You are currently browsing the Bruce Smith weblog archives for August, 2011.
28. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
Heroism. Its Complicated.
Listen or read much of what comes from motivational talks or too many pulpits and Christian books these days and you might think, “Wow, I’m a few easy steps away from a big heroic Christian life”. Well, not so fast. Its complicated.
Oh, its certainly worth the effort, but that’s the reality, its effort. It has been said that the problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but rather, its been found hard and left untried. And so it is. The easy-belief Jesus portrayal by many a preacher and writer is not the Jesus of the Bible.
Jesus had many hard things to say, “Take up your cross and follow me”. A cross? Not the shiny sweet thing on that chain around your neck, my dear. The cross he spoke of is a murder tool, a sacrificial slaughter, cruel, painful, and chosen. “Let the dead bury the dead, …you follow me” he told one man who merely asked that he bury his dead father before he went on to follow Jesus. “Who are your family?” Jesus said to another. The idea behind that statement is far different from our modern romantic idea that family is everything and can save the world if its kept together at any cost, an idea over-sold in some Christian circles. Jesus’ comment was a question of allegiance and commitment. Jesus, The Truth, pointed out that those most desiring of following him, those most actually doing that, are your true family…the implications here are profound. Blood, his blood, is thicker than…even familial blood.
So, how exactly, do we find the heroic life of faith offered us in a world gone mad? How do we live the radically, faith-based, healthy life Jesus calls us to? And why are there so many counter-heroic examples out there? In a world surrounded by those who would kill our faith, how do we stand strong and live bigger lives? Well, yes, you guessed it, “Its complicated”, but, it can be done.
Roll the tape…
I saw two movies this weekend. As I always do, I allowed the larger metaphors to speak to me about my life, those close to me, and our culture in general. The movies, both about enduring oppression and violence done to innocent people, could not have offered more contrasting views of how we get to the heroic ideal as human beings.
The first movie, Columbiana, is about a gruesome crime and the catastrophic denial of God’s call for forgiveness and sanity found only in him. The second movie, The Help, itself about violence and mistreatment as well, offers a better way forward toward the call and mission of justice and peace in our world.
Let’s look at the two, and I think we can find a few clues amidst this complicated thing we call living, as we seek to live more full lives.
In the first movie, Columbiana, we are offered the tagline early on in the film, “Vengeance is beautiful”. The heroine certainly is physically beautiful, yet, in her pain, fear, raging revenge, and violence, she is anything but beautiful in reality. This little girl, just a grade-schooler, unquestionably witnessed an event which would affect anyone for life. Her parents were ruthlessly murdered by a gang of drug kingpin thugs. Her father, making his living in the wrong world, has the full effects of his own sin and inner carnage come home in a horrible way. As she stands there, witnessing the brutality of life in 3D clarity, this little girl buries the pain and misery deep within her and then cultivates it for years to come. Early on, she “figures out”, she must fight pain with pain, violence with violence, and she commits herself to hunting, killing, and sadistically massacring anyone associated with her parents killing. She becomes a beautiful, intelligent, and demonic killer. Everything and everyone in life take a backseat to this pursuit.
You are probably asking right now, “OK? Its a movie, and I certainly don’t have a rap sheet like that, so what’s the point?” Well, think again. The same reality can set up shop in each of us if we are not careful. We label it differently, we have our excuses, and we tell others of our justification, but the reality is the same. Its the same demonic inspiration that drives Ghadafi, the now de-throned ruler of Libya.
The Ghadafi-delusion, the Columbiana syndrome, is alive and well in suburban America, and in many pews today. If you could pull back the layers in many “pretty” lives around you, you very well would find Columbiana and Libya fully alive and growing. It may be in your own home. It could be in you.
