Did you know that? A lot of people seem to think that Christians are supposed to be pushovers or doormats. That’s categorically false. We’re supposed to stand apart from the culture, and that’s something that often takes great courage and fortitude.
You probably don’t often feel like a mighty warrior, though. Of course there are giants of the faith, and you might wonder how you can even be mentioned in the same breath as some of them.
Listen to me. If you’re not yet at the end of your Christian walk, God can still do plenty in and through you. He wants you for who you are, not who you ought to be. Yet He looks at you and sees not who you are now, but what you can become.
The world is dark and getting darker. Let the light of Christ shine in your life, whatever that looks like in your circumstances. We need you. Other Christians need you. Unbelievers need you. You may have some thoughts right now about how you can do that in your own life. God equipped you with certain talents or interests, and He did that for a reason. Follow through, and let God use you.
There’s a song that was very popular a few years back. It was about a guy that saw some of the hurt and injustice of the world, and he cried out “God, why don’t you do something?”
God said “I did. I created you.”
It might be true that you’re not a giant of the faith…yet. But it doesn’t take a giant to start with doing some of the little things that need to get done.
If you don’t know me, let me just fill you in on a little secret…I’m sort of a weirdo.
(I feel like I can hear a bunch of virtual “Amens!” after that statement.)
A lot of people shy away from socially awkward situations. I can’t honestly say I enjoy them all the time, but I don’t really try my hardest to make them end, either.
Case in point: over the past couple of years people have been spending an unprecedented amount of time at home. I myself didn’t mind, but without anywhere to go, the four walls seemed to close in periodically. I definitely needed to get out and get some sunshine every now and then, even if the only thing I had to do was go for a walk or do something in the yard.
One sunny day a year or two ago I went for a walk, but it was a little chilly. I put on a fleece and a windbreaker, along with a hat that covered my ears. My hands get cold on walks, so I wore a pair of gloves. Sunny days call for sunglasses, so I grabbed a pair of those too.
The neighborhood I usually walk in has a bunch of cul-de-sacs, so I can do a lot of walking without actually being very far away from home. I had walked through this neighborhood many times before, and as I headed toward one cul-de-sac, I noticed a bunch of young kids, probably 5 years old or less, along with a bunch of moms, playing out in a front yard that was decorated with streamers and balloons. As I got closer, I could see that the driveway was also decorated. Someone had used sidewalk chalk to write in big letters “Happy Birthday Charlotte!”
Truth be told, I was very glad to see kids getting together in person and having fun, rather than trying to have some kind of virtual birthday party. But I also got the idea to maybe provoke one of those socially awkward situations.
Very aware of the fact that I was dressed like some thug who was casing the neighborhood, I considered for a moment whether or not I should proceed. That was probably part of the reason I decided to go for it. Slowing down, but not stopping on my trip around the cul-de-sac, I called out “Happy birthday, Charlotte!”
I had no clue which one Charlotte was, so I just kind of waited to see what would happen. There was an odd silence for a few moments. One of the moms, who I thought rolled with it pretty well, then spoke up. “Um, she’s around back, but I’ll tell her.”
I have no idea if that mom passed along my birthday salutation, but if she did, how did that conversation go? “Who said that?” “He didn’t say his name.” “Well, what did he look like?” “Eh, kind of like some guy that’s walking around the neighborhood deciding which houses to rob.”
I don’t remember if I told my wife this story or not, so when she reads this I may have just effectively banned myself from going for solo walks around that neighborhood.
Speaking of awkward situations, we’re commanded to preach the gospel to those that haven’t heard it. We’re supposed to bring Jesus to “all nations,” including our own. That can be a very hard thing to do, especially if you’re overly concerned about the awkwardness that might come along with it! It’s a very important thing to do, though. Eternity hangs in the balance.
One thing to consider is identifying ways to make the conversation easier for the other person. In the example above, I imagine that if my wife, who’s a very outgoing and smiley person, had been with me on that walk when I wished Charlotte a happy birthday, that group of moms would probably have been much more at ease than they were with just me. Consider whether it would be beneficial to address multiple non-Christians rather than just “cornering” one.
Also, if you’re one to stare at someone with an uncomfortably piercing gaze when talking to others about Jesus, well…maybe it’s time to dial it back just a bit. It’s certainly an important topic, but a high-intensity demeanor may not be the right approach. Ultimately you’ll be the best judge of the situation, and trying anything is better than not trying at all. As long as you’re not prompting calls of “stranger danger!” you’ve got the potential to get something going.
Check out this link for eight tips about talking to others about Christ.
Can you imagine being shipwrecked three times? (Well, I guess it was four, but only three had happened by the time this letter was written.) What about experiencing a sentence of 39 lashes…on five different occasions? Or being adrift in the open sea all night, then all the next day?
The apostle Paul did these things, and much more. The book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 24-33 contains a list of Paul’s sufferings for the cause of Christ. He put together this list not because he wanted to brag about the things he’d been through, but to connect with an audience he believed needed to hear the point he was making. Constantly in danger from his own people, but also from people of different faiths, Paul survived the threat of robbers, false believers, dangers in both cities and in the wilderness, and endured sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, the cold, and the stress and genuine worry that comes along with being concerned about the well being of churches he’d started.
