“It is the people of God who can truly shape a nation. Many look to great leaders or powerful governments to shape a nation. But most likely, leaders and governments will not restore a nation once it is on the downward slide. While leaders and governments can influence a nation, there is no group of people who can determine the coming years of a nation like God’s people.”
Henry Blackaby
First of all, I do think politics are important. Our nation was built on a democratic system of checks and balances. It’s not a perfect system, but I believe it’s the best system. I also believe that as Christians we have a responsibility to vote. We should vote for candidates that best represent Biblical values. But, this is where I need to digress a bit. What I don’t believe in is an elected official that will “save” the country. What I think everyone can agree on is that America is divided. Not just now, but at least for the last few decades. It’s almost a 50/50 divide. Much of that stems from a false believe that one of the major political parties will be the answer, or that candidate “x” will be the one that finally puts things back together. From a psychology level I get it. Everyone likes to believe in something. Hope is needed. But, as Christians, we should feel a bigger calling. I like the way that Blackaby worded it: A leader can “influence”, but Christians can “determine” the fate of the nation. It’s more grass roots. It’s deeper and more personal. It’s revival and discipleship. Christians are we determined to make this nation great again? If so, are we depending on those we elect or are we rolling up our sleeves and doing what we can? Once again, I believe in our system, and I think it has it’s place. But, the fate of our nation rest on us.
My husband, Kevin, is a football fan of the University of Georgia since he is an alumni from that college. I, on the other hand, prefer a book to watching sports. However, we went to see an Auburn versus Georgia game. In my attempt to join his fun, I wore a Georgia Bulldogs sweatshirt so I looked the part of a dedicated fan. Quickly, though, I proved myself to be anything but a Georgia Bulldog!
Auburn University hosted the game. A team of security from the school watched us go through the metal detectors and checked all of our bags. One of the security team members looked at me and quietly said, “Woof, Woof.”
I stared at him momentarily before I said, “Excuse me?”
He repeated his statement. “Woof, Woof.”
I quickly walked away and went straight to my husband and exclaimed, “That man over there needs help. Something is wrong. He just barked at me!”
Kevin laughed and said, “That was to let you know that he is a Georgia fan!”
Thoughts of the man being demon-possessed faded with the ridiculous thought of what a Georgia fan does. “You guys bark at each other?”
“We’re the Bulldogs!” Kevin confidently replied.
Once again, I reminded him that I picked my college based on education not sports! I could not believe that adults bark to say, “I am one of the club!” My lack of barking knowledge proved that I did not belong to the group anyway. I watched the game, I cheered (mostly) at the right times, but my heart never changed to become a Georgia fan. (And I did not bark at anyone either.) I was “in” the game, but I was not “of” the game.
Jesus understood being in something but not of something. In the final hours before His crucifixion, he prayed for His disciples. We find this powerful prayer in the book of John. One section of the word discusses the dual nature of the status of the believer. We find this in John 15:15-17.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Believers in Jesus are in the world, but not of the world. We live day by day surrounded by the world and its systems but the systems are not within us. We are in the world, but we “are not of the world”. The reason we are not is because we are in Jesus and He was not of this world. Jesus came down from His heavenly kingdom with the intention to expand that kingdom on earth. We are to follow His example and push forth the heavenly kingdom. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He showed them to request the advancement of God’s kingdom on earth in Matthew 5:9-10.
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”
It is about God’s kingdom, His will and ways, going forth on the earth. Although we live in the world, we are to be advancing the kingdom of God. We are not to be furthering the ways of the world in our lives, our homes, our churches, our communities. Instead, we are to be pushing forward the kingdom of God in every aspect of our lives.
How do we advance the kingdom of God instead of the world? By knowing and applying truth. Jesus knew we needed truth to be transformed.
