Not As Dichotomous As I Thought…
worlds collide
Just when you think your life is a dichotomy…Just when you think that, on the one hand, you write about the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys for one of the Internet’s largest and most successful sport sites, and on the other, you write a sometimes spiritually-charged blog about life and love, God and the world, giving and getting…Just when you thought one had nothing to do with the other, you find out just how utterly wrong you were.
I woke this morning to a message from a fellow writer at BleacherReport.com. I expected to find some seed of an argumentation over the Cowboys, the NFC East, or the NFL in general. Instead, I found a heartfelt message from a dad who could not sleep last night and turned on his TV. While surfing the channels, he came across the Joni and Friends program on TBN, which was running the episode featuring my daughter Holly.
This fellow writer/Dad/Christian, sleepless on a Saturday night, sent me a message about the experience this morning. I will not share all of the content of his message, but here is the heart of it:
I, like you, am the son of a minister. This puts a lot of pressure on a young man, I think, and I’ve always tried to do the best I can.
My wife’s brother has a son, my nephew, who was born with Spina Bifida. Holly has impacted the lives of so many people. My nephew has done well too.
I’m not sure what the whole purpose of this message is, other than to let you know how blessed I was to see the profile of your daughter on TV.
And so, just like that, my worlds collide. Someone got peanut butter in my chocolate. On a day when I am filled with worry about how the Cowboys will handle a surging Eagles’ team, on a day when I am all set to write an NFL article that tries to predict which will be the Team of the Teens in the NFL, I am reminded that, in the grand scheme of things, the scheme is grander than we realize.
And what’s wrong with that?
Thank you, Lord.
But I am Poor and Needy
But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay. Psa. 70:5 (NKJV)
I saw him again today, this frail old man, dirty, heavily bearded, hollow-eyed and gaunt. He sits on the median of a busy intersection near my home, holding a cardboard sign that declares his destitute state and begs for help from passersby.
I had seen him before, but only as I hurried past him, on my way to whatever was next in my busy life. But today our eyes met. I looked into his and he into mine and I wondered what his story might be. How had he come to this place? What misfortunes, poor decisions, or cruel twists of “fate” had conspired to reduce this man to the place of an undignified beggar?
I looked and I saw myself. Crudely clad in the rags of unrighteousness. Hopeless to change my circumstance. Unable to rid myself of the stench and stain of sin.
Pass Me Not...
When I got home, I quickly turned to the seventieth chapter of the Psalms. I read the startling, sobering words of a king in distress. I listened as David, a rich and powerful king, declared himself “poor and needy.”
And my heart cried out, “So am I!”
I am poor and needy. I have so many needs that I will never be able to meet myself. I was glad that I could say with the Psalmist, “O God, YOU are my help and my deliverer. O LORD, do not delay.” Then, I choked out the words of the old hymn: “Pass me not, O gentle Savior; hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.”
And I heard Him whisper, “I am here.”
A Prayer For Today: “Father, I am as poor and needy as any person who has ever lived. I cannot save myself. I cannot clean myself up and present myself holy and undefiled to You. I need Your salvation. I need Your cleansing blood. Thank You for meeting my needs. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
The Law of the Jungle and the Law of Christ
Galatians 6:2,5 (NKJV)
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ… For each one shall bear his own load.
From Rudyard Kipling’s timeless classic, The Jungle Book, comes this morsel of wisdom:
“Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break
it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and
back –
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is
the Pack.”
Pay especially close attention, if you will, to that last line: “The strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the pack.” There is so much instruction for us in that simple metaphorical statement, especially if we consider it in concert with the words of the Apostle Paul.
Allow me to break it down:
THE STRENGTH OF THE PACK IS THE WOLF.
You have heard, no doubt, that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In any place of community – whether a home, a church, a business organization, or whatever – the strength of the whole is contingent upon the contribution of each individual. Without the wolf, there is no pack. It is the strength and dedication of the wolf that makes the pack a possibility.
The same is true in your church or home or place of business.
Paul puts it this way: “For each one shall bear his own load.”
Let one soldier in a unit fail to do his job, and the entire unit is at risk. Let one member of a team be derelict in his duties and the whole team may fail. Let one church member fail to shoulder his part of the ministry burden, and the entire congregation is put at a disadvantage. Let one family member… well, you get the picture, right?
