Throw Up Your Cap

September 21, 2011 1 Comment

Years ago, in a small fishing village on the coast of New England, a winter storm blew up suddenly and caught the small boats out at sea. The men rowed hard to reach the safety of the harbor, and all the boats made it in except for one. Just when it was almost there, a huge wave struck and hurled it up against a rock. The boat was captained by an old man named John. With his boat in ruins, he did the only thing he could do: pull himself up onto the rock and commence to hang on for dear life.

John’s fellow fishermen saw his plight, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it. The idea of taking rescue boats out into the teeth of the storm was ludicrous. To further complicate matters, it would soon be dark. So being the good, practical New Englanders they were, they decided to wait until the morning to attempt a rescue. In the meantime, they built a bonfire on the shore and dedicated themselves to keeping it burning all night. Every now and then, by the light of that bonfire, one of the men would throw his cap up into the air just to let John know they were there and hadn’t abandoned him.

Finally, after a long, rough night, the winds subsided and the dawn broke. The fishermen put out their boats and were able to rescue old John. After he had warmed himself by the fire and been given something to eat, they asked him what it had been like out there on that rock all night. Here’s what he said:

Well, it was the longest night of my life. I made out pretty well at first, but then a big wave came along and flattened me out and I felt myself slipping. I was worn out. I was ready to give up. My old father went down at sea, and I had decided my time had come. But just as I was ready to let go, I looked through the darkness and saw somebody’s cap going up in the air. I said to myself, “If there’s somebody who cares enough about old John to stay out on a night like this, I guess I’m not going to quit yet.” Just then the winds seemed to ease up, and I got a fresh hold, and well, here I am.

With this story in mind, I’ll ask you to throw up a cap yourself today. Johns are out there everywhere, just trying to hold for dear life. Find someone who needs some encouragement and let them know that you appreciate them. Let them know they’d be missed if they weren’t around. Let them know that you care. You might just give that person reason to keep pressing on rather than quit.

Filed under Comfort, Doing Good, Encouragement, God's Work, Influence, Ministry Tagged with , , , , ,

Tonya’s Birthday

September 14, 2011 5 Comments

Today is my wife Tonya’s birthday, and so I’d like to devote this post to her. I thought it would be fun to describe a typical day in her life, and since my day-to-day memory only lasts for about one day, I’ll describe yesterday. Here goes.

Just as she does every school morning, Tonya got up sometime around 5:45 a.m. I use the word “sometime” because it’s not like I woke up with her and got the official time. Once up, she had until 7:00 a.m. to: get herself ready, wake up our ten-year-old son Royce (he’s easy), wake up our fourteen-year-old son Ryan (he’s hard), make sure the boys got ready for school, fix a little breakfast, and get everyone loaded into our Dodge Caravan. She dropped Ryan off at Mitchell High School around 7:10, dropped Royce off at Gouge Elementary School around 7:20, and then reported for duty at Bowman Middle School to spend her day teaching math to 7th and 8th graders who typically don’t care about learning it.

The general idea is that her day at Bowman ends at 3:00 p.m., but that’s laughable. It’s always an after-school meeting, some work she’s got to finish, or something. Usually she doesn’t leave Bowman until after 3:30, and many days it’s not until after 4:00. Yesterday she must have left around 3:30 because she got home around 3:45. When she gets home in the afternoon, she has Royce with her because he rides a bus from Gouge to Bowman and stays in her classroom until she’s ready to leave. He’s supposed to do his homework during that time, but don’t get me started on that.

Anyway, yesterday I think that Tonya’s first words to me when she got home were, “I’ve got to be back at Bowman no later than 5:15.” I didn’t even bat an eye at that comment because I knew the deal. Every teacher at Bowman Middle School has to sign up to work three of Bowman’s home football games. Over the years, Tonya has done everything from collecting money at the gate to working in the concession stand. But, believe it or not, her favorite job is being a member of “the chain gang.” For those of you who don’t know football, “the chain gang” are the people who stand on the sidelines and handle the chains that are used to determine whether or not a team got the necessary ten yards for a first down. It’s usually men who work those chains, but for some odd reason Tonya likes doing it. I guess she likes the action of being down on the field.

