I was recently reminded of how when you talk to someone, it affects the effectiveness of what you are trying to say. When you try to talk to someone who is discouraged after trying to do “the right thing” and failing, anything instructional is often hard for them to receive. They feel like, “Great, here is something else I won’t be able to do.”
Other times you might talk to someone who is desperate after trying to do “the right thing” and failing. They can be like a sponge wanting to know another way. However, their desperation can lead them to quickly dismiss instruction if the results are not as prompt as their emotions demand.
There are many other dispositions with which you might talk to someone who failed and equally as many dispositions after someone succeeds. But the point is, what has just happened “before” affects how they listen. If you pay attention, that can be a real advantage to building trust as a counselor.
For the first person mentioned above, acknowledging how hard it would be to hear “one more thing” you “should have done” would be very encouraging. They would at least know that whatever guidance they receive next would be from a person who understood them.
The second person would benefit from having someone speak to the “pace” of their desperation before speaking to the content of their struggle. Unless this happened the wisest counsel would get lost in the intensity of their “try anything” to “fix it now” mindset which is retention-light and even weaker on perseverance.
I think this is a dynamic we have to be particularly aware of for those believers who sincerely try to please God and are facing a significant struggle of suffering (an intense struggle not caused by their personal sin). At this point, sin has the advantage of talking second.
Sin (here used as a personification that might be negative influencing friend or an escapist habit) can listen to the hurts of the believer and express compassion for their plight. All of the questions raised are questions against (even if only from confusion) the Christian faith.
Sin can respond with the momentum of these questions at its back. It has the advantage of swimming with our emotional current. The thoughts and emotions of the suffering believer are set us to receive what sin has to say and offer.
This is why we must be able to not only give answers but respond to a person. In cases like these, the response will be more soul-winning (used in terms of discipleship more than evangelism) that the content of our answers.
I think this dynamic is equally relevant when we are talking to broken unbelievers. In these cases, all of the previously discussed advantages of sin are working for the Christian faith. The broken unbeliever is asking questions that are against the old life (looking for a new life).
We can now respond and listen to their hurts and express compassion for their plight. We have the momentum of sin’s broken promises at our back. Their thoughts and emotions are looking for something more solid that what they’ve known.
In many ways, the principle is simple – and therefore easy to forget. We must listen and not lose the person in the topic of the conversation. A conversation happens between two points in a person’s life. We must read the momentum if we are going to effectively influence the direction of the ship.
Posted 1 month ago at 12:21 pm. Add a comment
We know that the betrayal of an affair hurts, but the intensity of the pain, awkwardness of the subject, and crisis-nature of the disclosure often cause us to neglect asking, “What does an affair do that causes it to hurt so badly?” In this post, we will look at three things that an affair does which account for the level of pain it creates.
Shuffles Our Story
Affairs hide and lie. We live in ignorance. While we may not think things are “great,” we have no idea what is actually occurring in our life story. Innocently, we can live a lie for weeks, months, or years. When the facts come to light we look back on our life and don’t know what parts of our memories are true and what parts are fiction.
Before the facts came to light if someone asked you to tell your life story, you could (although it might be a time consuming request). Now you can’t. That is incredibly painful and disorienting. It makes you feel mentally, emotionally, and narratively naked. We make so many decisions based upon where our life going (tracing the direction of our story). When your story gets shuffled, the ability to make decision can feel paralyzed.
Confuses Our Vocabulary
I love you. I’m going to the gym. Every compliment. Every criticism. Every apology. Any reference to the future. Any reference to the past. What do they mean? What did they mean? Do they mean anything? Obviously I missed the message before and I don’t want to miss it again. Every word becomes a riddle.
It is painful to feel forced to live as a constant skeptic in one’s own house for the purpose of self-protection. This is the marital equivalent of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). When language is stripped of meaning, then the currency of relationships has its value removed. We can exchange words, but it doesn’t feel like any transaction is occurring.
Makes Trust Seem Naïve
Home is no longer “safe” for the reasons discussed above, and when home is not safe (a place of rest and replenishing) then the whole world feel more threatening. We begin to believe that only pain and bad news can be true. If I get good news and believe it, I am just being naïve like I was before.
This is the pain of lies. We don’t lie to make things sound worse than they are. So when lies have jolted our world, we begin to believe that everything is worse than we have been told. Common sense is something we gain on the other side of innocence. Now that we are “wordly wise” innocence (expressed partly as trust) it is hard to regain and often feared more than desired.
