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My Running Shoes
“Nadab and Abihu, however, fell dead before the Lord when they made an offering with unauthorized fire before him in the Desert of Sinai.” Numbers 3:4
I love to run. Well, more specifically I like to run after the first mile. The first mile is hard. It takes discipline to get started. The second mile is better, but I still feel like I’m plodding along. During the second mile it takes discipline to maintain pace.
Then the third mile…ah, the third mile. I think of it wistfully with longing in my heart. I guess that’s when my runner’s high kicks in. My stride lengthens, my shoes lighten, feet gently padding the ground in tempo to the music that pulses from my iPod. It’s as if I’m gliding across a sheet of ice without any effort…a sublime experience to be sure. Sometimes I feel like I could close my eyes and just float along.
(By the way, you can follow my progress as I train and see what I’m listening to on my iPod by checking out the sidebar to the left. Near the bottom you’ll find my running stats and a list of songs I’ve listened to recently.)
Anyway, the discipline of the third mile is to not let my pace get away from me. When running distances longer than four miles a good pace for me to run is between twelve and thirteen minutes per mile. Yeh, I know it’s not terribly fast…actually it’s more like jogging. Sometimes it seems like I can maintain that pace indefinitely. I’ve made it over twelve miles at that pace.
But, if I don’t discipline myself during the third mile, then the fourth mile is like dying. And, anything longer than four is like death. During the third mile my heart relishes the feeling of freedom; basking in the glow of endorphins. But, my head sends out dispatches saying, “Whoa there big fella’. You ain’t built for speed.” If I don’t heed the warnings twelve minutes per mile slips to eleven minutes per mile which quickly becomes ten minutes per mile. Once I even made it to 9’51″ per mile. Guess which mile it was. Yep, mile three. Guess how fast mile four was. I don’t know. I had to stop at about four and a half because I thought I was going to vomit.
Nadab and Abihu had seen God do some incredible things. They were some of the privileged few who saw God and lived to tell about it (Ex. 24:9-11). Later, they saw God himself participate in their inaugural sacrifice by sending down fire from heaven to burn the offering (Lev. 9). The complete story of what happens next is in Leviticus 10, but I’m using Numbers 3:4 because its curtness gives it more impact. By discipline they made it through miles one and two (Ex. 24). God privileged them to experience mile three (Lev. 9). But, they didn’t understand that God didn’t ordain them for that glory. They weren’t built for that kind of “speed”. They were intended to be witnesses to glory, not to be glorified. Glorification is God’s place. There was nothing inherently wrong with what Aaron’s boys were doing. Except that they were trying to take God’s place and create their own glory. And everything is wrong with that.
Then like so many of us in leadership do, they ran beyond God’s authority. They believed, like we often do, that just because there is blessing in what God is doing through us that He is sanctioning what we are doing on our own. God’s blessing isn’t necessarily endorsement of what we’re doing. Sometimes God reveals something amazing to us, a vision of what can be…a glimpse of what He can do, what only He is supposed to do. And, then we try to recreate it like we had something to do with the original. It’s as if we actually say to the Creator of the Universe, “OK, Big Guy. We’ll pick up where you’ve left off.”
Whoa! Wait a minute! That’s exactly backwards. We don’t pick up where He leaves off, He picks up where we leave off. We don’t continue where He ends, He continues where we run out. We don’t complete Him, He completes us.
As spiritual leaders our job is to follow God. Beware of the third mile. Are you wondering why mile four feels like death? Reflect on mile three to see if you ran too fast. Praise God for letting us chase His glory, but don’t run past it trying to make it your own. Running past his ordination for us is death. Do only what you can do and allow God the glory of doing what only He can do.
*Disclaimer: sure, sure I’ve posted this story with a slightly different twist before but somethings bear repeating.
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said ‘You know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed…’” John 21:15
There once was a guy who thought it would be cool to have a parrot. You know, the talking kind. So he shelled out around $1200 for a talking bird. The first night he had it at home he tried to get it to talk…the usual parrot stuff like, “Polly want a cracker?” and “What’s up, Peg Leg?”.
