Dad's Promise

Several years ago, a coworker asked me to pray for her younger sister who was very discouraged and having a difficult time coping. As I prayed for her, not knowing the specifics about her situation, the Lord impressed the following verse upon my heart. I include it here as a word of encouragement from the Lord to you in your times of discouragement and difficulty.
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DAD'S PROMISE
©1992 Paul R. Rogers

Life, sometimes, can seem unfair,
and we don't understand
how God, in the midst of our troubles and woes,
could still hold us, secure, in His hand.

But though it appears He's indifferent to us
and we're subject to His every whim;
if we trust Him, we'll find that our needs are intended
to make us dependent on Him.

You see, nothing escapes God's unlimited view;
He's aware of our grief and despair.
And He promised to walk with us all the way through;
to encourage, to strengthen, to care.

So, when pressures of life try to squeeze us to death,
and replies to our questions are few;
Disappointment, confusion, and doubt overwhelm us,
and we can't decide what to do.

That's when the world says, "You've come to the end
of your rope; tie a knot and hang on."
So we dangle there, helplessly, waiting for rescue
and hoping our wait won't be long.

But our heavenly Dad says, "I'm still in control,
I'll protect you and keep you from harm."
"If you trust Me," He says, "then let go of your rope
and fall, safe, in my strong, loving arms."


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Why Am I Here?

I just finished reading a very interesting and inspiring column by Gary North in “BizNetDaily”[1] about one’s calling in life. Gary’s friend, Steve Gillette, defined a calling as, “doing the most important work you can do in which you would be most difficult to replace.” Funny thing, I’ve been thinking a lot about my calling over the past few months for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve known mine since I was 28 years old, but have continually wondered if I’ve been true to it all those years since.

I also received an e-mail message from a new acquaintance and fellow blogger named Kellie. This delightful young lady had lots of interesting things to say, but one statement she made speared me right in the heart.

“I want to work with teens and help them with their problems and help them know that even though sometimes it feels like it, they’re not alone; like my youth pastor…has to me! He has helped me through so much and I absolutely adore him! He’s the reason that I want to be a youth pastor.”

Kellie reminds us how important it is that we stay true to our calling, even when we don't feel like it.

I was called into ministry when I was 28 years old, though I had been saved since I was five. I know that sounds awfully young to understand the concept of salvation, but I understood enough to know that my only two choices were to spend eternity alone or with God and all my loved ones who had given their hearts and lives to Him. Thankfully, everyone in my world at that time was saved and destined for heaven, so the choice was a no-brainer for me.

Funny thing; at age 28, I realized that though I knew that I was secure in God’s love, I had never fully understood or participated in the relationship that is Christianity. It took my pursuing my dreams and even realizing most of them, yet still feeling empty and unfulfilled to force me to confront the cause of that emptiness. One night, just after our son was born, I sat in my music room in the dark and began to ask God if this was all there was to the Christian life.

What happened next was not at all what I expected, but it was precisely what I needed, and God knew it. In the stillness and quietness of that night, God’s Holy Spirit paid me a visit and introduced Himself as the third Person of the Trinity. (Don’t worry too much if you don’t fully understand the Trinity! Just accept the fact that God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—three distinct personalities in one Being.) He didn’t speak to me audibly, but He might as well have, because I heard Him just as clearly.

In a very loving and gentle yet authoritative way, God’s Spirit impressed upon my heavy heart to write down on paper all the specific unconfessed sins that I had committed in my life. Plenty of times I had asked for forgiveness for my trespasses as sins are called in “The Lord’s Prayer,” but rarely, if ever, for specific sins like lying to my parents, or cheating on a test, or indulging impure thoughts. I guess I had assumed that saying the words and wanting to mean them was enough. God’s Word, however, says otherwise. But isn’t it like a loving God to let us know when we’ve missed the mark? He had every right to open up the earth and let me drop headlong into hell at that moment, but He instead chose to convict me of my sins and give me the opportunity to come clean (and to be cleansed).

