Tag: don’t be distracted

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This Isn’t a Game; This is for Real

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

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Too Small To Make a Difference

We’ve got a fireplace at home, and we like having fires once it gets cold. Buying or collecting wood for the fireplace can be a hassle though, and this year we happened upon a different solution. Earlier this summer a nearby neighborhood cut down a lot of trees and sliced the trunks into slabs, leaving them to rot throughout the neighborhood. I actually enjoy splitting wood by hand (especially after aggravating days at work), so I went and picked up a bunch of them and brought them home for splitting and burning.

The problem is that I don’t have an efficient method of splitting the wood. Most people know what an ax is, but not everyone knows what a maul is. A maul is kind of like a sledgehammer with a wedge on one side. When I first started splitting wood earlier this summer though, I didn’t have a full-sized maul. The one I have is meant for splitting pieces of wood that have already been split, but are still a bit too big for the fireplace. It’s kind of a hand-held “mini-maul.”

This tool is great for splitting branches or small trunks that are, say, the diameter of a coffee-can. Once you get into dealing with slabs of trunk though, it becomes much more difficult.

I had a slab I was determined to split up, but it was so big I couldn’t even put my arms around it. Nonetheless, I put it on top of another piece and started looking at the natural grain of the wood, then started taking shots at it. At first the mini-maul just bounced off the wood. A few more shots, and each time the mini maul bounced. Each time the tool struck the wood, though, it left a pock mark. I started striking the slab in a way that the pock marks lined up to create a fault line across it. I didn’t really feel like I was making much progress, so I turned the slab and started doing the same thing in a different direction. Then I did it in yet another direction.

I struck the wood over and over and over again. Sometimes the tool bounced and other times it started penetrating into the wood. I was out there for a long time. My hands got sore and hot, like blisters were starting to form. I was tired, and eventually my shirt was so soaked with sweat that it had almost no dry spots, and I thought about packing it in. I must’ve left nearly a hundred pock marks before anything began happening.

Finally, the sound of the impact changed, and a crack emerged. When it did, it breathed new life into my effort.

Once the crack was established, it was easy to exploit into a split, and things moved quickly from there. After splitting it in two, it only took a few shots to make additional splits in one of the two sides. Those smaller chunks became infinitely easier to break into the size I wanted, often in a single blow.

In the end, this little tool was able to deliver enough targeted force to smash a strong, sturdy slab of oak into about 35 splinters that were shadows of what they once were. All of them were done in by the persistent strikes of a tool that was “too small” to do the job.

It’s an alarming spiritual analogy for those things we do that we know we shouldn’t be doing. It might not be anything major, but it happens again and again. Call it the straw that broke the camel’s back, or call it death by a thousand paper cuts. It’s something that doesn’t seem too bad, in and of itself. It’s not a crushing blow, but it’s something that delivers targeted strike after targeted strike against your Christian walk and, if it’s not stopped, has the ability to cause major damage to your spiritual health and relationships.

Maybe it’s gossip. It could be reading a certain kind of novel. Maybe it’s a glance that lingers longer than it should. Perhaps it’s tension in your marriage that goes unresolved and festers. Doing these things a single time is not something that’s devastating to your spiritual walk, but each of them is something that leaves a pock mark. You may have even told yourself “it’s not a big deal, it doesn’t hurt anybody.” Well, maybe doing it once isn’t a big deal, but have you only done it once? Consider whether your pock marks are aligning in a way that will lead to cracks and problems in the future, maybe soon.

Is there something you’re doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing? If you’re wrapped up in something that hinders your ministry or God-given purpose, even just a little bit, it can affect your ability to make your maximum impact for Christ’s kingdom. Like athletes that train hard to compete at a high level, cut yourself off from things you know aren’t helping you. Don’t run for third place, or for second place; run to win.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. –Hebrews 12:1-2

I demolished each of these pieces of wood using that mini maul. If you feel you’ve stripped the unneeded junk out of your life, how can you help the “other pieces of wood” around you to do the same, so that they can better resist the onslaught of strikes that hit them every day?
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God Wants You Dead

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

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

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

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

“Yeah.”

“Then God wants you dead.”

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

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

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

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Don’t Let Go of Your Single Opportunity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Season of Change

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

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

It’s a time of new routines.

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

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

Hello Fall

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

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

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

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Stifle the Outcry

China in green, Taiwan in red

This post will likely be censored or unavailable for readers in east Asia.