But, the parrot wouldn’t say a word. Not a syllable or even the quintessential “craa-craa” (wow, I was actually able to use the word quintessential).
Well, the fella was pretty disappointed. He went back to the pet store the next day and complained that there was something wrong with his bird.
The owner asked, “What kind of mirror did you get for the parrot’s cage?”
“Mirror?” the man asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Sure, what kind of mirror is in the cage? You see, parrots are communal birds. When they see another parrot just like themself they start to verbalize. Just sounds and stuff. When your parrot sees his reflection in the mirror he’ll think it’s a different bird and will start making sound. Then you can start talking to him and he’ll imitate you.”
So the guy bought the mirror and went home to put it in the cage. Well, sure enough the parrot loved the mirror. He would sit on his perch and pimp and preen in front of it. He would puff up his feathers and cock his head from one side to the other admiring himself.
But, alas. He didn’t make a sound.
The next day the man went back to the pet shop to complain, again. The owner asked, “Doesn’t the parrot play with the bell you put in the cage?”
“What bell?”
“The bell that came with the cage.”
“There wasn’t any bell.”
The owner sighed, “Oh, you must not have bought the deluxe cage. It comes with a bell. But, I’ll sell you one as an option and the parrot will love it. They love to play with bells and when they hear themselves make the sound they’ll try to answer it with their own sounds.”
The man bought the bell and went home, a bit incredulous.
When he put the bell in the cage the parrot took to it immediately. He would watch himself in the mirror while he played with the bell. All night he rang the bell and posed in front of the mirror. But, still he didn’t make a sound.
The following day the man, exasperated, went back to the pet shop. He complained, “There is something wrong with that bird, I’m tellin’ ya’. I bought the mirror and nothing. I bought the bell and nothing. I’m going to bring him back tomorrow.”
“I don’t understand,” said the pet shop owner. “Every parrot I’ve ever sold loved the mirror, bell and whistle.”
“Whistle, what whistle!?”
“Oh, that’s right,” said the shop owner. “You bought the economy cage. The whistle comes standard with the deluxe model. But, no matter. I can sell you a whistle.”
The owner continued, “Every parrot expert says that you need a whistle for the parrot to blow into. When the parrot blows into the whistle it prompts him to make sounds with his own mouth. This, combined with the external sound of the bell and the mirror will have that parrot of yours talking in no time.”
“Let me have it, but this better work or back the parrot comes tomorrow,” retorted the frustrated man.
When the man returned home and installed the whistle the parrot bobbed his head with delight. He watched himself in the mirror as he rang the bell and blew in the whistle. All night long this went on…clang, clang, clang and tweet, tweet, tweet. Incessantly it went on keeping the man awake until the early morning hours.
Then, in the darkness just before dawn, the noise stopped. At first the man was thankful for the peace and quiet. But soon his curiosity at why the sound had stopped so abruptly overcame his craving for sleep.
Maybe the parrot was finally getting ready to speak!
Quietly, the man tiptoed into the room where the parrot cage was kept. Squinting through the darkness the man couldn’t make out the shape of the bird. Inching closer he realized that the parrot was laying on its back on the floor of the cage…it’s feet sticking straight up in the air. The parrot’s chest heaved as it struggled for air.
At the sight of his very expensive, very quiet, and now listless bird dying before his eyes the man commenced to let out a torrent of “bowling words”. Words directed toward the bird and the pet shop owner. Words that the pet shop owner would have been very interested hear if he had been there.
After several minutes of expletives calling into question the pet store salesman’s ancestry the man took a breath. In the silence, he noticed that the bird was gasping for air and trying to make a sound.
He leaned closer attempting to make out the sound. Could it be? Was the parrot finally speaking?
Sure enough, the sound coming from the bottom of the cage were words.
