposed to be, fighting with his army at Rabbah.
And here we have the root cause. The text doesn’t say why David remained
behind in Jerusalem; it just says that he did. By not being with his army, as
was the custom of the day’s kings, it opened the door to temptation, which
resulted in adultery, lies, and murder.
While you may not be in charge of an army, there’s probably been at least one time in your life when
something bad happened because you were somewhere you didn’t belong.
The lesson here? Be where you’re supposed to be.
If you’re a Christ-follower, God has equipped and tasked you to perform
certain functions or roles here on Earth. Once you know what He wants you to
do, you can either run from it (think Jonah) or you can work toward it (think
Paul). The road is never guaranteed to be easy, but there’s peace of mind when
you work toward it. Running from it causes restlessness, unrest, and numerous
complications.
The simplest way to avoid all of that? Be where you’re supposed to be.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s
Day. It’s often viewed as a time to pause and reflect on the “special-ness” of
the important people in your life.
While the celebration
of love is nice, our culture seems to have adopted the idea that “anything
goes” in the name of love, and that finding true love means everything after
that point will be perfect. Love stories end with the main characters living
“happily ever after.” The unfortunate fact is that taking two imperfect people
and placing them in a relationship will always yield less-than-perfect results.
Sadly, many committed relationships crumble despite the noble intentions of
those involved.
People who have known
great heartache can therefore best appreciate the idea of a love that will not
fail.
In Bible times,
weddings worked a little differently from the way they do today. Back then when
a couple became engaged, the groom-to-be departed to make preparations for the
wedding, their living arrangements, and their future together. The bride-to-be remained
with her family while this took place, and she waited for the groom while he made
preparations. Without texts, emails, or any other expedient form of
communication, she would have to wait and be perpetually ready for her groom to
show up and whisk her away to their wedding and new life together. Imagine not
only having no input on the details of your own wedding, but also being left completely
in the dark about when it would even take place!
This is the situation where
we currently find ourselves. We’re waiting, and we don’t know for how long. In
my last post I wrote a bit about the importance of the Church. The Church is
sometimes referred to as the “Bride of Christ.” Jesus has gone on ahead to make
preparations, but He fully intends to return for us, the Church:
…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:2c-3.
Now that’s a kind of
love we can celebrate.
Like in Bible times, we
receive very little information about the details of when the Bridegroom is
planning to come back. Even though we live in an era of instant gratification, lack
of a specific date on the calendar actually changes very little about what’s
important in this case. It’s important to remember that while waiting, we are
to remain faithful and we are to remain ready, no matter how long it takes. It
is imperative that we watch with expectation and with anticipation, ever on the
lookout for when our Lord will make His return and escort us to a deeper phase of
our relationship with Him.
The question is…have
you stopped making yourself ready? You know in your mind that He’ll come
someday, but it probably won’t be anytime soon, right? I mean, it’s been about
2,000 years since Christ walked the earth; what are the odds that He’ll come
during this lifetime?
What you decide to do
is up to you, but I’ll pose one last question to you today. Are you living
faithfully for the one to whom you are betrothed?
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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When I was a kid I used
to love watching cartoons. I don’t know what happened since then, but I guess
somewhere along the line they decided they were going to stop making good
cartoons.
One of my favorite
cartoons to watch was “Duck Tales.” It featured Scrooge McDuck (of “Christmas
Carol” fame), the three young duckling triplets Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and the
lovable (but terrible) pilot, Launchpad McQuack.
Scrooge McDuck was a
greedy guy, there’s no doubt about it. Part of the draw for a younger me was
that he was always mounting expeditions to go in search of lost treasures. Off
to faraway jungles, canyons, deserts, mountains, the ocean floor…no matter the
danger, Scrooge McDuck’s greed drove him to adventure.