Where Do We Begin?
This picture sounds pretty bleak. It is. Hope enters a dark place when it returns after an affair. Anything that minimizes this fact gives false hope to the offender and places unwarranted pressure upon the betrayed. There is hope, but hope should not be used to minimize the damage.
So what should the offender do? These points are meant to correspond with the relational damage described above. They both assume that repentance towards God has already occurred and examining the lies and deceitful desires you bought into during the affair.
First, join your spouse where they are. You know what happened; they don’t. Do not speak with a confidence that assumes their world is as certain as yours.
Second, seek to understand their experience. Words will begin to have meaning from you understanding them not them understanding you. You should answer your spouse’s questions (with complete honesty), but trust will build from you understanding them not you giving facts to them.
Third, recognize and honor the faith and risk of trust. This honor will be expressed dispositionally through patience, refraining from self-pity, and not getting defensive. Your spouse will likely be repetitive as they put their story back together (like someone who is grieving). This process is the building of trust and you honor it by not making them walk it alone. You are receiving grace from one who bleeds as they give it. Honor the Jesus you see in them.
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 11:20 am. Add a comment
Click “Practical Atheism Assessment“ for a PDF version of this assessment.
It can be hard to know and even harder to admit if I am living as a “practical atheist.” If I’m a nice guy (or girl) who doesn’t hurt anybody and tries to be fair, it seems awkward to think I am not living as if God existed. After all, doesn’t God want me to be nice and fair?
The 20 questions below are meant to describe what it looks like to live as a “practical atheist.” This term is not meant to be derogatory, but merely to capture what it looks like to live as if God’s existence or involvement is inconsequential to their daily life.
_____ When I do something wrong I try harder instead of repenting.
_____ I have to remind myself to pray outside of crisis times.
_____ My level of hope fluctuates strongly with my circumstances.
_____ I fear the future or get caught up in “what if” thinking.
_____ I demand to see justice when I have been wronged.
_____ I neglect reading my Bible, particularly when life is going well.
_____ My casual conversations rarely reference God or I feel embarrassed when they do.
_____ I take tomorrow (and today) for granted instead of viewing it as a gift.
_____ A primary motivation in my life is to please people and make everyone happy.
_____ When I meet new people I rarely consider if they are saved.
_____ I am more comfortable being friends or socializing with non-Christians.
_____ I do not avoid or try to avoid thinking about what is after death.
_____ I struggle to give cheerfully to God through His church.
_____ My parenting focuses on changing my child’s behavior more than their heart.
_____ My advice to family or friends rarely references God or the Bible.
_____ I tend to think that non-Christians are able to have more fun.
_____ I believe “time heals all wounds” instead of considering how God would redeem my suffering.
_____ I explain things as being “lucky” or I am superstitious.
_____ I take credit for good consequences and feel upset about bad consequences.
_____ I expect my close relationships (spouse, kids, parents) to be able to keep me happy.
There is not a scale for this evaluation. If we try to develop a scale for our awareness of God, then the authentic worship of living continually in the awareness of God degenerates into legalism. Instead of “scoring” this assessment, look at each item you checked and consider it as revealing another opportunity to experience God in the details of life.
If you checked a significant majority of the items, examine whether you have ever truly embraced the Gospel and, thereby, truly know God. Have you viewed your life as desperately needing Jesus’ death to pay for your sin and His resurrection to purchase new life? Have you surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus, committing to follow His teaching and doing whatever He calls you to do? If the answer is no, we at The Summit would love to talk with you about the hope of Christ available to you.
Posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago at 12:22 pm. Add a comment
- A spouse has been unfaithful
- A spouse hides a major amount of debt
- A teenager “borrows” the car and wrecks it
- A friend shares your damaging secret
There are many times when we are called to forgive. Usually the moment when the offense is revealed is a powerful moment. It often feels overwhelming. Frequently, in these times, we can muster up the courage and love to say, “I forgive you and I am willing to do whatever it takes to restore this relationship.”
The time after a statement like that can be trying. We battle with fear, anger, mistrust, shame, and intrusive thoughts. We feel the full battle of redemption. We catch a glimpse of why Jesus had to die on a cross to pay for our sin. Forgiveness is excruciating.
By God’s grace, often the battle lightens. Things become a bit “normal” again. At first that is a relief; a welcomed respite. But then, as our mind and soul recovers, we begin to realize that we are “living as if nothing ever happened.”
