Robert the Bruce

If you’ve seen Braveheart, you know who I’m talking about. He’s the Scottish noble who works most closely with Mel Gibson’s William Wallace. As Wallace leads his revolution against the English, Robert the Bruce wants desperately to join and lead his people. Wallace even begs him to join, but when it comes down to it, he’s too weak. Too weak to give up his title. Too weak to give up the comforts of nobility. Too weak to confront the other nobles. Too weak to stand against the oppression of his people. And towards the end, he even betrays Wallace by joining the English.

Too often, I feel like Robert the Bruce. I want so desperately to do something great, to be used by God to change lives. But when it comes to making those sacrifices, I’m too weak. I’m too scared to act on what I know is right. I lack the boldness it takes to lead.

The good news is that God is more than capable of using my inadequacies as well as changing me. There’s hope in the transformative power of God. And just like Robert the Bruce finally took his place as a leader, I can take mine. I just hope it doesn’t take me as long as it took him.

Ok, so I kinda forgot…

…I had a blog. I’m not a writer. But I preached on the mission of Jesus today, so it goes with the theme of having a singular focus. His focus on doing the will of His Father amazes me. Especially in the garden, right before His arrest and death, He was able to say “not my will, but yours be done.” And then thinking about my mission while on the earth: making disciples. How often is that my focus? I get so distracted with other things. Good things. But they still distract me from my main focus.

Lord, help me to maintain my focus on bringing You glory through making disciples.

Am I a Deist??

de·ism [dee-iz-uhm] – noun

1. belief in the existence of a god on the evidence of reason and nature only, with rejection of supernatural revelation (distinguished from theism).

2. belief in a God who created the world but has since remained indifferent to it.

That’s dictionary.com‘s definition of Deism. I think the easiest, and most common, definition is the second one. Basically, the belief that there is a God who created the world, set it in motion, then took his hands off of it. He has no involvement in the everyday affairs of that world.

Now, I’m in no way saying that I hold to those beliefs. The Bible clearly portrays God as the exact opposite; He is shown time after time as One who is involved in every aspect of His creation, even those that do not follow Him.

So why ask “Am I a Deist?” I feel that, at times, my actions and attitudes would portray me as a Deist. I find myself operating in my own strength, just going through the motions of my faith. Living and working independently of God. Trying to act like a “good Christian” without spending time with the Christ. At times, I feel like the Pharisees that Jesus was always checking; looking good on the outside, but their hearts were far from God. Focusing more on the rituals than on the relationship.

So here’s a couple questions that I need to continually be asking myself:

How involved do I allow God to be in my daily life? Am I dependent on Him for my strength, or am I operating on my own “strength”? What are my motives for doing the things that I do? Am I just a good, moral person? Or am I devoted to giving my life back to the One who gave His life for me, depending on Him mercy and grace to sustain me?

My life is not always this way, but I hate that I live like that at all. Lord, help me to cling to You!

Singular Focus

I’m drawn to people that are devoted to one thing in their life. I watch dumb shows like Whale Wars, not because I’m overly concerned about whales being hunted in the Antarctic Ocean (though it is something to investigate), but because there’s all these people who are willing to die for a cause they believe in. They have one objective, and they will literally do anything possible to accomplish that goal. They will commit acts of piracy to save one whale! Whether you agree with their beliefs or not, their devotion is something to be admired.

I love Bob Marley. And not just for his music, though I’m a huge fan. Of course, I was drawn to his music first, but after learning more about who he was, I was impressed by his desire to change the world with his music. He was determined to bring people together through love and music. He was willing to risk his life to see the people of Jamaica unified and living in peace. He sought to use his music to bring all types of people together. I don’t agree with his lifestyle and beliefs about God, but his commitment to unity is impressive.

Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Frederick Douglass, MLK, Malcolm X, Mandela, Cesar Chavez, John Perkins…all of these people had a singular focus in their lives. They were committed to equality, justice, freedom, the poor, etc. and were willing to do whatever it takes to see it accomplished. And that’s not even bringing up all of the heroes of the faith that have given their lives for the sake of the Gospel.

I think that’s one of the areas in my life that needs the most work. I get so distracted with “extra” things in my life. And this has been a pattern throughout my life. I have so many different interests, that nothing gets the attention it deserves. I’m an aspiring DJ (I’ve been “aspiring” for quite a few years now!), I like messing around with graphic arts (but I’m not real good), I love sports (but too many to focus on being good at just one), I wanna live on the beach (but I love living in the city)…I got a lot going on.

At the end of the day, my main goal is obviously to glorify God by living for Him. Whatever He asks me to do. But I guess the point of this post is this:

“[1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hbr 12:1-2 ESV

Throwing off sin is an easy concept for me. I get that one. But “laying aside every weight,” that one’s tough. None of my interests are sinful, but they definitely distract me. And I don’t wanna live like that. I want to be passionately devoted to following Christ and doing what He has called me to do. I don’t want to get sidetracked with meaningless things. Not to say that we can’t have hobbies and interests, but some of mine have taken my focus off Christ. My time has been taken away from Him, and that is why I have not always been effective at brining glory to God. I want the passion of Paul (“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” – Phl 3:8 ESV), the devotion of John the Baptist (“He must increase, but I must decrease.” – Jhn 3:30 ESV), the boldness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. 3:16-18).

I need a singular focus, and that focus needs to be Christ!