At the end of World War II, many nations across the globe were exhausted, in physical and financial shambles, and/or struggling to define their identity. One of those nations was China.

The quick version is that in the late 1940s the two most powerful groups in China that had worked with the United States to combat Japanese forces struggled against each other for control of the nation. The Nationalist group, losing strength and support, began to flee toward the ocean in order to escape the Communist group. Upon reaching the Pacific, with the adversary not far behind, the Nationalist leadership escaped to an island off the coast of China, an island now known as Taiwan. The Communists went on to establish firm control over mainland China, and vowed to someday reclaim Taiwan, which they view as a rogue Chinese territory.

That was 70 years ago. China still intends to reclaim and annex Taiwan, by force if necessary. The Chinese Government knows, however, that if it suddenly grabs Taiwan all at once, the international outcry would be detrimental to its long-term goals, so it came up with a different plan. It’s been slowly exerting pressure on those within its sphere of influence to either support the idea that Taiwan belongs to China, or at least avoid supporting Taiwan in any way. The Chinese populace is not nearly as distracted and forgetful as we are in America, and the idea is that over time there will be so little international resistance that eventually China will reach out and pluck Taiwan for itself and the outcry will be manageable. Unfortunately for Taiwan, there’s evidence that the plan is working.

Don’t believe me? Let me show you an example.

Not long ago Tom Cruise introduced a trailer for his upcoming movie, Top Gun: Maverick. This is a sequel to the original Top Gun movie that came out 34 years before the sequel. I’ll admit, I’ve watched the trailer a few times and I’m definitely excited to see the movie some day.

It wasn’t long after the trailer went public that an eagle-eyed fan noticed something very peculiar. There’s a brief shot in the trailer where Maverick (Tom Cruise’s character) puts on an old bomber jacket that he wore in the first movie. The jacket is full of unit patches that signify some of the assignments Maverick completed. The fan did a side-by-side comparison of the jacket from the 1986 film and the jacket from the sequel. He noticed that where the 1986 jacket had a large patch containing flags from Japan and Taiwan, the 2020 movie replaced those two portions of that patch with similarly colored ambiguous shapes.

This was not an accident; it was quite intentional. China doesn’t get along with Japan or Taiwan. Rather than simply write in a minor plot change that uses a different, newer jacket, (or even avoid camera angles showing that particular patch) the people that made this movie decided it would be best to rewrite history in order to appease China. It would be different if China made the change itself before allowing it to play in Chinese theaters, but here the actual patch from the world’s first major summer blockbuster was deemed unpalatable and updated before it was even released in America. Now the movie posters act like it never even happened, history is erased, and the people that never saw the original won’t even know anything happened.

Imagine…this level of sinister manipulation by “soft power” methods is engineered by earthly minds. If mere humans can orchestrate this type of behavior, imagine the level of sneakiness and underhandedness that the most powerful of all angels is capable of.

Now, before you get any crazy ideas, no, I’m not saying that China is run by the devil. I think this instance is an excellent illustration of one of his tactics, though. He knows he’s headed for an epic clash that he’ll eventually lose. In the meantime though, he hates God and us so much that his main motivation is to rob God from receiving glory. He does it through discouraging/distracting Christians from doing the work God calls them to do and by doing everything in his power to prevent humans from becoming Christians. That’s it. At the end of the day, that’s all it is.

Satan knows that a sudden power grab is too overt and people would too easily recognize it for what it is. With that in mind, he works a little slower, in smaller steps but always pushing toward making the world a place where anything goes and Christianity is labeled as too intolerant and restrictive. Think about how much Christian influence the United States has lost over the last hundred years, or even the last 20 years.

When you shape the narrative, it’s much easier to control the outcome. As a Christian you can’t just hide your head in the sand and hope things will get better; you need to engage the culture. If someone tells you that “there are no absolutes,” you can politely remind them that their statement is self-contradicting. If someone tells you that “everything in life is meaningless!” you can ask whether or not they believe their assertion has meaning.

Engage the culture. It’s your culture, after all. Push back against ideas that run counter to what you know God would want. It’s not easy and you might be alone, but if you don’t do it, it won’t be long before Christians end up in a situation with the adversary posturing to reach out and pluck this isolated refugee enclave so it can do what it feels is best with this group of troublesome upstarts.