I grabbed a ream of notebook paper and a pen and started writing. The obvious sins were pretty easy to remember. I had the better part of a column filled and thought that surely I was nearing the end. My memory became sharper than it had ever been, however, and for every sin that I wrote down, ten more would pop up in my conscious mind. I wrote and wrote for what seemed to be days, and still I was remembering sins from my youth and even my childhood. I half expected the floor to open up and flames to lick my feet during this excruciating experience.

—Note to the faint of heart: Fire is necessary for purification, but God’s fire is NEVER deadly, except to sin. Keep reading and you’ll see just how loving God really is.

Eventually, I wrote the last sin that the Spirit brought to my mind and lifted my pencil. No sooner than the lead left the page, I sensed Him telling me to grab the red marker in my desk drawer and write in big, bold letters across every page, front and back, ALL FORGIVEN! I did as He instructed, and something broke inside me. It wasn’t a painful breaking like that of a limb, but like the breaking of the alabaster box that released the fragrant oil with which Jesus was anointed. As soon as I’d written on every page, I got up, took all the pages to our gas range in the kitchen and set them ablaze. As the smoke from the burning paper rose to the ceiling, the burden of all the unconfessed sins I had been carrying for all those years lifted as well. I felt like a new man.

I haven’t forgotten that I began writing about callings, but this testimony that I share with you has everything to do with my calling. In that same night, I realized, also for the first time, that God had had a plan and purpose for my life since before I was born. I had read that many times in Scripture before that night, but I guess it just hadn’t made the short journey from my head to my heart. I knew that was true, but I had never experienced it as such. In the process of being still and quiet, I had given God the opportunity to actually communicate to me what He had planned for me. When I finally was willing to listen, He was more than willing to tell me.

It was in that experience that I first felt a call to ministry. It was months later before I would know my specific calling. I believe that God will only entrust to us as much as we’re willing to use for His glory, whether it’s knowledge, wisdom, money, or whatever. I had never before really considered that God had anything in mind for me, so He patiently waited until I actually wanted to know. One reason I believe people don’t know God’s will for their lives is that they are unwilling to commit to it before they know every detail about it. There are reasons why God chooses to withhold knowledge from us. Probably the most significant is that He knows that we’re not prepared to know ALL there is to know about our future. He prepares us over time, and if we cooperate with Him, He will reveal more and more of His plan for us.

In the pursuit of my ministry calling, I sent resumes to hundreds of ministries worldwide, but received only one invitation to join a ministry in Virginia. I took a bus out to check it out for a few weeks, and when I felt that God was in it, I sent for my wife and son to join me. It was a difficult, but very necessary time for us. We lived with another couple, had no car, no salary, no insurance; none of the things most folks would consider essential, and yet not one need ever went unmet. In less than six months, however, the ministry (for various reasons) disbanded and I went to work selling stereos in the local mall.

I can honestly say, that though I was a bit baffled, this was the first, and one of the few times in my life when I actually trusted God to know what He was doing. We had rented a house next door to a very sweet Christian couple with two teenage daughters. We got to know them right away (while I was still with the ministry), and their daughters often babysat for our son, who was not quite a year old. We really enjoyed the girls and several of their friends lived on our block, so our house and yard became hangouts for the neighborhood teens.

I stated my job in the mall in November and just before Christmas, our neighbors invited us over for pie and coffee. We had a very warm and wonderful visit with them, getting to know each other better and talking about the Lord and life in general. At one point, the girls’ mother asked me directly what I felt called to do. I was taken aback by the directness and sincerity of her question. Up until that moment, I had never honestly given it much though. I pondered for a moment, and two things came to mind. I told her that I really hadn’t given it much though, but that I had two loves in life besides Jesus and my family, and those were young people and music.

She brightened up when I said that, as if she had just won the lottery. It turns out their church had been looking for a youth/music minister, but after more than a year of searching, had not yet found one. I argued that I was unqualified and inexperienced, but she persisted in getting me to agree to at least meet their pastor. I agreed, and a few days later, I drove through the snow for just over a mile from where we lived to a beautiful little church sitting back off the two-lane country road. The pastor and I met for almost four hours, enjoying some of the best Christian fellowship I can remember. Without boring you with unnecessary details, I can tell you that within another few weeks, I was called by God and a unanimous vote of the congregation to be their full-time youth and music minister.

