Responsibility: Peak Performance

Just last weekend, I got a new phone. I didn't need a new one until the sales person convinced me that I did! I was dazzled by all the incredible features that would be at my fingertips, with download speed far superior to what I had on my existing phone. My connectivity would be enhanced, and I would experience far fewer dropped calls. I'll be the first to admit - I didn't know how handicapped I was! Frankly, my "old" phone could pretty much do what the new one does. I don't notice that things download faster, and since I wasn't really experiencing dropped calls, I guess I don't see much improvement! What hooked me was the possibilities of what I could do if I utilized this piece of technological wizardry to its full potential. Like my old phone, this new one has functions that are truly amazing, but unless I take the time to learn how to use them and perfect my use of them, my phone will simply remain a very powerful, but under-utilized tool.

Those of us who call ourselves Christians are too often not unlike these very powerful pocket-sized computers we carry around - we are designed for "greater works" (John 14:12), but we aren't fulfilling our potential. We know that we have access to connectivity that will empower us to carry out our mission (John 14:13,15-17, 26; John 15:5,7), but we don't always take the time to learn how to access that source to put it to use. 

As our kids at church wind down their focus on responsibility, they are asked to consider, "What in the world am I doing to show others God's goodness." That's a question most of us should ask ourselves, and I have certainly been giving it lots of thought. In fact, God has been making sure I have been reflecting on my own response to the responsibility he's given us as Christians.

In Matthew 5, Jesus doesn't hold back. He tells us what our attitudes should be - the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) - and then follows those by placing on our shoulders the responsibility to be "salt and light" to the world (Matthew 5:13-16). I like his illustration - people don't buy lamps just to hide the light they provide. In other words, we want to get the full potential and peak performance from the lamp. 

Even though I have heard and read these verses many times in my life, I was drawn to the phrasing of the verse about salt - "...but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned..." (Matthew 5:13). What caught my attention was the "it" in the phrase "how shall it be seasoned." I wondered could the "it" refer to the "earth," meaning those who don't know the Lord. Supposing that relationship in wording exists, I was convicted of the responsibility I am shirking when I fail to be "salt and light." If we as Christians fail in tapping into and utilizing the resources we've been given so that we operate to our fullest potential, we are not accomplishing our commission. We may function on a basic level, but we are far from the dynamic power-tool God designed us to be.

I have been reflecting lately on the notion that as Christians we have one priority - to serve God by serving others, thus making disciples. When we allow the Holy Spirit to activate that service through us, we bring honor and glory to Him. Others will "...see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). 

God must have known that we really aren't very good at multitasking. He asked one thing of us, and he promised to take care of the rest. Jesus knew the people hearing his "Sermon on the Mount," and all that followed, must have been a bit skeptical. Just as we are, they were most concerned with the day-to-day realities, not with learning how to be "salt and light." But here's what he promises: "...your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:32-33). 

For me, putting first things first is going to be a discipline, an act of faith, but if I believe that God is who he claims to be, then I must trust that if I allow him to use me in service to others, he will make sure that I have whatever he knows I need. I have a responsibility to allow the Holy Spirit to activate fully the functions I've been given to do the work to which I've been called. I want to be working at peak performance! 

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much...." Luke 16:10

Heavenly Father, on paper, the responsibility seems so simple. Putting it into action isn't when I take on jobs you haven't given me to do! Please help me to keep my priorities straight and trust you to take care of everything! Help me to be "salt and light." I want to be counted faithful. In your name, amen.

"Circuit Training" in God's Devoted Follower's Boot Camp

Have you ever stopped to think how lucrative the exercise equipment business is? Buff guys on television "paid programming" make the latest, greatest, "get rock hard abs like mine" machine look so effortless. It's easy to morph into a fit body with sculpted muscles in just a few minutes a day - more like a quick look at the machine - if we can believe the advertising pitch! And it's crazy how many people do believe! We hope that if we have that miracle-working piece of equipment, we will somehow develop the self-discipline it will take to actually use it consistently so that we become fit, like the guy in the ad, without breaking a sweat, and in just a few short sessions. 

So we fork over 4 easy payments of $99.99 plus shipping and handling. When it arrives, we unpack the box with determination, place the "thing" in front of the television, put on our newly purchased work-out gear (it is, after all, all about the look), and begin to exercise, only to discover that the guy on the ad lied. The machine is NOT easy and the effort required to make it work is HUGE! It doesn't take long for our resolve to dissolve and for the equipment to end up in the storage room along with all the other exercise stuff we've accumulated and rejected. 

