Running Free

There is something elusive about freedom. No matter what state we are in, it seems that freedom is to be found elsewhere in a place or experience that we do not have. The child can't wait to become a teenager. The teenager can't wait to get a driver's license. When we're in high school, we can't wait to get to college. We can't wait to be free of our parents' rules and to try everything that they warned us against. We are free to choose our career paths, but then we hate our jobs and dream instead of other potential opportunities. We are free to pursue our own success, pleasure, and ambition without regard to the well-being of those around us. We are now free to live any life we choose. Yet the things we choose in our freedom soon hold us as their prisoners.

An overwhelming number of us feel trapped in the very lives that we have created. The irony is that we are the cruel tyrants who hold ourselves captive, and the tragedy of our imprisonment reaches into the deepest caverns of our souls. Our passion to be free both ignites us and betrays us, and, more often than not, leads us to be consumed by an unforgiving fire. The very fire that burns within us can destroy us.

Not all free acts lead to freedom. The choices we freely make often cost us lives of genuine freedom. This is why the Bible talks about the human experience in terms of being slaves to sin. Sin creates the illusion of freedom; it fools us into seeking freedom from God rather than finding freedom in God. Whatever else Jesus came to do, one thing is clear -- He came to set us free. God is not a warden; He is a deliverer. And so earnest is He about our freedom that He was willing to be taken captive and crucified on our behalf just so we can run free.

Freedom is the gift of serving others out of love. This is the freedom that only God can give, where once again we become like Him. It is here and only here that freedom exists without boundaries. We are free to love without limit, to forgive, to be merciful, to be generous, to be compassionate, to risk, to sacrifice, to enjoy, and to live ... And when we are free, we know it.

When we make God our primary passion, He transforms all the other passions of our hearts. The result of this transformation is that it will be God's pleasure to fulfill those passions. As Erwin McManus is so fond of saying, "When God is our desire, we can trust the passions of our hearts." In this state we can most fully live uniquely passionate lives. It is not incidental that the death of Jesus is called THE PASSION.

Moving On

Today I am concluding my August series of blogs which have primarily focused on 1 Samuel 14. This passage closes with v. 23 that states: "So the Lord rescued Israel that day, and the battle moved on beyond Beth Aven," which is a good reminder to all of us that no matter how profound or dramatic a divine moment might be, no matter its significance or its breadth of impact, even if at the end of the day we are able to look back and reflect on what an amazing experience we have just encountered, we must never forget that the battle moves on. At the end of each day, there is a promise of another day's coming. And with that new day comes new battles, new opportunities, new challenges, and new adventures. Even while we celebrate yesterday's victory, we begin today's new journey. And we must engage it with fresh energy and eager anticipation.

We know where to begin: take initiative. We know who God is, so embrace life's uncertainty. Remember that the people we are becoming in Jesus Christ are our greatest gifts to others, so we must use our influence. Every great adventure is filled with peril and danger, but the risk is worth it. We have already been authorized to move forward, so advance. Impact the world by fighting battles that are on God's heart. Move with an urgency that creates a movement. Engage in an adventure so compelling that it causes the dead in spirit to awake. In this moment, each of us will have to choose. Will we seize the power of every moment or let them slip away?

A man stood blind before Jesus and his disciples. Yet, all they could think to do was have a meaningless conversation about whose fault is was that he was blind. The man was blind, but he wasn't deaf. He could hear the callousness of their conversation. They were oblivious to the fact that they were the ones most blind -- blind to his pain, to his disappointment, to his need. Jesus rebuked their insensitivity and lack of compassion. They were friends of God and still could not see the extraordinary opportunity awaiting them. Somehow alleviating human suffering just didn't seem that urgent when there were philosophical arguments to engage God in.

This moment, however, was far too important to Jesus. It was not to be missed. He used this moment to open their eyes to what is clearly an unseen reality. God is at work. Even if we don't care about humanity, He does! Every human being matters to Him. Even this man's blindness could not stop God from doing something extraordinary in and through his life. It was at that very moment, that God desired His purpose and glory be displayed through this man's life. And then He challenged them, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I'm in the world, I am the light of the world." In other words, stop wasting time and start chasing daylight. Remember, it just takes a moment to change everything.