When we offend (in lesser ways) the person whom we forgave, we are now the one to repent. Everyday irritants call for patience and grace but we still feel like we have been gracious and patient enough. Our spouse, child, or friend offends us again (in lesser and different ways) and we are called to relate to them independent of the original offense. This is post-crisis forgiveness.
Crisis forgiveness was, in many ways, easier. It was heroic. It was focused. It forced us to our knees in reliance upon God’s strength. Post-crisis forgiveness comes when we are grace-weary. It is mundane. It must cover a multitude of (little) sins, not just one big one. It can easily be distracted by so many things we are trying to catch up on (which we neglected during crisis forgiveness).
Post-crisis forgiveness calls us to appreciate the incarnation as much as the crucifixion. Christ came and lived among us for over three decades. Christ lived in our sin (a fallen broken world with selfish, manipulative, backstabbing friends) in addition to becoming sin for us. Post-crisis forgiveness calls us to emulate this aspect of Christ-likeness as well.
Too often we assume that the restoration process will go directly from forgiveness to peace. However, especially when the offense being forgiven has traumatic qualities, there is a middle stage. If we forget this, we may wrongly assume that we have failed to forgive when we meet these new challenges. Rather, it means that we have moved to a new stage of restoration; from cancelling the debt to restoring trust.
Saying that there is sometimes a middle stage to restoration does not change the necessity or requirements of forgiveness. Nor does it allow the one being forgiven to rush or demand quicker restoration. It does remind us that the Bible is more than a collection of commands. It is a portrait of our complete life experience captured in the person of Christ and with every struggle we face it is a call to marvel and emulate more of His character.
Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 1:25 pm. 1 comment
“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” 2 Cor. 5:11
What is the fear of the Lord? That is a question that is larger than can be addressed in a blog post, but I would like to examine one characteristic of fear that may help us experience more of the fear of the Lord (a good thing).
Fear Feature: 
We tend to focus on and look for what we fear. If someone has a fear of snakes and they walk in the woods, they are looking fervently for snakes. If someone fears rejection, they will listen in every conversation for a negative comment, gesture, or omitted compliment (often hearing one whether it was there or not). If someone fears failure, then each moment is braced against it, asking for some skill or knowledge they do not have (often being paralyzed from doing things they are perfectly capable of doing).
Living in the fear of the Lord then, means to live with a constant awareness of God. What is He doing? What is His will for this situation? How can I express His character in this relationship? How could I please Him in this moment? In this regard, we might say that the opposite of the fear of the Lord is casualness/forgetfulness towards God.
In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul draws a connection between someone’s fear of the Lord and their level of persuasiveness. As we will see in just a moment, Paul was not trying to create the latest, greatest sales technique. Paul was merely putting a reality into words.
The fear of the Lord is the only fear that is not self-centered. All other fears are necessarily self-centered because their ultimate goal is self-preservation. The fear of the Lord begins with denying ourselves and dying to our desires (Luke 9:23-24).
This influences our ability to be persuasive in three ways:
- People are more apt to listen to someone who is not out for what they can gain in a situation. Paul had modeled this in his early preaching in Corinth (1 Cor 9:9-12). He would not allow the Corinthians to give him money for his ministry so that they would know of the sincerity of his message. One good question for measuring trust is, “How much does this person fear God?”
- We are more able to interpret a situation correctly when the lenses of self are not distorting our motives. We tend to see what we fear/trust. If we fear/trust money, we see a profit margin. If we fear/trust acceptance, we see rejection. If we fear/trust power, we see opportunities to get ahead. When we actively fear/trust God, we see things as they really are (rather than through the distortion of our fears). When we do not see things accurately people are confused and turned off by the sense that our words are “off.”
- Finally, when we fear the Lord we do not require a certain response from the other person as personal validation. Their acceptance or rejection of our message (i.e., the Gospel, a biblical way to resolve a particular conflict, a character quality we ask of our children, etc…) is not personal acceptance or rejection. We can then model a kind of social freedom that is sorely lacking in our insecure culture that hyper-personalizes differences.
Posted 1 year, 5 months ago at 12:26 pm. Add a comment
To many vulnerability is a four letter word. To others it is just a scary word. For some it is a word without a meaning. However, being vulnerable is necessary if we are going to love. Love is not safe, because it requires that we give part of ourselves to another free, fallen human being.
