I’ve got some exciting news about DareGreatlyNow.com! A ministry partner has volunteered his services to make audio recordings of past blog entries, and the intent will be to make them available on the site for listening on the go!
I say “ministry partner,” but the truth is…he’s an ordinary guy who followed through on the Holy Spirit’s prompting to make use of his talents, time, and resources. He doesn’t represent a professional organization. He’s an example of what God can do with a willing heart. Thanks to his efforts, blog entries will start becoming available through a different medium, hopefully reaching a wider (or different) audience, spurring them on with the goal of encouraging others to step into the roles God made for them.
In all honesty, it’s probably going to be a long time before even a tenth of the blog’s past posts are available to listen to. Neither of us does this full time. We’re just guys who love God and said yes to different versions of a task He laid before us, and we do this on the side. The beauty of it, though, is that we’ve begun working a project that once didn’t exist, and years after it first started, there are hundreds of God-honoring posts that have collectively been read thousands of times across the globe.
Here’s where I’d love your input. In light of a limited capacity to produce audio files of past entries, I’d love to hear from you to help shape the prioritization going forward. Which past posts stand out in your mind as something that spurred you on, or as something you think others need to hear? Leave a comment or let me know at tim@daregreatlynow.com.
Big things that honor God and build His kingdom don’t usually start out big. They start with a single person being open to God’s leading. Later, other people bring reinforcements and additional depth to the project. What are you being led to do? What’s holding you back? Who will you be a ministry partner to?
I like stories with twist endings you don’t see coming. The director M. Night Shyamalan is famous for putting together some movies with great twists.
One of those movies, Unbreakable, has a lot of parallels to the Christian walk. Everyone who’s received the Holy Spirit has also received custom-designed talents and abilities from Him for the purpose of serving Him and His kingdom.
I’m not going to give away the movie ending, but it’s about an ordinary guy who finds out he’s got some special powers which enable him to be much more than an ordinary guy. Amazed but confused about how to use his gift and what to do next with it, he asks a mentor of his, “What am I supposed to do?” Knowing the nature of the gift involves interactions with people, the mentor gives it to him straight: “Go to where people are. You won’t have to look very long.”
Sure enough, he followed the advice and went to a public place, where his interactions further brought out his special abilities. That practice helped him improve his ability to harness his talents and use them productively.
If you want to serve the Lord by using your God-given abilities, you might have trouble getting started. It can be frustrating to know you’ve got something special but not know what to do with it. The most important thing? Start using those abilities. God’s not going to be mad at you for not getting it perfect the first time. Even if you’ve only got a faint notion of how they can be employed, give it a go…each experience will help you get a better sense of how to put them to good use. The practice and familiarity gains you proficiency and confidence, and that’s when things really start moving.
“Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here.”
When my two oldest kids were little, I’d often come home from work and be greeted by two little balls of energy. Mommy stayed home with them, so when I came home I’d try to give her at least some kind of break by taking them off her hands even if it was for just a few minutes. One particular day was very pleasant outside, so I went into the house intending to come back outside with one or both kids in tow shortly thereafter.
I walked in and got some big hugs from everybody. My little guy looked like he was up for a walk, so I said “Hey Buddy, I need to go get the mail. Would you like to go to the mailbox with me?”
In about as sweet a tone as you can imagine, he said “Umm, I don’t, but I wish I did.”
That little memory makes me think of some people’s walk with God. Some of them honestly and earnestly seek to do God’s will for their life. Others know they should pursue that goal, but for whatever reason, it takes a back seat to other priorities. They wish they had the time or the drive, but they don’t really have their hearts set on it. Others don’t even aspire to that much.
My little guy didn’t want to go, but he didn’t want to disappoint Daddy, either. I wasn’t mad or disappointed in him; I knew he might very well turn me down. God knows before we do how we’ll arrange our priorities. He’s not surprised when we choose not to prioritize the things He offers us.
Although it’s super easy to be distracted by the urgency of the things we encounter in this life, the Christian life is about living your life according to how God wants you to. Give it a try. I think you’ll be blessed in ways you didn’t expect.
Last week I talked about living “in the final minutes of the game.” If Satan knows he’s losing, and that the clock’s getting closer to zero, he’s going to pull out all the stops in his efforts to derail God’s plan. There are no rules of conduct he’ll voluntarily abide by.
Well God’s going to do what God’s going to do, and none of us know exactly what’s going to take place or His timeline for doing it. We know God wins, but we don’t know what the battles look like between now and then, or which of us are going to step into crucial roles in the fight.