When Prayer Becomes an Obstacle

Prayer can be a religious form of rebellion. While feigning a need to get clarity from God, we can actually avoid doing what God has made clear. We may not like what the Scriptures say. What Jesus is calling us to do may be different from what we want to do. How God desires for us to respond may conflict with how we want to respond. Even though the instructions are clear, even though the will of God is written without ambiguity, we feign obedience by claiming a need to seek God in prayer. There are some things we just don't need to pray about. While many things in life remain a mystery, there are some things that God has spoken clearly. Here what we need to do is not pray, but obey. And to be honest, sometimes obeying is a lot harder than praying.

When we pray about things that have already been decided, we are wasting our time and possibly missing divine moments. At the same time, we are not positioned to seize divine moments when we neglect to pray. Prayer keeps us in step with God's Spirit and in tune to His voice. If we are living prayerless lives, then we should heed the call of the apostle Paul to pray without ceasing. Our lives are to be a continuous conversation with God. This kind of prayer life is one where we are sensitive to every prompting and whisper of God. We are not informing God, but God is informing us. He becomes an active and intimate participant in our daily choices.

Prayer is an obstacle when we keep praying about things about which God has already spoken. If He has commanded us in His Word, there is nothing to pray about really -- we just need to obey. Prayer can be an obstacle when we hide behind prayer while the moment requires action. There are moments when it is too late for prayer. It is when God has already spoken and we are late to the appointment. When that's the case, we need to run. We don't need to pray about loving. We are already commanded to love. We don't need to pray about forgiving. We are already commanded to forgive. We don't need to pray about being in community or confessing our faith. Neither do we need to pray about whether we should be arrogant or humble, takers or givers, indulgers or servers. God has already spoken on all these issues and more. When we do pray on these matters, God confirms what He has said with a little "what are you waiting for?" thrown in.

In 1 Samuel 14, Saul was praying when he should have been obeying. It is quite possible that we commit the same sin on a regular basis. Do we use prayer as a way of resisting God's will rather than as a way of accessing His will. Jesus did not value prayer for prayer's sake. He valued it for the intimate communion it created between Him and His Father. The purpose of prayer is to know God and, in knowing Him, to hear His voice and to understand that God has heard our voices. The end result of these kinds of prayers are hearts pliable enough to move wherever God is calling.

The purpose of prayer is to keep us connected, and when we're connected to God, we are moving with Him. Prayer that connects us to God positions us to seize divine moments. This kind of prayer gives us the courage to live the lives of adventurers. Prayer should move us, not paralyze us. And when we pray with an intent to obey, we become magnets that draw others into God's presence. We can choose to establish a monument for prayer or to pray to unleash a movement. One is religious, the other revolutionary.

In 1 Kings 18 we step into one of history's most unique prayer meetings: Elijah v. the prophets of Ba'al. If we examine the passage carefully, we find that the prophets of Ba'al far exceeded Elijah in both time and effort in prayer. Two altars were established. The prophets and Elijah were to pray to their deities and invoke them to send fire from heaven, and whichever deity answered, all those who were in attendance would then conclude that He was the one, true God. The prophets of Ba'al prayed from morning until noon: "'O Ba'al, answer us!' they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made" [1 Kings 18:26]. About noon Elijah began to taunt them: "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. [1 Kings 27-29]

They had prayed long and hard. There was, however, one small problem. The god they were praying to was no god at all. It is a terrible thing when we waste our lives of prayer on the wrong god!

Elijah, on the other hand, prayed a very brief prayer: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again" [1 Kings 18:36-37]. End of prayer.

The Scriptures then described what happened at that very instant: "Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord -- He is God! The Lord -- He is God!" [vv. 38-39].

The truth of the matter is this: Around the world people pray, and there are endless numbers of religions where people pray both earnestly and incessantly. Some pray five times a day facing east; others have escaped the noisiness of the real world and have locked themselves away in caves or castles that they may only pray. I do not believe that God calls any one of us to a life of prayer that forever isolates us from the world around us. The same God who calls us to meet Him in the solitude of a lonely place also commissions us to return to the crowded streets where people desperately need a touch from the living God. Elijah, himself, gave us tremendous insight into the very purpose of prayer: "Answer me, Lord, so that everyone can know that You are God and that I am your servant simply doing what you have commanded me."