I wonder if we sometimes assume that becoming a mature Christian is supposed to come without extreme effort, personal sacrifice, and self-discipline. Once we accept Christ as our Savior, the training begins, and it doesn't end until we stand before the Lord, face to face. What is absolutely encouraging is that we have all we need (Phil. 4:19) to develop into "buff Christians." God has given us faith, and he's promised to provide the strength we need to grow in him and to become who he created us to be (Phil. 4:13). He's given us a complete training manual, the Bible, an example to follow, Jesus, and a personal trainer, the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:1-5 is an interesting explanation of the kind of "circuit training" we can expect once we sign on for God's "Devoted Follower's Boot Camp." We discover that first we have entered into relationship with him through faith (Romans 5:1-2). It's this faith that allows us to believe and receive the grace of God and the gift of salvation. It's small faith (maybe the size of a mustard seed - Matthew 17:20), but like muscle and cardio-vascular capacity, it has growth potential! 

Along with this faith, we have hope that, as a result of our salvation, we will know God's glory. Hope goes hand-in-hand with faith (Hebrews 11:1); therefore, hope has room to grow too. But just as muscles and lung capacity don't increase and strengthen by just wishing it so, faith and hope have to be pushed, stretched, and exercised to build endurance. 

God's "training routine" requires that we know "tribulation" (Romans 5:3). But, it's the tribulation that develops patience in us. If we exercise our faith and hope during the tough times, if we stay focused and committed and draw our strength to endure from God, we come out stronger. That strength translates into a "chiseled, Christlike physique," which produces in us the will to keep on following after Christ, doing whatever it takes to become like him. 

The "circuit training" God designs for us follows this pattern - faith to accept salvation, hope for a glorious future with him, tribulation to develop patience, patience to produce experience, and experience that results in more hope (Romans 5:3-5)! 

Romans 8:25 says, "But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." We don't begin our training looking like the physically fit pitch-men in the advertisements, but we do hope that if we are patient (and patience doesn't always mean inactivity) and keep our eyes on the goal, we can develop the fitness God desires for us. 

As we gain endurance, we have the experience to encourage us on to the next level. God wants us to graduate from his "boot camp" fully developed so that on the day that we stand before him, he can say, "Well done! You've run a good race" (I Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1)!


Lord, you know that we need to be pushed to develop into who you intend for us to be. You start our "training" gently, but you know for us to run the race to the finish, we will need more rigor! Thank you for providing all we need to be successful as we mature in our walk with you.

Parenting - Golden Calves and Other Objects of Our Affection

This week my attention was drawn to the account in Exodus 32 of the children of Israel growing impatient with the absence of their leader Moses. He had gone to Mount Sinai to hear from God and was taking way too long, as far as the people were concerned. They gave up waiting on, "That Moses, the man who got us out of Egypt..." (Exodus 32:1, The Message). In reality, they gave up waiting on God - the same God they had sworn to obey (Exodus 19:2-8). Instead of drawing from their most recent memory of God's delivering them miraculously from Egyptian bondage, they grew impatient and demanded that Aaron, the God-ordained priest, make them "...gods who will lead us" (Exodus 32:1, The Message). Aaron gave into their demands and crafted a golden calf from their gold earrings and built an altar before it. He led the people in sacrificing offerings on that altar, and then they began to party! The party didn't last long; God was not amused! He commanded Moses to get down the mountain and back to the people. Moses had to intercede for them because God threatened to incinerate them! Moses destroyed the golden calf and carried out punishment on the people leading the revelry, and God sent a plague on all of them!

Far too often we too grow impatient, waiting for God to send an answer or give us what we believe we need. We want the "gods we can see" to lead us. The "god" may be the job we believe will bring us fulfillment or recognition. We may want so badly to be married that we settle for someone we know isn't Mr. or Ms. Right. Other times, we just put pencil to paper and figure out a way to have what we want - a car, a house, a vacation - even though something is tugging at us, telling us the timing isn't right. Whatever it is, we forget the God who has promised to be our provider and supply all our need according to his riches (Philippians 4:19). We get ahead of his plan and purposes for our lives and become his "helper." Usually, we "help" ourselves right into a big mess. We offer our worship to and place our faith in what we can see and manufacture.

God knows this about us. He knows we are prone to "playing god" and rushing headlong into trouble. He knows that sometimes getting what we want when we want it isn't in our best interest. Yet, God allows us to take matters into our own hands when we persist. I believe he knows that we eventually will learn that waiting on him to lead us and to provide for us is the wisest course of action! I believe he knows that the "plagues" that generally follow our own "golden calf" experiences end up being pretty good lessons for us.

Learning to be patient doesn't mean we sit around doing nothing. Waiting on God requires action (I Timothy 6:11). While we wait, we pray for God's strength to wait patiently. We read his word for guidance and are actively obedient to his word. We seek his direction. We listen for his voice. We worship him and believe that he is working all things for our good (Hebrews 13:20-21).