One such adventure
involved catching a leprechaun. The main characters caught a leprechaun and
demanded that he show them to the massive underground treasure caverns (because
a pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow just ain’t enough sometimes). The
leprechaun showed them to the hidden entrance, which was under a young tree. I
don’t remember why they couldn’t go exploring down the tunnel right then and
there, but for some reason they had to temporarily abandon their quest. Knowing
that it would be extremely difficult to identify this one tree in the middle of
the forest, McDuck took out a handkerchief and tied it to one of the branches
of the tree. After binding the leprechaun by making him promise not to mess
with the hanky or the tree, the adventurers departed.
I think it was the next day when the treasure hunters returned. The hanky and the tree were indeed untouched, but now the forest was littered with hundreds of white hankies. The leprechaun had kept his promise, but still managed to obscure the value of the makeshift marker.
Let’s switch gears for
a minute. Take the perspective of Satan and the other fallen angels. You’ve had
definite limits imposed on you, but you’re free to meddle with humanity in
other ways. How can you divert people from the true way to God and eternal
life, which is a relationship with Jesus Christ? You can’t touch that one true
hanky, but you can sure hang up a lot of other ones that look enough like the
original to make the real one hard to spot.
Aside from
Christianity, there are a handful of major world religions on the scene, but
there are an untold number of minor ones, splinter groups, minor sects, and
other less popular religions. All of them are fake hankies.
In addition to using other
religions, the adversary attempts to muddy the waters for actual Bible-based
events. The focus of Christmas and Easter used to be Jesus’ birth and Jesus’
triumph over sin, respectively. Now it’s Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Being
a Santa fan doesn’t make you a bad person, but consider this: this Christmas,
are you and yours giving at least as much emphasis on the story of Jesus’ birth
as you are to Santa?
There’s a lot of
distraction out there, but remember the true reason for the season and the fact
that the adversary has to ask permission to launch certain attacks on
Christ-followers.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission
to sift you like wheat…” Luke 22:31
8Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you
considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is
blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.”
9Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God
for nothing? 10Have You not
placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns?
You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in
the land. 11But stretch out
Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your
face.”
12“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan.
“Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man
himself.”
Then Satan went out from the
presence of the LORD. Job 1:8-12
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?
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
We’ve got a fireplace
at home, and we like having fires once it gets cold. Buying or collecting wood
for the fireplace can be a hassle though, and this year we happened upon a
different solution. Earlier this summer a nearby neighborhood cut down a lot of
trees and sliced the trunks into slabs, leaving them to rot throughout the
neighborhood. I actually enjoy splitting wood by hand (especially after
aggravating days at work), so I went and picked up a bunch of them and brought
them home for splitting and burning.
The problem is that I
don’t have an efficient method of splitting the wood. Most people know what an
ax is, but not everyone knows what a maul is. A maul is kind of like a
sledgehammer with a wedge on one side. When I first started splitting wood
earlier this summer though, I didn’t have a full-sized maul. The one I have is
meant for splitting pieces of wood that have already been split, but are still
a bit too big for the fireplace. It’s kind of a hand-held “mini-maul.”
This tool is great for
splitting branches or small trunks that are, say, the diameter of a coffee-can.
Once you get into dealing with slabs of trunk though, it becomes much more
difficult.
I had a slab I was
determined to split up, but it was so big I couldn’t even put my arms around
it. Nonetheless, I put it on top of another piece and started looking at the
natural grain of the wood, then started taking shots at it. At first the
mini-maul just bounced off the wood. A few more shots, and each time the mini
maul bounced. Each time the tool struck the wood, though, it left a pock mark.
I started striking the slab in a way that the pock marks lined up to create a
fault line across it. I didn’t really feel like I was making much progress, so
I turned the slab and started doing the same thing in a different direction.
Then I did it in yet another direction.
I struck the wood over
and over and over again. Sometimes the tool bounced and other times it started
penetrating into the wood. I was out there for a long time. My hands got sore
and hot, like blisters were starting to form. I was tired, and eventually my
shirt was so soaked with sweat that it had almost no dry spots, and I thought
about packing it in. I must’ve left nearly a hundred pock marks before anything
began happening.