“And where is her husband while all this is going on?,” you ask. Oh, he’s busy too. First, I had to get Royce to his 5th-6th grade football practice at 5:30. I’m an assistant to the assistant coach’s assistant for that team. Second, I had to leave that practice and go pick Ryan up from his j.v. football practice at 6:00. Third, since Ryan wanted to catch the last part of the Bowman game, I had to drop him off there on my way back to Royce’s practice. While at Bowman, I walked up on the field and briefly spoke to Tonya as she worked the chains. Since I hadn’t any supper, I was thrilled when she offered me half a bag of popcorn and half a Pepsi. I thoroughly enjoyed both as I drove over to Royce’s practice.

That practice lasted until 7:30, but Tonya and Ryan showed up to it around 7:15. Bowman’s game had ended (they beat Avery 30-6, had to get that in), and now the question of supper had to be officially addressed because Ryan was gnawing the dash of the van. The classic McDonalds option was tossed around, but I just wasn’t in the mood for another Big Mac. So we decided that the best plan was for Tonya and Ryan to go to the grocery store. We needed some stuff for the house anyway. They were still at the store when Royce’s practice finished up, and so I called her and told her to buy a frozen pizza for me and him. Ryan ended up going with some frozen Chinese dish that he later regretted. As usual once she’s in a grocery store, Tonya thought of plenty of other things that we needed. All told, the bill ended up being over $60. We’d have gotten out a lot cheaper at McDonalds. And what did Tonya have for supper? She fixed herself some popcorn. Yes, the woman loves her popcorn.

Well, by the time everyone had finished their supper it was after 9:00. Brilliantly, I had made Royce take his bath while we’d been waiting for Tonya and Ryan to get home from the store. So he was almost ready for bed. At least that’s what I thought. But along about 9:30 I heard Tonya reading to him as she helped him finish up his homework. I thought to myself, “Okay, once she’s finished with that she’ll go to bed herself.” That’s not what happened, though. At 9:45 she walked into the dining room and told Ryan to get in there. It was time to put the finishing touches on his miniature bust of the Roman emperor Constantine. (Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.)

For one of his classes, Ryan has been working on a report on Constantine. As part of the assignment, he had to create a small bust of the man. Well, I was willing to help him sort through the high points of the emperor’s life, but you might as well ask me to build a space shuttle as create a bust. My best attempt would no doubt have involved the purchasing of a Mister Potato Head kit.

Ah, but Tonya does have a touch of that arts and crafts thing about her, and she stepped up to the plate and helped Ryan out. So there they were, at a few minutes past 10:00, sitting at our dining room table, painting the finishing touches onto the great Constantine. By the way, those are the types of things for which we use our dining room table. For us to actually eat off it, it would have to be excavated, cleared, and thoroughly cleaned. Such is family life in this modern world.

Well, with Constantine formally finished up around 10:15, Tonya was finally allowed to brush her teeth and literally drop into bed. For the record, I’ve never met anyone in my life who falls asleep as quickly as she does. Being a night owl myself, I have no idea why she can’t sit up late with me. Just kidding, of course. Seriously, I have no idea how the woman does all that she does. All I know is that she was back at it again at 5:45 this morning.

I’ll close now with some verses that are highly relevant to all this:

1. And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18)

2. He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. (Proverbs 18:22)

3. Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. (Proverbs 31:10)

Tonya will no doubt get a kick out of me citing anything from Proverbs 31:10-31. Every time I have a congregation turn to that text, she just groans and thinks, “It’s impossible to live up to the standard that passage describes.” Well, honey, I don’t tell you this enough, but don’t ever doubt that you do live up to it each and every day. Also know that I love you and I’m going to take you out to eat tonight. Of course, we’ll have to take the boys. I promise you, though, that we’ll do a little better than McDonalds. And, hopefully, I’ll be able to give you the one gift that I know you crave the most: being in bed and fast asleep by 9:30. Happy birthday!

Filed under Children, Doing Good, Husbands, Marriage, Parenting, Personal, Service, Sports, Wives, Work Tagged with , , , , ,

Elephants, Grass, & Spiritual Warfare

September 12, 2011 2 Comments

My mother is a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Dr. C. Mark Corts was the pastor of that church for almost forty years. He died in 2006.

