Be Still

Be still, is anybody good at that? I'm terrible at it. Even when we went on vacation, our days were filled with things to do, places to see, and a little rest while sitting on a train going to the next place. It's true, Sabbath is a foreign concept to most of us. What is the Sabbath? "Sabbath is not so much about a day off as it is a "day up"-a day to remember that He is God and we are not. Without Sabbath, we forget who we are and lose sight of who He is, leaving us to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. When there is no Sabbath in our lives we become intoxicated by the lie that the sum of our lives depends on our effort alone. We get to the place where we truly believe that the outcome of the story fully depends on us."

After all, remembering the Sabbath is one of the 10 Commandments! "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

So "apparently, Sabbath rest is not just a suggestion for the betterment of your life and mine, but an essential, nonnegotiable command, an intrinsic part of the rhythm of life. Clearly, Sabbath is about ceasing from labor, but at its core Sabbath is about a whole lot more than sleeping in or catching a nap. Sabbath rest is about a state of mind, a deep-seated belief that God is the creator and sustainer of all things-an acknowledgement that He is sufficient and that He can be trusted. Because one of the symptoms of sin is short-term memory loss, we quickly forget that He set in motion the entire universe before we arrived on the scene. We need to get our memories corrected and our trust renewed by stopping long enough to remember that His name is I AM and our names are i am not."

"To remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy is for us to say: Everything doesn't hinge on me. If I stop doing my part, the whole world will not fall apart. I am not in control. God made the world in six days without any input from me, or my assistance. God doesn't need me to accomplish His work. I am little. God is huge. I trust him." We do all of this by being still. "But how do we find stillness when finances are tight, tragedy overwhelms, the kids seem out of control, nations are at war, relationships are strained, and there's just too much left to do at the end of the day? The only place true stillness of the soul can be found on planet earth is in super-close proximity to the God of all Creation."

When we are closest to God, that is when our lives seem the smallest. That is when our problems seem small. "We go to sleep and God goes to work. And we wake up to see what God has done. Oh, we still go to work when we wake up, but as we go we carry the spirit of Sabbath rest with us, believing that we have been invited into an already-in-progress Story in which God was doing just fine long before our little feet ever hit the floor."

If we rely on ourselves, we will never slow down, we will never get enough done, so we will always be busy and stressed. By ourselves, we can't even keep the ten rules God gave to Moses, much less manage everything we need to manage to "run our lives." But "Paul writes of a new mystery when he exclaims, 'It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.' He does not say it's Christ and you that brings the hope of a glorious life, but Christ IN you. In other words, Sabbath is not about God and me operating as a dynamic duo. Sabbath rest is about me realizing that He is the only one capable of doing anything eternal in and through me."

Enjoy the Journey

The Little Leader

Nobody likes to come in 2nd or 3rd, after all, 2nd place is the 1st loser right? We all want to win, to be 1st! Its part of human nature, but its a part that we need to learn to set aside when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. John the Baptist got it. "'Behold!' John cried. 'There's the One we've all been waiting for!' Every head turned to look at Jesus Christ, the eyes of an entire crowd now riveted on one man. But scan the crowd and see if you can find John. Just a sentence ago all eyes were on him. All the attention was his. People hung on his every word. Now he was out of the spotlight, just another face in the crowd with his eyes glued on Jesus. And John seems so content-and even genuinely thrilled-to point people away from himself to one he believed was greater. As the crowd locked its gaze on the Christ, he continued, 'This is the One I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.'"

That is an amazing statement. First of all it takes a little thought to decode it. Jesus came after John on this earth, but in a greater sense He came before John because He is I AM, and has been since the beginning! John was a little leader. "Like John, all little leaders know who comes first in the story. When they do accomplish great things or taste success, they do so with the realization that God had been on the scene for a long, long time, and that He is the source of their vision, gifting, opportunity, creativity, energy, and breath. (No matter where we finish among men, Christ already has a permanent hold on first place.) That's why John was never happier than the day all eyes turned to Jesus.

When I say John was a little leader, "I don't mean he was small in stature or vision or courage, or short on influence. Just that John knew who he wasn't and who HE is. THere's something pretty powerful about knowing who you are-and knowing who you're not. Because John knew his name was i am not, he was free from the seduction of fame, the tyranny of comparison, the delusional current of self-deception, the never-ending scramble to the top of the heap, ego, jealousy, backbiting, and a massively swollen head. And he was free from the ultimate rip-off-holding onto the starring role in a tiny story that was quickly vanishing from view."

In the days and weeks that followed, Jesus' ministry really took off. It got so big that it was making John's disciples jealous. They would complain and they wanted John and Jesus to have a showdown to see who was the best, but John already knew. One day John's disciples were trying to convince him that he should take Jesus on, "And then John uttered the words that pierce the flesh but free the soul: 'He must become greater; I must become less.'" Just think on that for a minute. What could you accomplish in your ministry if that were the theme? "He must become greater, and I must become less."

When we can say that and mean it, our ego and our desires get pushed to the side, and Christ can be glorified. Until we become little leaders, we cannot glorify Christ, we will only glorify ourselves. Until we become little leaders, we are clinging to the starring roles in the tiny stories of us. "In John's mind he wasn't losing his people to a bigger ministry. He was just doing what he came to do-holding wide the door for the arrival of heaven's King." That is what ministry is about. It's not about numbers, it's not about making the most people happy, it's not about making a name for yourself. It's about becoming a little leader and holding the door wide for heaven's King. Are you ready?

Enjoy the Journey