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There Is No “Plan B”

Photo courtesy of experienceperception.com

Boy, I’m a fan of those Marvel superhero movies. I’m not nearly as big a fan as some of the people out there, but it’s been fun to keep up with each new movie and see how the stories unfold. My wife and I went to see the first one…Iron Man…when it first came out in theaters in 2008 (she’s a cool wife). That was back before we had kids. Now, 11 years and over 20 movies later, the whole “Avengers” franchise came to a head with its most recent installment, “Avengers: Endgame” this past spring.

It’s been very interesting to observe, because while each individual movie was its own story, each one also contributed to the telling of a larger story that was always looming in the background. You’d probably be okay if you missed one or two of the minor movies, but if you hadn’t seen any of them before and you just walked in and watched the latest one, you’d be completely lost and you would have missed out on so many of the details.

In the superhero movies, the good guys always win, right? Well normally yes, but that’s not what happened last year with “Avengers: Infinity War.” At the end of that movie, the team of superheroes had been defeated soundly. Many of them were killed, and everyone on the planet (and beyond) had to endure the consequences of the heroes’ failure. It was a far cry from the fun, upbeat “save the world” superhero movie Marvel usually produced. When my wife and I went to see that one, we actually heard kids in the back of the theater, crying.

After watching “Infinity War,” we had to wait a whole year…until just a few weeks ago…to find out what happened next. We knew they couldn’t just end the story like that; the good guys have to win! We knew that by the end of “Endgame,” it would all be okay and the heroes would be back on top, but we didn’t know what path the story would take to get there. We could even make some solid guesses at a few of the major plot points, but we had no idea how the movie would fill in all the details.

Photo courtesy of comicbook.com

My friends, though it’s a strange comparison, this is exactly what it’s like being a Christian and serving the God that created the universe. The Bible lets us know that things are going to get very dark and bleak in the years ahead. Even right now, I’d say that during this time period in history, fewer Americans than ever before value God or attending church. Christianity is viewed as an intolerant and archaic belief system that’s essentially just a bunch of rules about what you can and can’t do. The influence of church in today’s society has weakened to the point where even people within the Christian community pick and choose what they believe from the Bible, or twist what it says in order to justify tolerating things God hates. I just recently heard about the president of a seminary here in the United States who does not believe in the virgin birth or that Jesus rose from the dead. How far have we decayed that a person with this type of belief system could be president of an institution that educates future pastors?

There’s good news though. The good guys will win. What’s really interesting is that the church is still God’s plan for the world. Christ redeemed the world, but it’s the church’s job to get the word out. In order to let people know about it, God’s “Plan A” is to use the church, and there is no “Plan B.”

Do you know what that means? This is the exciting part…it means that even if the church as we know it completely dies out and loses all influence over today’s culture, it will morph into something new and more effective that reaches people with the news of how unsaved souls can gain salvation through Christ. The book of Revelation foretells of a revival toward the end. This means that the evolving church…whatever it looks like at that point…won’t just do an okay job, it’ll rock at it with God’s help.

Well that brings up an interesting point. If the collective church is going to undergo so many changes, how will we know what we’re supposed to do? If you’re really serious about studying the fall of the church’s influence and the tough times ahead, it’s easy to stress out. I find that the easiest way to not stress out about it is to simply follow God’s prompting when you feel it. (You’ll know it when you feel it.) In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus instructs the disciples about how to conduct themselves as they go out and spread the message. Notice how he discourages worry here:

“18…and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19“But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 20“For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”

It’s as if He’s saying “I have a plan. I’m going to have you be a part of it. All you have to do is whatever I tell you, and it’s all going to be okay.”

At this point, some people would say “sure, but that’s for other people…pastors, missionaries, people who get paid for it.” Nope. It’s for everyone that follows Christ, whether it’s your occupation or not. We’ll all be given opportunities to be part of the plan, and all we have to do is whatever task He sets before us.

The good guy wins in the end. We can guess at some of the major plot points, but we don’t know how the details will get filled in. There will be epic struggles, and we’ll lose some friends far too soon. In the end though, the wrongs will be set right, the tears will be wiped away, and we’ll all celebrate together when it’s over. Isn’t that the team you want to work alongside and contribute to?

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Tomorrow Might Never Come

Picture courtesy of GoogleMaps

I don’t remember if I was 16 or 17 but I worked as a lifeguard a few of my teenaged summers. The Christian conference center where I worked was always very busy in the summer time, so when I wasn’t doing lifeguard or pool stuff, I usually had some other type of work to do.