Paul suffered much for the cause of Christ, and that “resumé” is part of what gives him the ability to make such bold claims to opponents of Christianity. Relentlessly focused on spreading the Gospel, Paul’s experiences gave him the “street cred” to use his ministry to advance the Good News. His list of experiences would make anybody sit up and pay attention to what he had to say.
This is DareGreatlyNow’s 250th blog post. Some of the posts age better than others, but the Christ-focused messages hold up. The different entries are mostly about things I’ve experienced. In a sense, this undertaking is my testimony. I can’t hold a candle to Paul and the type of ministry he had, but I can relay my experiences in the hopes of moving toward the same goal he had: advancing the Kingdom of Christ by sharing what He’s done in my life.
Our focus areas are a little different from one another. Paul started churches and mentored young leaders, addressing corruption in the church and encouraging obedient believers. His work involved becoming closely involved in the daily lives of people he came to know very well. He was a leader that rolled up his sleeves and got close enough to correct people when they were wrong, to call out false teachers, and to protect his figurative sheep from various dangers.
I, on the other hand, work to encourage readers to believe that they can be a part of advancing Christ’s kingdom and are capable of more than what they believe themselves to be. I want Christ followers to not only know, but also live in such a way that in the midst of darkening skies, they should abandon reluctance and embrace the use of the spiritual gifts they’ve been empowered with, becoming exactly who it is they were born to be. I want to help people seize on the idea that they were created for more than what their lives currently are, but they have to realize it’s going to take some discomfort on their part to be able to reach their full potential in living for Christ.
I haven’t lived through shipwrecks, beatings, or getting stoned by an angry mob. I write about adventures from my younger years, parenthood, current events, and Bible passages. I recount failures, close calls, and “what were you thinking?!” scenarios. I’ll probably never meet most of the people who read these entries, but I trust that the Lord will help the posts make their way to the people that need to see them. Very few of the events I relay here were things I intended to pursue as a child, but whether I planned them or not, they’re now part of who I am and they’ve helped shape how I see the world. I’m thankful for (most of) them, and I love that I get to share them while turning parts of my life into object lessons that somehow glorify the Lord.
I don’t have to be as famous as Paul; that’s not the type of service God has called me into. His neck was constantly on the line. I don’t deal with that level of stress. I have more food than I need and I can take a hot shower or sleep in a soft bed every day. All I have to do is pay for a website and dedicate some time to writing. God prompted me to do it, and He hasn’t prompted me to stop yet, so I guess He’s still got plans for the posts that are yet to come.
What’s really exciting is that you’re similarly equipped for serving the Lord. I don’t know what the nature of your calling is, but all Christians are empowered with spiritual gifts and other resources that can be used in serving Christ. I also have no idea how God intends to interweave the service of multiple believers, but it’s exciting to think about. If there’s something big that God intends to do years from now, He’s probably already got things in motion. There are going to be things happening in your life, or in my life, that help set the stage for future events. You and I need God to prepare us for those things because if we walked into those future situations right now, we’d be lacking something we’d otherwise have by taking “the long way.”
It’s quite within the realm of possibility that there are things occurring in someone else’s life over the next few weeks, months, or years, that are teeing up a situation where somebody will be in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to provide you with exactly the thing you need the most, precisely when you need it most (and I have no idea what that would look like). That’s not an accident, and it’s a privilege to be able to recognize when you’re a part of that. If you offer your talents, and others offer their talents, when used by God, it creates more opportunities for a grand story.
Anyway, thank you to all those that have subscribed, encouraged me, or otherwise supported me in my efforts to follow the Lord’s calling for my life. I hope you’re supported in following your calling. Hopefully in Heaven we’ll get some insight into how we’re all connected through this grand story. In the meantime, take joy in honoring the Lord in a way that only you can…it might just be the reason you were put here.
I’ve always been interested in the idea that a multitude of individuals can perform their own distinct (and widely varying) jobs to the best of their ability, but someone over them (a manager, a coach, a superior officer, etc.) oversees and puts together those collective efforts to make something really big happen.
Some people take a different view. They think of themselves as running in the rat race. They don’t want to feel like they’re a cog in the wheel. If you derive your life’s purpose from an unfulfilling job, yeah, you’re going to feel like “just another brick in the wall,” as the old song goes.
But what if you derive meaning from God’s purpose for your life? If you do that, it’s a whole new ballgame. It’s often difficult to see in the moment, but as you look backward, you can see that things fell into place and coalesced in a way that helped you get to where God wanted you to be. Sometimes those things are the actions that other people are taking and other times it’s the way events seem to unfold. When it’s all said and done, a lot of things came together in a way that enabled your goal, your purpose, to go farther than it otherwise would have. It’s like you were part of a puzzle, and your piece and all the other pieces had to fall into place for the picture to be completed.
