The Path to Success

    Self-denial. Delayed gratification.
    I know, not exactly the best thoughts to draw readers in.
    How’s this, then….
    Success! The way to prosperity!
    Trouble is, most people think the two concepts are diametrically opposed to one another….that is self-denial and success. And that’s why success is a fleeting prospect for so many people. In reality, the two are inseparable. There is no way to prosperity without self-denial. There is no success without sacrifice….in any aspect of life! It just is how it is. You can’t succeed at anything without first making sacrifices, and many people never truly succeed in life because they are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices.
    But self-denial is not easy….hence the word, “denial.” It doesn’t seem to to make sense that the only way to get things is by denying yourself things, but it is.
    For example…. Four years ago I looked at a picture of myself and saw the embarrassing aftermath of gaining about two pounds a year over the previous fifteen years. Granted, I was pretty thin when the weight gain started, but I was obviously 25 pounds over, and something needed to be done. I decided to lose weight. The first month––nothing. The second month––nothing. Then I realized that this was really going to take some work. I had to stop eating at lunch and dinner while I was still hungry. I had to stop snacking all-to-gather (which was a KILLER!). I quit ice cream and sweets in general. I had to start working out. Believe me, as simple as it sounds, there were twenty years of habit to overcome and it felt like some pretty serious denial for a couple months. But then the pounds started dropping off and it actually became fun. In about six month, I lost the 25 pounds I needed to lose, and I kept if off for the next year. Now in the last two years, I put ten back on, and now back to some self-denial again, I am half-way back to where I need to be.
    But like everything important in life, getting our bodies in shape takes self-denial (I’ve been saying “no” to ice cream the last few weeks and its killing me!). Becoming a skilled musician takes self-denial (if you practice only when you feel like it, you’ll never be good). Becoming an athlete who excels on the field takes self-denial. Achieving excellence at work takes self denial (denying yourself the office gossip around the water cooler, denying the urge to procrastinate, denying the snooze button to get in early, etc.). If you want financial independence, you’re going to have to say “no” to a lot of things (like cars, toys, too much house, the latest of whatever, etc.). Success in any endeavor takes sacrifice.
    I realize that we live in a day when instant gratification is at our disposal. You don’t have to wait to get new furniture, you can just put it on your Visa. You don’t have to wait to get married for sex, its now ok to just do it with your girlfriend. You don’t have to save for a nice car, if you know how to breathe, you can get a car loan. But in those cases, as in all, that instant gratification lasts a short time, but the unwillingness to deny yourself will last with spoiled relationships or years of debt and thousands of dollars of interest.
    What do you want to succeed at? Where do you need to start sacrificing?
    In fact, Jesus taught us that the ultimate success in our existence depends on our willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice––our lives! He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34, NIV). He also said, “If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life” (Mark 16:25, NLT). In other words, Jesus taught us that if we want to achieve the ultimate in life, spiritual maturity or intimacy with God, it’s going to take some serious self-denial.
    Maybe that’s why Paul used the analogy of an athlete working out in the gym to prepare for competition with spiritual growth. He said, “Exercise yourself toward godliness….” and then explained, “Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next” (1 Timothy 4:7, 8).
    It takes sacrifice to develop your relationship with God. Yep. Lots of it. But Paul was right, the results are eternally worth it!

Thanks, Mrs. Raabe! (My Kindergarten Teacher)

    Robert Fulghum used to write his musings down and would share them with a few family members and friends. Some of it was pretty good. So good, in fact, that those family members and friends would photocopy his typewritten notes (often included in Christmas cards) and pass them on to coworkers and friends (before the days of those dreadful mass email forwards, people did that with photocopy machines :-). A little girl brought home in her school bag one multi-copied piece entitled, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” When her mom, a publishing professional, read it, she knew it was a gem. Contacting Fulghum, she convinced him to have it, and other articles he had written, published into a book that became a New York Times Best Seller, titled after the original article that so impressed her.
    I’m sure you’ve read the list, but let me repeat it here:
    “Share everything.
    “Play fair.
    “Don't hit people.
    “Put things back where you found them.
    “Clean up your own mess.
    “Don't take things that aren't yours.
    “Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
    “Wash your hands before you eat.
    “Flush.
    “Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
    “Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
    “Take a nap every afternoon.
    “When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
    “Be aware of wonder.
    “Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
    “The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
    “Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup––they all die. So do we.
    “And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all––LOOK.”
    Pretty good isn’t it. But it’s not just a cute list to make us smile. All of us have what it takes to succeed at work, at home…. in life. We’ve been taught what to do. We create chaos in our lives because we don’t do the obvious things.
    If some of you were to just start sharing, it would transform your lives. If some of you would start playing fair, it would change your marriages. Just think what would happen if everyone would stop taking things that aren’t theirs and at the same time stop hitting people. The plight of our cities would virtually disappear! So would international crises!
    Do you clean up your own messes….right away? Do you say you’re sorry when you hurt others….sincerely?
    Here’s a big one. Do you live your life, conscious that it’s going to be over….sooner than later?
    I have often said, “Most Christians are overfed and under-exercised. Our problem is not that we don’t really know enough of what the Bible says. Our real problem is that we tend not to practice what we do know. Kind of Fulghum’s point in his “Kindergarten” essay.
    So as we talk about Biblical solutions to our problems this summer, let’s think, “ACTION.” What does God want you to do with what you are learning. I don’t know the specifics for you, but I can guarantee you this, He wants you to put His principles into practice. TODAY!
    And that’s something you can do.

