Monthly Archives: October 2009

Dt. Dew and Everything Gummy

Oct 5, 2009 7:01 am by Paul Jenkins in Evotions, Running

Philippians 3:13-14
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize…

One night as I was saying good-night to Parker and Will, I asked if they wanted to get up early the next morning and run with me (of course, I knew they wouldn’t, because I was getting up at 5 am and that’s just ungodly for 11 year-old boys on a Saturday). They asked how far I was running and after I said 11 miles, Parker asked me how I was able to run that far.

“Oh, I just pretend someone’s chasing me!” I replied. He thought about that for a minute and then said something to the effect that I should instead run like my favorite things were waiting for me at the finish line.

“You like Diet Mountain Dew, right, Dad? You should pretend that a bunch of that is at the finish line.”

“Yeah!” Will chimed in. “And lots of gummy stuff because you like everything gummy.”

Pretty brilliant stuff came out of my boys that night, and Paul would agree with them. It is always so much better when we’re running to something rather than from something. We live in a world of runners. Sure, maybe not physically, but spiritually and emotionally we’re all running.

Some of us are still running from failure, or from a bad relationship. How about people that run from church, or run from a bad job? The problem is that if we’re spending all of our energy trying to get away from something, then we’ll never have any energy to spend in the pursuit of the great things that God has waiting for us. What has He called you to? You can’t really run towards that until you’ve closed the chapter on what you ran from.

Perhaps you need forgiveness to really let go of what you ran from. Maybe you need to forgive. Whatever it takes, though, it is time to let the hope of a future prize be the motivation for your run, and not the regret and bitterness of what was at the starting line.

Diet Dew and everything gummy are waiting for me. What waits for you?

How to Get Famous

Oct 2, 2009 7:52 am by Paul Jenkins in Evotions

1 Samuel 4:1
And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.

A lot of people want to be famous and they’ll do anything to get there. Need proof? Outside of the overwhelming popularity of shows like “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent,” a quick look at the number of stupid videos on YouTube that hope to go viral is enough to convince any of us that fame is a carrot for a bunch of people. One of the fastest growing genres of video on YouTube is school fighting, and everyone hopes their fight is seen a million times.

Here in my region, Charlotte has a show called “Gimmie the Mike” and it’s a local “American Idol” wannabe competition. I think the name says it all – if you want to be famous, grab the mike and show us what you’ve got. Be confident, be aggressive, and be better than everyone else (or at least look better, right?). It’s not so much that it’s a bad thing, but I think there’s another way to a life of significance, and it seems that Samuel found it. All we have to do is trace his steps backwards to see what he did that led to the place where everyone listened when he spoke.

Before he spoke to a nation, he spoke to one. Verse 18 of chapter 3 says that he told Eli everything the Lord had revealed to him, that he hid nothing from him, even though the word about Eli wasn’t good news. You know, it’s easy to think about telling the truth to a big crowd of people that we really don’t know, but if we’re going to someday tell a lot of people the truth, then we’ve got to first be willing to tell the truth to the few that we love the most. Do we?

Take a few more steps backwards with me and you’ll see that before Samuel spoke to one, he learned to listen to One. Verse 10 shows us the end of a process in which Samuel learned to hear the voice of God, and it’s kind of a no-brainer that we can’t speak to anyone if we’ve not learned to hear what to say.

One last step backwards – perhaps the biggest step of all – and we’ll learn the foundation that led to fame for Samuel: he served. Way back before there were crowds, before there was a word spoken to him from God and before he spoke that word to Eli, back in the day when people didn’t hear or see a lot about God, there was a boy serving. Verse 1 says that Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli, and if we want to find significance in the kingdom, we’ve got to serve, too.

How do we get famous? Who cares. Why would we settle for something as temporary as fame when we can find lasting significance in the kingdom of God? Of course, to do that we’ll need to stop grabbing the mikes and start grabbing the broom.

Perhaps if we video it, it could go viral.

More concrete, please.

Oct 1, 2009 7:04 am by Paul Jenkins in Evotions

Ephesians 6:13
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Have you ever noticed what most people do when they get tired? Yeah, they quit. They say things like “I was just happy to be here” or “You can’t win every time” or “Pass the chips and salsa.” Okay, they probably don’t say that last one, but you get the point. But not champions. Champions don’t say things like that when they get tired of the battle. They say different things, and usually to themselves in a way that makes them look like crazy people.

“Okay, this is why you trained,” or “Nothing’s gonna stop me now,” or the one that applies the most to this passage…

“It’s time to dig down deep.”

I’ve always read this verse and thought it sounded crazy because they way we typically think is more like “and after you have done everything, wrap it up!” The concept of still standing even after you’ve given everything you have to give is very foreign to most of us. It’s almost like it isn’t what humans do, and isn’t that the point? This passage isn’t talking about standing in our own strength at all. Paul encourages us to put on the full armor of God – every last piece – so that we can stand. There’s more to it than that, though, and I think that’s where most of us miss the obvious.

Football gear on a child doesn’t protect the kid from NFL linebackers.

The gear is good, but without the foundation to support it, we’re sitting ducks against the enemy.

Jesus told the crowd in Matthew 7 to build their faith on a strong foundation like a builder puts a house on a rock. It’s the rock that holds us in the storm, and it’s the strong roots that have grown deep that allow us to stand even after we’ve done everything else and there doesn’t seem to be anything left.

So dig deep. Fill the holes around your feet with as much concrete as you possibly can. Strengthen your faith so that the armor completes you instead of compensates for you.

And stand.