Please take 30 minutes to read this by yourself & with those in your family. It is really important stuff…really…for sure. -CJ
The Bible speaks very clearly about the issue of faith. Without it we are cooked - literally. With it, we please the heart of God in ways unimaginable. A simple way that I have come to understand how to live by faith is to merely try and expose and relate every experience I have throughout the day – even the mundane and routine ones – to God. Faith then becomes an invitation for the Father to fragrance, inform and empower every area of my life.
The reason that faith is so critical to our spiritual vitality is that it carries with it the life-flow of heaven. Without a vibrant, moment by moment faith exchange with the Father, we are left to see things and experience circumstances with the meager resources of our own flesh. And when we do that, we almost always fail. Faith is counterintuitive to much of life. The real evidence of our faith is not witnessed by what we can regurgitate to one another in the safe confines of church – it is measured rather by those unexpected “reactive” moments that we each encounter throughout the day. When Jesus said to turn the other cheek when struck, it was assumed that none of us woke up that day and placed on our to-do list: “Get struck on right cheek at
This moment by moment apprenticeship is not easy. We will each fail many times. Yet, even in the failure, our Lord stands ready to pick us up again and take the next step – bruised and bloody though we may be. And, it is right here that a lot of us make our next mistake. We often think the Lord abandons us when we fail. He does not. He cannot. He has signed a covenant – a marriage covenant of sorts that is with us even when our reaction to circumstances is unheavenly. Because of the guilt poured on from the enemy and from our own self-recriminating hearts, we assume that Jesus pouts and puffs and rejects people who fail “just like we would do.” That is a big, fat, audacious lie. He is not like us. He is perfect in His justice and in his mercy. He knows that we are fighting our way out of a flesh-suit controlled by our weaknesses and by a world system stacked against us. Just tell Him you’re sorry and get up and have another go at it. It is all he asks. To try to beat yourself up as an act of contrition is not necessary. He already bore our own sins in His body on the tree. He was already bruised for our transgressions. The price has been paid. Quit trying to pick up the check.
Now, believe it or not, all of what I have just said has everything to do with how you perceive and find radical success in regard to your purpose in life. So many Christians I have met and counseled with over the years have been in a self-imposed wasteland in regards to this singularly unbiblical question: “What is God’s purpose for my life?” The problem with that question is that it betrays a lack of understanding and a practice of the above-mentioned life. In other words – follow the logic here – how can one miss God’s plan for one’s life if that life is in constant contact with the One referred to as: “The author and finisher of our faith.” The Bible also uses the word picture that we are “yoked” to Him. How can we go where He is not? How can He go somewhere where we cannot go? I find that those who ask this question are often unskilled in releasing the mundane to Jesus on a moment by moment basis. And, because of the reactive nature of our flesh, many opportunities are stillborn, never to be recovered because heaven was not allowed to fragrance, inform and empower the mundane. (E.g. We actually have the audacity to think that we can drive to work without His help and companionship – knowing full well our ability and our sad, repetitive & predictable experience of cursing – rather than blessing – our fellow commuters).
Lives lived under this sort of on/off switch of intimacy with and dependency upon God drift towards lives lived out on the defense. In other words, we are always trying to preserve what little spiritual gains we have made rather than dreaming what I believe are God-sized dreams for more. The parable referred to as: “The Parable Of The Loaned Money” illustrates this principle very well. The short version goes like this: Jesus tells a parable about a rich man getting ready to go away on travels. Before he leaves, he lines up three servants and entrusts them sequentially with: five bags of silver, 2 bags of silver and one bag of silver. The first two servants put the money to work and when the master returns each of these servants have doubled their master’s investment. They played offense with what they had been given. Please note that. The last servant, the defensive specialist, says this: “Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you did not plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.” The master’s response is quick and to the point: “You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have had some interest on it.” Jesus sums up the teaching of this parable with these words: “To those who use well what they have been given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” (Matthew 25: selected)
Here’s the deal…God wants us to play offense. Guilt, fear, shame, regret and a host of other things nullify the grace of God and cause us to play defense. God has told us to storm the very gates of hell; to go to the entire world with the good news of the kingdom; and, to be the head and not the tail. Why are so many of us wagging?
Let’s pause for a good story…The following comes from the book entitled: “Wild Goose Chase.” The wild goose is the Celtic representative of the Holy Spirit. The Celts could think of no better representation of the Spirit than this particular bird – being, I suppose, a bit thin on they type of dove that landed on Jesus at his baptism. I like the word picture.
The author, Mark Batterson, tells a very moving story about a good friend of his by the name of Ted Leonsis:
Ted Leonsis is a prominent Washingtonian who made his fortune as an executive with AOL...It was a near death experience that put him on the offensive. In 1983, 25 year old Ted was on an Eastern Airlines flight that lost the ability to use its wing flaps and landing gear. As flight attendants prepared the cabin for a crash-landing, Ted began thinking about what he would do if he survived. “I promised myself that if I didn’t die,” he reported later, “I’d play offense for the rest of my life.” Leonsis survived the landing and made good on his promise. He compiled a list of 101 life goals. To date, Leonsis has checked seventy-four off his original list. And these are not your garden variety goals. They are big, hairy audacious goals. Here are some of the goals Ted Leonsis has already accomplished:
v Create the world’s largest media company.
v Own a jet.
v Give 1 million to
v Start a family foundation.
v Own a sports franchise.
v Hold elective office.
v Have a net worth of 100 million after taxes.
C.S. Lewis once said it this way: “We sin not because our desires are too strong, but because they are too weak.” The Bible says it this way: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18. As Batterson points out: “The word ‘perish’ refers to fruit that is past its prime. It is no longer ripening; it is rotting. A God ordained vision is a supernatural preservative. It doesn’t just keep us young, it keeps us on the offensive…I think vision is the cure for sin.”
I agree. Most Christians get off-track not because they are lascivious, materialistic self-centered perverts – it is simply because they become bored. You see, everything in life needs a God-sized vision – our vocations, our avocations, our marriages, our parenting…our life. Too many times we live our lives knowing – really knowing down deep – that we were created for something big, something significant - but we settle instead for a downsized version of the middle-class American Dream. You know the dream I am talking about: go out to eat a few times a month, rent a few movies, sip a few lattes, take a vacation, drive a decent car, live in a decent house, have a little left over at the end of the month, and generally be left alone to pursue these humble pleasures. I’m not knocking it as such – but what I am asking is this: “Were we created for such modest lives?’ Can you imagine standing before God at the end of days and giving this accounting of your life: “So tell me, Bob, how did you manage the investment I placed in your life? What did you do with my coins?” And Bob answers, “Well, I became a collector of all of the old Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, 24, and Andy Griffith episodes. I regularly maintained my cars. I paid my bills on time. I made sure all my animals were spayed. I was nice to the people who served me my latte everyday. I pretty much went through life trying not to make trouble for anyone.” I will not venture here the temerity to respond as if I were God. But, I think the above-mentioned parable might offer a clue.
So - what do you suppose would happen if God were to partner with your vision? Seriously…what would happen if the Creator of the universe sat down with you with a yellow legal pad and wrote out with you a “101 Things I Want To Accomplish Before I Die” sort of “bucket list?” Could we safely assume that it would have an air of the “big, hairy and audacious” about it? That, my friend is a safe bet – a sure thing. And, down deep, I am just guessing that that excites you just a little.
So, stay with me. I am going to be expressing some things in the next few posts that deal with some of the hindrances to vision and how to create the stamina for dreaming God-sized visions for your life. Our sad, hurting world needs visionaries who set sail with the winds of heaven at their backs. The world needs you…dreaming.