I’m going to shift gears on you a little bit here. When I was a kid I had lots of different books that I got from yard sales, thrift stores, hand-me-downs, etc. One of the books I had was a Flintstones book. I dug around online a little just now, and it was called “The Great Balloon Race.” I don’t remember much of the story, but as you turned the pages, in one of the upper corners of the page there was a picture of Fred juggling three balls. Each time you turned the page, something about that picture was slightly different, but it didn’t really become evident what was going on until you treated the whole thing like a flipbook. Starting at the beginning of the book, Fred walked onto the page and faced the reader. He tossed a ball into the air, then another, and then another. If I remember correctly, each of the balls made a few uneventful loops as Fred started to put on a show, but then he fumbled one of them. You could see his facial expression change as he realized his mistake. When he focused his attention on that particular ball, it made it difficult to keep track of those still remaining in the air. A second ball danced past his fingertips and fell toward the floor. You saw his eyes start to shift toward the last remaining ball in the air, but by now his rhythm was thrown way off, and he had to swipe at it to even get close. That action just ended up batting it off into the distance and out of reach. Left with nothing, he then looked at the reader, shrugged, and walked back off the page by the end of the book.
Our Christian lives are like flipbooks, but the metaphor goes a layer deeper. Just like before, each individual page of the flipbook is a puzzle, and you’re one piece among many. When you’re doing the will of God, your actions are fitting together with the actions of other believers. This flipbook was already in progress before you were born; one day you walked onto the scene, and there were other pieces that connected with you to form a single, larger picture. The pieces connecting with you may have been Sunday School teachers, a grandparent or parent, a friend, a pastor, or maybe someone you heard on the radio or TV. That particular picture may have also included a family or job situation, a specific time or place, or a set of circumstances that led to your acceptance of Christ. Those other pieces, who were themselves affected by other Christians earlier in the book, had an effect on you that grew you in your Christian walk.
Whether your Christian walk lasts for decades or for only a few minutes at the end of your life, you at one point walk onto the scene, and you’ll someday exit the scene. Each page that happens in between is its own puzzle that consists of numerous other “cogs in the wheel” that are doing what God has charged them to do. None of the individual cogs has insight into what the whole picture is shaping up to be or what kind of story the flipbook will tell, but they know that there’s a grand artist that’s in charge and is steering the path of where the story’s going. After all, when God called individual followers into their individual callings, He had their subsequent interactions already arranged in His mind. You do your part, other people do their parts, and God brings it all together.
Someday you’ll exit the flipbook altogether and it will continue without you. Your calling is meant to bring glory to the Lord, and many times that involves inspiring or somehow helping another “puzzle piece” to live out their Christian walk. Be watchful for opportunities to be a piece of another puzzle that’s a page in one of Christ’s flipbooks. One day you’ll be able to reconnect with all the other people that were involved in the same pictures you were, and you’ll be able to watch how the flipbook turned out.
Lord God, You are intimately involved not only with my life, but with the lives of everyone else on this planet. You’re in the process of telling a grand story, and right now, in this moment, we’re a part of the story for a limited time. Thank you for giving us opportunities to be part of the story; please help us to have the boldness and strength to accept Your invitations when they come. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
It can be tough to look at generations younger than you and think with confidence “this is who will one day lead the charge for spreading the gospel.” You know what, though? The same thing was probably thought about your generation at some point.
It’s exciting to see God work. From the Bible, we know that the world will get darker and increasingly hostile to Christianity. We also know the Gospel will continue to be spread, and that God wins in the end. Well if today’s not the end, God must intend to empower tomorrow’s Christians to continue doing His work effectively. He knew about radio and TV evangelism programs before the technology was even invented. He saw social media coming before anyone ever thought of it. The communication essentials of the future are already old news to Him, and He’ll pre-position followers to use them for His glory.
Another exciting thing to think about is that you, today, can play a part in future generations shining the light of Christ. The efforts you exert today may take a long time to bear fruit, but many a loud Christian voice once spent time listening to their Sunday school teacher, a Vacation Bible School volunteer, or a mentor that simply took an interest at a crucial time in their lives. I doubt the majority of churches would turn away new volunteers from their kids’ ministry, youth programs, or young adult projects.
This may be an odd way to think about it, but I’m part of an endangered species: I remember what life was like before the internet intruded into it. What’s neat to think about is how, even in spite of how much the world has changed, God still weaves experiences and encounters together in peoples’ lives with the knowledge that it’s heading somewhere bigger in the future. We didn’t formerly have a need for people to make Christian sound bites or short videos, but now we have YouTube and Vimeo. It used to be that a Christian “influencer” meant something totally different, but now they live on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. These are all things that people like me could learn, but we’ll never be digital natives like the generations younger than us.
The beautiful thing about that is it opens up limitless opportunities for people that are Christ followers, yet don’t feel at home in a traditional church setting. This creates a new space for innovation, where new ways emerge to spread the same essential message.