In his retirement years, just before his death, Dr. Corts wrote an excellent book entitled The Truth About Spiritual Warfare. In the first chapter of the book, he deals with the story of Job and explains that spiritual warfare isn’t about us. It is, instead, a battle between God and Satan. Corts writes:

Natives in Africa say, “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” That’s what we see happening in the Book of Job – the clearest look behind the curtain in the Bible. Two titans, God and Satan, were engaged in warfare, and Job was the grass that got trampled.

This whole understanding of spiritual warfare has become very helpful to me whenever I find myself having to play the role of the grass. Nowadays when I sense that I’m in the throes of spiritual warfare, I ask myself two questions. Question 1: What is God trying to accomplish in this situation? Question 2: How is Satan working to keep it from happening?

Let me illustrate. A mother approached me a few weeks ago and asked, “Aren’t you Russell Mckinney?” When I answered, “Yes,” she proceeded to tell me how much she enjoyed my Sunday morning radio broadcast on one of our local stations. She is particularly enjoying my current series Life-Lessons From Proverbs and asked if she could get copies of the sermons for her teenage son. I said, “Sure, I’ll get you some. Give me your phone number and I’ll call you when they’re ready.” She promptly obliged. But a couple of weeks later I called the number and got no answer. I ended up leaving a message saying that the first round of cds was ready and if she would call me back we could agree to a meeting place where I could give them to her.

Several days afterward, though, I hadn’t received a callback. I thought that seemed kind of odd because she had seemed so genuinely interested in getting the sermons. My first instinct was to call her again, but then I got to thinking that I didn’t want to pester her. Perhaps she had changed her mind. I certainly didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself by forcing my own preaching onto her!

So what did I do? I took the matter to God in prayer and asked Him if I should make another run at contacting the woman. He answered by reminding me of what Dr. Corts had taught about spiritual warfare. I asked the two questions. What was God trying to accomplish in this situation? Answer: Obviously, He wanted that teenage son to hear the spiritual truths of those life-lessons from Proverbs. And how was Satan trying to keep that from happening? Answer: He was somehow keeping the lines of communication broken down between me and that mother.

Well, once I had that information, I called the woman again. I was disappointed to have to leave another message, but this time she called me back pretty quickly. We worked out a plan for how I could get the cds to her, and she’ll be getting them either today or tomorrow. She also explained why she hadn’t called me back the first time. It hadn’t been anything personal. She had meant to call but, for whatever reason, just hadn’t gotten around to it. I didn’t tell her that I truly believed that Satan had assigned some of his troops to her case and was actively working to keep her son from getting those sermons. I didn’t want to scare her.

And now we come to the application portion of this post. Do you feel like you are currently under spiritual attack? Is the aura of spiritual warfare hanging heavy around you right now? If the answer is yes, please take some time right now to ask yourself the two basic questions about the warfare. What is God trying to accomplish in the situation? And how is Satan working to keep it from happening? You’ll probably be surprised at how straightforward and simple the answers are. Then, once you have those answers, you’ll be able to move forward wisely concerning the situation. Understand that you are the grass upon which two elephants are engaged in battle and keep doing your part to help God accomplish His will.

Filed under Adversity, Angels, Choices, Demons, Doing Good, God's Will, Influence, Personal, prayer, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil, trials Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Life’s Army Barracks

August 22, 2011 Leave a comment

The Presbyterian preacher Harry Rimmer told the story of a young man who entered the army. This young man was in the habit of studying his Bible in his bedroom each evening and then kneeling down to pray before retiring for the night. He knew, however, that the army barracks would be a real test of that nightly routine.

The barracks certainly didn’t disappoint as the young fellow found himself surrounded by scores of rough servicemen. They joked around, made crude comments, and cursed. His first instinct was to read his Bible by keeping it half covered under his blanket. But then a wave of conviction came over him and he thought, “I’m a Christian! I must take my stand for the Lord. I won’t hide my faith. I’ll just do as I did at home.” He then took his Bible, read a chapter, and knelt down to pray quietly beside his cot.

When the other men noticed what the young man was doing, a few of them sneered. But in just a few minutes the barracks became strangely quiet as others who respected the new recruit’s devotion hushed those who sneered. After a while the talk began again, but this time without the crudeness and cursing.

The next night when the young man opened his Bible eight other men dug out theirs and did the same. Within a month every soldier in the outfit respected the young Christian so much that they would defend him against anyone who dared criticize him. Even more than that, they would bring their troubles and questions to him and ask for counsel. Rimmer concluded the story by saying, “He influenced more men for Christ than half a dozen chaplains could have in a year of Sundays.”