One morning I sat in an office near the conference center’s front desk, doing data entry for some upcoming summer programs. I heard someone come running in the front door, and breathlessly told the front desk attendant, Kari, that there had been an accident down on the river. On the other side of the Delaware River, right across from us, there was a rope swing. Apparently a pair of guys that had been paddling down the river stopped to play around on the rope, but the rope snapped on one of them while they were mid-swing. According to the guy who came running in, his buddy was conscious, but couldn’t get up. Since there were some people hanging out on the conference center’s dock, the uninjured guy saw them and paddled over to ask for help.

Kari called an ambulance to get them rolling, then came back to where I was. She asked if I could just go see if there was anything I could do to help or if there was anything I could find out.

As I ran across the street and arrived down at the dock, the guy in the boat was just paddling away in his boat, heading back over to his buddy. I asked the people on the dock what was going on, and got the same info I already had. It sounded like the guy in the boat was super panicky, and it wasn’t clear if the injured guy had a hurt ankle or a hurt back. There were no other boats around. A canoe would have been absolutely fantastic at that point, and the conference center’s ski boat would have been even better, but the waterfront equipment wasn’t going to be set out for the day for another half hour or so.

I didn’t know how long it would be before the ambulance arrived. I looked across the river to where the guy was still laying in the water. That was too far to swim. Well…maybe? It was, right? I had never tried it, but that didn’t mean it was too far. I’d been swimming laps in the pool; in fact I swam hundreds of yards most weeks, but I never went more than 25 yards without touching a wall. This was probably only four or five pool lengths. The guy over there might have a broken back, and if his buddy did anything crazy, it could have a lasting impact. Before I knew it, I ran up to the pool and grabbed a big red rescue tube, then ran back down to the river. I was already wearing swim trunks; I kicked off my shoes and took off my shirt. I put the rescue tube’s strap across my chest and waded into the water to start swimming across the river.

No big deal, right? It was the same thing that I did in the pool. Everything went fine at first. I swam with purpose, I was confident I could do it, and the adrenaline gave me a boost. I had swum hundreds of laps in the pool, so I knew to lay as horizontally in the water as possible, even though it felt unnatural, so I could streamline my body and reduce the effort I’d need to expend.

But that was in a nice clear pool, with goggles. There were no lines on the floor here telling me I was going in the right direction. I had to keep picking my head up to check where I was, where my destination was, how fast the current was taking me, and if there were any boats coming. Picking my head up meant my body was more slanted in the water, so I had to work harder to go the same distance. Without goggles, the water kept getting in my eyes and I had to squint or miss half a stroke to wipe my eyes to see again. My feet kept kicking the rescue tube or the strap it was attached to, so I had to modify my kick. The adrenaline burned off, and I was in the middle of the river, getting tired and starting to doubt myself.

I ended up switching strokes for awhile. I didn’t move very fast, but it helped me rest enough to resume my previous stroke. After what seemed like forever, I made it to the other side. I was glad when my feet touched land again and I was able to walk up out of the water to find out what was going on.

It turns out the guy hadn’t broken his back or anything quite so severe, but his leg was probably broken. The river bank was too steep to get him up to the top, especially since he was a bigger guy and I didn’t have any shoes. The rope swing was on the back edge of a field. Any emergency vehicles were probably going to have a rough time finding the dirt road that led to us. I sent the injured guy’s buddy out to the main road to help the ambulance find us, while I stayed with busted-leg guy.

The emergency folks didn’t have all the information they would have liked, so they activated the swift-water rescue team. Now, my hat’s off to volunteer paramedics and river rescue folks, because they never know what they’re going to deal with when they show up to a call. I have to say, though, I was a little amused when a guy in a life jacket, wetsuit, and a helmet tossed a throw-bag (a rope with a weighted end) near us as I sat on the shore of a gently flowing river, wearing only swim trunks, while the water gently lapped our feet.

They got the guy out and loaded him into the ambulance. They patched him up, and I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure he was fine after a few weeks on crutches. Thankfully by the time they were driving off our waterfront equipment was getting set out, and of all people, my dad came idling up to me in the conference center’s ski boat to give me a ride home. I was glad I didn’t have to swim back.