This one goes out to all those that never quite fit in or felt comfortable in church, but who still want to pursue Christ. People are hungry for what’s real, but they don’t know where to go to find it. If people don’t want to walk into a church, is there a way for you to bring the church to them? Above all, the most important thing is that Christ is preached. If you can come up with a new way to get that message to the people that haven’t heard it, you may have found the exact thing God created you to do. If you choose to do it, you may well be a blessing to others and at the same time be blessed in return.
You might be trying to figure out what God’s calling for your life looks like. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what it is, but I’d encourage you to be persistent in asking Him during your prayer time. In the meantime, I can tell you how I arrived at what I believe my calling to be, and maybe that will help you in some way.
I don’t really know how else to say this…my brain’s wired a little differently than most people I meet. I’m an odd duck. When I was in…I think it was first grade…my teacher had us do some kind of activity where we followed her instructions in folding paper. My version ended up looking very different than everyone else’s. Wondering why, my teacher went back and took a hard look at what I did. Upon closer inspection, she found that I had followed her instructions, but not the way she intended. Without trying to be a troublemaker, when she said “fold the piece of paper in half,” most kids folded it from top to bottom, while I folded it side to side.
Fast forward to high school, and the nontraditional route continued. I did athletic things without being an athlete. I never tried out for the baseball, basketball, football, or soccer teams. Instead, I played in the woods. I got certified as a lifeguard at 15 years old. A little older and I was dangling from ropes out of trees or off buildings. In college I went cross-country skiing, kayaking, and kneeboarding; after college I got certified in skydiving and scuba diving. Not only are they activities that aren’t all that common, they’re things that people just don’t normally choose to pursue. (I may have missed the boat on bungee jumping; I was willing to do it when I was younger, but now I’m afraid it may be too physically jarring. I’m willing to give cave diving (exploring underwater caves) a try, though.) It sounds like I’m an adrenaline junkie, but sometimes people need to double check to see if I’m still awake. A strange contradiction.
At the same time, I have a mind that’s oriented around technical things and the way things are organized, yet I can still be creative and think way outside the box. I’m not amazing at any one thing, but I’m pretty good at a lot of different things. I have low empathy, can come across as cold, and tend to gravitate more toward logic than feelings. This is pretty bizarre, because there isn’t a whole lot that’s logical about jumping out of an airplane or off a cliff for entertainment. Another contradiction. If Spock, Bear Grylls, and Elon Musk ran really hard toward each other and smashed together, you get me.
For some reason, about 20 years into my career, I started getting interested in the different classifications of personalities. The first characterization method I took a close look at is called the Enneagram. It classifies people into one of nine personality types, and my type is what’s called Type One…the Reformer. In short, Type Ones are driven to improve things that they perceive will enhance the greater good. It was pretty interesting, and a lot of things made sense. “Wow, this author gets me!”
Then I checked out a more well-known categorization type, Myers-Briggs. The Myers-Briggs construct has 16 distinct types of personalities. No single personality type shows up in huge percentages in the general population, but it turns out that mine is one of the rarer types, with only about 2% of the population falling into this category. The “Architect” type, or INTJs, are highly logical, creative, and analytical. Those three characteristics are not a common combination.
A little stunned that descriptions of INTJs fit me very well, I started poking around a little bit. It’s not often that someone’s accurately described how my personality is geared, so I felt like I had to take this newfound knowledge and use it to help make some kind of a decision. I had a sense that I was supposed to do more to follow God’s lead, but I didn’t know where, what that looked like, or how that would unfold. I wanted to know what other people like me were gifted at doing. Introverted, very focused, and often highly intelligent. What do other people who are INTJs do?
I scrolled through search results. There were lots of famous INTJs whose field I had no interest or entry into. Dwight Eisenhower, Hillary Clinton, Bobby Fischer, Bill Belichick, Nikola Tesla, Sherlock Holmes, Lex Luthor…all of them INTJs.
As I pondered how to break into a life of criminal mastermind-ery or famous consulting detective-ness, I somewhere came across something that just kind of jumped out at me. It turns out that C.S. Lewis, the Christian author, was thought to be an INTJ.
Of course I know who C.S. Lewis is, but I’m not super familiar with his works. I haven’t read anything of his other than the Chronicles of Narnia, and that was forever ago. Rather shamelessly, and at the risk of sounding like a copycat, it didn’t take me long to decide “I have to write fiction books with built-in Christian themes. I’ll shoot for seven of them and they all need to be about the length of the Narnia books.”
I don’t know why I decided that, but the idea just kind of took root. I can whine about how culture is taking bad turns, or I can do something to try to influence it. As I considered it more and more, the idea just seemed like it was something that I was tailor made to do, despite not having taken any creative writing classes. I have nothing published. My biggest writing project aside from that group of books is this blog, and that’s very different from what this challenge will entail. Still, it was honestly a relief, as though God were saying “okay, you’ve been persistent in asking, and now I’m going to give you a goal you can throw your energy into.” For me, there’s peace in finally knowing.