This world can be a raw, coarse, vulgar place, and being a Christian who tries to live a holy life in its midst can be difficult. Do the people at your workplace tell dirty jokes? Do some of your fellow students use profanity? Do you feel like you would be mocked and ridiculed if you were caught on site reading your Bible or praying? Welcome to your army barracks.

What would Jesus have you do? Well, what example did He set? Did He isolate Himself in a cave atop a mountain and shun the “real” world? No. Did He only converse with His devout followers, people who thought and spoke like He did? No. Did He act one way in private but another way in public? No. To the contrary, He lived what He preached. And what was that? He told His followers to resist the urge to hide their light under a basket and let it, instead, shine before men (Matthew 5:15-16).

So, Christian, I hope you take this post as a call to arms. Stop hiding your light under a basket. Those around you need to see it burning brightly for your Savior. Who knows what domino effect you taking a stand for Christ might start? My guess is that there are others in your setting who are just as offended with certain things as you are. They just need a leader to show them how to create change. And that leader could be you!

Filed under Adversity, Bible Study, Character, Courage, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Will, God's Word, Influence, obedience, Persecution, Personal Holiness, Scripture, Witnessing, Work, Youth Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Examined Yourself Lately?

August 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Everyone today knows the name Billy Graham, the most well known evangelist of our time. But back in the closing decades of the 1800s the evangelist’s name on everyone’s lips was D.L. Moody. His quick wit and humor made him immensely likable.

Moody once met a drunk who was tottering along, barely able to walk. The drunk said, “Oh, it’s you, is it, Mr. Moody? Don’t you know me? I am one of your converts.” Moody put his arm around the man to steady him and said, “Well, my son, you look like one of mine – you’re surely not one of the Lord’s.”

Moody was merely pointing out the obvious fact that salvation should lead to godly living. The New Testament is replete with verses that teach this basic idea. It’s such a shame, then, that so many professing Christians exhibit so much unholiness in their conduct. We’re not talking about being saved by good works; we’re talking about good works inevitably flowing out of a true salvation experience.

And do we have a right to question the supposed “salvation” of someone who’s life is marked by obvious, undeniable, outward sin? Of course we do. Playing the role of fruit-inspector is not the same as playing the role of judge, jury, and executioner. Let us not forget these solemn words from Jesus:

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:17-18)

We shouldn’t take these words to mean that the true Christian never sins. We’ll drop the ball every now and then as long as we are living out this sin-tainted existence. But there’s a big difference between dropping the ball every now and then and not even being able to find the stadium where the game is played. Do you see what I mean?

In Galatians 6:4, the apostle Paul says, “But let each one examine his own work…” In 1 Corinthians 11:28, he says, “But let a man examine himself…” In 2 Corinthians 13:5, he says, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves…” You see, the life of the true Christian should always be able to bear up to examination. Again, we’re not talking sinless perfection here, just at least a reasonable amount of personal holiness that others can point to as evidence of you being a new creation in Christ. If you are “one of the Lord’s,” that evidence should be there. If it isn’t, could it be that you are a different kind of tree?

Filed under Change, Character, Doing Good, Personal Holiness, salvation, Sin, The Depravity of Man Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

The Importance of Speaking Up

July 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Well, we made it to and from the beach safely, and I really appreciate those of you who prayed for us along those lines. Not surprisingly, my next few posts will involve stuff that I experienced while on vacation.

I’ll start with something that happened on our last night out on the town, the Thursday night before we checked out Friday morning. Since the boys had never been in the attractions and stores of Ocean Boulevard, we drove up there and made a night of the whole scene. Royce went into the Ripley’s Haunted Adventure while Ryan went into the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum. Then they both went into one of the arcades and played some skeet ball. That’s the game where you roll the ball up the ramp and try to make it jump into certain holes. Some holes are worth more than others, and in the end you are rewarded tickets based upon your point total. You then take those tickets to the counter and swap them for a prize. The more tickets you have, the better prize you get.

Okay, so Ryan goes to one lane and Royce goes to another. When Ryan finishes his game, his tickets start rolling out of the machine appropriately. But when Royce finishes his game nothing happens, even though he has accumulated enough points to earn some tickets. So now Tonya and I have a decision to make. Do we let the injustice go and chalk it up to bad luck? Or do we take the time to go and tell a worker what has happened? We decided to go and tell. (I’ll admit that our decision was helped along by the fact that Royce was none too pleased about not getting any tickets while Ryan did.)