The strength of the pack is the wolf. You do matter. It IS important whether you do your part. No individual has ever lived and died to himself alone. Your influence and potential is greater than you may realize.
THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF IS THE PACK
As strong and beautiful as the individual wolf may be, if he is alone, he is vulnerable. He is not a great solitary hunter. His safety and his strength is in the pack
For the church, Paul taps into this truth about the “pack mentality” in Galatians 6:2 when he instructs us to help bear the burdens of others. A community of believers is at its best when it rallies to the aid of a faltering member. Whether it is seeing a widow through the loss of her husband, or a young couple through the death of a child, or a family through the stress of unemployment, or simply lifting one another up in prayer before the throne of the grace.
Way back in Genesis, God saw and asserted that it was not “good” for a man to be alone. He needs companionship. He needs community. Let us beware of too much isolation. Let us be even more acutely aware of how vitally important the church, the home, the workplace, the nation, etc. is to our lives.
The point here is that we each have individual responsibilities, but we should not be individualists. We need each other. Together, with each of us doing our part, we are as formidable and as functional as the wolf pack.
And that, my friend, is the law of Christ…and the law of the jungle.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY:
“Father, I want to take the time today to be thankful for the places of community You have afforded me. (Be specific. Give thanks for your, family, church, workplace, country, etc.) I pray that I will never
take them for granted, and that I will fulfill my individual responsibility so that I am ever a blessing and never a burden. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Thoughts on Human Nature, Limitations, Predispositions, and Rising Above
The more I observe life and the lives of others and – when I am brave enough for self-observation – my own life, the more I believe that we are what we are by the force of our own nature, much more than any nurture we have received. Plenty of people have risen above their surroundings, their upbringing, their disadvantages to achieve greatness in some meaningful endeavor, but name the ones who have risen above their own innate tendencies.
Even regeneration (that is, salvation) does not change the essential essence of you. Your DNA remains intact. If you were lazy before you met Christ, you are probably now a lazy Christian. If you were dull-witted then, you are likely still drab.
I am certainly not suggesting limitations on salvation, so drop your stones. Nor am I saying that God cannot or will not change a person in a dramatic fashion.
I AM saying that we all have propensities. We have tendencies. Some are selfless by nature; others are selfish. Some are innately intelligent; others have to work hard to absorb every scrap of new information. Some burst with energy; others seek the shade and a soft place to land.
The worker bees need something to do.
The dreamers need something to fire their imagination.
The achievers need something to accomplish (which is not the same as something to do.)
Those who are not driven to work, dream or accomplish need something to occupy their minds and use up their time — they need to be entertained.
When thinking about these things, the easiest thing in the world is to recognize tendencies in others. The most difficult thing is to be honest with yourself. I believe, however, that the only way to be the best you can be and do the best you can do in this world is to really get to know yourself:
- Own your faults.
- Recognize your weaknesses.
- Understand your own essential nature.
- Identify your strengths.
Only then can you maximize your potential.
It is possible – though quite rare – for a person to become greater than the sum of his or her parts. While I am tempted to see each of us as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, each equipped with a kind of governor that allows us to go this far and no farther, observation and faith tell me that just isn’t so.
Otherwise, how would you explain George W. Bush? Or Jerry Jones? Or (insert almost any rapper’s name here)?
The beautiful thing about what God wants from you is this: He just wants what you are, what you have, what you can (by His grace) do. Nothing more.
If you are like me, tortured soul, what you are may never be enough to satisfy yourself, but it is more than enough for your God.
In addressing a missions offering commitment made by the Corinthians, I think Paul hit on a principle that is applicable here:
Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. 2 Corinthians 8:11,12
God runs the ultimate lemonade stand. Even the best and the brightest of us bring him lemons from the weed-strewn orchards of our lives…and He makes lemonade.
Your nature is flawed; His is flawless.
Your strength is weak; Even His weakness is strength.
Your resources are limited; His are limitless.
Give Him what you have and what you are and see what He does.
Or, you could just pick up the remote and see what’s on.
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The JourneyMan by D. Gene Strother is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at genestrother.com.
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