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
The Word of God is true. We are changed by the Word of God as we align our lives to His standard set forth in the Word. Our lives are now not being molded by the world, but instead are being changed by truth. We are following the will of God set forth perfectly in heaven and living out that will here on earth. While the world bombards us with its ways of thinking and doing, we are making decisions in accordance with truth, in accordance with Jesus for He is truth as He stated to His disciples in John 14:6.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is truth. We learn and then follow truth. Just as He was not of the world, we are not of the world as we live out the kingdom ways of God. Yet, since we are in this world but not of it, we are pushing back the world and setting up space for the Kingdom of God to go forward in our lives and the lives of others. This is why we are not taken out of the world immediately when we become believers in Jesus. Our staying transforms the world. Jesus came to earth to impact lives, so being in the world brought salvation to the world. In our world, in our own places of influence, we are called to be in the world for the purpose of bringing the kingdom of God to the world but not being of the world, leaving us as the ones pushing forward the ways of God and not being conformed to the world’s ways. This is succinctly stated in Romans 12:2.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
We are transformed by truth. The truth sets us up to live out God’s will for our lives. His will is for the kingdom of God to advance in and through us. That is why Jesus prayed that His disciples would be shielded from the enemy.
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”
The world’s systems are the kingdom of the devil. The enemy does not want God’s kingdom advancing. Yet, we are in the world to advance the kingdom of God. Jesus Himself prays for us to be protected from the enemy. We are not of the enemy’s camp, not of the world, but we are in this world advancing God’s kingdom through truth.
Live as ones in the world but not of the world by knowing and living truth which advances God’s will, God’s kingdom. Do so confidently for Jesus prays for you to be protected from the evil one. Since Jesus prays for us, we know the victory is ours!
By the way, Georgia won the game that night! Woof, Woof!
My husband Kevin and I went to watch our friends’ sons play a soccer game. At the end of the match, I went up to one of the teenagers and congratulated him. He asked me why, so I confidently told him, “Because you won the game.”
His response shocked me, “Ms. Shannon, we lost.” As a competitor it would already be difficult to lose a game, however, my comment only made the matter much worse. Evidently, I was the only person in that crowd who did not know about the team’s loss. Unfortunately, my husband could not rescue me in time before I made my blunder. Kevin saw the opponent’s goals because he paid attention to the game.
How did I miss the goals the other team scored? For one, the opponent’s goalie distracted me. He wore a soccer uniform the color of Pepto Bismol, bright pink from head to toe. Questions raced through my mind. Where do you find knee socks that color pink? Does that uniform glow in the dark? Did he know it would be that shade of pink or did he order it on-line and it seemed a bit more subdued? Beyond pondering soccer uniforms, I chatted quite a bit with parents in the crowd. Instead of fully watching the game before me, I allowed conversations to distract me. Lastly, I did not engage with the events on the soccer field because every little thing lately has been reminding me of a very difficult situation in my own life. My thoughts have been consumed by my own personal pain and loss, instead of being fully present in the moment and seeing what others before me are experiencing.
It is easy to be distracted in life. We get caught up in our own thoughts, emotions, and agendas. However, this keeps us from seeing the possible moments of ministry to others. I went from cheering on students at a game, to making a defeat even more awkward afterwards. Unintentionally, my focus on my personal pain caused me to hurt another.
In the book of Genesis, we find another whose overwhelming pain caused heartache to others. Jacob felt distracted by his own pain, loss, and grief. Jacob fathered twelve sons but his favorite was son number eleven, Joseph. His older brothers felt extreme jealousy of Joseph so they sold him into slavery. Then they used false evidence of a bloody coat to convince Jacob that his precious son had died. Little did he know that through a series of events over the span of around twenty years, Joseph went from a lowly house slave to second in command of all of Egypt.
Jacob still resided in Canaan and during this time a terrible famine struck the land. Jacob sent his ten oldest sons to buy food in the land of Egypt, while keeping the youngest with him at home. The sons ended up in the presence of Joseph even though they did not know the identity of this royal official. Joseph, however, instantly recognized his brothers and asked questions about the family. The brothers told Joseph about their younger brother and father. In a desperate plan to see if his brothers had changed, Joseph imprisoned Simeon until all the brothers returned to Egypt. Nine of the brothers returned to Egypt. Sadly, Jacob in his grief and fear of losing another son did not let the brothers return, thus leaving Simeon in jail. Months dragged by and eventually the time came for the purchase of more provisions for the family. Let’s pick up the story in Genesis 43.