It’s funny how God treats people differently, depending on what they can handle. For many, if you tell them what they’ll have to go through before they get to the other side of something big, they’ll be overwhelmed. One of the hallmarks of an INTJ is a certain level of confidence that allows them to take risks. My initial goal of seven books of 40,000 to 50,000 words has now grown to 10 books of the same length. I have to plan as though I’m composing half a million words’ worth of stories. I’m the guy that used to label every line of a 500-word essay with the running total. I’m not looking at this goal and saying “piece of cake,” but I’m also not shying away from it. My confidence isn’t so much in me…it’s in the One that assigned me the job. I feel like this is the task He’s given me, and I know He’ll give me what I need to make it happen. I’m grateful to have found this challenge.
As far as progress on the project, I’ve bounced around between the different books, focusing on one, then taking a break from that one for awhile to work on a different one. Some I don’t even know much of the plot line, some I’ve made notes for, and others have tens of thousands of words drafted. To date, across all 10 books, I’ve got 80,000+ words in draft. I’ve still got a long way to go, but if I hadn’t started yet, I’d be 80,000+ words behind where I am right now.
Again, I don’t know what your calling is, but I tell you this story in the hopes that it will somehow encourage you. Be persistent in asking God to reveal what He’d have you do. The world is growing darker and darker, and Christ’s light is needed more and more. It’s not your job to have all the answers. All you need to focus on is doing what God wants you to do, not on what comes after that. Obedience is your responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. Do what you’re supposed to do, and He’ll handle the rest.
As I’m sure you can guess, in some ways I never actually grew up.
One example of this is the fact that I still enjoy reading the Sunday comics. One of the comics I like the best is called “Pickles.” It’s a comic about an elderly couple, Earl and Opal, and the humor that occurs in their lives. For some reason I’ve always liked Earl. The top of his head pokes out from under his white hair, he’s got glasses, and he walks with a slight hunch. I’ve joked before that I’m a grumpy old man in training, but Earl’s an old man without the grump (most of the time).
I read one Pickles comic not long ago. Earl sits up in bed as he faces a new day, then gets up and shuffles to the bathroom. As he looks at himself in the mirror he begins to ponder his life. “Look at yourself Earl, you’re an old codger!” With still-mussed hair, he asks “When and how did this happen?”
He keeps reflecting on his life as he begins brushing his teeth. “One day you’re a young buck with the world at your feet…” In the final panel, “…and the next day you’re an old dude brushing your teeth with Preparation H.”
I’ve always enjoyed hearing from Earl, but in the back of my mind, I’m afraid the distance between where I am and where he is probably isn’t as large as I’d like to think. There are certain seasons of life that seem to drag, but overall the time flies.
Personally, I’ve never been slapped with the jarring wake-up call from a doctor that includes the words “it’s time to get your affairs in order.” If that day ever comes, I’m sure I’ll have regrets over the time I’ve wasted doing various things.
To shift gears for a moment, back when I was first starting this blog, there was a pretty sizable chunk of time where I had no ideas about what I’d call it. As far as I was concerned, the whole point of the blog was to bolster readers’ faith, encourage them to dig deeper in their relationship with Christ, and exhort them, even try to push them, to increase the amount of time and effort they give to the Lord. Heaven will have people that barely made it through the “pearly gates,” and of course we’ll be happy they’re there. There will also be those in Heaven with many jewels in their crown. I’m not focused on greed here, but I think Christians should aspire to receive ornate crowns. (We’ll be giving those crowns to the Lord anyway, so the only “tangible” benefit of having a highly decorated crown is to have more to offer back to God.) I want my writing to help people receive crowns that have more jewels than they otherwise would have. I’m not looking to foster a sense of greed; I want to encourage readers to live their lives in such a way that additional jewels are a natural byproduct of their lifestyle.
The way people will do that is by being willing to risk something in their pursuit of Christ and the life He wants them to live. Maybe it’s risking comfort, or being willing to stand up for Christ’s teachings when everyone else seems to be sitting down. In some way, it involves graduating from the role of a spectator or someone who watches from safety, and taking on the role of someone who “gets out of the boat” the way Peter did.
During this time of searching for a title, I attended a conference where I heard a quote from Teddy Roosevelt that embodied a lot of what had been swirling in my mind:
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
The quote instantly found a special place in my heart. Knowing Christ is a fantastic thing, and if you know Him, I’m very glad to hear it. Let’s not let the story end there, though. While most Christians live relatively quiet lives, there are some that are involved in making history; they affect God’s kingdom on a larger scale than they would have ever anticipated. It’s not because they themselves are great…it’s because they said “yes” when God offered them an invitation, and He did something great through them. Success (at least as we imagine it) is never assured, but each invitation has a purpose. As the world keeps getting darker, we’re going to need more history-makers. In order to get more history-makers, we need to help “everyday” Christians say “yes” to God instead of saying “no.”
After hearing the quote, I had a large piece in “dare greatly.” Sadly, the domain “daregreatly.com” was already taken. If you go to that address, you get rerouted to a luxury vehicle website (maybe not what most people think of when imagining someone who “dares greatly”).
That led me to the final piece of the puzzle. In a tip of the cap to the urgency with which the world needs Christianity’s salt and light, I settled on daregreatlynow.com. It helps convey the idea that the world needs Christian influence, it needs it from you, and it needs it now.
