Psalm 27

What do you think of when you think of courage? Maybe I'm a bit old-school, but I always think of a lion - as in the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz who needs a heart. Or Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia. I'd be willing to wager that Hudson thinks of soldiers and knights in armor marching off to fight the bad guys.

I found a picture of courage that I didn't expect in Psalm 27. Verse 14 states, 'Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!' Huh? Be strong, take courage, and....wait? How does that work?

Let's back up and look at what the author, David, is talking about. In the first six verses of the psalm, David praises God for His power to deliver him from his enemies. He boldly asserts the confidence he has in God to be his salvation (v.1), stronghold (v.2), shelter (v.5), and concealment (v.5). David is so confident in God that he speaks of having a worship service right there in the middle of the enemies surrounding him (see also Ps. 23:5,6)!

Then something interesting happens. For the next six verses David prays that God would deliver him from his enemies - who are, incidentally, all around him. It is here that we get to see why God referred to David as being 'after My own heart'. You see, David declared his confidence in God before he even saw God do anything in his situation. He stated what he believed to be true of God, and rested in the fact that God is faithful and true to His own character. God cannot lie nor does He change. Therefore, if He says He's a deliverer, then He has been, is, and will always be a deliverer. David is simply pointing this out to anyone who will listen so that they can rightly ascribe credit when David prays and sees God's deliverance. This is faith!

Next, David closes his prayer and makes another assertion - 'I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (v.13, emphasis added)!' In other words, 'God, I don't think now is my time to die. I think you have more for me here, and I will celebrate You when You deliver me from my enemies here on the earth.'

Finally, we arrive at the strange exhortation in v.14. Given the circumstances that David is facing - surrounded by enemies who are 'breathing out violence' - he does not call on his soldiers to take up arms. He does not devise a clever strategy to politically outflank his opponents. He just....waits.

To me, this does not seem like courage. Faith, sure. But courage? Strength? I'm all about 'doing stuff' for the glory of God. I like getting my hands dirty and seeing a finished product. I don't want to be feel like I am on the sidelines. All of that sounds good, but God wants His people to awaken to the fact that it's really all Him all the time. More often than I recognize, God just wants me to wait, get my hands out of the way, and let Him work.

One afternoon, Audrey brought me a necklace from her jewelry case. Did I say necklace? I meant heaped-up ball of metal. As it turns out, there were two necklaces. Knotted. Bad. She asked me to fix them for her, and then proceeded to stick her little fingers into the mess to 'help' every five seconds as I attempted to straighten out the knot. After a few minutes of this, I said, 'Audrey, Daddy will take care of this for you. Go play, and I'll bring them to you when I'm done.' It took me nearly an hour, but I was able to clear the knot. It could not have happened if she didn't get her hands off and wait.

It's my tendency to stick my hands into the mess. I believe I can 'help' God, if He'd only just let me get in there too. David is teaching us all, and me especially, that it will take great strength and courage to trust God and say, 'I know you're taking care of this. I'm backing off,' and be at peace.

The Language of Your Mission is Important

I have written in other posts about the fact that I am a word person. I love words. I love turning a series of words into a memorable phrase. Sometimes it is for the sake of humor, other times to make a point, and other times to define a purpose. And yet for all the time and energy I put into crafting sentences (yes, that includes when I'm simply having a conversation; I'm always searching for the best word for that moment), there was a glaring mistake in a key area of language in my life - my mission statement.

I fashioned my mission statement over five years ago after going through a series of classes/lectures/discussions at my church on leadership. I spent months reading and gathering phrases that truly captured my heart for why I am here and what I am here to accomplish. I had pages of quotes and even more pages of ideas, key words, random thoughts, all compiled so that I could sit down, take a 50,000 foot fly-by view of them and latch onto the theme of my life's purpose. Then I sat down and wrote it all out.

And I fully believed I'd nailed it.

My mission has been this: To be joyfully spent making others glad in God.

It's short. It's memorable (for me and others). It uses words that are important to me and how I am wired. It puts forth the notion that I desire to tirelessly work for the advancement of the Kingdom of God and seeing others fall in love with Him. It was perfect!

.....or so I thought. Recently, as I hinted at in my previous post, I was awakened to the fact that something was amiss in my well-crafted, pithy mission statement. Take a look at it again and ask yourself this question: Based on that phrase, whose responsibility is it to see others made glad? For those who are not so grammatically inclined, the answer is - me. My mission statement would have you believe that I am responsible for others becoming glad in the Lord. Let me be very clear at this point: that is utterly and completely impossible.

