Tats and a Fire in the Belly

This past weekend I got to hear a cool story about a guy and his tattoos. You see, we're doing a sermon series called "Inked" and our church video team was filming him as he got his company's logo inked in his inside right forearm. He owns his own clothing company and the logo is this sweet-looking eagle. (See picture)

So before he gets the tat he says that one of the reasons he is doing this is that when he gets older, say 50 or so, and complacency fights for more real estate in his heart and life, he can look down at his tattoo and be reminded that there was a time when he had "a fire in my belly". And when he said it, he didn't say it in an "I wish for the old days"-kind of way but a "I hope that fire's still burning" fashion.

Man, that impressed me so deeply. I spent some time with him today at his warehouse telling him how I absolutely loved the way he expressed himself! That is so where I want to be - to make sure that twenty years from now I'm still, if not more, passionate about doing what I do. I don't want to be the guy who's on cruise control in life - playing way too much golf, always seeking ways to build his portfolio and griping about the weather to his buddies while there is still great Kingdom-work to be done. I don't know if I need to sport a tat or not to remind me to keep my kindling dry, but if there ever was a reason to embed ink under my skin, this might be it.

O God, let the fire still burn for you.

Formulas and Presumptions

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
- Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)

"We've been dating for almost a year, surely God wants us to be together."

That was the rationale given to me by a someone in my congregation as to why he should still pursue a woman who wanted time away from him to "think things over" about the future of their relationship. While this person, I believe, has a honest heart about the situation I cautioned him about his reasoning because it risks crossing the line of presumption and seeing God's work as formulaic.

Hear me, I'm not the one to throw stones. I think many, if not most of us, are tempted to "know" what God wants by seeing only one interpretation of events before everything got complicated...and use that interpretation to say that if God did A then surely he will do B. The only problem is that we presume that we know what B is. The truth is by making God work by predictable formulas we tread the faithless ground of presumption.

Again, to be fair, most of our reasoning flows from logical conclusions; however, when our hopes/dreams get a kink in them we tend to go back to "surely this is what God wants" like a young child seeking after his blanky. We do it because it brings us comfort. The problem is it doesn't change reality, nor the heart of God.

I don't need to give examples of how people thought God should do something for one reason only to see him do something else - they're all over the Bible. Thus, there is a very real chance that God's will is to have a person date someone for a year not so that they might wind up married but for something else that will be for each of their good (Rom. 8:28). The point is no one but God knows.

That's why it's wisest to steady your trust in God when the "kinks" come, not using the past as justification as to why God must act one way or another. That is usually just a sign you've succumbed to the temptation of emotion instead of letting the bedrock of God's truth lead you. Leave the predictable formulas and faithless assumptions to others, instead, as difficult as it may feel, be open to the possibility that there are other outcomes God may bring. And whatever the outcome is we must look with the eyes of faith to trust that it will be for our growth and his glory.

James 4:13-17, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

Making Friends or Making Disciples?

Here's a thought...you must decide which holds a greater preeminence in your life: making friends or making disciples. (When I say "making friends" I mean that in the most popular sense: trying to make people feel good about themselves, staying away from controversy, packing up the hard conversations in favor of the peaceful surface.) In my experience, there will be times where you must decide which is your ultimate aim because, for one reason or another, you cannot have both.

Sometimes making disciples means we graciously and truthfully drill down deep on someone's sinful patterns in their life, patiently calling them to repentance and pursuing them like a shepherd running after a wayward sheep. It may mean conversations not typified by smiles, laughter or an easiness of spirit but a quiet intensity, sober resolution and slow, steady, stern words. Making disciples may turn your stomach into knots, make you feel a little queasy or cause you to break out in a nervous sweat as you anticipate the "hard conversation" you've got in about an hour from now, hoping somehow they might have to cancel on you at the last minute.

This isn't to say you can't make disciples and have friends. This is to say that in the realm of helping people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, one will influence the other.

Which one will it be for you?