What a crazy story. Where in the world am I going with this? I have three things to elaborate on:

First, no matter who you are, daunting tasks lay before you. Whether it’s the struggle to make it through yet another mundane day or fighting against something that threatens to annihilate your way of life, the choice to either stand on the sidelines and watch or step forward to get your feet wet is up to you. The road will be hard, but things God placed in your pathway previously have helped equip you for the journey.

Secondly, you don’t have to have all the answers in order to be helpful. I was afraid this guy fell off a rope swing and broke his back and that I was going to have to deal with some crazy complicated scenario. I wasn’t an EMT, I was just a teenaged lifeguard that was trained in CPR and first aid. I don’t think I even had a driver’s license yet. If the guy had been in real bad shape, the only thing I had with me was a glorified pool float. I knew more than either of those two other guys did, though. I may not have done anything to save the day, but by deciding to wade into the river, I kept things from getting worse. We’ve all been there. Maybe you see something at work or at church where you know it’s not going to end well, despite the best intentions of the people involved. If you see something they don’t, even if you’re not the expert, consider offering some insight that can keep things from getting worse.

Finally, when God made you, He broke the mold. While we’re all made in His image, you’re not like anybody else on Earth. Think about the things that come naturally to you…the combination of talents, interests, and traits that are unique to you. We’ll call that unique combination your X factor. In this day and age there is an urgent need for people to make use of the X factors God gave them. There is nobody else in the world that possesses the exact same X factor you do. You might be thinking something like “but you don’t understand…I don’t have a position of authority…I don’t even talk with that many people…I’m a nobody.” Let me tell you something: the Bible is full of “nobodys” that chose to get out of the way and let God put their X factor to good use.

Many, if not all, of us have been given opportunities…opportunities to do whatever it is that we’re best at. It’s one of the greatest gifts a person can receive: a chance to do what you were made to do. Incredibly, many of us put it off. “I’ll do it tomorrow,” or even “next week.” What kind of arrogance is it we have when we assume “the same opportunity God is giving me right now will still be there in the morning”? The only thing you have for sure is right now. If God’s been nudging you to do something, what are you waiting for? It’s time to do it right now. Call that person right now. Stop delaying and set your idea in motion right now. Get it done right now. Wade into the water…right now.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -Philippians 4:13

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Just Give it to Me Straight, Doc

I’ve got three kids. I’ve had my share of seeing one or more of them knowing that they ought to tell me something, even though they don’t want to.

You can see the nervous fidgeting, their eyes looking anywhere but at you, and you know right away that the longer they take to tell you, the worse the irreversible damage might be somewhere. Did they flush something weird down the toilet and now it’s clogged and overflowing all over the floor? Did they pick up a fish from the fishbowl and accidentally drop it on the floor? Did they accidentally hurt their brother or sister, who now needs help in a hurry?

Your mind goes crazy thinking about all the things that could be wrong, and all you want to do is find out the truth so you can take immediate action if you need to. As the kiddo stands there, searching for the right way to break the news to Dad, it’s maddening to see them slow down even further, hinting at things to gauge how Dad reacts to different approaches. On the inside you’re screaming “just TELL me already!”, but you know that will stall the truth even more, so you have to cover any appearance of urgency and gently coax it out of them without looking mad.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? All you want is the truth. It might be at the doctor’s office after some test results come back. You see them start to hem and haw, uncertain about the best way to deliver the news. All the uncertainty you’ve been wrestling with has created more anxiety, and all you want to do is yell “just TELL me already!”

Have you ever felt that way on a grander scale? Not just for a blip during your past, but over a much longer span of time. You’ve had your ups and downs, but it feels like there ought to be more. Maybe you have a nice family, a nice house, you even have a great career, but it still feels like something’s missing, or that you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. What’s this life all about? You don’t even care how it’s going to make you feel; you just want someone to tell you the rest of the story.

Well if you want it, here it is.

You’re not good enough.

I’m not talking about not being good enough at your job, at being a nice person, or at not burning the crust in the oven. I’m talking big picture. When everyone, including you, was born, they were set on a course that does not lead to Heaven. And why? Because nobody’s perfect. Heaven only accepts perfection. Even if folks are good people that lead good, moral lives, after this life they are headed for eternal suffering and anguish. It’s not good news, but this is the sound of the other shoe dropping. If you don’t believe in the afterlife, I understand how it might sound kooky. Here’s the thing though…have you ever been on the other side of death?

There’s good news about all this: there is a sure way to change course. There is a way out of this default eventuality.

