Most of us can relate to the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Occasionally, we’re overwhelmed by all the things that we have no control over. The solution to that is simple: stop allowing things that you can’t control, control you.

Typically, tough, we get overwhelmed by all the things that we are actually supposed to do. The list gets longer and longer, and at some point we don’t even know where to begin.

We’ve heard the saying that elephants are eaten one bite at a time, but that’s a lot of bites of the same thing. It doesn’t take long before that routine loses 4 letters and turns into a rut. A mind-numbing, bland-tasting, cycle-repeating, “table for one” rut.

Every so often, you’ve got to shake up the routine. Write somewhere new. Read a fun book. Order pizza and throw a party with your favorite brainstorming companions and come up with a new plan for how to accomplish all the things.

Just because there are things that we have to do doesn’t mean that only we can do those things. Bring others in. Add a little spice. Blast an elephant-eating playlist and tell stories while you do it about other elephants you’ve all eaten.

Turns out, elephants are still eaten one bite at a time, but they’re eaten a lot faster when more people are taking bites.

We use phrases like “tip of the spear” to describe people and groups of people that go first, especially in dangerous and risky situations.

One website defined it this way:

Traditionally, the term is used by military strategists, tacticians, and historians to describe the sudden and overwhelming use of combat force to pierce an enemy’s first line of defense.

I love that. Maybe you do, too. Honestly, maybe I love the thought of being the tip of the spear more than I like the process of becoming the tip of the spear.

Think about it. A tip is sharp, and the only way it gets sharp is by being narrow. That means that the closer we get to the point, the less is actually around us.

Tips are small, not big (unless we’re talking about the tips believers should be leaving servers, and those should be HUGE!). They’re sharp, not blunt. They have to be that way in order to cut through the enemy’s defense with precision.

Too many believers are trying to win the fight through blunt force trauma. They go around with a bunch of Bible verses, crushing anything and anybody who they consider an enemy. They’re content with casualties if it means they get victories. These are the people who never weep over the lost as they present them with the reality of hell. They work furiously to see heaven on earth, but more so that they can enjoy earth than that others can gain heaven.

People with that type of motivation will never be useful in the end-time army because that army will require an edge that allows for precision. That army will need the stealth that allows it to be wise as a serpent and yet innocent as doves. This is an army who wants to empty hell, so that heaven can be filled. Winning the war with unnecessary collateral damage isn’t an option for them because they serve a Commander who desires that none should perish. They weep when they speak of hell, and rejoice when they talk of heaven.

They run to the enemy because they know that the Lord is on their side, and that no weapon in the enemy’s hands will prosper. They are an army of worshipers, and their praise on the battlefield is more strategic than any plan drawn up in a boardroom. Because they know that they have been formed by the Commander’s, they don’t fear what’s been formed against them by the enemy.

This army is fierce, and focused. She is sharp because she has not run from the crucible where iron sharpens iron and where the living Word cuts deep. She is no longer content with church as usual because she knows that she is called to the unusual. She has been pruned, and now that she has been stripped down, she is ready to stand up and fight.

This is the army that will be at the tip of the spear.

There is a danger facing the church today, and it’s being fed to us by an “either/or” culture. We see it when followers of Jesus promote unity as agreement and uniformity, and surround themselves with others who think like, act like, and look like themselves.

It sounds so good, and yet it’s actually following a play right out of the enemy’s playbook that weakens the body while allowing the body to think it’s getting stronger. When we live in echo chambers, we strengthen our arguments, but we weaken our authority. True authority allows us to listen to and value voices that we may not fully agree with (and I’m talking about various opinions within the faith, not wrong beliefs outside the faith).

In the second chapter of Philippians, Paul suggested what life in the church would look like if we all had the same mindset as Jesus:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. (‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:3‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

If you’re an athlete and meet a professional athlete in your sport, how do you approach him or her? Probably with an open mind and a note-taking app! The same goes for a teacher who has the opportunity to learn from a teacher with longer tenure and great teaching style. I know, as a pastor, I listen to greater communicators than me so I can learn from them and improve my craft.

I’m grieved that the church doesn’t tend to live this out. We get in our camps and tweet quotes from our favorite leaders in our camp. Reformed people quote Reformed leaders. Pentecostal people quote Pentecostal leaders. Prophetic people share the latest zinger from their favorite prophetic leader. Baptists retweet some popular white guy. Non-baptists retweet Beth Moore. And on and on it goes, each camp-driven quote revealing the pride that says our camp knows more than the other camp.

It’s 180 degrees from the command Paul gave to consider others better than ourselves. Translation? When there is a difference in belief or practice, instead of trying to show the “other” side where they missed it, humility would ask that side to show us where we did. What a witness that would be to a world that can’t get along and only sees every issue through either/or lenses!

Approach other believers with a humility that wants to learn more than teach; that wants to be instructed by them more than it wants to deconstruct them.

Not only will your faith grow, but so will the kingdom.