If we haven’t already reached the point where we’re looking in the mirror and wondering where the time went, we probably will someday (sooner than we think). In order to be able to meet your own steady gaze when that day comes, I invite you to consider accepting whatever challenge Christ has been laying in your path recently. Your version of victory is not guaranteed, and there’s likely some cost or sacrifice involved. God could have given the assignment to someone else, but He didn’t. He gave it to you.
So I ask, will you be content with bemoaning your age in the mirror, or once you reach that point, would you rather be content with a life well lived? I urge you to live a life where you follow God into the unknown. You can’t see the path, but He can. Dare greatly, and dare greatly now, for the sake of the Lord’s kingdom and those that have yet to join it.
Father I thank you for the precious and fleeting gift of time. Once it’s gone, it’s never coming back. We’ll have all the time we want in Heaven, but there are some things that have an eternal impact here in this life. Help us to embrace Your calling for our lives, to have confidence in Your ability to enable us to do it, and to avoid reaching the end of this life while still holding onto untapped potential. This I ask in Your name, Amen.
Here’s a question with a twist. Were you ever on a team or in a group of people that was trying to accomplish a certain task, and you felt like you had the task well in hand? I’m guessing yes.
We’ve all been there, but here’s the twist. In that same situation, did someone else then unnecessarily join your team? I’m talking, like, “we don’t even need you, but we’re happy to have you along.” It could be someone that’s genuinely a delight to work with, or maybe someone that tells the best stories or has a tremendous sense of humor. Whatever it is about them…yeah, you’re happy they’re working with you, but in all honesty, you’d accomplish your task just fine without them.
That’s God, dealing with us. Granting someone else salvation is completely His doing. Each of us is powerless to grant it to someone, even if we desperately want them to come to a saving faith in Christ.
And yet…He’s overjoyed to include us as part of His process of moving in this world. If He wanted to, He could work out His plan for a specific individual’s salvation in a way that cuts all other people out of the process. That’s not how He works though. He loves including His followers as instruments of His plan. We’re unnecessary components, but it’s His pleasure to have us along for the ride.
If you’re a Christian, you’ve been given spiritual gifts that are meant to be used for the benefit of Christ’s kingdom. It’s up to you whether or not you use them, but He wants you to jump in. If you choose not to employ them it’s not going to foil His plans, but I imagine He’ll be disappointed that you chose not to use what He gave you. It’s like keeping a Lamborghini parked in the garage because you don’t want to get it scratched or dirty; it’s ensuring something highly specialized does not get used for its intended purpose.
So today, if you’re presented with the opportunity to accept God’s extended hand to go along with Him on an adventure, you can accept the invitation and be caught up into something that may make an eternal difference for someone, or you can choose to skip it and make the highlight reel of your life that you’ll see in Heaven a little bit shorter.
Today’s post marks sort of an interesting milestone. Since I started the site, I’ve had three posts written by guest authors. Since this is the blog’s 203rd post, that makes this the 200th entry I’ve written. Woohoo!
Okay, something a little different today. I’ve been trying to develop this one for awhile, but I don’t know that it’s baked all the way through just yet. I can’t be the first person to think of this concept; there’s probably something similar in a seminary textbook or some theological dissertation somewhere, but this is the version I came up with and am sharing with you.
You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” In short, you need to have your basic needs met before you can tackle more advanced challenges. If you’re not sure where your next meal is coming from or where you’re going to sleep tonight, you’re probably not throwing yourself into difficult engineering scenarios or sculpting great pieces of art. Another way of looking at it is to see that the people doing big things in life probably aren’t worried about the things that are near the bottom of the hierarchy.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This is a famous principle that’s been around for quite some time now. I’m not sure what got me thinking about it, but I started thinking…there’s got to be a version of this that applies to Christ followers.
Now, before I get into this, I want to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit does as He sees fit, and is perfectly able to do anything He’d like through anyone that’s anywhere on this scale, so I don’t want to make it seem like someone is a failure if they don’t get past the first level. The thief hanging on the cross next to Christ didn’t get real far on this hierarchy, yet his example has been referenced countless times since then to God’s glory and for the benefit of other believers. For some, though, my hope is that this helps spur them on in their Christian walk, possibly encouraging someone seeing this post to move up a level or more.
Each new level in this hierarchy is something amazing and miraculous to the person that’s just arrived there. Getting to a particular level is not a sign of a certain level of intelligence or some other measure of worldly success; it’s more often an indication of a person’s level of maturity in Christ. There may not be clear delineations between levels, and there may be some rising and falling that occurs along the way. Some believers may reverse some of the levels in this pyramid or even skip a level every now and then, and some levels may even intertwine. This is just a general version of life after acceptance of Christ.
Let’s get started.
Often, when a person commits their life to Christ, crossing over from Satan’s kingdom to that of eternal life in Christ, it’s marked with a sense of awe, of wonder, at God’s mercy and grace. “He did that for me!” It’s incredibly humbling to realize the extent of Christ’s sacrifice, and those that are young in the faith are often overwhelmed by the fact that God left the comfort of Heaven to be a part of Humanity, fully knowing what would happen and how many would reject Him. The first level of the “Hierarchy of Christian Focus” is “Marveling at Christ’s Mercy and Grace.”