Now the famine was still severe in the land. So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”
Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”
They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
Once again, Simeon is still in prison in Egypt! Jacob in his pain and distress is not paying attention to the pressing needs of others. He is focused only on his pain and his fear of more potential loss in the future. His delay caused an emergency situation for the rest of the family as well.
Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die.
Here is a matter of life and death, yet Jacob ignored the needs of everyone around him, as well as his son still in prison because of the grief in his heart. Eventually, he was forced to take action but he still focused on his personal pain, completely oblivious to those in desperate situations around him.
Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.” So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph.
Upon this second visit to Egypt, Joseph released Simeon from prison and revealed his true identity to his brothers. A family torn apart experienced a joyous reunion. All of this could have taken place earlier if only Jacob had chosen to respond to the needs of those around him instead of focusing solely on his own grief.
We all hurt. We all suffer terribly. We need to work through our pain, not deny or suppress it. However, sometimes helping others during our difficult times, can help us find restoration in our own hearts and lives. Jacob would have been reunited with Joseph earlier if he had chosen to look up from his own pain and took action to help others.
One of my favorite examples of someone who looked past their grief to minister to others would be Corrie Ten Boom. Her entire family died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Yet, after the war, she did not retreat into her own pain. Instead, she traveled throughout Europe promoting the gospel message, showing people how to accept and give God’s forgiveness. Thousands of lives were transformed by her story. She chose to focus on others, to see them healed and whole from their own tragic loss and pain, instead of wallowing in her own grief.
Lives are impacted by our response to pain, for the good or the bad. We can choose to look down at our own pain or to look up to minister to others. For me, it may be a small decision to fully pay attention to a soccer game, to think of those players out there and what they are doing instead of the painful thoughts bombarding my mind. Next time, I will hope for their win but if there is a loss, I will console the team! My response will match their need compared to showing an obvious deficit in my own heart. But to be completely honest, I still may be a little distracted by the pink goalie outfit!
This story is a synopsis of my life. Short blog post today. My life, my story, much like many of yours is messy. But, it’s full of hope and victory. Be blessed.
Have you ever had good intentions? Of course you have, we all have. Just about every accomplishment in life at some point started with an intention. Intentions are not bad, they are catalysts. But, it seems as though we live in a society that is high on intentions and low on follow through.
I’m not one to bash social media, because you are likely reading this on one of the platforms now. But have you noticed how much of social media is about intentions? “My family and I have decided we’re going to get back in church.” “I’ve decided to lose 20 pounds by the end of the year.” “I’m ready to start making the money I deserve.” “I’m going to commit myself to ….” You get the point. They’re intentions, not accomplishments. The problem is they typically stay stuck right there!
This might be the most basic (I call it captain obvious) advice you’ll ever hear: Just start! Just actually do the thing you are desiring. Just start! Will you be good at it? Probably not. Will you fail? Likely yes. Will you get better? You will, if you just start.
I’ve shared part of my story with several over the years, but many people don’t know that I didn’t play piano in public until I was 26 years old. I knew a few chords, and that was it. I barely knew how to turn a computer on in my mid-twenties. Now, I lead worship, do graphic design, video editing, and websites. I’m no genius, and in all honesty, I’m not even this super-overachiever. No, but I did start at some point. My first Sunday service playing in front of people, I promise you I knew three chords (C, F, and G) …. if another chord on the chart came around, I just fake played and kept going. To be honest, I really wasn’t all that good!
As I’ve seen on social media many times: “I don’t know who needs to hear this today…”. My message today is – JUST START! That thing you’ve been thinking about, start it. Don’t wait till the stars align and everything is right, just start. A quote from the great theologian Harold Hill (actually he’s the Music Man, not a theologian, but you get it) … “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” Just start!
The last word on this random thought of the day is this: Don’t give up when others are better. I know creative types struggle with this, and I’m sure athletes and scholars do as well, because it’s a human condition. There are always going to be others that are more accomplished than us. There will always be someone better at whatever it is you are doing. But, do it anyway. You get better as you do, not as you wait.
Intentions are fine, but they are just that. Do something today. Start now, and you’ll thank yourself later!
“I Got Saved” by Selah is one of my new favorites. I love this song. I love the simplicity of the message. I found this video of some of the back story of the song, as well as a challenge video. Enjoy!