Here are some things I have learned about one’s calling from God:

• It is irrevocable (God’s gifts and callings are without repentance.)
  
• It is usually related to one’s passion, though not always (Kellie has a passion for helping kids, so that very well could be her calling!)
  
• It usually requires one to live outside his/her comfort zone (Ministry of any type is time-consuming, strenuous, and often messy.)
  
• God almost ALWAYS calls us to tasks that are bigger than us so that He can be glorified in them rather than us. (I speak from experience when I say that there is ALWAYS a temptation to want to take credit for what only He can accomplish.)

This is, of course, NOT a definitive list. It is merely a list of some of my best observations as one who knows his calling. You experience may be different, but the Truth remains the same. Which brings me to my final point: If you really want to know and understand your calling in life, start by reading God’s Word. I believe that 99 percent of all that we need to know to be who God created us to be is in His Word. The other one percent will come precisely when needed, and not a minute before.

Have you given any thought to what your calling might be? If not, it’s never too late to consider. Start with God’s Word, then mix in your passions, your abilities, and your interests. Then offer the result to God and let Him define for you the one thing in life that will bring you all the joy, fulfillment, and sense of purpose for which ALL of us long. And once you figure it out, rejoice in the fact that you’ve found “the most important work you can do in which you would be most difficult to replace.” Celebrate your uniqueness, because only YOU can be who God designed and created you to be, and only YOU can do what He has called you to do!




[1] BizNetDaily, November 16, 2004, http://www.wnd.com/biznetdaily

The True Measure of Success

Success is arguably one of the most misapplied concepts of our day. I've heard it defined as “having all the money you want,” “having power and authority,” “having your name in lights,” and “attaining your primary goals in life,” among others. To many it seems success is symbolized by fortune, forcefulness, fame, or fulfillment. Even Webster defines success as “1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.” or “2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.”[1] I would like to propose a new definition for success. One based more on effort than results.

I once heard a story about a gentleman from California who was invited to the world-famous San Diego zoo to witness the birth of a baby giraffe. While waiting for the dramatic moment, he noticed that the mother giraffe was pacing back and forth. He was wondering when she would lie down to give birth when, all of a sudden, the mother giraffe dropped her newborn from a standing position to the concrete floor about eight feet below. He gasped in horror.

For an agonizing moment, there was no movement from within the thick, opaque, amniotic sac in which the newborn calf was bound. But in a few moments, slight movements were detected, first in one part of the sac and then in another. Finally, following a brief, but pronounced struggle from within the sac, a small slit appeared in its surface. A moment later, a wet, black nose could be seen poking out of the slit. It was not long before the baby giraffe’s head was completely visible. A few minutes later the slit became wide enough to free a scrawny leg, followed by another and another until the entire newborn had emerged.

Once freed from the sac, the baby giraffe struggled for quite some time to balance himself on his spindly, unstable legs. He would get almost all the way up but then his legs would splay and down he would go. Finally, he made it all the way up, and he stood proudly for a moment, wobbling slightly to and fro, trying to maintain his balance.

As the wobbling ceased and the newborn giraffe began to feel secure on his feet, his mother sidled over and kicked him square in the head, sending him tumbling to the floor. He laid there only for a moment, but then began to struggle laboriously and awkwardly to get back up on his feet. Once again, however, as soon as the calf was on all fours, the mother knocked his feet out from under him and sent him sprawling onto the floor. This happened several times before the mother finally began to lick and nuzzle her baby.

When asked about the seemingly cruel chain of events, a zoo official explained. Giraffes give birth standing upright because the long fall is necessary to split the thick membrane composing the sac in which the baby giraffe is encased during gestation. If the sac didn't fall from such a height, it wouldn't break, and the baby giraffe would suffocate. He added that some baby giraffes did not survive the fall, but that was nature's way of weeding out the weaker of the species.

When asked why the mother giraffe knocked her little one down after it had taken him so terribly long to struggle to his feet, the official explained that in the jungle, young animals have to operate from their instincts to survive. The mother giraffe knocked her baby down so that he would remember what it took to stand the first time. Each time he struggled back to his feet, he did it more quickly and surely than the time before.