What we have found, now, as we have toppled Ghadafi, is that the rumors of his underground city were true. Beneath the facade of power, charisma, and the charade of authority, lay a testimony to what was really alive within the false leader, the anti-hero. Ghadi, driven by fear, a lust for self-preservation, and an addiction to self-promotion, built an entire other-world to attempt to sustain his dysfunction. Know anyone like that? Every met a man or woman, beautiful and powerful on the outside, who had every manner of rage, lies, and deceit down below? They are there. Ever known some who, despite obvious appearance to everyone else, was utterly committed to reconstructing reality in their own mind and for the ears of others? Ever known someone who blamed others for all manner of dysfunction in their own lives?
In Columbiana, and perhaps for Ghadafi as well, the cancer began early on in life. Crimes against the would-be heroine or hero, dealt with in the flesh, rather than the grace of God, became a trap unto a life of retaliation, and an unquenchable thirst to be noticed, affirmed, even worshipped. So many, in our day, live this reality. The “parent” who only parents for selfish reasons. The spouse who resents their husband or wife’s success and opportunity. The son or daughter who turn against an imperfect parent in destructive ways. We so obsess over our hurt and loss that we carry it into every moment forward. The past, despite the Gospel’s power to redeem and make new, is held on to and brought into the present. The unfolding peril is all too similar to that which has gone on in Libya for over forty years. Captivity, oppression, madness, rage, pain, fear, jealousy, lust, abuse, poverty of soul, …its all there.
What the beautiful killer in Columbiana refused to see, what she could not see, was that she was the one she was killing each time she pulled the trigger or buried the dagger in another. With each death, dozens of them over the years, her death became deeper and deeper. Unwilling to let go of her own pain, unwilling to own her own heart and her own response, she just lived a life of reactive horror until everyone who cared for her was either dead or gone. Her physical beauty was not nearly enough to make up for the ugliness within. Those that saw past her physicality ran for the hills. People close to her saw the end long before it ever came. She refused to see the writing on the wall. Eventually, she was reduced, even after every enemy was killed off, to a pathetic puddle of misery and tears. Her rage brought more rage. Her unrelenting grip on her pain only brought deeper pain. Her vengeance stole her potential beauty and turned her into a living breathing tragedy. Not seeing what was happening, all of the unfolding of the story and all the outcomes were all justified in her eyes.
As Ghadafi now scrambles to evade those seeking him out, those underground bunkers have become his very prison. In reality, long before he was toppled, and whether he is ever caught or not, he has lived in inner captivity most of his life. The women, the wealth, the power, none of it has ever been enough. He is mad with deception.
Back to us. Our culture is spiraling toward this same state of being. Take note of what is unfolding around us and within us. As we justify our present response to others and to life, and as we abandon God’s call to a different way of living, our inner lives, our personal lives, and our society crumble. Abandoning truth, grace, mercy, and all manner of loveliness, we are descending, too quickly, into a state of intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and cultural decay. As he spoke it to others, Jesus now speaks to us, “Take up your cross, and follow me. Now”. Now is the day of salvation from our madness. Now is the day to stop the warring. Now is the day to drop your weapons of personal and relational destruction. Now is the day for a new start. If you keep killing off your “enemies” and if anyone who does not grant you your wishes becomes your “enemy”, eventually, you will be left standing alone.
Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weary and I will you rest”. A similar comment, made toward the end of The Help, as a more compassionate, and truth-telling heroine, confronts a suburban wife gone made with manipulation, lies, and abuse of others, strikes this chord accurately. Looking the self-absorbed, beautifully ugly, house-wife in the eye, as she is accusing the compassionate heroine in ways false and profoundly nasty, the heroine simply says, “Aren’t you tired?”
That is the question for us, my friends. “Aren’t you tired?” Tired of living a false reality? Tired of warring with those who love you? Tired of hurting back because someone hurt you when you were young? Tired of the patterns that have ruined marriage after marriage, relationship after relationship? Tired of rage? Tired of re-constructing reality in order that people will buy into your version of reality? Tired of wrecking your home? Tired of harbouring hate for your ex? Tired of getting back at your ex through your current spouse or loved one? Tired of trying to find inner peace through external and even unnatural beauty? Tired of building your heart through building an empire? Tired of trying to get your name on a trophy instead of in God’s roster for life? Tired of trying to capture the love of your father through ways that will never accomplish that?