I feel I need to drop some truth on my fellow Christ-followers here, and for some it may be uncomfortable. Here it is: If you are not living your life actively looking for ways to build God’s kingdom (either by bringing new souls to Christ or building up the faith and capabilities of those who are already His), you are living a life of disobedience.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19-20
This isn’t a verse that says “as long as you’re up for it,” or “once you get that job,” or “when life is going well for you.” This is not an optional aspect of Christianity, this is a command. Yes, if Jesus Christ is your Savior, you’ll spend eternity with Him in Heaven, but there’s a lot of joy you’re going to miss out on if you duck the Boss’s directive.
And we get to be part of countering those efforts. Thank you John MacArthur!
I recently spent most of the day accompanying someone to the hospital for a surgery. Time seems to pass slower when you’re sitting in a hospital waiting room. It gives you the opportunity to do a lot of people-watching, and if you’re paying attention, you get to see a lot. For some, this is a place of business; it’s where they earn their paycheck. For others, it’s a place to volunteer. For many others, it’s a place of uncertainty, of worry. I saw elderly couples gingerly walking around together, taking great care to navigate obstacles I think nothing about. If the Lord sees fit to allow me to live that long, that reality isn’t as far off into the future as I’d like it to be. If I want end my time on Earth having lived a life of impact for the Lord, I need to be pushing now, and the same is probably true for you.
I’ve written in the past about the parable of the talents (found in Matthew 25:14-30). A talent in this case is a measure of weight, so a talent of gold or a talent of silver is worth quite a bit. The master called three servants together and gave them different amounts of money, according to their abilities (5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent), and told them to grow the money while he went away on a journey. The first two servants worked hard and doubled the money they’d been entrusted with, while the third was lazy and only returned the original amount to the master.
We all have the opportunity to demonstrate growth in our Christian walks. Those who do well with 1 talent graduate to being entrusted with 2, and those who do well with 2 demonstrate their worthiness to be entrusted with more. I feel like this blog is my “2-talent act.” I’ve been reliably posting content here for over six and a half years. I feel like my “5-talent act” is the book series I’ve posted about before. That series is a little too much for me to handle right now, but I’m growing into it. Being faithful at smaller-talent acts will help prepare me for the bigger lift, and the same goes for you. It’s become glaringly apparent though, that if I want to complete that 5-talent act, it’s not something I can just wish and hope for; I’m going to have to make deliberate efforts to get it done. It’s going to cost me something…usually my time. I’m trying to build something that will still be making an impact long after I’m gone, but if I want it to really happen I have to get moving now. I’ve already been working on it for a few years, and even though I’ve started to accumulate a few sizable manuscripts, there’s still years’ worth of work to be done.
That’s why it’s important to remember, and keep in perspective, the brevity of life. It’s easy to brush aside the idea of committing to something big God’s called you to, because people of all ages can talk themselves out of it. If you’re a teenager, you figure you’ll have plenty of time for stuff like that later. In your early career you’re still focused on getting yourself established, or even just paying rent. Maybe you get in a serious relationship, maybe little footsteps follow behind not long after. Well then, since you’ve got a young family, you have other priorities. But then you get pulled into volunteering at school activities, and then you get caught up in the college search. Then all your kiddos leave the nest and it’s just you and your special someone, or maybe just you. But then you get a pink slip, or an unexpected diagnosis. You eventually make it through that, and at some point you become a grandparent. Retirement isn’t super far away, and maybe you take a big vacation once in awhile. You eventually retire, and then you have to figure out what that looks like for you. You do some fun things and spend some time with the grandkids, but before you know it you’re trying to decide if you want to retire in place, downsize, or move into a retirement community.
“Wow, that went fast.” Sometimes it seems like it’s over in a few blinks of an eye. “I guess there’s really no ‘good’ time to get to work on the stuff God assigned to me.” That’s part of the reason why He rewards the followers that make time for His work.
Not sure where to begin? Start small and grow from there. I bet your church needs help with child care (or some other ministry). Maybe you can think of a practical way to demonstrate love to someone who needs some help (both Believers and non-Believers). Is there someone you know who could use a little discipling?
It’s not too late. God has work for you to do. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” I’m sure we’ll celebrate together in Heaven, but don’t let a lifetime of disobedience pass you by.
There’s a story in the Old Testament we’ve probably all heard before as kids. A destitute widow and her two sons had no money to pay off their debts, and creditors were about to come take possession of her sons and put them to work as slaves. Desperate, she came to Elisha, a prophet of God, and asked him for help.
If you haven’t heard the story before, the text is down below. What I’d like to highlight is the way God allows the widow to choose the magnitude of response. At least in this case, when God chose to intervene in the widow’s life, He essentially wrote her a blank check. The catch is that His answer hinged on how far she was willing to go in her obedience to Him.