Hierarchy of Christian Focus, Level 1
What comes next? Those new to the faith, whether they fall on shallow soil or good soil, want to know more about God, praise Him for His goodness, and draw nearer to Him. It’s so important to get new Christians plugged into a community of fellow believers where they can grow in the faith. Too often they fizzle out because they don’t find anywhere to get plugged in and receive mentoring or guidance from those that are more mature in the faith. The second level of the hierarchy is an Excitement to connect with God.
Hierarchy of Christian Focus, Level 2
Those two are very close together and are often interwoven. After that it gets a little tricky. Do you think the Devil is going to stand idly by while someone that defected from his rule assists his enemy? (Spoiler alert: no.) He’s going to try lots of different things to get your faith to die on the vine. If he can’t stop you from defecting, he’ll do what he can to limit the amount of damage you can do to him and his domain. I wrote a series on some of the tactics he uses awhile back. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) Though it can happen anywhere in the pyramid, in the third level, Christians have their first major encounters with doubt and pushback. They start learning to overcome those obstacles, and it’s something they’ll likely encounter for the rest of their lives. When we start getting down on ourselves, it’s easier to worry that maybe we’re on our own. I’m fond of the line from one of Lauren Daigle’s songs: “Remind me once again just whose I am because I need to know.”
Hierarchy of Christian Focus, Level 3
Precursors and hints at the fourth level of a Christian’s focus may have been happening even before they accepted Christ, but in the fourth level, Christians stop fighting the calling that God’s been whispering (or even shouting) in their ear. This is where believers move beyond a faith that had, up until now, been able to “fly under the radar.” Some people have an easier time following their calling than others, but it generally involves being willing to say “yes” to a feeling that prompts them to enter waters they perceive are a little too deep. There’s a stark realization that “I can’t do this on my own, but I also can’t not do it.” Think Gideon, David, Peter, and Paul. “What I’m doing right now makes no sense, but I know it’s what I’m supposed to do.” It’s the thing you were placed on Earth to do; it’s your purpose in life. You can ignore it if you’d like, but you’re intentionally avoiding the fulfillment of your potential if you do.
Hierarchy of Christian Focus, Level 4
I’ve heard it said that God is working on you until you take your last breath. That means He’s always stretching and growing you. In the fourth level you step out in faith to pursue the path you believe Christ has for your life, but in the fifth level you look back at the amazing things He’s accomplished through you, only to find another seemingly impossible challenge that will grow you in a different way (or maybe place a new, insurmountable spin on something you were already working on). Successfully start a business that you didn’t see coming? Congratulations, now it’s time for you to adopt a child refugee or sell the business and go to seminary. At this level, it’s important to keep leaning on God even though you start growing comfortable with the idea of doing things that “can’t be done.”
Hierarchy of Christian Focus, Level 5
By the time you reach the sixth level, you’ve seen and done a lot of things in your Christian walk. You’ve learned a lot, both about how to do things and how not to do things. In the sixth level, you realize that the most important legacy you can leave is to help pave the way for those believers that will come behind you. You want to train and/or empower them to do things that will advance the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ. I recently heard a speaker say that as he’s laying on his deathbed sometime in the future, it’s his desire to see the backs of fellow believers advancing past him to go further and do things that he never could. Ladies and gentlemen, the things we do with our lives are important, but there are few things more important than helping other believers reach their potential. This is true for Christian parents, Christian mentors in all areas of life, and Christian peers. Iron sharpens iron.
Hierarchy of Christian Focus, Level 6
All along the way, there are upward and downward pressures that help or hinder movement up the pyramid. Time spent reading the Bible, praying, and relying on Christ all help grow the trust you have in Him and help you move up the levels, but at the same time the Devil is trying all manner of tactics to bring you back down. If he can’t stop you from switching teams, he’ll do everything he can to render you ineffective at the upper levels and keep your faith to yourself.
Hierarchy of Christian Focus
There may be more levels, but I simply may not know what they are.
Like I said earlier, God can use anyone at any level to bring glory to Himself and for the benefit of other believers, but I believe we should all strive to get to a higher level.
And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
When it comes to serving God, we all have different niches. Though not all niches benefit from a “go big or go home” attitude, I like the idea that if you’re not thinking so big that it scares you, you’re not giving God enough room to make something incredible happen.
Of course it’s easier to talk about these kinds of things than it is to do them. I’ve got a “bigger-than-me” undertaking going on, and I feel like giving periodic updates here will help keep me accountable and making forward progress. I also believe that being transparent with what’s going on, including some of the challenges I face, may help others that are struggling with getting the pursuit of their calling off the ground.