Aren’t you tired?
What are you tired of? Put it down. Walk away from it. Drop your weapons of mass destruction. Find your way to Jesus and take up the cross. It is in the cross, the marker for health and wholeness, that we see our inner world come together. Yes, life will continue to be painful, and others will continue to hurt us. Yet, at the cross, by the power of God, we find a better way forward. At the cross, the emblem of true love, we find ourselves loved and we find the power to love amidst the complicated realities of this life.
This is the backdrop of The Help. The Help, as the group of racially and socially oppressed maids were often called, found an intelligent, truthful, creative, and ultimately life-giving way forward. What The Help affirms, and it is so true, is that truth must be told, people must be confronted, AND grace must win the day.
We are too tempted to believe that Jesus’ way is a way to be run over. That is not true. Jesus, Love defined, spoke the truth without reservation. It was often hard and direct. Love requires that at some point. Love does not ignore reality or allow others to continually to wack us with their false ways of living. Love extends grace, moves toward persuasion of those off track, and directly confronts when needed. It is loving to grab hold of someone and wake them up to a reality that is killing them and others around them.
Dr. Henry Cloud speaks of this in his book on Necessary Endings. He addresses this other places as well. Those off track in the workplace, family, and other networks, must be told the truth. Those who are truly living lives of Christ-inspired grace want, even crave to know when they are off track. Therefore, bringing truth to them helps them and others. They are thankful for it. You can see it in their eyes. They say, “Lead me, input in my life, let me have it!”
Those who talk the lingo of faith, family, and team, and yet respond in rage, shut-down tactics, and aggression, and who wear all of this on their faces when you go to them, even in love, are playing the anti-heroic role of the fool, defined biblically. Sometimes the fool can be saved, but it takes a direct hard confrontation. Other times you just have to share reality with them and leave it at that and see if over a defined period of time they address the carnage that is destroying them and others. Then, finally, if the “fool” does not respond and only continues in the patterns of destruction, its time for an ending to take place. Attaching ourselves in business, family, teams, and ministry to those who, like Ghadafi and Columbiana, refuse to deal with the bunkers below, only kills the life of God in you and destroys the mission God has given you for the long haul.
Yes, the heroic life of God in us can be thwarted by pain and abuse. But it does not have to be so. Jesus, Love incarnate, was abused, abandoned, ridiculed, beaten, and killed by those he gave himself to. Yet, his response, unlike that of the would-be heroine in Columbiana, was truly beautiful, “Forgive them…they know not what they do”.
If you want the uncomplicated life of rest beyond reason, grace unending, peace beyond circumstance, and love beyond degree, you will not find it playing captive to your pain. Like Christ, you must lay down your weapons, you must lay your very self down, and allow God to be God in and though you. This is a supernatural life. This is a life seldom seen, infrequently pursued, and rarely mastered. This is the life of Christ-like heroes.
Bruce Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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22. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
A SHATTERED VISAGE: REFLECTION ON WHAT ONCE WAS
There the picture sits,
Proudly in the frame,
Like a billboard to time long past,
It markets grief and pain.
Where is the life that frame doth tell?
It mocks me now,
A shattered visage,
The glass doth portray.
The dream, once so pretty,
So full of joy, promise, and flight,
The years, the hope,
The adventure, once sought,
Have now gone down in tears,
Amidst the darkening night.
Why doth thou so mock me,
Pretty picture, thou art?
Why so cruel and crass?
Where goeth that family, those people
Pristine, glowing, and perfect,
Who once gathered beneath a steeple?
Was that life, there contained,
Once truly mine?
Those children, smiling large,
How did we leave them behind?
Oh Lord, Our God, Father in time,
Canst thou not make us a family,
Again,
Both here and now?
The words and deeds unseen,
There within that frame,
If only it be true,
That pictures could speak a thousand,
Words, violent, broken, untrue.