The level of the widow’s obedience in this case directly affected the degree of the Lord’s response. In a sense, she got to choose the extent of her own blessing. Elisha told her to collect lots of empty jars from neighbors and friends, then fill them all from the single jar of oil she still had at home. She could have very well rolled her eyes and said “yeah, okay” when Elisha told her what to do. “Sure, I’ve got two or three empty jars at home; I think I’ll just use them and not bother any of the neighbors.” Imagine how disappointed she would have been if that’s all she did. The text doesn’t actually say how fervently she went from house to house looking for additional empty jars, but she probably would’ve tried a little harder if she knew for a fact what was going to take place, don’t you think?
Someday you and the Lord are going to look back on your life to take a look at just how closely you obeyed His commands and calling. He’s going to reward you based on what He sees (Matt. 16:27, Rev. 22:12). With this in mind, will you be satisfied with the level of dedication you’re currently using to serve God, or will you wish you had put in the extra effort to find a few more empty jars?
2 Kings 4:1-7
4 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”
And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
A couple years ago I wrote about an earlier time when two of my kids played tee ball. Man, if you’re competitive when it comes to sports, or you generally enjoy competence, you probably want to stay away from watching tee-ball games.
These days my two kids who were in tee ball are about 10 years older than when they played the sport. My son is old enough to get a job now, and this past weekend I went with him and my younger daughter to a little league complex so he could earn some cash on opening day.
We dropped him off so he could do his thing, and my daughter and I headed into the bleachers to kill some time watching a tee-ball game while we waited. (If you decide to read my previous tee-ball post, this is the same daughter who got antsy in the stroller and I took her walking around during the games.)
When I had kids playing in a tee-ball game, it was a disaster. The kids kinda had fun, but it was hard for me to watch for some reason. This time around was different, though. The game was still a disaster for sure, but it was much more fun to watch. My daughter and I had a good time being spectators.
The second baseman still stood around picking his nose. The whole team still swarmed to (and sometimes fought over) the ball anytime there was a hit. There were still sometimes two runners on the same base. For the kids, the highlight of the experience was still having team snacks after the game.
Why the difference in perspective? I think maybe it’s because none of my kids were out there, looking like they couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag. I can only surmise the first time around was so frustrating for me because my kids’ team couldn’t function, but this time was a hoot because I wasn’t invested in either team and I was able to just watch and enjoy the chaos. My daughter and I sat in the bleachers, laughing at the cuteness and abject comedy on display out on the field. They were a funny bunch, and they didn’t care that they didn’t know what a good play looked like.
In your life, have you walked away from serving God in the past because it was somehow too aggravating or frustrating for you to be a part of? Maybe it’s time to give it another shot. Just because it was hard for you back then doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same today. If it is, maybe now you’re better equipped to handle it. Try doing a little reintroduction to using your gifts for God’s glory. He gave you this talent for a reason; you might find this time around is much different.
I’m at the age now where I’m too old to do all the things I used to be able to do, but I’m not old enough to realize I should sometimes skip the attempt. I think it’s safe to say it’s a little late for me to start thinking about a career as a professional athlete.
The kids are getting quicker and I’m getting slower. Injuries and sore muscles take longer to overcome. I rest a little longer between sets when working out. I could push through the pain, but these days I put a lot more thought into whether or not that’s a good idea. It feels like every year gets a little shorter than the last one. In my mind I’m still in my mid-twenties, but the aches and stiffness in my joints tell a very different story. I blinked and it’s twenty years later.
I share this because I want to emphasize to you the idea that our time here is short. For our lives to have an eternal impact, we have to be doing productive things in the here and now, and the here and now is quickly passing us by. That means our time is precious and should be filled with purpose. Here on Earth, we’ve only got one lifetime to make a difference for those not currently headed to Heaven. Eternity hangs in the balance, and the stakes are the highest they could possibly be.
Got time for two and a half minutes of Christian motivation? Here’s one of my favorite quotes from this clip I hope you check out. “My life is too valuable, my calling too great, my God too good, to waste my life on things that do not last.”
Time is short. Live with a sense of urgency and intentionality. You have ONE life during which to make an eternal impact.
As a Christian, have you ever wished you’d had a greater hand in leading someone to Christ? Maybe you had general discussions about God with non-believers, or even prayed with them, but you’ve never been part of “closing the deal.”