Success is a lot like that. It's not only about winning. It’s more of an indication of how willing we are to keep trying. Consider Babe Ruth, of major league baseball fame. What we remember most about him is the fact that he hit more than 700 home runs in his baseball career. We typically overlook the fact, however, that he struck out more than almost anyone else in baseball, as well. The real significance of Babe Ruth's record is the number of times he stepped up to the plate, or more specifically, how many times he swung his bat. For him to have set the record for hitting the most home runs, Babe likely had to have swung at more pitches than most other players.

I don't completely disagree with Webster’s definition of success, but I do believe there is more to true success than simply “attaining wealth, position, honors, or the like.” Perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson said it best. “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.” Success is achieved, then, more in the process than in the progress, more in the activity than in the attainment, more in the travail than in the triumph. In other words, success is not measured so much by how high one climbs as it is by how quickly and how often one gets back up after being knocked down!

The most reliable measure of success, in my estimation, is perseverance.

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[1]Random House Webster's Electronic Dictionary & Thesaurus (College Edition)

There ARE Guarantees in Life!

I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about how when bad things happen people sometimes say, "well, after all, there are no guarantees in life." Truth is, there ARE guarantees in life, and I'm not just talking about death and taxes. I don't remember ever hearing anyone question that statement, so I thought it was time that someone did.

Life is full of guarantees. Most appliances are guaranteed to be free from defects. Unfortunately, some of them aren't. The guarantee is really only stipulating that the manufacturer will reimburse you in the event that there are defects. Many diet pills and potions come with money-back guarantees. But these don't guarantee that you'll actually lose weight, only that your money will be refunded if you don't. Most guarantees are not what they seem.

Thankfully, however, there are guarantees that we can count on. The Apostle Paul offered great hope in his first letter to the church at Corinth. "But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised." (1 Cor. 15:20, GNT) What better guarantee than to know that if we believe and receive Jesus as personal Lord and Savior, He is our guarantee of eternal life with Him in heaven. Death isn't the end for believers because we're guaranteed a resurrection and eternal life with Christ.

In his second letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul shared that God "has put his seal on us, and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee for the future." (2 Cor. 1:22, The Complete Jewish Bible) Later in that same letter, Paul states, "God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit." (2 Cor. 5:5, NLT) God never intended for us to wonder about our security. He wants us to know that we are secure in Him, so much so, that He placed His very Spirit in us lasting evidence of that fact.

"Well, that's great," you might be thinking, "but what about this life?" Take heart, we have plenty of guarantees for this life, too. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul reminds us that, "The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God." (Eph. 1:14 NLT)

How exciting to know that inviting God's Son, Jesus into our hearts and lives also brings His Holy Spirit into our hearts as a guarantee of all that God has promised us. Later in that letter, Paul gives us more hope. "...The Spirit is God's mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free." (Eph. 4:30, GNT) And some of that freedom is for this life!

Hebrews states very clearly "When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee -" (Heb. 6:17, The Message) It also says "This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God - one that really works! A new covenant." (Heb 7:22, Holman Christian Standard Bible) That covenant (or testament) is the one that all true Christians live under today! It's our assurance that full payment has been made for all our sins; past, present, and future. It's the guarantee that frees us from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and ultimately, the very presence of sin.

Besides these God-given guarantees, there are some practical guarantees that we have as well. For example, we hear often that desire and effort are not necessarily guarantees of success. While that may or may not be true, the lack of effort is almost surely a guarantee of failure. You've no doubt heard the popular definition of insanity--doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Here we find yet another guarantee, not that the new things you try will get you what you want, but that not trying anything different will keep you stuck in the same rut you've always been in.

In an age when most guarantees mean little or nothing, isn't is nice to know that the most important ones are virtually "set in stone." For example, we have the guarantee that God "will never leave nor forsake us." (Heb. 13:5) A few verses later we also are guaranteed that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8) Peter gave us the good news that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, "has given us everything we need to live a godly life." (2 Pet. 1:3, NLT) Even in the old covenant, particularly in the Psalms, believers had constant reminders that God was faithful and that his love endures forever!

Next time someone tries to tell you that there are no guarantees in life, humbly beg to differ with them. GOD is our ever-present, ever-faithful GUARANTEE!