Therein lies the really story,
The truth behind the frame,
The enemy hath scarred that image,
The one seen and the living,
Are surely not the same.
“A Shattered Visage” BLS
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15. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 15
Vision. Sight.
What we see, today, this week, in our lives, is largely a function of who we are.
The two words are not synonymous. The former is more acute, more accurate, a more comprehensive idea, as it relates to the spiritual life. The latter, a physical reality, does not offer much beyond the here and now. Most, it is obvious, see the immediate, the tangible, the physically present. Too few of us, have the kind of eyes required to see through the lens of true vision. In a culture obsessed with the momentary, the present urge, it is hard for us to see ourselves and our world as Isaiah did. Moreover, we run from the idea that our culture is blind to the things of God. Certainly, we, ourselves, cannot possibly be hindered in our own internal sight, so the thinking goes. We take comfort in the mass movement toward what is seen and felt in the natural.
What Isaiah’s vision makes plain, to those willing to see, is our dramatic need of God’s perspective. Life in 3D, life to the full, comes into view only as we understand we are far removed from the standard of holiness God calls us to. Like Isaiah, for us to truly understand this reality, would bring us to a state of unraveling, and an immense sense of grace. We cannot see, we are blind in the truest sense, and yet, this God of purity and untouchable grandeur reaches out to us, and to our world, brings us into relationship, and sends us into a world, needy for Him, to reach out to others with His message of restoration.
What we have need of in our day, in this cultural pool of ideas, is eyes to see. Not just any eyes, mind you. Not just physical eyes. Eyes beholden to the heart of a God who sees all, understands all, knows all, and wants all good for us. As has been said before, this world goads us to believe a lie when we see with and not through the eye. Seeing with the eyes of culture, we are blind to reality as God knows it. Seeing through eyes of faith, our lives are filled with a quality of light and sight unknown to a world stumbling in the dark. This light pervades every square inch of our lives.
Muggeridge has written, in his amazing book, Jesus: the man who lives, “Not to flee the world but to discover the world is Jesus directive; and, once so found, and seen with his eyes, it has depths and splendours hitherto unnoticed–as a pretty face touched with affliction discloses its hidden beauty. If an eye offends pluck it out, Jesus counsels, not thereby becoming blind, but truly seeing; if a limb, amputate it, not thereby becoming crippled, but whole. He came, he tells us, not to destroy life but that we may have it more abundantly…I can say I never knew what joy was until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die (to self). For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus”.
Jesus did not call us to abandon the world or to hide from our culture. Rather, he offers us a power, joy, and life so deep that it, as it makes its way into our lives and out into the world, opens up and transforms the world in ways we never could have imagined. The life of God in us awakens us, amidst the pains of life, to all that is good, marvelous, and beautiful, because it is created by God and bears his stamp. He is for us not against us. Anything he points us to is for our good.
This is the experience of the Prodigal Son, who, as is told in Luke 15, thinking himself fully sighted, takes his share of his father’s wealth, sets off to join the seeing masses in the fun offered him, only to wind up broke, stammering, and dirty, lying in a pigs sty, wondering how his life became so dark. In his weeping and brokenness, unexpected and totally unseen, he begins to see for the first time. As reality comes into view, he remembers, in his mind’s eye, what goodness was afforded even the lowest servant in his father’s home. Stunned that he has not seen this before, he wonders if his father might be willing to view him, though underserving, as one of those servants. What would it be like to merely be near the father’s house again?
Risking nothing, for all had been lost, he makes his way back home, and nearing the estate, the land he forfeited of his own accord, he sees his father, from afar, running wildly in his direction. He cannot believe his eyes. Is he running toward, …me?
As if he had been given sight for the first time, the lost one, sees, through the flood of tears, a quality of love and compassion so alluring he could not help but submit himself to it. Turning the lights out on the false plot of a world living in darkness, his soul awakens to the brightness of restoration and hope. He can see. The Father, whom he had robbed, has given back to him more than he deserved. The words fly from his lips, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, I once was lost and now and found, was blind, and NOW I see.”