Like the children of Israel and Aaron, we can grow tired of waiting on God to lead us and rely on golden calves of our own making. We can worship at their altars, and we can be disappointed. Or, we can believe in what we cannot see and stand firm in God's promises and experience the rewards of our faithfulness (Hebrews 11:6).

Lord, thank you for your faithfulness and your patience with us. Teach us to hear your voice as you lead us. Give us the desire to wait on you with courage! In your name we ask. Amen!

Parenting: Taking on Giants and Winning - Part III

Honestly, I do not like difficulty! I would so rather have compliant students who are eager to learn and soar to great heights. I would love it if all the people in my life would just not irritate me. I wish I could stay healthy and fit without exercising and by eating all the chocolate, Blue Bell ice cream, and fabulous southern food from my childhood (think fried okra, blackberry cobbler, homemade rolls) that I want. I am old! I want peace and comfort and perfection! I want what I want! But, God knows that my life would be so less "interesting" if I got all I wanted, and He knows that if I'm ever going to get anywhere close to being who He designed me to be, I will have to face down the giants in my life - even if it would be easier to ignore or give into them. He's rather insistent that I develop the ability to defeat them! Therefore, He allows the "challenges" so I develop my "trust-in-Him muscles." 

Little did David the Giant Slayer know when he was out herding sheep, playing his harp, and fighting off the occasional lion or bear that one day he would use the experiences and skills he developed to bring down a 10 foot tall heavily armed giant with a slingshot and a stone (I Samuel 17). Yet, sure enough, that is exactly what happened. He proclaimed to King Saul with absolute confidence that the God who had delivered him from wild animals would deliver Goliath to him (I Samuel 17:34-37). Saul wasn't so sure this kid could actually defeat the giant with just a slingshot and stones, so he dressed him up in official "go-to-war" garb. David couldn't even move, so he declined the offer and simply took up the tools of his trade - shepherd's staff, slingshot and five smooth stones - and, most importantly, "the name of God" (I Samuel 17:45-47). He went before the giant battle-ready because God had been preparing him for this moment!

As we go about our daily lives meeting up with all the irritations and inconveniences that we just really wish would go away, rarely do we understand that those very things may be put in our lives so that God can begin to develop in us the skills and "weapons" we may need to slay the giants that will come in our lives. David had to first face the lions and bears and defeat them to know that God was fighting for him. He had to have those victories to be strong and confident enough in God to take on the bigger challenge, Goliath. We have to also meet whatever challenges come our way to be prepared for greater ones that will inevitably come. He's giving us our own opportunities to build our trust in Him so that we can overcome with confidence. 

Just as David couldn't go up against Goliath in Saul's armor, we can't fight the giants in our lives through the strength or experiences of another person. We have to go forth using the strength God has developed in us. We do have custom-fitted armor for every battle, though. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to put on the full armor of God "... that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil."

As we prepare for our everyday living, we must go dressed in God's armor - truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. The giants in our lives - as well as the irritations - can't stand against such weapons! Expect that God will give you many opportunities to "test" your armor. He wants us to be left standing and victorious (see Ephesians 6:11-17). 


Heavenly Father, we would rather not have to face bumps in the road of life. We'd rather just enjoy smooth sailing, but You know that without struggles, we can't become strong in our faith in You. Please give us your ability to see situations as You do - that this stuff is coming as a strength-building exercise so that we stand firm against whatever comes against us, having all confidence that You are fighting for us. Thank you, for your whole armor. Amen.

Parenting: Taking on Giants and Winning - Part II

Back in the day (and probably still today in some classrooms in America), we were required to read the classic story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet. If you didn't read that story, then I'm pretty sure you've heard Charlie Daniel's version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," or if you're really an academic sort, you read "Mephistopheles" by Faust. What all three have in common is a character who sells his soul to the devil to gain victory over some challenge in his life. He carries on life pretty much as normal, having gotten what he wanted from the bargain, until the day of reckoning - he has to give the devil his due. Of course, in each instance, the main character doesn't want to give over his soul to the devil and works to outsmart him and wins. In real life, things don't work out that way. We never develop a winning strategy by bargaining with the devil, we never outsmart him, and we certainly don't beat him at his game in our own power. What makes for good and entertaining literature and song lyrics, doesn't play well in real life.