Back in February I shared that I felt called to write a series of seven fiction books that were each 40,000 to 50,000 words. That’s not a small task. That’s a bare minimum of 280,000 words. I’ve got some experience writing this blog, but I’ve never published a book before! I’ve never come close to writing something that big! I’m able to articulate concepts and principles, which worked well in academic papers, but that’s a totally different animal from creative writing. My academic pursuits are more in the sciences, rather than communications. By most accounts, I’m out of my depth…but since I feel like God’s called me to this goal, being out of my depth isn’t an excuse to skip it. One of the ways God is glorified most is in the success of His inadequate, imperfect, and unqualified followers.
Each person’s combination of spiritual gifts, resources, and interests is as unique as their fingerprints. I know that not everybody is called to be an author, but I believe each Christian is called to use their gifts, whatever they may be, for God’s glory. You may not identify with everything I’m about to cover here, but I’ll try to highlight a few things that may be helpful to those grappling with pursuit of a calling in their own lives that seems too big to take on.
The toughest part was definitely getting started. I think that holds true for most large endeavors. If you focus on how much you still have left to do, it gets overwhelming. The important part is to just get going. Before I started writing text, I sat down and drew out a rough plan for how the overall series would go. There were (and still are) lots of details that I don’t yet have figured out. The plan evolved a bit as I started mapping it out; the blueprint I’m using now is not the same as my first version. Overall, the most important thing was to just get going.
I noticed that for me, I’m still pretty wobbly on how some of the background or plot points are going to weave together. There are some sections of the stories where I know exactly what I want to have happen, though. Those are the ones I go with first, and if I use those as pillars for the construction of the rest of the story, it helps other pieces fall into place. If you can’t see the whole picture, focus on developing the stuff that you know will be part of the process.
I’m looking at coming up with seven individual stories that are all woven together into a larger one. Not only is that a lot of creative effort, it’s a lot of stuff to keep track of mentally. Sometimes it seems like there’s a hurricane happening inside my head. Inspiration for one or more of the stories hits at the strangest times. If I don’t write it down right away, there’s no guarantee it’s going to come back again. When you have the (mental clarity, vision, burst of creativity, focus, etc.) but can’t capitalize on it right then and there, capture what you need to capture in order to capitalize on it later.
I sketched out the blueprint for the series and then naturally started writing Book 1. A flurry of ideas kept flying around, though. I’d write down notes for something to include in a given book or to weave somewhere into the series. I started Book 2 before long because I either got in a rut or got bored with working on Book 1. During the whole time, though, the one I was most jazzed about was Book 5. Ideas kept coming and coming, and right now I have over 20 pages of ideas and notes for that one story. I stalled for as long as I could, but eventually I started writing Book 5. It’s out of sequence, yes, but if the goal is to get seven books done, does it matter which one gets done first? Making progress is making progress. Some may see it as putting the cart before the horse, but if you can see a method to the madness, don’t shut the door on doing things out of order.
The 40-50,000 word target was just that…a target. After giving this a shot, some individual books might be shorter and others may be way longer. What if Book 6 has a Volume I and Volume II? I don’t know…but there are some things I don’t need to have figured out right now. Don’t make “perfect” the enemy of “good.” Keep on doing your thing; deal with today’s problems today and deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.
So where do I stand today with this project? Right now I’m more than 22,000 words into Book 1, 8-10,000 words into Book 2, and over 13,000 words into Book 5. I’m nowhere near being done, but you know what? That’s more than 40,000 words, and that’s more than 10% of the way into the low end of the goal. Something that once looked like a mammoth task now looks much more do-able.
Maybe the most significant thing I’m learning in this process is the peace, focus, and contentment that come from living in your calling. If this is truly what God put me on this earth to do, then I’m built for this. It’s kind of tough to describe; it’s not as though I lived in turmoil before this, but my mind feels more settled knowing what it’s supposed to be throwing its effort into. In my case, getting started on this thing was more of a relief, an outlet for that pent-up sense of unsettledness. It’s as if I’m a screwdriver that’s been used as a hammer or a wrench for as long as I can remember, and have recently been introduced to the way I’m supposed to be used.
Finally, I’m very blessed to have a strong faith in God. I believe with all my heart that God can do anything, but that doesn’t mean He’ll do the things I think He’ll do them or the way I think He should do them. This whole thing may be a spectacular failure that serves a purpose I can’t yet see. On the other hand, I may be thinking entirely too small. I happen to think that Book 5 would make a decent movie with a solid TV spinoff for a season or two, and a great video game. A Christian multimedia company wasn’t really in my plans when this train first pulled out of the station, but I’m not the one driving the train. I have to cling loosely to ideas and recognize that they’re Gods in the first place, not mine…I’m just trying to honor Him with my obedience. There are still plenty of things standing in the way. Finding the time and/or energy to keep writing, tracking down a publisher that will give me a chance, struggling with making the details line up in a way that makes sense…they’re all very real challenges that I’ll need to fight. I’m not alone, though. Like I said earlier…if I was truly called to this purpose, I’m custom built to overcome the challenges, especially if God is paving the way for me.
How about you? Are you still a square peg in a round hole that’s trying to figure out how to find their place? I’ll leave you with a link to an inspirational video I heard today. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, just watch the first few minutes, especially if you’re trying to figure out what your calling might be.