After we reported the problem to the girl at the counter, she came over and very politely said, “I’ll call our maintenance guy, but this will take a few minutes. Will you wait?” At this point, I was beginning to regret saying anything. Who knew where this dude might have to come from? But as the old saying goes, “In for a penny, in for a pound,” so we agreed to wait.

Thankfully, the young man wasn’t too long in coming. He took a quick look at the machine and saw that it was simply out of tickets. He then pulled out a big roll of tickets and reloaded the machine. That’s when things got interesting. As he finished the reloading, he said, “Now get ready because whatever number of tickets this machine should have been giving out is going to come out, and your boy is going to get them all.” Ever the pessimist, I thought to myself, “Sure, sure. We’re probably talking four or five extra tickets here. The thing probably ran out just before Royce played it.”

But then those tickets started rolling out and spilling down onto the floor! My eyes lit up and so did Tonya’s. Royce squealed in delight. Ryan, the classic older brother, stood there green with jealousy because he had actually gotten a higher score than Royce and should have ended up with more tickets than him. On and on the scene went. A few seconds into it the worker grinned at us and reminded us, “Remember, I’m giving him all these tickets.”

So, what was that final total? We ended up with approximately 275 free tickets. To put that total into perspective, Ryan had won about ten with his game and Royce had earned even less than Ryan. Obviously, that machine had been out of tickets for a long time and a great number of kids had played it and taken their losses without reporting the problem. We ended up splitting the tickets between the boys and letting them go nuts cashing them in for multiple gifts at the counter.

And that brings us to the spiritual application to all this. It’s a simple one, really. Since God has called us Christians to be “salt” and “light” in this world, He will bless us when we take the role seriously and speak out when something is wrong. You see, He doesn’t want us to just sit back and let wrong go unchallenged. He doesn’t want us to act like the rest of the world and just accept things as they are. The state of things never gets any better that way. Somebody has got to put in the time and effort to say something.

Christian, could it be that you are right now in the throes of some situation in which you are wondering whether or not you should speak up? Could it be that you are the one whom God is burdening to throw out some salt or turn on a light? Believe me, I know that speaking up is not the easy thing to do, and I’m not trying to needlessly stir up trouble for you here, but the plain fact is that sometimes life’s skeet-ball machines don’t get fixed until someone points out the problem. And, Christian, there are times when that someone has just got to be you because the situation has your name all over it.

Now, will the person whom you correct appreciate your attempts? That’s tough to answer because it depends upon the person. But keep in mind that you aren’t responsible for how the person responds. Once you’ve gone to the counter and reported the problem, once you’ve thrown out the salt, once you’ve turned on the light, your job is done. And God will then reward you somehow or someway with some tickets of blessing. I can’t say exactly what those tickets will be, but you can rest assured that you’ll be satisfied with them.

Filed under Choices, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Will, God's Work, Honesty, Influence, Ministry, obedience, Problems, Reward, Service, Sin, The Tongue Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

In Training To Be Used Mightily

July 7, 2011 Leave a comment

A budding young soloist went to a great Italian musician for voice training. The master handed him a piece of music and said, “Practice this for one full year and then return here.” The request seemed a bit strange, but for the next twelve months the young man faithfully did his practicing.

At year’s end, he returned to the musician, confident that the master would change his assignment and give him a new, higher grade of music to learn. But it didn’t happen. The master simply said, “Practice the same piece for another year and then return here.”

Somewhat discouraged, the young singer returned home and begrudgingly rededicated himself to his task. For twelve more months he practiced that same piece of music over and over again. Then he returned again to the musician. As he went, he thought, “Surely this time I will be given a new piece to learn.”

Once again, however, the master instructed him to work at the same piece of music for another year and then return. But this time the young man objected. He said, “No, I want to practice something new. I have worked hard, and I deserve to move on up to a more advanced lesson.” Stubbornly, though, the master held his ground, saying, “No, my son, the same lesson this year.”

So now the young man had a decision to make. Should he continue to trust in the great musician and keep practicing the same piece of music? Or should he question the musician’s expertise and seek training elsewhere? Two long years had come and gone. The young singer had worked hard and done as he was told, but he wasn’t seeing any fruit for his labors. Maybe it was now time to cut his losses with the supposed master and change everything.

