God Made Me ______ - R

When I was younger, I dreamed of being an athlete. Ripping that game-winning home run. Miraculously catching the touchdown pass in double overtime. Getting a quadruple jump and smugly telling my opponent to "king me."

Then I realized being an athlete is hard and I started playing video games where I can do all those things.

There's something about athletes that just makes us sit in awe of what they can do. In my opinion, one of the most incredible athletes of all time has to be Eric Liddell, and there are many reasons for that. You may not immediately recognize the name, but most people have heard at least some of his story. Liddell is the focus of the movie Chariots of Fire if you've ever seen that. If you haven't, I guarantee you've heard the music from it.

Liddell was a runner, and he had an absolutely amazing career. While attending the University of Edinburgh, he quickly became known as the fastest runner in Scotland. He ran in the 100- and 220-yard races for his school. He went on to win a bronze and a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics before moving to China and becoming a missionary.

The truly amazing part of his career to me, as some of you may remember, is that Liddell completely refused to compete on Sundays as a way to dedicate his life to God. This sounds all fine and well, but it actually almost cost him one of those medals that he won. Liddell was highly favored to win the 100-meter dash going into the Olympics, but the schedule that was released months before revealed that the qualifying heat for this race was going to be held on a Sunday. Coaches and teammates encouraged him to break his rule just this once. They argued that winning this race on an international scale would still bring God glory through his ability.

Liddell refused.

Not content to just sit out, however, he began training for the 400-meter race instead. Though still an incredible athlete, even his best times in this race were modest at best by Olympic standards. He had only a few short months to train (all the while, never running on Sundays). In the end, he won the gold, setting an Olympic record that would stand for 12 years.

This kind of drive and work ethic is almost incomprehensible to me, especially because it involves running, which has been scientifically proven to be the worst. But this all stemmed from the sheer joy and passion with which he ran. In a later interview, Liddell said "God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."

What a weirdo.

There is zero part of me that feels anything remotely close to pleasure when I run, but I think there's an important lesson to be learned from Liddell.

One of the most amazing parts of being a Christian is receiving the transforming work of Christ. In him, we are made into something completely new. But in a sense, we are also made into what we were always meant to become. God had an idea of what he wanted us to be, that we naturally fell short of, which is part of being a human being. But God never scrapped that plan to start from scratch, and he never settled for what we made ourselves into. Instead, he became flesh and sacrificed himself so that we could become the versions of ourselves that he always imagined, one day enjoying perfect communion with him.

I was asked a question a few weeks ago (thanks Zane) that I'm still chewing on. It was posed as a way to do a sort of spiritual inventory check, and I think it's worth thinking about, so I'm going to pass it on to you.

When in the last week did I feel most like myself?

On first glance, I thought this was a much easier question than it turned out to be. But it really gets us to dig at something pretty important. There are moments throughout our weeks where we feel authentic and full of life. There are moments when time slips by us and the moments pass too quickly because we're so engrossed in what we're doing. There are moments that you can point to at the end of the day that made getting out of bed worth it. There are moments when you feel alive.

These are the moments when we're becoming what we were meant to be.

Liddell said that God made him fast, and when he ran he felt God's pleasure. I think this is the perfect model to figure out exactly where God is pointing us. It's a simple matter of fill-in-the-blank.

God made me _______. And when I ________, I feel His pleasure. Your answers here are no accident. This is how God made you. These things are meant to awaken joy in you. And they're meant to bring glory to the one who made you this way.

What are you going to do this week to be more fully you?

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

 - 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

~RJS~

Weak - R

I've been thinking a lot about weakness recently. I can probably thank Kaman Turner for that one since he usually embarrasses me during our morning workouts.

I remember in elementary school thinking I was fairly weak. I was never the fastest. Definitely not the strongest. When we did that fitness testing in fifth grade, I did a whopping total of seven push-ups. As a side note, I'm pleased to announce that after years of dedication and hard work, I can now do nine.

As I've grown up, I've focused a lot more on weaknesses in other areas, specifically as a Christian. Lack of discipline, failures in kindness, the habitual sin that I can't seem to shake, my inability to keep up with this stupid blog that brings me so much joy. I can never seem to focus on much else besides my weakness.

I think there are a lot of ways that you can describe the Bible, but one of the things that I have noticed recently is that the Bible is a humongous story of human failure. Over and over and over again, people get it wrong. Think of literally any Bible character, with the exception of Jesus, and try to find a time when they didn't fail.

You could look at this as disheartening, but I choose to think of it as God's way to tell us, when we fail for what feels like the thousandth time, that we are in very good company. God loves the screw ups! He's crazy about them! He came to die specifically for them. Remember, it's the sick people that need a doctor, and he gets to be that doctor and he loves that!

Even more than that, if we are to take Paul's word for it, our weakness is exactly what God wants.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side,but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.       - 2 Corinthians 4:7-18

I love this passage so much. Go read it again. I'll wait. Read it through the lens of someone with complete confidence that they are a failure. Think of who is writing this. One of the most zealous Christian-killers of the first century. And he's saying that we were made to be weak so that God's power can shine through us. We carry death around in our body with us so that life will be revealed. We waste away every single day to emphasize the renewal that God is performing in our souls.

The Bible is a humongous story of human failure, but that's not what the story is about. It is about human failure pointing back to the God who is infallible. It is about human weakness pointing back to the God who has no weakness. It is about human imperfection pointing back to the most perfect God. God, in his infinite wisdom, does not let the last word ever be our failure. Through his miraculous redemption, the final word is always God's ability. His ability to love a mess like you and me, to make something beautiful out of our lives, and to display his power through our weakness.

You're going to fail this week. You might even feel like a failure this week. Here's what you need to hear. And I know you need to hear it because I need to hear it. You're human. Messing up is part of the gig. But messing up is not the end of the story. God is at work in you, here and now, in the midst of your perfect little mess.

Celebrate your weakness at some point in the coming days. And celebrate the God who is strong in your weakness.

~RJS~