Finally, the sound of
the impact changed, and a crack emerged. When it did, it breathed new life into
my effort.
Once the crack was
established, it was easy to exploit into a split, and things moved quickly from
there. After splitting it in two, it only took a few shots to make additional
splits in one of the two sides. Those smaller chunks became infinitely easier
to break into the size I wanted, often in a single blow.
In the end, this little
tool was able to deliver enough targeted force to smash a strong, sturdy slab
of oak into about 35 splinters that were shadows of what they once were. All of them were done in by the
persistent strikes of a tool that was “too small” to do the job.
It’s an alarming spiritual
analogy for those things we do that we know we shouldn’t be doing. It might not
be anything major, but it happens again and again. Call it the straw that broke
the camel’s back, or call it death by a thousand paper cuts. It’s something
that doesn’t seem too bad, in and of
itself. It’s not a crushing blow, but it’s something that delivers targeted
strike after targeted strike against your Christian walk and, if it’s not
stopped, has the ability to cause major damage to your spiritual health and
relationships.
Maybe it’s gossip. It
could be reading a certain kind of novel. Maybe it’s a glance that lingers
longer than it should. Perhaps it’s tension in your marriage that goes
unresolved and festers. Doing these things a single time is not something
that’s devastating to your spiritual walk, but each of them is something that
leaves a pock mark. You may have even told yourself “it’s not a big deal, it
doesn’t hurt anybody.” Well, maybe doing it once isn’t a big deal, but have you
only done it once? Consider whether your pock marks are aligning in a way that
will lead to cracks and problems in the future, maybe soon.
Is there something
you’re doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing? If you’re wrapped up in
something that hinders your ministry or God-given purpose, even just a little
bit, it can affect your ability to make your maximum impact for Christ’s
kingdom. Like athletes that train hard to compete at a high level, cut yourself
off from things you know aren’t helping you. Don’t run for third place, or for second place; run to
win.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. –Hebrews 12:1-2
I demolished each of these pieces of wood using that mini maul. If you feel you’ve stripped the unneeded junk out of your life, how can you help the “other pieces of wood” around you to do the same, so that they can better resist the onslaught of strikes that hit them every day?
When I was in college I took classes in Outdoor Leadership, which included developing skills in both technical areas and in leading individuals and teams toward outcomes. One day our class was learning about how to properly set rope anchors for rock climbing. Obviously, it’s very important that your equipment catches you if you fall off a rock face, so our instructor was teaching us how to secure the safety rope to a number of anchors we had established at the top of the cliff.
The instructor, Kevin,
demonstrated a variety of ways to attach safety equipment to boulders and trees
at the top. He made a point to emphasize that we’d need to establish three
solid anchors before being able to proceed. “That way, if one of them
fails, you’ve still got two. Even if two of them fail, you’ll still have one
more.”
Of course, someone
asked the question. “What if this one goes, that one fails, and the other
one goes, too?”
Kevin looked at him, confused.
“You mean if all three of them
fail?”
“Yeah.”
“Then God wants
you dead.”
When you have a God-given
task laid out in front of you, it’s certainly a good thing to spend time planning
and preparing, but there comes a point where you’re prepared enough and it’s
time to get moving. Kevin didn’t want us to establish four anchors, or five.
Three was enough. The chances of all three anchors failing was so low that
setting more of them would have been a waste of time. If we spent time focusing
on more than three, that time took away from our actual reason for showing up
at the cliff that day.
It’s possible to take
so many safety precautions that it becomes too cumbersome to do anything. There
comes a point at which you are suitably prepared, reasonable precautions have
been taken, and you’re ready to leave the comfortable behind. The only thing
that remains is for you to take action.
By all means plan
effectively. Expect problems and make backup plans if necessary, but don’t let
perpetual planning stop you from getting started. If all the necessary pieces
are in place, it might be that you
are the only thing holding you back. What are you waiting for?