The young man pondered the issue for quite some time, but in the end he decided to stick with the great musician’s training. So he went back to practicing the same old lesson and faithfully worked at it for yet another year. Then he returned to the master.

But this time the singer wouldn’t be given any more preparatory assignments. Instead, the great musician simply looked at him and said, “Go, my son. You have nothing more to learn.” The young man was both shocked and relieved, but he took the master at his word and began auditioning for singing parts. He nailed performance after performance, no matter how difficult the song, and eventually he rose to become the leading singer in all of Italy.

How was such a thing possible? It was possible because that one piece of music that the singer had so faithfully practiced all those years held within it a certain combination of notes, and that combination had allowed his vocal cords to be developed to perfection. The master, of course, had known this all along.

Christian, it may be that God has had you working on the same assignment for years now. And it also may be that you have grown very tired of singing it. So you’ve begun to long for something new, something different, something that will break you out of your rut. Perhaps you are right now even contemplating going off and doing your own thing because you are tired of living the life in which God has stationed you.

Well, let me ask you this: Could it be that for the past several years God has faithfully been preparing you to do great and mighty works for Him in the future? And, furthermore, could it be that even now your spiritual “vocal cords” are almost perfectly trained to handle these great works? You see, at this point, the last thing you need to do is short-circuit God’s whole plan by foolishly abandoning your master’s training and making some change that you shouldn’t make.

Call this a warning. Call it a word of encouragement. Call it what you will. But just know that God never sends out His servants unprepared, and if He still has you working on the same old assignment, then your training must not be fully completed yet. You ask, “How much longer will it be?” I don’t know. All I know is that there will come a day when God will send you forth to put all of your training to incredible use for Him.

Filed under Adversity, Choices, Commitment, Disappointment, Discipleship, Doing Good, faith, faithfulness, God's Timing, God's Omniscience, God's Will, Impatience, Ministry, Music, obedience, Patience, perseverance, Rebellion, Reward, submission, Teaching, Temptation, Trusting In God Tagged with , , ,

Someone Who Understands

June 28, 2011 Leave a comment

A farmer had some puppies for sale. He painted a sign advertising them and nailed it on a post at the edge of his yard. As he was driving in the last nail, he felt a tug on his overalls. He turned around to see a little boy standing up against the fence. “Mister,” said the boy, “I want to buy one of your puppies.”

The farmer was a little embarrassed at the request because he strongly doubted that the boy had the kind of money he was asking for the pups. Trying to dissuade the little fellow, he said, “Son, these puppies come from fine parents and cost a fair amount of money.” The boy, however, didn’t give up so easily. He reached deep into his pocket, pulled out a handful of change, and said, “I’ve got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to at least take a look?” The farmer couldn’t help but smile and answer, “Sure.”

The man then let out a whistle and called, “Here, Dolly!” Out from the doghouse and down the ramp came Dolly, followed by four little balls of fur. The boy’s eyes danced with delight. But as Dolly and her pups made their way to the farmer, the boy saw another little ball appear at the door of the doghouse. It was noticeably smaller than the others, but it slid down the ramp with every bit as much enthusiasm. Then it began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.

Immediately the boy pointed at the runt and said, “I want that one.” Now the farmer felt really bad. In his most compassionate tone, he answered, “Son, you don’t want that puppy. He’ll never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would.” Upon hearing that, the little boy stepped back from the fence and began rolling up one leg of his pants. That allowed the farmer to see that a steel brace ran down both sides of the leg and attached itself to a specially made shoe. Looking up at the farmer, the boy said, “You see, sir, I don’t run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.”

We all wonder why God either allows or (let’s admit it) causes certain “bad” things to happen to people. “Why?” is surely one of the most common words ever spoken to Him. Well, I don’t pretend to have all the answers that people want, but I do know this: At least one of the reasons why God either allows or causes “bad” things to happen to people is because such things enable us to truly understand others who are going through them as well.

Tonya and I have two wonderful boys, but the fact is that we lost two other children, including our first, by way of miscarriage. During those incredibly difficult times I will never forget how various couples went out of their way to minister to us by sharing their stories of how they too had experienced miscarriages. I was surprised at how many there were. You see, these people had never spoken of such things to us, but once Tonya and I had to walk down that road, they instinctively knew that we needed “someone who understands.”

