TENTS

A while back I was working a Saturday shift at the REI. A guy came in and asked if I knew anything about setting up tents. I thought it was an odd question given the store we were in but I answered him affirmatively. He went on to vaguely describe a four season, two person, mountaineering tent that was designed for Denali. He said he had not been able to figure out how to set it up and wanted someone to help him get it straight so he would be able to do it on his own. He brought the tent in and we proceeded to set it up in the store, as we did he told me the story behind the tent.

It turns out he bought the tent about five years prior to coming in the store that day. When he got it home he tried to set it up but had some difficulty with it, put it away and had not used it since. By the way, the day he walked in it was in the first couple of days in July and we were on the verge of a record setting heat wave. So here I have a guy with a tent that is made for extreme conditions in the mountains and it has never been set up beyond his backyard because he cannot figure out how to properly use it. I could not help but think, what a waste. To have that kind of equipment and never use it even remotely close to its potential, to never use it for its intended purpose. Then I thought how much am I like that with God??

As followers of Christ we have both the responsibility and the capacity for extraordinary demonstrations of a Christ centered life - things like: extravagant grace, reckless love, incomprehensible acts of service, just to name a few. Many times, however, we shortchange these biblical standards of excellence in our lives. We don’t want to take the time to have these lifestyle attributes molded into us, or we want to but there are so many other priorities that take precedent, or perhaps we are just not aware that they are needed. It is not until we are faced with a crisis that we realize we are forgiving with strings attached, or loving when it is convenient for us, or serving begrudgingly rather than cheerfully. Somehow many followers of Christ have become okay with doing exceptional acts with great mediocrity.

It is like boarding a jet to taxi two doors down and thinking it sure was a good thing the jet was there to go that far distance. The jet can go to a totally different continent but we are content to go two doors down. Its like owning a four season mountaineering tent and setting it up once in the backyard and then never setting it up again because we have forgotten how to set it up. As Christ followers, our actions and our attitudes in the world should be such that they are an improvement on the world, but we for one reason or another never get them beyond our backyard, or beyond our church.

Which tent set up do you think has a better story behind it?? This one... Or this one?? Which one would you want your life to look like?

That guy spent at least five hundred dollars for something a twenty dollar tent could do. We are only shortchanging ourselves when we don't pursue something deeper with God and for the world. We are only asking God for five minutes when he is the one who holds eternity in his hands. It has been said that some people believe that the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. I believe life is an adventure best lived on the front lines.

Just a Meandering Thought...

Card

So I was getting some things done in the office today and I noticed a package in my in box. It was kind of large so immediately I am thinking I got a book in the mail which always gets me excited. I noticed the label on the large envelope stating that it was from the Southern New England District of the Assemblies of God. Right away I knew it was not a book but I was thinking it was a package for camp. Probably some information for planning purposes. This was not the case either.

I opened the large envelope and inside where a couple of envelopes and papers and booklets dealing with the inner workings of ministry for the A/G. I discovered that I had been given "final approval by the General Council of the Assembly of God." What this means was that I now have a "license to Preach." I am not sure if that means I have been preaching illegally for the past eight and a half years (haha) but it did mean that I was recognized by the A/G leadership as someone who could be now officially be considered an A/G minister.

It is kind of weird how one card, one signature, can change everything and yet change nothing. Receiving this card will not change a whole lot of what I do on a daily basis. At the same time there is a greater weight to what I do. It is like, before I stood alone as I preached, but now I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

There have been many great people who have held the card that I now have, and there have been many losers too. There have been people who have pleased God, some who have failed man; there have been some who have been honored in the halls of academia, and others banished to prison walls; some have held talks with heads of state, and others who have held the dying in their hands; some who have lived their whole life in the comfort of mediocrity, and others who have sold everything and lived a life in obscurity sacrificing every worldly pleasure and had no recognition.

Now that I have this card, this title, what is different for me now?? What kind of life will I lead, what legacy will be left when I leave this world? It seems that wide is the road of the mediocre and many travel that road (it is just easier), but narrow is the road that is travelled by the revolutionary. I hope I am known as one who journeyed on the road less travelled; according to Robert Frost, it has made all the difference.

In light of what others who held the position you now hold went on to do, what will you do in the position you hold today???

Just a thought...