Let’s joyously pursue him and rest in his plan. That is true vision.
Bruce Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
optimuslife.org
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11. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
An Open Letter to Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks
Howard,
I fear I must say, “Goodbye”. (and, you have no idea how hard that is!)
I am writing this letter from the lobby of a large church where I am attending the Leadership Summit 2011, hosted by Willow Creek Community Church (more on the central theme of “leadership” in a bit). Though I have attended many such conferences before, and in fact, have studied this church and its culture on the Master’s level at a prominent institution, I was compelled to attend this year, largely because, you were on the schedule. Every year they bring great leaders, secular and Christian, but this year was different, for me. Hmm. Howard, I just learned, we have a problem.
Let me back up a bit. You see, Mr. Schultz, I have followed your company and your leadership since I was in college. I have studied all the research on the company’s birth, your journey, what has led to the success of your company, I have read your books, I have read the Ivy League business studies. In fact, in my book, Soul Storm: finding God amidst disaster, I used the story of Starbucks as a critical illustration for one of my big theses in the book. I wrote that book, largely, by the way, in a local Starbucks. Starbucks baristas, within a 60 mile radius know my drink as “The Bruce”. Their only question when they see me coming is, “Solo or Doppio?” Had I placed the money I have spent on your drinks into your stock I would probably be rich, seriously. My kids and wife will tell you that, as will most of my friends. I have deep and abiding relationships with Starbucks goers, and enjoy seeing familiar faces daily. I love the romance you sought to capture in building this unique “space” in our culture. I am, uh, was, a die-hard, Starbuckie.
Let me be clear. I have loved your company. I have loved your coffee. I have loved your leadership. I bought into the brand strategy. My kids and wife remind me that I have loved it so much that it impacts their lives in tangible ways. Every morning, after each meal, and too often in between, they know, I’m headed to a Starbucks. They generally say, “Gee, I wonder where we are headed now, anybody wanna guess?” I have the app on my iphone, and use it wherever I travel to find my fix. Am I clear enough yet? I have “bought in”, Howard. Until today, I fear.
Mr. Schultz, I just walked out of a conference I paid good money for, and after having run to a nearby Starbucks on the break, in order to write you this letter (one that my 11,000 monthly readers will receive in a couple of moments). I hope you or someone close to you takes time to read and consider its implications. We were just told the bad news. You pulled out of this Leadership Conference. Why? That’s what makes it worse.
As the news was being given, I immediately thought, with understanding, that in light of all the market turmoil, you had to be in critical leadership meetings or something of that nature. Sadly, I soon found out that you backed out under the pressure of homosexual rights activists who signed a petition boycotting your company because you were actually giving a Leadership talk and interview at a conference hosted by a bible-centered church (a wopping 717 of them). You walked out on us for 717 angry people who misunderstand and misrepresent millions of us? Really?
Mr. Schultz, I must tell you how profoundly disappointed I, and many others are. Well over 100,000 people are attending this conference today, most of which share the biblical, God-centered view of humanity and sexuality. You chose 717 people with a rabid agenda of intolerance and hate over a group of people who understand that God loves everyone, expects all of us to extend grace and kindness to all, regardless of one’s views, simply because a small group you don’t want to offend, disregards the idea of moral and spiritual absolutes set in place by a God who loves us all and wants what is best for us? Where is the leadership in that?
Let me be clear about another thing. My teaching, that of those in leadership at the Leadership Summit, and most I know in this community I am a part of world-wide, understand that we are all far short of God’s call for perfection and purity. We know that we need God’s grace and love and leadership. We know there is never a reason for disrespect, hatred, bigotry, and bullying in this culture. We seek, long, and strive, with intentionality, to speak and live the biblical truth that God loves us all. We also understand that truth is not up for grabs. We seek to hear what God has to say about money, relationships, community building, nation building, business ethics, lust, abuse, violence, race, family, and yes, sexuality. Because we take God up on His call for one man and one woman, united in marriage, and therein, only, to express sexuality, does not make us homophobic or hateful. Anyone who would suggest so, clearly has an intolerant agenda. Our agenda, I assure you, is not one of intolerance, but rather, grace and truth. And from our perspective grace and truth DO go together. Truth gives us a framework for full living, and grace extends love when and where we fail.