Small prayers can have enormous impacts when they come from people who are living lives of obedience to God. Elijah wasn't praying then obeying. He was obeying then praying. When we pray before we obey, we imply that we are the initiators in our relationships with God. When we obey and then pray, we acknowledge that God has initiated the relationships with us. God has spoken. He sent the first word. Our first response is to hear His voice and move in alignment to His commands. Out of that obedience our intimacy with Him grows, and then when we speak to Him, He answers us and makes Himself known.

In all of his errors, there was one thing that Saul got right. When the battle around him became too loud for Saul to pray, he recognized that there was no time for praying. It was time to to obey [past time really]. God was already clearly at work. He needed to mobilize the people of God and get in on what God was doing. I am reminded of Samuel's question to Saul at a later time: "Why did you not obey the Lord?" And Samuel's reminder to him: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams" [1 Samuel 15:19, 22].

There are moments when our obedience is to stop and pray, and in those moments comes the word that we must go and obey. And it is in this obedience that the voice of God becomes intimately clear.

Willing to Stand Alone

We read in 2 Chronicles 16:9: "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." That's exactly who Jonathan was [see my August 15th entry]: a heart that was wholly God's, standing in the place where God would have him. And in that moment, the eyes of the Lord saw him, and God's strong support quickly followed. Samuel wrote, "Then panic struck the whole army -- those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties -- and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God" [14:15].

Jonathan moved with God, and God moved with Jonathan. It may sound strange, but God joined Jonathan's effort. It wasn't that Jonathan changed God's mind but rather Jonathan expressed God's heart. He did what was on God's mind, and his action created an opportunity for God to act on his behalf. The tables quickly turned from Jonathan and his armor-bearer against the armies of the Philistines to Jonathan, his apprentice, and the living God against the enemies of God's purpose.

Samuel described a total confusion among the Philistines as they were striking each other with their own swords. Because Jonathan became a warrior for God, God became a warrior for Jonathan. Samuel wanted to make sure there was no ambiguity about who sent the earthquake. It was not an incidental, natural disaster that came at a timely moment. The earth shook, and it was a panic sent by God. Jonathan was willing to live on the edge, and God thus made him the epicenter of His interaction with humanity. Jonathan's life marked where God was moving. And God wanted to make sure that everyone understood that this man's life reflected what God was doing in history.

The technical definition of impact is "a forcible contact between two or more things." This is an accurate description of how men and women are used by God to shape the course of human history. Whenever God is doing a new thing, He does it through people. And those He chooses to lead the way are often considered fortunate only in retrospect The reality of the moment is usually quite different. It is a privilege to be called to go first even when it means we are the first to suffer and the only ones at risk. It means we must bear the weight of responsibility and accept the consequences that will come with the privilege.

Whenever God moves forward, it is in conflict with many other forces. The kingdom of God can expand only out of conflict with the kingdom of darkness. Hate does not surrender easily to love, nor does evil submit quietly to good. When we seize divine moments, there is a spiritual collision, and a part of seizing those moments to the fullest is a willingness to bear the initial impact alone.

Anyone who has ever served as a leader understands the loneliness of the role. My pastor, Erik Braun, alluded to this in his sermon last Sunday on Psalm 13 when he remarked that "there is a unique and solitary burden that I bear as the senior pastor and preacher here at Four Oaks. Even as I share my burdens, even as other leaders serve and bear up under them, it doesn't necessarily remove the unique, and often lonely, feeling that besieges my soul in those burdens." A part of calling is to bear the initial impact on the behalf of others. This is true in every meaningful endeavor and has never been more beautifully modeled than by our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross was His place alone. No one else could bear it for us. From Gethsemane to Calvary, Jesus chose the lonely place. Even His cry to His Father, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" reminds us that God allows us to go to places where the weight of desperation presses hard against our souls. Those men and women whom God uses to write the pages of history understand the depth of this principle, that God paves the way primarily by the willing sacrifice of His people individually. Through these individual souls, God makes known to all who will listen what is on His heart.