With that being said there is both healthy and unhealthy vulnerability; wise and unwise. Unfortunately, no where in Scripture do we get a formal definition of vulnerability with a practical application guide.
As close as we get (in my opinion) is the Beatitudes. In this portion of Scripture Jesus describes key relational characteristics of his followers. This article serves as an 8 day devotional which takes you through each beatitude (one per day) looking at four key points:
- A description of the beatitude
- An examination of the benefits of the beatitude for healthy, wise vulnerability
- Thoughts on how to implement this beatitude in your life to grow in vulnerability
- Reflective questions to help you examine where you are currently in relation to this beatitude
To download the entire article click here.
Posted 1 year, 8 months ago at 12:32 pm. Add a comment
Dealing with Delays (32:1)
Before we throw Israel and Aaron under the bus, let’s ask ourselves, “How well do we deal with delays?” Think about the last several times you got stuck in traffic, had a doctor running behind, or had a kid jump in a mud puddle on the way to church. How was your reaction?
Now think about being stranded on a long journey in difficult terrain wondering if the only guy with wilderness experience (all the others were ex-brick makers) is coming back down the mountain. This was delay multiplied by fear of survival. “We have to do something, don’t we?” must have been the common refrain.
Reflection: Delay is one of the times when we are particularly called to trust in God. Yet it is also one of the times of a great deal of nervous energy and the feeling that “waiting” is just another word for passivity. In what situations have you recently been required to wait? How did you interpret the situation (i.e., a call to patience, a “closed door,” evidence of God’s failure)? How do you see yourself in the Exodus 32 passage and what do you learn?
A Stiff-Necked People (32:9)
Take a moment and stiffen the muscles in your neck. What expressions tend to emerge on your face? What dispositions begin to come to mind? What recent events with your kids, spouse, work, or friends do you remember?
Chances are the themes that emerge are: anger, defiance, battle-of-the-wills, resistance, condescending, etc… God says that is who we are. As a rule that is how we respond to anything or anyone who violates our best wishes – including God. God’s will and our will clash enough that a common description of humanity in Scripture is “a stiff-necked people.”
Application: This week pay particular attention to times when you tighten the muscles in your neck and facial region. Use these bodily responses as a trigger to reflect on your character before God. When you tighten these muscles ask yourself, “Am I loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? Am I loving my neighbor as myself?” When God gives us such tangible alerts to our disposition we should use them personal alarms.
More of God Revealed
(BCH_Exodus_32_handout for Printable PDF Handout)
Exodus 34:6-7 is one of the most revered passages on God in the Jewish faith. Due to their love for the law, this description of God when the law tablets were (graciously) given back to them provides both the content and powerful example of God’s character.
In this passage five aspects of God’s character are revealed. In order to place yourself in the shoes of Israel, consider a time when your sin did or almost cost you something very precious. Allow both the content and context of these attributes minister to your heart.
- Merciful and Gracious – God does not give us the full extent of what we deserve. Even the consequences that we do experience are muted to the degree possible without removing the life lessons necessary to prevent further harm.
- Slow to Anger – Our every moment of non-awareness of God is deserving of God’s offense for trivializing His role in our lives. Yet God is patient with the finiteness of our attention, awareness, and understand… not to mention our actions.
- Abounding in Steadfast Love – God’s love is rooted in the constancy of His character. God’s love is as eternal and unchanging as His nature. God’s love fills the earth and our lives every bit as much as His presence.
- Forgiving Iniquity and Transgressions – Something must be done with our sin. An all-knowing, never-forgetting, just God cannot just look the other way or pretend something never happens. God acts towards sin with forgiveness.
- By No Means Clears the Guilty – With all that has been said of God, He is not a permissive Father. His grace is not cheap; not is it mocked. Our God, with love so tender and hand out-stretched, also has the will and power to right any unrepentant wrong.
As you reflect on these attributes of God, reflect on two things: (1) how these attributes relate to the situation in which they were revealed; and (2) the significance of these attributes for your current life context.
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry”
BLOG POST: “Teachers Equipping Ministers Through Prayer Time“
Posted 1 year, 9 months ago at 5:24 pm. Add a comment
Commands From Freedom (20:2)
It is not natural to associate commandments with freedom, but that is what Exodus 20 is all about. Israel has just been given freedom. God reminds them of their new freedom as He provides the 10 Commandments. Unless we understand this connection between God’s freedom and God’s commands we will run from God in the name of personal liberty.