The man opened the cage and gingerly lifted the nearly lifeless bird to his ear. He heard the bird gasp its final breath and ask a single question…
“Didn’t they have any bird food down at that store?”
Worship leaders can put on the greatest “dog and pony” show on Sunday mornings. We can be like the Sons of Issachar, knowing the times in which we live. We can present music, drama, videos, etc. that reflect the culture around us. We can have all the bells and whistles: thumping subs, ‘verb and compression and delay, digital sound desks, in ear monitors, ellipsoidals, gels and gobos, intellis, a kickin’ band and radical tech team.
But, if the sheep and lambs (and parrots) ain’t bein’ fed they die. They might be having a good time with all the bells and whistles, but “where there is no vision, the people perish…” Where the people aren’t being nourished with the Word of God they die of spiritual malnutrition.
So beware of reliance on the bells and whistles. We worship leaders set the banquet table so that the people can be fed at the feast of revelation from God.
“…they [the priests, captain of the guard and the Sadducees] were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.” Acts 4:13-14
What’s your story? Your personal story…your personal experience? What has God done for you? How has Jesus radically changed your life?
People can argue with your opinion. They can refute your facts. But they can’t change your experience.
The priests, et. al. couldn’t understand how “unschooled, ordinary men” could speak with such boldness and authority and “courage.” They were “astonished.” Then someone remembered, “Oh, I get it, now. They were with ‘him‘.” It was probably whispered under their breath with a certain condescending derision.
But, the ”authorities” didn’t want to be thrown into that brier patch again. In some ways they had learned their lesson well; don’t get into a power struggle with this bunch.
There’s something different after someone who’s been with Him. The experience turns timidity into courage, fear into valor, apathy into passion. Actually, not just something is different, everything is different. An experience with Jesus brings life out of death. It turns logic inside-out, obliterates reason and destroys the status quo. An experience, let’s call it an “Encountering”, with the person of Jesus is wonderful, overwhelming, passionate unreasonableness! Nothing is the same and nothing can ever be the same.
All around us are those that don’t get it (the Sadducees, priests, et. al. in v.1); those who want it (the people who came to listen to Peter and John in v.4); and those that get it (those that were “praising God for what had happened” in v.21).
For those of us that get it, we have an indelible effect on every one of these. We disturb those who don’t get it; we attract those who want it; and we encourage those who do get it. When we have an encounter with Jesus, when we experience Him bring our old, dead lifeless self to vibrant, passionate life it changes everything!
Nothing can change our experience…our “Encountering.” No arguments, no logic, no force, no reason, no thing can separate our experience from us. It’s the story He gives us to tell. The whole purpose of Jesus encountering us, the inevitable result of our experience with Him, is to make the lame to walk…to dance; to complete the incomplete; to finish the unfinished, to bring the dead to life. It’s completely unreasonable!
In the movie “Contact” (based on the book of the same name authored by Carl Sagan) a prominent scientist and SETI researcher, Ellie, (played by Jodie Foster) is afforded the chance to be the first human to travel to a distant planet to meet extra-terrestrials. Trillions of dollars are spent to make a traveling machine that is based on plans sent via a radio signal from the previously mentioned extra-terrestrials.
When the machine is “launched” it appears to never leave earth. All of the ground controllers, government officials, even Ellie’s friends view it as a failure. Everyone that is except for Ellie who experiences an incredible journey through the cosmos and an encounter with a being completely different yet somehow familiar. It’s an experience that destroys all of the logic that she once held dear; an encounter that exposes her to how insignificant she is in the universe but also how she is never alone.
Ellie’s journey is perceived as a fraud. There is absolutely no evidence to support her fantastic stories of a journey to the center of the universe. Only her story. Even the recording device Ellie used to chronicle her journey reveals only static.
Offering testimony before the inquiry committee Ellie is confronted with the complete unreasonableness of her claim. I’ll let the script speak for itself:
Committee chairman: Dr. Arroway, you come before us with no evidence. No records, no artifacts — only a story that — to put I mildly — strains credibility. Over two trillion dollars was spent, hundreds of lives were lost, many more may be in jeopardy due to the almost incalculable worldwide psychological impact… Are you going to sit there and tell us that we should simply take this all on faith?