So, Howard, here is the deal. How am I not to be offended, and more than that, to feel discarded, kicked off the Starbucks train? Your statement, from a “leadership” standpoint, was a clear statement about your vision as a CEO, a board, and a company. Its seems your vision is not one that includes people like me. Is this so? Are you asking me, and millions of others like me, to find our coffee experience elsewhere? How can we get any other message?
Now, let me address Bill Hybels’ response to this entire debacle. I have appreciated Bill’s leadership for quite some time. I admire his unceasing call for leaders to lead. I admire his honesty and drive for dialogue. And so, I applaud his response to you, letting you out of your contract to speak, at no penalty, and his desire to seek ongoing dialogue about this issue with you and those behind the boycott who scared you out of your wits, apparently. He even just told us that we should buy your book, which they are still selling though you are not here, and told us to buy a Starbucks on the way home to show we are not the people some portray us to be! “Blessed are the peacemakers” Jesus says, I am reminded. True enough.
Dialogue is always a good first step. Understanding is fundamental to the Gospel we teach and seek to live. Compassion and interaction with people of varying viewpoints does not scare a Christ-centered person. In fact, it should characterize each of us more. I applaud Bill for living that, especially in this situation.
However, I am wondering, in his attempt to extend grace and understanding in a tough situation, if he is over-reaching. Time will tell, I guess. Actually, I don’t think we can ever over-reach. But, that being said, with the venomous approach of those on the other side (as some of the emails seem to have conveyed) it seems clear that interaction was never in the equation, and there is little desire for that. Threat and harshness is and was the tone we are told. So be it. Grace always. Truth over all. Love each step of the way. Go Bill! Go Church. The true Church, people of God, always get this.
So, here I am, Seth Godin is up, and I really want to get back into the conference. I will wrap this up. How did you make this decision? Money? Is that the one goal for life? Is that the foundational base of real leadership? Do people of substance cave in for a bottom line? Is there something bigger to live for? Is there something in life and beyond that is even, coffee gods forgive me for saying it, bigger than Starbucks?!
What I am saying here, Howard, is this; you missed it here. You missed it as a man. You missed it as a leader. You missed it. Some of those I associate with will abandon Starbucks. I am seriously weighing (and I doubt you have many as rabid as me..I get a Starbucks mug from every city around the world I visit) moving my allegiance. You may keep some intolerant people who seek to misrepresent and misunderstand those who seek to humbly and honestly live for God. But is that how you wish to be defined? You can build Starbucks even bigger and better, maybe even on the backs of a vocal few. You can take over the world with your lattes and fapp-a-froo-froo drinks. But in the end, when all the stuff, all the real estate, all the ball teams, all the franchise sites, all the beans, …when it all goes back in the box, and when you, Howard, go back in the box, and are ground into the earth, do you think the question will be “Did Howard follow the advise of his board, his checkbook, his homosexual friends, …?”
To the extent you led your company well and established another cultural space where we coffee lovers could find ourselves, do business, write books, expand relationships, and more, we applaud you. To the extent you have offered the culture of leadership something of value, we thank you. When you have inspired us, we say thanks. But, on this one, Howard, you failed. You really missed the boat. It may impact your bottom line, actually, in ways you obviously did not consider, but it speaks more about you than that. The implications for the company, the implications for you, could not be more vast. Who are you? Is there a foundation, beyond Starbucks, which establishes the answer to that question? Will it sustain you when your brew-time here is done?
Lastly, Howard, thanks for years of great coffee, a romantic coffeehouse experience (though thats been waining as of late in my opinion, even since your return to the helm), your zest to be part of a story, and for helping me stay awake and productive. I am sorry I may have to bid you and your company farewell; not out of meanness, but because principle, truth, and soul passion is more to me than passion for a great brand.