I cannot make someone glad in God. I cannot incline their hearts toward Him. I cannot overcome sin and death and the enemy in someone else's life. I cannot do that for even my own life! I could certainly spend myself attempting to do this, but it would lead to failure after failure because that is a mission that I cannot accomplish. If I never changed this phrase, I would live a life wherein my mission would come to nothing.

I was shocked as the Lord revealed this to me. You see, I was placing to onus of responsibility on myself, when in reality, only God can make someone glad in God. Only He has the power and love and grace and mercy to change a man's heart and renew his mind. No amount of human effort will ever soften a heart to the point of turning to God. 'There is none who seek God; no, not one.' No matter how eloquently I speak, without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, no one's ears will be unstopped so that they can truly hear the message of the Gospel. It is God's job, and only His, to transform people.

Some of you reading this might be thinking, 'Gosh, Joe, take it easy. So you phrased something wrong. It's not that big of a deal.' I would say in response the same thing Bill Hybels leads with in his book Axiom: language matters. This seeming slip of grammar actually revealed my heart's true position. I wanted to be the one to see these things happen. I wanted to be the teacher, preacher, counselor, mentor, friend who saw people's eyes opened to the beauty of the Gospel and the joy and peace found only in Christ. Is that a bad thing? On the surface, no. But it shows a tendency to place that pressure on myself rather than humbly submitting all things to the Lord and getting out of His way to move in people's lives. I was taking the posture of the little train that could, 'I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.' I am guilty of a Superman complex, attempting to do far more than what He would have for me to do.

Please hear me well and clearly on this: I do want to see all of these things happen. I want to be used by God for great things. I want to see many and more people freed from guilt and shame and rejoicing in their joy and freedom in Christ. More than anything, I want that. What I have realized is that I want to see that happen, whether I am directly involved in the process or not. Thus, I have rephrased my mission. The difference may seem slight, but for me it's like jumping over the Grand Canyon using a pogo stick. This was a revelation only God could have brought about in my life. Here is the updated version:

To be joyfully spent seeing others made glad in God.

Do you see it? I am effectively out of the picture with this. I still want to give everything I have to God with joy ('joyfully spent'), but I am not making others glad. I am seeing them made glad. Which means what I am committing myself to is keeping my eyes open for wherever God is working and putting my energies there, joining in where He is already at work, giving the gifts He has given me back to Him for His people, and standing back to see what He does with it all. I fully believe my joy in Him will be magnified all the more as I remove myself from the scene and watch Him work out 'all things for the good of those who love Him.'

"What if...?" is Dangerous

Before I write this post, I must say: No, I haven't forgotten about Theology Thursdays and the current series of How to Study the Bible. I have been studying and reading for that for the last couple of weeks in preparation of handling the topic well. In addition, I have had a great couple of weeks building relationships with people, which has meant extra time away from writing and researching. Consequently, I ask that you bear with me for another week as I prepare to launch into the series. Once it gets going, there'll be no stopping it! Please accept this simple post as a (hopefully) thought-provoking alternative for this week.


It has been on my mind of late that the idea of "What if...?" questions is a double-edged sword.

They are often seen as negatively dangerous, as when dwelling on the past one asks, "What if I had never made this or that decision?" That cannot go anywhere productive. The fact is we didn't make that decision that way, and so there's no telling how it would have turned out in reality. All we know for sure is that we did what we did and we can plainly see the consequences. This kind of "What if...?" leads us to miss the present in light of the past. We are so busy dealing with what we 'should have' done that we neglect dealing with what needs doing now. And this leads to additional poor decisions and regret, and the cycle continues. Too many people live in this for too many years.

But lately, I have been wondering about the positive danger in asking "What if...?". As in, "What if this didn't work this way but worked this way instead?" Or, "What if we believed this way instead of that way?" "What if this were possible?" These are dangerous questions as well, yet of an entirely different ilk.

These questions spark deeper thought, greater innovation, immense creativity, new solutions - in short, dreams. Dreams lie in the realm of "What if...?" In this way, we are able to see the present with an eye on the future. More accurately, we see that, in light of the present, there must be something more for the future, if only someone would dream big enough to get us there.

Are you that dreamer?

I want to be.