Prosecutor: ”Answer the question, Doctor. As a scientist — can you prove any of this?”
Ellie: ”No.”
Prosecutor: “So, why don’t you admit what by your own standards must be the truth: that this experience simply didn’t happen.”
Ellie: ”Because I can’t. I had… an experience. I can’t prove it. I can’t even explain it. All I can tell you is that everything I know as a human being,
everything I am — tells me that it was real.
“I was given something wonderful. Something that changed me. A vision
of the universe that made it overwhelmingly clear just how tiny and insignificant — and at the same time how rare and precious we all are. A vision… that tells us we belong to something greater than ourselves… that we’re not — that none of us — is alone.
“I wish I could share it. I wish everyone, if only for a moment — could feel that sense of awe, and humility… and hope. That continues to be my wish.”
Does that sound familiar? Oh, how I wish that every Christian would be so bold to talk this way about experiencing Jesus.
So, what’s your story…what’s your experience…what about your “Encountering” with Jesus? What is it that others call a fraud but you can no more recant than be separated from yourself? What completely unscientific, illogical, unreasonable, unprovable experience have you had?
That’s what the world needs to hear! And it can’t be taken away. It’s yours and only yours.
By the way, I won’t ruin the movie for you (and you should really see it…it’s great) just like the man who was healed stood as evidence of what had happened there’s evidence of Ellie’s trip to the center of the universe that appears at the end of “Contact.” Evidence that even her accusers must recognize.
But, I’ll let you rent the movie.
“…but Moses fled from Pharoah and went to live in Midian…” Exodus 2:15
Today’s title really has nothing to do with anything other than I’m a terrible speller and regularly misspell dessert as desert and vice-versa.
Speaking of deserts (see how I got there?), there seems to be a theme in the Bible of people fleeing, escaping, being kidnapped, hiding or just hanging out in the desert before being used by God in some fantastic way. With the exception of Abram, who went away to establish a home, they were called back from the wilderness to become an integral part of God’s plan of salvation.
God told Abram to leave his country and father’s household and ”go to the land I show you.” Abram’s grandson, Jacob, ran away to his Uncle Laban’s house after bilking his brother Esau out of Esau’s rightful inheritance. Then he ran away from Laban back to his brother Esau who welcomed him graciously afterall. I doubt Jacob would have returned with such humility if he hadn’t had his humbling experience in exile.
Joseph was kidnapped by his brothers, left for dead in the desert and then sold to some slave traders who took him to Egypt where he spent a considerable amount of time in jail after being entrapped by a government official’s wife. After being freed from jail and appointed to the top of Pharoah’s cabinet the same brothers that had sold him to slave traders came with “hat-in-hand”. Joseph recieved them with graciousness. A grace I believe was refined during his time of persecution.
Moses “wacked” an Egyptian slave-master and then ran away when he realized that he had been “fingered”. After a few decades “on ice” God tells him to go home to Egypt to tell Pharoah to “let my people go”. Then God told Moses to lead them to the promised land. So he did…through the desert.
A few generations later David had to run away from jealous (psyochotic really) Saul. David escaped to the desert where he may have written some of his most “soulful” psalms while hiding in the caves of Adullam. David certainly must have wondered how this would lead to him being the king that God had appointed and Samuel anointed.
Even the country of Israel itself was dragged kicking and screaming into exile over and over again. Each time God worked more of His preparation of His people for the coming Salvation of the world.
Finally, when that Salvation finally became flesh there was a time of preparation in the desert. Jesus himself spent forty days in the desert before He was ready for His ministry to start in earnest.
So, if you’re stressed (I knew if I tried hard enough I could get the title to work) about being in the desert longer than you would prefer take heart. Here’s a poem that hints at the dessert (oh! I’m on fire now) that comes after the fast. It’s most often attributed to my favorite poet, Anonymous…probably someone who wrote it in the desert.