When We Can Trust Our Passions

When someone near us seizes a divine moment, it stirs something within us! A lifetime of passivity only makes dormant our longing for adventure. A life where endless moments are left buried in the cemetery of unfulfilled opportunities may grow cold, but not dead. Until our bodies return to dust, there will always be a voice crying out within us to move from merely existing to truly living. The possibilities that await us in each moment are fueled by the potential that God has placed within each of us. Seizing divine moments is not simply about opportunity; rather at its core it is about essence. It's about the kinds of lives we live as a result of the people we are becoming. The challenges that we are willing to face will rise in proportion to the character that we are willing to develop. With a depth of godly character comes an intensity of godly passion. It is in this process of transformation that we find the fuel to engage with confidence the opportunities placed before us.

Strangely, many sincere followers of Christ have come to believe that their passions are always in conflict with God's purposes. Yet the psalmist said, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" [Ps. 37:4]. When we draw near to God, God infuses passion. God has a long history of working through human desires.

In Buddhism, the goal of the spiritual journey is the elimination of desire. In Christianity, the goal of the spiritual journey is the transformation of our desires. God's intention in transforming our hearts is not the elimination of desire, but something very different. To have no desires is to be without passion. A person who lives without passion is someone who literally apathetic. When we delight in God, we become anything but apathetic. To the contrary, we become intensely passionate. These desires of our hearts are born out of the heart of God. The more you love God, the more deeply you care about people and making a difference in their lives.

There is a direct relationship between passion and initiative. The more passionate we are, the more proactive we will tend to be [even if we boldly do the wrong thing]. And here's where the dilemma lies and this can actually be paralyzing for a sincere follower of Jesus Christ: We don't want to passionately do the wrong thing. We desperately want to do what is in God's heart, not just in our hearts. But here's the liberating reality: "When we are passionate about God, we can trust our passions" [Erwin McManus]. God uses our passions as a compass to guide us. Basically, we when are madly in love with God, we can do whatever we want. This is probably the best contemporary translation of Psalm 37:4.

There are few things more inspiring than a life lived with passionate clarity. Yet those men and women whose lives we admire, who somehow seem to live their lives to the fullest, would probably be the first to tell us that they are no different from you and me. It's not about talent or giftedness or intelligence; its about moving out of passivity into activity. It is about a refusal to live a life in neutral and to value the irreplaceable nature of every moment. For these individuals, time is a priceless commodity. It is about treating each day as a gift from God and recognizing that every moment lost can never be regained. We must become people of initiative born out of a sense of urgency.

Just Do Something

One of my favorite stories in the book of Acts describes Paul floundering around "trying to find the will of God for his life" ... sounds like us post-moderns, doesn't it? You would think if anyone could know the will of God for his life, it would be the apostle Paul! After all, he was God's instrument for writing the majority of the New Testament. Paul's unique place in the Christian faith makes him the equivalent of a spiritual superhero. Yet what we find is that Paul was as uncertain about which way to go as most of us are in our life journeys.

In Acts 16:6-10, Luke described his travels with Paul. He told us how under Paul's leadership it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to keep them from preaching the Word in the province of Asia and then how the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to go into Bithynia, though they gave it their best effort. It was only while Paul was sleeping that he received a vision that he was supposed to go into Macedonia. In many ways Luke's travel journal reads like a divine comedy. It tells us that Paul basically had no idea where he was supposed to be going. At first he was sure that Asia was the right direction, only to later be redirected to Bithynia. And only when he was unconscious did he finally realize the destination was Macedonia! It took the entire Trinity to keep Paul from ending up in the wrong place. And the most amazing part is that when the apostle Paul was conscious he just didn't seem to get it. This is Paul I'm talking about people!!! He's arguably the most Godly man to have ever trod the planet.

There is, of course, much irony that Paul had to be unconscious for God to speak to him. But the point is this: Paul didn't know where he was going, but he did know why! His compass was the heart of God. He was fueled and driven by the passion and urgency that God had placed in his heart -- to take the life and freedom that comes from Jesus Christ to every person on the face of the earth. What God makes clear is that when we're committed to seizing His divine moments, He'll make sure He gets us to the right place at the right time. What God can do through a person who's willing to act is limitless.

