Why do people settle for mediocre when God offers so much more? It might be that we think it’s too hard to live a life worthy of God. But why would Paul pray that the Colossians would "live a life worthy of the Lord" (Colossians 1:10) if it wasn’t possible to do so? Richard Lucas puts it this way: “It is inconceivable that God should forgive the past, and then send us back incapable of living a new life. Pardon without deliverance would be a mockery, and it is never so contemplated in the New Testament.” In other words, it is not in the character to forgive your past and then send you off to face the future alone. Some people opt for mediocrity because they think pursuing excellence is too costly. Their reasoning is that it will cost them time, effort, and perhaps even money. It’s actually the opposite.…
Read More
If you had only six months left to live, would you do what you are doing now? Would you live the way you’re living now? Admiral Hyman Rickover was in charge of the original development of naval nuclear propulsion. He was known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy.” He was also known for his tough interviews. One of things he especially wanted to know was how candidates would act under stress. He kept a chair in his office that had a few inches sawed off the front two legs. When a candidate sat down, they would immediately be off-balance. His theory: If you can't handle sitting in an awkward chair, I'm not going to put you in charge of a nuclear submarine. Former President Jimmy Carter once interviewed with Admiral Rickover for a position. He tells the story in his autobiography entitled, Why Not the Best: The First Fifty…
Read More
If you drink enough bad coffee, you’ll eventually get used to it. Even worse, if you've never known good coffee, you'll grow up believing that the bad is actually good. Or, maybe you'll just say: "It's not great, but it's good enough." Few people attain great lives because it’s really easy to settle for a good life. For a good enough life. Is that what God wants for you? It's not. Not only does he want so much more for you - he can do so much more for you. ---------- For Further Reflection ---------- Rise Above: How to Go Faster, Farther, & Higher in Your Faith Point of No Return: Tackling Your Next New Assignment with Courage...
Read More
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:6-8 While we might readily acknowledge that we are powerless to change our condition and that we were indeed ungodly, we struggle to admit the third truth - that we were sinners. I may make a few mistakes but I’m not a bad person. It’s why we can sing Amazing Grace without really thinking about the words … “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” None of us like to think about how wretched we are. We’d rather live in the self-delusion that compared to others we…
Read More
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:6-8 What does it mean to be ungodly? It's really not all that complex. It simply means to be unlike God. But it does go deeper than that. Imagine a child wandering into The Louvre in Paris with a Sharpie and drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa. What would you call that? A mistake? A felony? One appropriate word would be desecration. At its core, desecration is a failure to respect a masterpiece, to not respect or uphold what is sacred. From the earliest pages of Scripture we learn that we are…
Read More