You’ve heard the name Jesus Christ. You may even have said it a few times, but who is He? He’s God’s Son…the power of God incarnate…all the power of God in human form. If He lived in Heaven, why would God show up as a person on Earth?

It’s kind of an odd answer: to withstand your punishment and serve your sentence on your behalf. Christ was perfect and fulfilled all of God’s laws flawlessly, but was wrongfully accused and executed. He spent a full day in Hell, taking my place, taking your place, taking the sweet grandma down the street’s place, taking the death row inmate’s place. Then He conquered it: He came back to life the third day after His death. By doing this He broke the power of Hell. Out of love, Jesus Christ now extends a hand to everyone, regardless of age, race, gender, orientation, national origin, regardless of everything. None of that matters, because each of those people falls short of perfection. By accepting His invitation, you switch sides…you’re no longer destined for eternal suffering and sorrow regarding this missed opportunity. People that take His hand are clothed in His perfection; they are destined instead for a joyous future in God’s presence alongside others that have made the same decision.

Some will tell you that many roads lead to Heaven. I’m sorry, but that’s simply not accurate. A relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to ensure an eternity in Heaven. He even said so in John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Now I just want to explain something. My writing is simply not compelling enough to convince people to make this decision. If you feel something tugging at your mind and heart, though, that’s God working on you. I’m just the method He’s using to reach you. Please don’t ignore the pull…Christ can whisper to you, but He won’t force you to switch sides. You don’t have anything to lose, but you have everything to gain.

Maybe you’ve never prayed before, but if you’re open to this, pray this prayer along with me:

Dear Jesus…thank you so much for loving me even when I don’t deserve you at all. Lord, come into my life, change me, break me, make me new, make me whole…forgive me. Purify my heart. Jesus I believe you died on the cross and rose again three days later. You are my savior and one day I will live with You forever. But meanwhile, help me to stand for you. To shine for you, to make a difference and let your truth be known. Use me Lord, Holy Spirit fill me to overflowing. I love you so much! In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you’re not quite ready for that, but you’re open to hearing more, I encourage you to listen to this man’s story. We’ve heard of instances where people die for a few moments on the operating table, only to be revived and tell stories of a brief vision of Heaven. But what if we got a brief view of Hell? It’s a remarkable story.

For those with a little less time (or for more encouragement after the first video), have a listen to this song. It conveys why Jesus would give up everything…because the Savior of the World would rather die than live without you.

Even if you’re skeptical about all this, please consider passing this on. If you’re already on board, please share it either by posting it in your social media or by forwarding this link: https://daregreatlynow.com/?p=650

Eternity hangs in the balance. Will you see someone in Heaven because you helped them get there?

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You’re Affected…But How?

You can tell a lot about where someone’s from by the words they use and the accent they have. Do they call it “soda,” “pop,” “sodapop,” or “coke?” Is it a “lollipop” or a “sucker?” “Do they wear “tennis shoes” or “sneakers?” Is the word “y’all” a part of their vernacular?

As a kid I lived in Pennsylvania. I’m a little biased, but I don’t think I had any kind of accent as a kid. It’s a funny thing though; we had some people move to our neighborhood that came from North Dakota. There were also some grandparents nearby that had long summer visits from a family that lived in Minnesota. As I played and spent time with the kids of these Midwestern families, a funny thing happened…I started saying words the way they did.

Accent map courtesy of the Washington Post

That time spent together influenced the way I spoke. This is a pretty harmless instance of what I’m getting at, but it’s a great example of how you are influenced by your surroundings. You become like the people and attitudes that are around you.

Take a moment to stop and think about the people and attitudes that are a part of your environment. This is where you are headed. You are becoming more like them. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on what kind of people make up your environment.

It’s a two-way street, though. The new neighbors from North Dakota were immersed in a new region, surrounded by people that did not have the same accent as them. For that family’s kids especially, the accent faded with time. You’re not the only one being influenced; you also possess influence over those that are part of your life. Do you exude positivity and an uplifting outlook, or do you drag people down with your presence?

It might be time to re-examine the things and people you have in your life. What kind of friends do you have? What kind of things are you doing together? Other relationships, like family or work, give you fewer options with regard to your ability to choose whether or not to interact with them. In those cases, focus instead on your ability to make a positive difference in your shared environment.

In either case, whether you can choose your associations or not, you have a choice as far as what kind of contribution you will make to your environment.


“whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Philippians 4:8