As they say it in Italy, “arrivederci”.
P.S. I have now missed two sessions writing this letter, including Seth! If the bottom line were my bottom line I would not be happy right now. But, can you spare some change and help me pay for the sessions I missed? Just asking. Great. Now I’ve missed three sessions, counting yours, I came here for. Ouch, Howard.
Bruce Lee Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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5. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
The numbers, are coming in! In the last month we have had over 11,000 readers from all over the world go to the sites and / or the blog! Visitors have come from China, Russia, Australia, Romania, Ukraine, England, Israel, Thailand, Columbia, Slovenia, Norway, Spain, Sweden, France, Germany, Taiwan, Canada, Netherlands, and the good ole USA. Keep spreading the news, folks. THANKS!! www.bruceleesmith.co
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4. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
Life in 3D! The Superhero’s Guide to the Galaxy, is edited and ready to roll! For a PDF preview, free of charge, email me, and I’ll get one out to you!
email to soulstormwriter@yahoo.com or here at blog.optimuschoice.com comments section, and just subject line “3D PDF”.
www.bruceleesmith.co
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1. August 2011 by BruceSmith.
Fear Factor: diving deep into the arms of God
Psalm 3:6 I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.
David. God’s shepherd/warrior/king. The one chosen “after God’s own heart”. He had fears, many of them. He was pursued, vexed, threatened, on every side. Fear could have literally sunk and drowned him. He could have capsized and broken apart, never to be heard from again, amidst all that threatened to conquer him.
Fear. We are told it can be a built in instinct which works for our good and keeps us from danger. It is equally true that fear is the tool of the enemy to bring us down and wreck our hearts and minds with panic. And it is also true, unfortunately, that fear creeps up from within the depths of our own hearts when we are not mindful of God’s radical love and covering over us. When led to or venturing into unchartered waters in our lives, when the depths of challenge appear to be overtaking us, when the cold and dark waters and pressures of life threaten to drown us, we must remember it is the fear of the Lord which brings wisdom, and it is the fear of man, the fear of failure, the fear of the unknown which brings us down. Though many assail us, thousands of realities challenge us and mock us, it is the God of our fathers, who is able to keep us in the cleft of the rock. He is mighty in our battles, He is strength in our weakness, He is peace amidst our stormy night.
I recently was certified, along with my wife (thanks for the anniversary gift!), as a PADI scuba diver. As a guy who has breathing issues and has had them from early on in life (severe allergies, congestion, and prone to chronic bronchitis and more), the idea of “breathing” underwater while diving into a world unknown to me, was a bit fear inducing. The temptation to panic and to go into raging survival mode, for a normally breathing person, let alone for one who daily battles to breath efficiently, was very real. For me to make it through the training and tests, I had to coach myself into a place of rest and trust that I could make it one breath at a time, one meter deeper, step by step. Moreover, when forced through the survival exercises, having my air source taken away underwater, having my mask ripped off underwater, and having to move to plan B without panic, again, took conscious thought and well-coached rest. I had to flee from the fear response in order to experience an amazing world I had not yet seen before.
This is true of life. If we are to make it through all the varied and multi-faceted challenges and threats of life, we must remind ourselves as David did, “Though thousands assail me from every side, I will trust in the Lord, I will NOT fear.” In the flesh, we assume the worst and react with panic. When we do so, bad things happen. Our air tank, God Himself, is there to help us when life is trying to smother us. He is the regulator who keeps us in perfect peace, as we trust Him one breath at a time. When dangers come and assailants tug and rip at us and attempt to sink us, God is our bouyancy. He alone can brings us up and allow us make it to shore again.
Are you feeling as though you are going under? Has panic set in? It is then, more than any other time, that you must stop, slow down, rest, breath deeply, and allow God to take hold of you and show you the way. He will not fail you.
Bruce Smith
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