Dear Good Shepherd and friends,
I've been thinking about the transitions we're all dealing with as fall approaches.
Each new fall brings with it a turn in the road. Every child enters a new grade in school. Parents transition back into school-year rhythms. Schedules. Homework. Extra-curricular stuff. Driving people places. There are also uncertainties and challenges. This fall, there are uncertainties and challenges and transitions that go well beyond the normal ones we're used to each fall.
With any new school year, there are things about it that bring anxiety, fear, nerves. Some students dread the classroom. Some can't wait. With entering into new grades, some will no doubt be anxious. It's part of life. And, while we might think they're used to it, that going back to school in the fall is no big deal, that they've done it before, it still might be unnerving for them.
For some adults, the change from summer into fall might bring a busier schedule. Perhaps less family time. We're not sure how the school situation will shake out. What if things change for the worse? And harvest is coming. That brings its own craziness. We can get caught up in the hectic stuff, and before we know it our world is spinning and we can't get a handle on it.
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With changes and uncertainties, like turns in a winding road, we can't always see or know what's around the curve. With the extra challenges, anxieties, and stress that is all around us, navigating the turns in the road becomes even more sketchy.
In times of change or transition, sometimes we can forget that God has called us to be part of something bigger. As Paul says, "We don't live for ourselves and we don't die for ourselves" (Romans 14:7-8). Our lives are central to God's purposes in this world. God made us so that God's goodness would be known through our lives. This is the point of existing in the first place.
Our culture will say in tough times that the strong "rise up." Implied is that we rise up ourselves. That somehow we dig down and try harder and be stronger. We see ourselves as lone fighters who need to be strong.
I can't think of a more unhealthy attitude. It only asks more of us, when frankly there isn't anything more to give. If we can't "rise up" then we are failures. It only causes more stress and anxiety and a sense of despair. And we'll burn out. It's happening to people everywhere. And this way of approaching things completely forgets that we are not alone and we do not exist for ourselves.
The hope of Jesus says differently. It says not "rise up" on your own strength. It says, "Let God's strength rise up in you."
As followers of Jesus, our purpose is not to "rise up" and face our own giants. Such is the product of the individualistic, lone fighter mentality of American culture. This was the problem in the story of David and Goliath, and sadly through our cultural lenses we've co-opted the story to make it fit our individualistic "rise up and fight" thinking.
In this story, the Israelites had a perception problem. They thought Goliath was challenging them, and that they had to fight the battle. This is why they failed. They couldn't match what they were facing, even if they called up their strongest of fighters.
David saw it differently. He wasn't fighting his battle. Goliath wasn't threatening him. It wasn't about him at all. It was about God. Goliath was challenging God, and it was God through David who would respond. David and Goliath is NOT as story about facing your giants. It's a story about God showing up through the young David to face threats to God's purposes.
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As God's people, as people who call Jesus "Lord," let me invite you to face our present and future challenges differently. Consider that the challenges we face are not simply challenges to us and our lives, to our identity, to our own sense of purpose and meaning. This is because we are not isolated, lone individuals. We don't live for ourselves. Like David, our lives are part of God and God's mission for this world. The challenges, uncertainties, and anxieties that come at us are challenges to God's goodness and God's purposes for his goodness to radiate through our lives.
However we respond to the challenges, the main thing to be thinking is: "how will God work for his goodness through my life?"
David knew this. He knew that the challenge was not to his or the Israelites' ego or status. It was a challenge to God's purposes. And God will rise up, often through the most unexpected ways -- even through our perceived weaknesses. Because he knew that God would rise up, David, the smallest boy in the group, was not afraid to face Goliath. Nothing was at stake for David. It wasn't David fighting, and it wasn't his battle. It was all God.
Perception problem fixed.
Goliath was real. Our challenges and uncertainties and anxieties are real. But when we're too focused on the uncertainties and challenges, and especially too focused on them as just "our" problems that we have to deal with alone under our own power, we have the same perception problem that the Israelites did. And we'll fail or run ourselves ragged when we just don't have to.
Don't forget that you exist as part of God's mission in the world. You don't have to muster the strength because overcoming the challenges does not depend on your ability to rise up on our own. It's not your battle or challenge to your ego, purpose, or happiness that's at stake. It's God's purposes that are at issue. God will rise up. Find your purpose and meaning in God's mission of goodness. That's what matters most. You can refocus and see things more clearly and have peace because we know that God will not fail.
Usually it's our fears or attempts to do it on our own that actually get in the way of God's goodness. We know the uncertainties and challenges are never bigger than God, and God's purposes will come through somehow. But we have to be willing to let go of our own ideas of what facing the challenges looks like and let God steer the ship.
Because of God's Spirit in us we can face the challenges, even in our weakest times.
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So take a step with this. Take time to acknowledge the challenges before you right now. Somehow get them out, whether you write them down or express them to your spouse, family, or a friend.
Ponder...how is this challenge a challenge to God's goodness working through my life or to God's goodness the world? How can I change my perspective to see my experience of this challenge from a bigger perspective related to God's mission for the good of my life and this world?
Remind yourself and those near you:
- God is with you. Trust that God will rise up for his good purposes in your life (I know it's hard to do. But it is so freeing)
- Take time to pray for your and other's challenges, uncertainties, and anxieties
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