As human beings made in the image of God, we will worship and we will serve. For us to resist this in the name of “freedom” is like a fish who hates water because it wants to swim on its own terms. God does not take our freedom by giving us commands. His commands define the only environment in which our freedom can be satisfyingly and lastingly experienced.
Reflection: In what ways do you see freedom and commands as opposites? What authority figures contributed to this distortion? How have you made God in the image of those authorities? How would seeing the synonymous nature of God’s commands and God’s freedom increase your trust in God and reliance upon His Word?
A Jealous God (20:5)
God is the only being in existence for whom it is completely right and holy for Him to be self-centered. For God to delight in anything more than Himself would be idolatry. It is God’s mind and will that fill the world with beauty, order, and life. When every eye is upon God and every heart focused upon God the entire world runs without friction, resistance, pain, or sorrow.
For this reason, God is a jealous God. It is for the love and preservation of the world (God’s great masterpiece) that God demands no rivals, imitations, or off-brands. In this seeming contradiction (just like God’s grace and justice), God is both self-centered and other-minded at the same time. He delights in Himself and demands this of the world for the best interest of all.
Reflection: We are not called to be like God in jealousy for self. This can be hard and seem unfair. Imagine a parent and child on a plane. There is turbulence and the air masks have a reason to come down. The most loving thing the parent can do is put on their air mask first. Unless they do, the child is doomed. Once that is done the child can be served. While God does not have any of the survival needs we do, this captures some of the compassion of God’s jealousy.
In Exodus 19 God was reclaiming His children from exile. One of the first things God does with this unruly people was to establish the moral principles of His people. God’s instructions were more than “be nice, treat others well, and don’t get on my nerves.” After laying down 10 foundational laws, God spent three more chapters unpacking and illustrating them (Exodus 21-23).
Christian families need to establish and communicate their moral values. These values need to be well thought out. Notice the structure of the 10 Commandments – numbers 1-4 discuss our relationship with God and have the most detail; number 5 orders the home and has some detail; and numbers 6-10 cover broader social contexts.
Here are suggestions for establishing these types of values within your home.
- Parents should be able to demonstrate how they live out the values and be willing to be held accountable to the values of the home.
- During discipline the infraction should be explained in lights of its violation of the family’s core values. Specific rules may change with season of life, but emerge from the guiding values of the family.
- Occasions of blessing and joy within the family should be times when the effectiveness and “true freedom” of these values are discussed and celebrated.
- As more specific rules are developed (and they will be) time should be taken to show how the specific rule gives wise guidance to the current situation. By this process the values provide a way to teach not only what to think but also how to think.
- Parents should be able to use the values of their home as a basis for evaluating the balanced and complete character development of their children. These discussions between parents allow for discipline and instruction to be more accurate and concise.
As you seek to lead your family into a greater experience of God’s freedom, use these suggestions to evaluate how you use the core values of your home.
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry”
BLOG POST: “Teachers Equipping Ministers Through Prayer Time“
Posted 1 year, 9 months ago at 6:16 pm. Add a comment
Such a Short Time (15:22; 16:1)
You pull out of the drive way on a family vacation and the kids ask, “Are we there yet? How much longer? I’d rather play with the neighbor. I forgot my favorite hat (crying).” That is a small taste of what Moses experienced. Three days into their journey of freedom and Israel was grumbling. 45 days into the journey and they were saying they’d have rather died in Egypt.
It is not just gravity that makes it a short trip from mountain top to valley. Depravity and frail humanity also contribute. After Israel’s first grumbling, God revealed himself as “the Lord, your healer (Exodus 15:26).” Yet hunger shriveled their trust almost as quickly as thirst (not that I am writing with “stone-casting” tone).
Reflection: It is passages like these that make I Corinthians 10:12 come to light (“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”) and approach I Corinthians 10:13 with humility (“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”). Knowing our nature (sinful flesh and frail, finite humanity) let us give thanks for the God who patiently walked with Israel after the Exodus.
That I May Test Them (16:4)
[Side Note: Is it a sign of the times that I initially typed, “That I may text them”?]
This phrase of God testing Israel shows up several times in the book of Exodus (15:25; 16:4; 20:20). We know that God does not tempt (James 1:13). So what are we to make of this and how/when might God relate to us in a similar way?