Well, don’t despair. God doesn’t usually do major works in someone’s life all at once; He usually does His work over the course of time. Some people might only require a short path on their way to deciding to follow Christ, needing only a few conversations or teachings from the Bible. On the other hand, other folks require an extensive amount of steps before yielding to Jesus. They may hear the truth multiple times, they may acknowledge that the theory of evolution doesn’t explain everything, and they may assent to the idea that despite “having it all,” there’s still something missing. It takes people varying amounts of time to work through that paradox.
God works in some pretty amazing ways. We never know if someone’s going to become a Christian, and if they do, how many “steps” it will take to get them there. The important thing to remember is that whether it’s three steps or 705, each one of those steps needs to happen before they bow their knee to the Lord. Being a part of any of those steps helps them get to the end of the journey.
If you interact with someone in a God-honoring way at any point before they accept Christ as their Savior, take joy in participating! You may not learn in this life what happens to that person’s eternal disposition, but then again, you may have brought them a step closer to seeing them again someday after this life is over.
So even if you don’t pray with someone to accept Christ, don’t give up on helping them work toward that goal.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. –Galatians 6:9
Boy, I don’t even think my parents know about this one. When I was in 11th or 12th grade, I did something very uncharacteristic of me. I decided to try out for the school play.
Now you have to understand, this was a very unusual thing for me to pursue. There must have been a cute girl in the cast or something. I can’t think of who it would have been, though. Honestly, I think I just wanted to try something totally new.
I can’t even remember what the production was, but I remember I decided to read for the part of a major supporting character. It wasn’t a lead role or anything, but it was somebody who’d grab a lot of attention when on stage. Think ‘Franc’ from “Father of the Bride” or a detective in some other play.
I’d never done a school play before (aside from stuff in elementary school). I went to the interest meeting, got a copy of the play, and grabbed a packet to fill out. In that packet I wrote down the part I wanted to play. One of the questions they asked was something like “if you don’t get your preferred role, are you willing to accept a different part?” I thought it over for a bit, then answered “no.” At some point I turned in the packet, and eventually received information for auditions.
The faculty member in charge of the play was an English teacher I’d had sometime in high school. She knew me from class, but I’d never worked with her in an acting capacity. Whatever the role was, I gave it a shot during the audition. I thought I did fine, but didn’t know the teacher’s thoughts on it. Ultimately, I didn’t get the part, and I don’t know who did. Since the “try something new” thing didn’t pan out this time, I didn’t even go see the play.
With the benefit of hindsight, I totally get why I didn’t get the part. Even if I had a really good audition, I had no track record for the director or other students to rely on. The director can’t take an unknown and throw him out on stage in a prominent role. Will he freeze? Will he nail it? There’s just no way of knowing. Besides, if we’ve got Joey over here, trying out for the same role, and the director’s worked with Joey before, she knows a little better what she can expect from him. Unless the director’s short on cast members, there’s really no upside to picking the brand new guy who’s only willing to play one particular role rather than someone who’s been in plays before and is willing to consider multiple roles if it helps the team out.
Christianity can be a little like this. When it comes to leaps of faith and following God’s lead in your life, track records of past experience are important. The twist here, though, is that past performance doesn’t help God trust you any more, it helps you trust God more as He provides for you in subsequently bigger and bigger ways. With the benefit of hindsight, you can see how your previous struggles and challenges helped prepare you for subsequent larger struggles and challenges. Again, this doesn’t build the Lord’s trust in you, but you get to look at your history of being faithful and seeing God at work in and through you. Seeing that, you trust Him more.
I’d also urge you to be willing to play something other than your preferred role. We can get comfortable in the ways we serve God, and become less and less willing to step out of our comfort zones as time goes on. The Lord loves a willing heart. I’ve heard it said that as Christians, we’re always in the furnace or on the anvil. God spends a lot of time honing us and shaping us into who He wants us to be. I believe a willingness to follow His call into waters deeper than we’re comfortable with is a great way to demonstrate our obedience both to Him and to ourselves.
If you have no track record of faithfulness to the Lord, why not start today? Start small. Begin reading from the Bible every day. Start tithing. Stop doing things you know you shouldn’t be doing. Get rid of stuff you know you shouldn’t have. Being faithful in the small things helps build that history, that lifestyle of obedience. As you follow through on those small things, God will give you bigger opportunities to make a difference in someone else’s life, or lots of other peoples’ lives.
But it all starts with small steps of faithfulness. Start building that track record today.
I like to take different types of personality tests. It’s fascinating to answer a bunch of questions, then get results accurately describing the way I approach life. I’m one thing on the Meyers-Briggs, I’m something else on the Enneagram, and I’m a variety of other things on other tests. It’s always humbling to receive such accurate descriptions of myself from complete strangers, and then realize no matter how detailed those descriptions get, my creator knows me at an even deeper level. He knows not only my strengths and weaknesses and how I deal with conflict, but the failures and victories still ahead of me, how I’ll respond to challenges He knows are coming, and to what degree I’ll rely on Him through it all.