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.
“For three years I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?” Luke 12:7
I confess, the only reason I picked this title is because I went on and on about the Bride of Christ yesterday. Get it…husbandry, husband…Bride of Christ…get it? It’s a pun, a turn-of-phrase, a bon mot. Oh, nevermind. I’ll just get to the blog for today.
I’m finally going to give into the whole New Year resolution-reevaluation-brand new start thing. The Bible doesn’t say if the fig tree ever bore fruit. Was it only three years old and never produced fruit? Was it once fruitful, but now isn’t bearing any more? We can’t tell from this passage. What we do know is that it didn’t have any fruit when the man went to look at it and hadn’t for the previous three years.
The man’s rationale for cutting it down was impeccable. “Why should it use up all the soil?” The surrounding text leads us to believe that it was in an orchard or vineyard of some sort, so it didn’t stand alone. None of the other trees were singled out for their fruitlessness. This particular tree was evidently still alive. If it were dead it surely would have fallen of its own accord during the course of the previous three years. For all we know it was even growing, but it was just taking up space that could be used by a fruitful tree or even sucking up nutrients that the surrounding trees could use to be more fruitful themselves. It would even be of more use as firewood.
Evidently the man was gracious and took mercy on the tree. When the gardener, the one who would have had a vested interest in the tree asked for more time the man agreed. But, it wasn’t open ended. There would come a time for the tree to “put up or shut up” so to speak.
The start of a new year is a great time to put our lives under a microscope and ask, “What am I holding on to that is deadwood? What might be growing, but isn’t bearing fruit? What needs to be pruned or even cut down? It may be something that was once fruitful but has been fruitless for years or it might never have produced anything even remotely resembling fruit. It’s easy to cut off, or down, something in our lives that is negative, but what about those things that are seemingly benign. Maybe something that was once good is now using up precious nutrients and is now keeping other areas of our lives from being as fruitful as they might. It might even be something that is growing and thriving but isn’t bearing fruit. The whole point of the Christian life is to bear fruit.
Now, I’ll go from preaching to meddling. I must also ask the question, “Am I bearing fruit?” Am I the tree that needs to be cut down? I might be growing in my Bible study, quiet time, prayer life…but, am I bearing fruit.
What does bearing fruit look like? There are two verses that come to mind. First, Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Does a picture of you today look more like this list than a picture from three years ago. Not just in one of these, but in the whole list. It’s not multiple choice. After all, it doesn’t say the fruits of the Spirit are…it says, “the fruit of the Spirit is…” It’s singular. Rather than love being a banana and joy being an apple think of it as an orange and each one is a slice. And, a fruitful branch doesn’t have to convince or train itself what fruit to bear. As long as it’s attached to the vine it will bear the appropriate fruit. If it’s attached to a grape vine it never has to worry about producing pomegranates by mistake.
Second, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit…” Branches that bear fruit beget branches that bear fruit. Does your life result in more branches (people) attaching to the vine? I’m not saying that you’re not bearing fruit if you haven’t led someone to Jesus in the last three years, though that might be too long. But, have you at least planted some seeds lately? (I’d love to go off on a pollination tangent right about now) Does anybody at work or school neighborhood or even in your family have the slightest clue that you’re “attached to the vine”? By the way, fish on your bumper don’t count.
We can experience all the growth we want and work toward being a better person, but if we aren’t bearing fruit we’re useless for Kingdom work and of better use as firewood. We’re going to be cut down to make room for another tree.
The start of the New Year is a good time to take a deep, ruthless look at ourselves. Are we bearing fruit or sucking up the nutrients of those around us that keep them from being as fruitful as they could be? Are we growing new branches or are we just taking up valuable Kingdom space? Are we of better use attached to the Vine or as kindling?
Sometimes it scares me to consider the answer. Thank goodness we have a gentle, tender, gracious Gardener who says, “let’s give him another year after I tend to him some more.”