It is worth noting that each of these “testings” has to do with the expression of faith not the committing of sin (i.e., would they only gather a days portion of manna vs. would they steal food from their neighbor). God was putting Israel in a position to reveal their level of trust and commitment to the Lord. We must take omitted righteousness and missed opportunities to share/express faith as seriously as we do moral violations.
Reflection: Another question is, “Who was the test for? Who needed to see the results?” With a bit of reflection we can easily see it was not the omniscient God who needed to see the results. It was Israel. After each deliverance they surely thought, “We won’t doubt God again.” As you begin to take opportunities for faith as seriously as sin, do not regard them as a pass fail test, but as a thermometer to gain an accurate self-assessment of your current temperature with God.
The Manna Lesson
(BCH_Exodus_16_handout for Printable PDF Handout)
What was the most challenging part of gathering manna? It wasn’t rare like truffles; it didn’t have briars like blackberries; it wasn’t heavy like a watermelon, it wasn’t fragile like a tomato, and there were look-alike poisonous varieties like mushrooms. Gathering manna was hard because it required daily faith in God’s provision.
God provided manna not merely to address hunger, but also grumbling that emerged from a lack of trust in God to provide. Manna not only fed Israel physically, it was intended to grow them spiritually. The spiritual growth was not an effect of being heaven’s bread, but because it required daily dependence without an alternative.
We still live by manna today – God’s daily provision. We just don’t see it as clearly. As you read the manna narrative, consider your greatest fear or insecurity. Is it a matter of survival or fulfillment? If it is only a matter of fulfillment, give thanks… but also learn to apply the manna lesson.
- How has God worked to supply this need or alleviate this fear?
- How do you try to brace against “God not coming through next time”?
- What “gathering manna” responsibilities do you have with this issue?
- Who are you surrounded by with similar needs (Israel was a community)?
- Do your conversations encourage faith or feed doubt and pessimism?
- When are you tempted to complain about God’s method of providing?
- What tangible reminders of God’s faithfulness can you keep before you (Exodus 16:31-34)?
Faith is scary because it is by definition out of our control. As you reflect on the lesson God was teaching Israel with manna in light of your own situation, rest in the fact that “out of your control” is not the same thing as “out of control.”
Posted 1 year, 10 months ago at 6:30 pm. Add a comment
You can guess the age of my children by the title of this post. You may remember the scene I’m about to paraphrase. McQueen lost a race (and the chance to get out of town) to the old, run-down Doc Hudson because he kept sliding out of the turn on the small town dirt track.
Later McQueen has enough humility to ask Doc how to make a fast-speed turn on a dirt track. Doc replies, “Turn right to go left.” McQueen’s humility gives way to this absurd answer (again I paraphrase), “Oh sure! Your answer is as backwards as this small town. I guess this is backwards day. Turn right to go left. Say good-bye if you mean hello. Freeze water to make it boil. That’s great. Sorry I asked. Turn right to go left, Huh?!”
You might be wondering what in the world this could have to do with Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Hopefully it helps us see something significant about the place God calls us to hide His Word – that being our heart. Too often we reduce the application of this verse to “I should memorize more Scripture.” And we should. Personally, I think you ought to know at least one verse for every Bible you own.
McQueen could repeat verbatim what he heard from Doc. McQueen just didn’t believe a word of it. It was backwards and absurd, but quoting it was no problem (it made a great punch line for a joke).
A key part of properly applying Psalm 119:11 is to meditate and practice the verse(s) we are memorizing until they become a part of how we understand our world and actually determine the values by which we live our lives.
How easy is it to memorize (and subtly mock, or at least doubt) verses like Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath,” or Matthew 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,” or Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” or I Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain,” or insert the verse you know but have the hardest time with.
Our goal in applying Psalm 119:11 is like another scene from the Cars movie. McQueen has escaped Radiator Springs and finally made it to the big Piston Cup race (my apologies to all adults who do not currently have small children). He is near the end of the race when his nemesis Chick Hicks bumps onto the inner track turf. McQueen’s tires lose traction and as he skids he remembers “Turn right to go left.” As a much humbled (and therefore wiser) car, McQueen places his life-and-bumper in reliance upon these wise words.
That is the intent of Psalm 119:11. Not that we know the words of God’s book. But that we have so been changed by them that we cast our lives entirely upon them to avoid the ways of destruction. When everything else in our culture would join with us in mocking the absurdity of such archaic phrases, we have forged such a bond of love and trust with their Author that doubt seems more bizarre than faith.
Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 3:27 am. Add a comment