One of the tests I’ve recently taken focuses on the way I communicate with others. I’m what’s known as a “Challenger.” A Challenger transmits courage and awakens calling. That means when I see people, I see greatness inside of them, and I want to both convince them and motivate them to unlock it. If you’ve poked around on the DareGreatlyNow website, in the “about us” section or in past posts, this may not be a surprise.
It saddens me to see people with untapped potential. I want to help people, especially Christians, believe they can achieve the improbable things God’s called them to do with their lives. I want Christ-followers to see they don’t need to sweat all the details, or even have a clear view of the big picture; they just need to do their part, whatever it is, and trust not only that God knows what He’s doing, but also that He’s weaving all the lives and efforts of other believers into a masterpiece to fight evil, save souls, strengthen faith, and glorify Him.
A pitfall for me is being susceptible to always pushing for more, always urging higher and higher levels of dedication or performance, at the cost of failing to stop and celebrate wins. “That was yesterday’s victory, we need new sacrifice to win today’s battle!” I’m in danger of pushing the people I communicate with away, making them think “will I ever be enough for this guy?”
So let’s meet in the middle. Right now I’m talking to my Christian brothers and sisters out there. How has God been at work in your life lately, and what wins in your spiritual life can you celebrate? If you’re trying to establish or improve devotional habits, for example, celebrate a win like “I read the entire passage I was supposed to read for my devotions,” or “I’m still extending my longest streak of daily devotions.” Those are wins, and they should be celebrated.
If you’re trying to get established in a habit or spiritual discipline, let me offer a tactic you might find useful. I’ll use the example of going to the gym, but you can use it for building time spent on devotions, prayer, volunteering, giving to the offering, and any other habit you’re trying to improve. If it’s been a long time since you’ve been to the gym and you’re pretty much starting from scratch, follow this simple rule. For the first week, go every day you’ve decided to go (three days a week, five days a week, etc.), but spend no longer than 5 minutes inside the building. You can walk in, get on a treadmill for 3 minutes, then walk out. Finish week one? Do the same thing for week two. Do it again in week three. What this is doing is helping you master the art of showing up. You’ll get tired of spending more time traveling to and from the gym than actually working out. Once you prove to yourself you can make room in your life for the habit, show yourself you can improve on it. Instead of 3 minutes on the treadmill, do 7, or instead of 3 mph, do 3 and a half. Turn a set of curls into a set of curls and a set of flies. Instead of two laps in the pool, do four. Celebrate those wins as you reach new milestones. While you’re reaching those new milestones, you just might realize you have it within yourself to reach for even higher goals.
In a complete left turn, here’s another way of looking at this. Sometimes artwork speaks to me in a way nothing else does. I came across this picture while looking for music to listen to while writing. More than any other picture of friends embracing, wildlife beside peaceful waters, or a single set of footprints on the beach, this picture challenges me to move toward what I want to be spiritually. We see a soldier, having fulfilled the task he’s been assigned, taking a moment in his exhaustion before rising to his feet. It’s been a long fight, and his strength is practically gone. He’s been fighting so hard for so long he’s got to mentally push himself to even summon the strength to stand. He’s come under fire, he’s probably lost companions, but the equipping he’s received enabled him to perform the feat to which he’s been called. He can’t see the bigger picture, but he doesn’t need to, because he trusts his commander to use him the best way possible. Yes, he’s been intimidated, overwhelmed with fear, and knows there’s no guarantee he’ll see tomorrow, but he knows those are only excuses for not putting forth everything he’s got. By focusing on the things he can control and not worrying about the things he can’t, he can channel all his energy into what he’s been charged with doing.
Though it’s not part of the picture, I imagine a scene taking place later, when this same soldier kneels before his ruler, having brought honor to him through his obedience, faithfulness, and tenacity. Receiving a hand on his shoulder and a joyful “well done” from the figure he wants most in his life to honor would bring him to tears.
It’s a metaphor of the way I want my life to look when it reaches its end, and it’s what I want to urge you toward in your own life. What strength are you holding back and not committing to your calling? Is there a tough choice you’ve been avoiding, because you know it will cost you something you’ve so far been unwilling to give? Celebrate the wins in your spiritual life, but don’t ever think “this is it. This is as high as I can go. God can’t use me any more than He already has.” The path to your greatest potential might just lie through your greatest fear.