Are You a Follower or JUST a Leader?

    The twelve disciples of Jesus are a fascinating group of guys. We’ll do a study some day on the character and accomplishments of this rag-tag group of diverse men who were chosen by Jesus to turn the world up-side down. But in my Bible reading this morning, there is one thing that stood out to me about these guys. While they are quite the assortment of personalities and backgrounds, there appears to be one characteristic that brought them all together.
    When Jesus called, they immediately responded.
    “Follow me,” Jesus said to each of them, and immediately they left their places, their livelihood, pretty much everything, and followed him. It didn’t end there. I briefly went through the Gospels this morning and did not find a single instance where Jesus gave them instructions when they did not follow Him immediately, and almost without question (they wondered why a few times but rarely second guessed Him). So while they didn’t always “get it” with His parables and some of his hyperboles and similes, they followed through on whatever they were told to do, and they were willing to obey Him, even when his instructions didn’t make sense to them. So when Jesus gave them the ultimate command, “Go into all the world and make disciples,” they didn’t think twice about it. They had obeyed Him every time before this and it always worked out. So why not with the Great Commission?
    Is that how you are? Do you follow Him with unquestioned abandonment? Are you willing to leave all for the sake of following Him?
    I don’t think that most people who call themselves Christians really are willing to follow Him like that. They find ways to explain away why “God will understand” their disobedience, or they will claim they “prayed about it” and “have peace.” But mostly, I don’t think many Christians think much about what Jesus would have them do in the vast majority of decisions they make every day. Do we give a thought as to whether or not Jesus would want us to criticize someone, ignore another person with needs we could help alleviate, speak harshly to a spouse or child? Do we sincerely go to God and ask Him for guidance with movies we watch, places we go, things we do, people we hang out with? When struggling with issues in life (relationships, finances), while we may pray for God to intervene, do we ask Him for what He wants us to do about it, and do we listen to what He says?
    In reality, that’s what it means to follow Jesus, doesn’t it? Isn’t being a Christian supposed to be about following him?
    In his book “None of These Diseases,” S. I. McMillen tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."
    When it comes to living the Christian life, being a leader is fine, if you are first a good follower of Jesus Christ. You may or may not have been give leadership ability (few people are truly gifted leaders). But that is neither here nor there. What really matters is that all of us have been give “followship” ability. We all follow someone or something. For too many, they follow their own cravings and desires. But being a Christians means following Jesus….in everything!
    So….are you a follower of Jesus?

I Pledge Allegiance

    I was totally blown away by a news story out of Massachusetts this last week. Boston, of course, was at the center of our nation’s birth and many of our most outspoken founders came from there. The old city still has many of its early buildings where so many decisions were made that led to the founding of this country and the American system that we tend to take for granted. If you visit downtown Boston, it’s like visiting a city-wide museum.
    That is why I was even more appalled that this story came out of the Boston area.
    Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts, does not allow the public reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. I did not say that the school does not “require” students and teachers to recite it, they won’t ALLOW it!
    Their reasoning? They say they can’t find enough teachers or administrators in the school who are willing to recite it themselves!
    So, here is a publicly funded school, located at the very birthplace of America, led by teachers who do not believe enough in their own loyalty to The United States and the system that was founded right there in their own local area, that they are unwilling to publicly recite any commitment to that loyalty. Can you imagine what the young impressionable students in that high school are being taught?
    For those in my generation and older, school was a place where we were taught respect for our nation’s founders and deep pride was instilled in us for being Americans. I grew up with a high appreciation of the blessing of living in this country and have always been thankful that I was privileged to be born here. In school I was taught that all that we have as Americans had been given to us through the sacrifices of those who believed so much in the American system that they were willing to sacrifice their lives to create and preserve it. Not a student in any of my classes would have even thought it to be an acceptable thing to not join the rest of the class, and in doing so the rest of the country, in standing to recite The Pledge of Allegiance. I would have thought, “Why would any American not?”
    But in Massachusetts, ungrateful adults, being paid with taxpayer money, are not only unwilling to pass those values on to the next generation, they are unwilling to commit their own loyalty to this country.
    I don’t get it! Have they ever been to another country? I’ve often wondered where “America haters” would prefer to live. And why don’t they move to a place that indeed reflects their values?
    In truth, we do not need to agree on everything to be united as a country. Healthy debate in the political arena is a good thing, and has been an important freedom since our founding. But some today are not simply exercising their dissent, they communicate disdain for our constitutional system. In previous generations, they would have been considered treasonous.
    I am more than anything a follower of Jesus Christ and a citizen of heaven. But I am so grateful for God’s grace in giving to us a nation and system of government that has birthed freedom that had previously never been known to man (since Adam, anyway). And even today, a place like no other around the world.
    Happy Independence Day, America. Americans, appreciate it!