I had a conversation with someone tonight wherein we both came to the conclusion that we aren't now nor do we hope to ever settle so much that we stop dreaming.

I believe that this side of Heaven there should exist a holy discontent that brings forth new means and methods of communicating truths that are timeless. I desire for the Church to be an agent of cultural change, not merely an institution reacting to and opposing culture as it changes. I desire that wisdom would mean more to us than titles, that character would trump personality, that risk-taking would overshadow the status quo, that the gospel would shine brighter than the best lights and the highest lumens projectors.

I desire that every church would seek to leave a legacy in whatever area it resides. I hope for every congregation to be able to say 'yes' to the question, "If we packed up and left town tomorrow, would we be missed?" I yearn for the lifecycle of a church not to be contingent on the pastor but on the fire in the people.

I desire to see true revival in my city in my lifetime. I see churches impacting apartment buildings, streets, neighborhoods, wards, businesses, community centers, shelters, schools, crime, marriage, children, families, old, young, black, white, brown, man, woman. I see the gospel taking root in ways and through means that have been untapped due to fear of failure, fear of man, or just plain fear. I see that fear overcome by our great King and people stepping out with courage to face impossible things with an impossibly awesome God.

My vision. My hope. My dream. They really aren't mine at all. This is what the Lord desires for Chicago. He desires this for every city, suburb, and rural town in every state and every nation across the globe. "To the ends of the earth," was the commission from Jesus to His apostles prior to His ascension.

I dream of risky answers to future-focused "What if...?" questions. In the end, I would much rather attempt something and fail than risk nothing and succeed.

Mr. Gorbachev...

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to sit in on a town hall style meeting with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev. Before I write anything, I am not here to make a political statement. I am not going to weigh in on perestroika or any such thing. The fact is, at a time when there were really only two world superpowers, he led one of them. He is now over 80, and I think there's plenty to learn from that wealth of experience.

Gorbachev is a shorter man that one would think. Perhaps this is due to age; perhaps he's simply shorter than average. He is a stocky man, and he carries himself with what would appear as a gruff, abrupt confidence. As he spoke, there was no doubt that he felt he was 'the man' - he exuded a confidence that bordered on flat-out arrogance. While we find this to be an unattractive trait in people, think of anyone who has hit the top of their respective game: Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Nolan Ryan, Brett Favre. What do they have in common? Extreme confidence. While we can certainly debate the virtue of such a quality, we cannot deny that people like this often find their way to the top. Mr. Gorbachev is no different.

But the opportunity to hear him speak and to discuss what it was like when he led the USSR was too good to pass up. While it was a town hall meeting, he did not exactly answer the questions he was asked. Rather, he told stories which related to the question, and his stories illustrated his point. As he pointed out, he lived in a completely different context than we do now, so direct advice is not helpful. He preferred to tell stories and allow his stories to speak for him.

The two words I have used in describing Mr. Gorbachev are implacable and courageous. Implacable because he simply could not be moved off of his point, even when prodded to do so by the great journalist Jim Gray. Likewise, as he rose to power in the USSR, he was implacable in his belief that reform needed to take place. He was courageous because he essentially put his life on the line to put forward what he had committed himself to in reforming the political landscape of the USSR. He had to buck every entrenched belief among the 'old men' (as he called the established political elite) on his way to seeing his goals through.

Here's what I learned:

First, a leader must be fully committed to the vision he's been given. Once the vision has been established in his heart and mind, there must be an immovability to it. Perhaps some adaptation over time. Perhaps some improvements, refinements, tweaks, and adjustments, but rarely if ever a complete overhaul. To see anything through to completion requires a focused energy, and to see anything worthwhile to its conclusion requires even more. We would do well to learn this, to learn that being implacable on that which is most important to us is a necessary piece of who we are to become.

Second, a leader must be courageous. It is rare that any vision that is truly worthwhile is easily attained. There will be disappointments and failures and criticism along the path of any great idea. Therefore, the leader with the vision must be so committed to that vision that he takes the necessary steps to seeing that vision become a reality. This means facing down opposition, believing in something when it isn't popular, and working through the initial hiccups and failures to find success and achievement.

As a Christian, I would add that all of this - the vision and the courage and fortitude to see it out - all stem from God's grace at work in the life of the leader. The vision comes from God, the courage comes from the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and the fortitude comes from the example of Christ, who went to the cross on our behalf 'for the joy set before Him'.