One of the most asked questions among sincere followers of Jesus Christ is, "What is God's will for my life?" We want a detailed road map or travel plan. We want God to spell it out so that we can simply follow the instructions. Too often we want it clear and uncomplicated, but God seldom works like that. For most of us the most spiritual thing we can do is to do something. We must move beyond simply choosing between right and wrong. We must resolve to not only leave the path of doing evil, but also to passionately pursue a life of doing good. The danger is getting stuck in between the two, living our lives in the neutral zone. We must move beyond just having nothing to be ashamed of to being ashamed if we do nothing. It is rarely counted as evil when we live in neutral. At worst a passive life is only pitied, but God counts it as a tragedy when we choose to simply watch as our lives go by, rather than to live them to the fullest. It was no less than Jesus who described as wicked the person who left his talent unused. When we fail to choose, we choose to fail. We cannot put our lives on hold ... they move forward with or without our consent. Choosing not to choose does not, in fact, put off the problem; it only exacerbates it.

God designed us to move through time with intentionality [as He does]. Even waiting on God is a proactive activity [as Erik Braun so forcefully told us this past Sunday]. Whether it's reflection or revolution, each moment deserves our creative engagement. The apostle Paul, himself, told us that insomuch as it is in our power to do good, we should do it. This may be the underlying texture of initiative. Some call it productivity. The Gallup organization describes it as the "drive to execute." In the end it doesn't really matter so much what we call it; it only matters if we do it. "Do what?" Something!

True Influence Goes Deep

Influence can do what command can never do; it can win the hearts of people. You can pay people to do a job, but you can't pay them to change their minds and especially not their hearts. External power has the limitation of bringing external change. Influence is the material of internal power. Again, influence is not about position or delegated authority or any of many forms of power. Influence is born out of a person, who that person is, and translates to how it affects the heart of another person. True influence goes deep. It changes how a person feels about something. It has direct impact not only on how a person acts, but also on what he believes and what he is committed to.

We understand the difference between authority and influence as we watch our children grow up. What our children may act like when they're under out authority is very different from who they become as the result of our influence. Many parents become brokenhearted when they realize that their influence on their children is at best minimal, at worst inconsequential, as compared to the influence of their friends. Yet I am convinced that great parenting is all about influence. It is more about shaping values than it is about setting boundaries.

Jonathan's armor-bearer [again refer to my August 15th entry] expressed a level of loyalty that is rarely found in our time. He said, "I am with you heart and soul." It was not about obligation. He was not acting out of mere compliance. It wasn't even that he understood everything Jonathan was going to do or that he even agreed with Jonathan's approach or strategy. It wasn't Jonathan's idea he was agreeing with. He believed in Jonathan! He trusted who Jonathan was. And thus he said, "Do all that you have in mind," and then he declared his allegiance to him as recorded above.

As a parent, I have discovered that the love and respect that my children have for me runs far deeper than any fear of punishment they may have. I have also found that there is no more rewarding experience than when my kids are motivated by their own value systems to do what is right. It is without question that these value systems are transferred from person to person through a connection of the heart. Even though my kids have grown up in the church, their love for truth is not the result of some exhaustive empirical research project. Their desire to do good is not the result of a sterile, isolated, logical deduction. Their values have been passed on through genuine friendship and trust from Janna and me [along with many Godly mentors from our families, their Christian school, our church and even on their secular university campuses]. And one thing I am eternally grateful for is that we pass on not just who we are, but even more, who we desire to become. Our children see our flaws, our faults, and even our sins. The compensating grace is that they are also able, when we in humility repent and confess our shortcomings, to see what we aspire to be. Our influence is not limited to our present condition. It is expanded by our intended destination when we are committed to the journey. Influence is rooted in character--who we are and who are becoming. Influence transfers best and moves most quickly whenever respect and trust are present. When the environment is right, influence goes deep. It goes to the very core of who we are. And the old adage certainly rings true in my mind, "You can know a person by the friendships he keeps."