Very often the giants that confront us make us much like the the fictional characters in the stories and song. We want a quick and decisive end to those challenges. We find all kinds of ways to deal with them, but until we allow God to defeat them, we are held captive. When young David took down the Philistine giant Goliath, he did it with the "army of God" cowering behind him. For 40 days these trained soldiers ran for fear as Goliath taunted them; they had no faith that they could defeat this giant and felt certain a shepherd boy with a sling and five stones was sure to be squashed (I Samuel 17). 

Goliath bargained with the Israelites daily: "...pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you'll all become our slaves and serve us" (I Samuel 17:8-9). Interestingly, even though the Israelites hadn't taken Goliath up on his bargain by sending one man to fight him, they had already become the slaves of the Philistines. They allowed their fear to control them and stop them from confronting their enemies in the name and power of their God and winning a decisive victory.

When we choose to make "bargains" with our giants rather than confront and defeat them in God's strength, we become their slaves. We may for a time live a life that seems free from their terror, but a day of reckoning - pay day - always comes. The Israelite army had managed not to engage in battle with Goliath by simply running from his daily taunting. They were living life, just not a life of freedom from fear and oppression from the Philistines. In effect, they had struck a bargain with "the devil" rather than putting a decisive end to the "giant in their lives."

Goliath could have been defeated a lot sooner had the Israelites chosen to remember who their God is. In Psalm 20, David says: "...Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm." The King James version says, "...we will remember the name of the Lord our God." When we choose to remember who our God is and what He has done in our lives, we don't have to live in the shadow of the giants. We don't have to strike bargains with them that require a payment that leaves us enslaved. John 8:36 declares, "So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through." We don't have to live as a slave to the giants. Our God created us to live in freedom - no fear. Galatians 5:1 reminds us: "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." No giant is so great that it can take us captive unless we allow it. God's promises are affirmed through us (II Corinthians 1:20) for His glory; therefore, we do not have to live in slavery to the giants.

We are well-equipped to battle the giants and defeat them. We can be delivered from the enslaving conditions of bargains that we have made with them to hold them at bay. We have the Word of God as our sword, and we can wield it with great strength when we come in his name and acknowledge that the battle is the Lord's (I Samuel 17:45-47). This is when giants are defeated!


Lord, the battle is yours, not mine. The victory is already won. Help me remember this and boldly confront the giants in my life knowing that they are already defeated because You said so! Thank you, Heavenly Father.

Words to Remember When Confronting Giants:
Isaiah 43:5 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you...."
Isaiah 35:4 "Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come ... and save you."
Psalm 27:1 "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
Romans 8:37 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

Parenting - Taking on the Giants and Winning - Part I

I absolutely hate snakes! When I was a little girl, I used to play in the dirt under a huge oak tree in my grandmother's front yard. One day, as I was digging around minding my own business, an evil looking snake fell coiled from that tree. I ran screaming in the house for my grandmother to come and save me! I can still see her, undaunted, walking out to that snake and putting a quick end to his menace with a garden hoe. Grandma the Snake Slayer! I never doubted for a moment that my grandmother could save the day!

The innocent faith of children in the "big people" in their lives to save them from their fears is exactly the kind of faith we are to have in our Father in Heaven. In I Samuel 17:1-58, we read the story of the Israelites cowering in fear of the Philistine giant, Goliath. Every day he would taunt them; every day they would run and hide in fear. All that changed on the day that a young shepherd boy showed up with supplies for the army and his brothers. David heard all the talk of the giant and wondered why the soldiers were so fearful. After all, they were the army of the living God (I Samuel 17:26). It's here that David demonstrates that childlike faith in his Father. David boldly professed that he would fight the giant and win, not in his own strength but in the strength of the Lord: "God, who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear will deliver me from this Philistine" (I Samuel 17:37).

The soldiers and the King found it hard to believe that one so young and inexperienced in battle would be able to defeat the giant that had stymied them for forty days. David wasn't anything special to look at; he was a kid watching over his father's sheep and running errands. Certainly, he wasn't equipped to pull off a major military coup, but God had other plans. You see, God often uses the small things in life, those things that we overlook or discount, to defeat the giants in our lives. In I Corinthians 1:27b, Paul says, "...God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

Whatever the giants are that we face, we must come to God with unwavering childlike faith that He will defeat them. We truly are no match for those giants in our own strength, but God provides all we need to be victorious. Paul tells us in II Corinthians 12:9: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." Our logic and pragmatism can defeat us; trusting God to provide, often in ways that seem illogical and improbable, is the key to victory. Remember, God can bring down giants with a slingshot and a stone!


Lord, the giants in our lives loom large. Some days they send us running for the nearest hiding place. Please help us to stand our ground and trust You to defeat those things that come to bring us down. Help us to never question your ways but to believe that You are working all for our good and doing so through your perfect plan. Thank you that we are victorious when we face life with your power and strength.