And now that Tonya and I have lived through the pain of those two miscarriages, we have the understanding to minister to couples who must endure one. Do you see how the divine chain of ministry perpetuates itself? Certainly no one wants to volunteer to go through something “bad,” but at least we know that God can bring something “good” out of the experience.

So keep all this in mind today, Christian, and don’t be shy about ministering to those who are having to travel difficult ground that you’ve already traveled. Know that there is a person out there somewhere who needs someone who understands, and that someone is you. You just have to be willing to care and willing to share. And I”m happy to report that what you’ll find is that even as you minister to others, God will minister to you through the experience.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Disappointment, Doing Good, God's Love, God's Work, Influence, Mercy, Ministry, perseverance, Problems, Trusting In God, Witnessing Tagged with , , , ,

The Danger of Silence

June 27, 2011 Leave a comment

There are a lot of old legends out there, stories that did or didn’t happen. One of them is the account of the destruction of an ancient city. In those days, the cities were surrounded by walls, and watchmen kept guard atop the walls to warn if an enemy army was approaching. The watchmen of this city were particularly cautious and would sound the alarm anytime they saw something stirring in the distance. This, of course, led to many false alarms. Finally the citizens complained so much about the false alarms that the watchmen stopped sounding the alarm altogether. You can guess what happened. A real enemy army eventually stormed the city and destroyed it. Sometime later someone erected a small memorial where the city had once been. The epitaph read: “Here stood a city that was destroyed by silence.”

As Christians, we have the God-given responsibility to share God’s truth. This responsibility means that we cannot remain silent about the sin that surrounds our world and threatens to destroy it. We must speak out. We must instruct. We must warn. If we don’t play the role of watchmen, no one will.

The Legislature of the state of New York recently ruled to legalize same-sex marriages. That made New York the sixth state to do so. So should Christians stop sounding the warning that homosexuality (like adultery, premarital sex, incest, and bestiality) is sexual sin in the eyes of God? Should we just throw up our hands and say, “Oh, let’s cave in to the homosexual agenda and let them have their hearts’ desires?” Should we concede defeat and rationalize it by saying, “No one is listening to us anyway”? My answer is an emphatic, NO. True watchmen simply cannot remain silent when danger is at the door.

I’m not going to lie and say that we will win all the battles. The fact is, we may not. But if “winning” the cultural war is the only reason that we are crying out, then we are operating from the wrong motivation anyway. God hasn’t given us the mandate to “win” the war. Our mandate is simply to be responsible, diligent, effective, persevering watchmen. And no matter how much the citizens complain, that’s a duty that we must never shirk.

Filed under Adversity, Commitment, Communication, Criticism, Current Events, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Work, Homosexuality, obedience, Persecution, perseverance, politics, Sin Tagged with , ,

Criticism

June 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Yesterday I heard Jack Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Texas, tell a great story in his sermon. It went something like this:

A man and his wife walked into a store. A parrot sitting on a perch greeted them at the door by saying to the man, “Hey you, you’re stupid and your wife is ugly.” Shocked, the couple quickly moved away from the bird. But the bird wouldn’t let the matter go. Even as they moved toward another part of the store it said to the man again, this time a little louder, “Hey you, you’re stupid and your wife is ugly.”

At that point the store manager came out of the back, and the couple immediately reported what the parrot had said to them. The manager said, “Oh no, is that crazy thing doing that again? I’ve warned him about that.” Then the manager walked over to the bird, grabbed it by its neck, and swatted its backside a few times with his hand. The bird took its punishment and squawked in pain, after which the manager returned it to its perch.

Well, by then the couple was pretty upset about the whole episode and decided to just leave the store. So they headed for the door, which meant that they had to walk past the parrot again. And just as they opened the door to leave, the bird said to the man, “Hey you.” The man’s first instinct was to just keep walking, but curiosity got the better of him. So he slowly turned around and looked straight at the bird. The bird stared back at him for a second and then said, “You know.”

Graham’s point was that critics are everywhere. He’s right. So if you are doing something that you know is right, don’t let them get you down. Just keep on doing it.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Choices, Commitment, Criticism, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Will, Humor, obedience, Persecution, perseverance, Problems, trials, Trusting In God Tagged with , , ,

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