You Can’t Afford It
You Can’t Afford It
The Ferrari 360 Modena. $175,000. Zero to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds. Displacement: 219 cubic inch, 3586cc. Yeah, you probably can’t afford it. All you can do is dream. Take a picture. Imagine. Wonder. Stand in awe.
Then go back to reality. Slip home. Go into the kitchen. Grab a napkin and an orange. Sit at the simple table in your dining room. Slowly peel into the orange as you stare into space – your mind’s eye still fixated on the massive beast of horsepower on the other side of the glass back at the dealership.
“I could sell my ant farm,” you think, “or my stamp collection, or my bicycle, or my…” All your options too lame. Ant farm? What can you get for an ant farm, $10 bucks tops? A mere 10,000th of the cost of the car.
You Can’t Afford It
God has always been. God will always be. Jesus became man, taught, died, rose again. Eternal life. Unconditional grace. Yeah, you can’t afford it. You can’t even come close. All you can do is dream. Take a picture. Imagine. Wonder. Stand in awe.
What’s a statistic in light of infinity?
Then go back home to reality. Grab your napkin and an orange. Stare into space, your mind fixated on the massive beast of grace on the other side of the glass.
“I could work real hard at being nice to others. I could preach the best I know how,” you think, “or I could try to please everyone to get a piece of this grace, or…” All your options too lame. Please everybody? What can you get for pleasing everybody, burnout? A mere tragedy in the face of a loving God. What’s a statistic in light of infinity?
The Real Torque
You tell others that the too-high-a-price has been paid by God on their behalf. You share how he sent his son to earth to live fully human and die fully human so that they can experience this grace for themselves. Yet you stand at the window taking a picture of it and don’t ever enter the showroom and talk to the Owner of the dealership yourself. You push the information out to others but inside you aren’t experiencing the thrill of the ride for yourself.
You are a ministry leader. If you are reading this post and that defines you, here’s the real torque: Start today to accept the gift of massive grace. Start cultivating an intimate and organic walk with Christ. The price is too high, but you can know the Dealer. Don’t let your personal ministry to others stand in the way of your personal walk with Him. You can’t afford NOT to.
Michael Hyatt spoke on being faithful in ministry. It sorta fits with the spirit of this discussion.
http://bit.ly/Ay73GUa
Sorry, that was a bad link. Here’s a good one:
http://bit.ly/Ay73GU
“You push the information out to others but inside you aren’t experiencing the thrill of the ride for yourself.” Wow Scott, in one sentence you’ve nailed one of the greatest challenges facing the North American church- that of leaders ‘selling a product’ of which they have little personal experience.
Great challenge. Great post.
Scott Cochrane recently posted..5 Churches That Could Steal Your Heart
Scott, thanks for the comment. If you have some time this weekend, I have a question for you. Where have you seen leaders succeeding in overcoming this challenge of being an empty vessel of the great message?
Re leaders who have overcome the ‘empty vessel’ challenge, I’d point to the founder of Willow Creek Canada (my predecessor)John Baergen. Since passing the baton to me 3 years ago John has devoted himself to helping to fill the tanks of leaders running on empty. John’s website is http://www.UnwrittenMinistries.com
Scott Cochrane recently posted..Beware of These 5 Seductive Churches
Thanks, Scott. I will definitely look into his work. Sounds like he’s found the calling and obeyed beautifully.
I trust the path he blazed before you is an inspiration to you as you blaze the path this week for others.
This post reminds me of the saying that goes something like “You can’t lead people where you have not been or where you are not.”
Kevin Martineau recently posted..Be-living the Gospel
That’s what I’ve heard too, Kevin. At the same time, I think it’s possible to fake it for a while until you are caught.
I think for most (myself included) that letting go of control can be a major obstacle. It can be scary to trust, to walk by faith.
Only through doing it repeatedly (letting go) can it get easier and easier until you don’t even realize you have let God have the pilot seat. It means daily making a decision to let God lead, it means altering plans as he directs, it means being flexible and it means getting uncomfortable at times.
TC Avey recently posted..Is Life RAINING on you or are you REIGNING in Life?
TC, your quote (“only through repeatedly letting go can it get easier and easier”) reminded me of an excerpt from Richard O’Conner’s book, Undoing Depression:
“willpower is not a character trait doled out at birth, but a set of skills you can learn, like juggling or tennis or typing. Every time you exercise willpower, you make it easier to use next time, because you’re overriding the circuits in your brain that have been reinforcing your weak self-discipline. But if you want to get it written into your brain circuitry, you’ll have to practice every day for a while.”
Sometimes like Thomas I want to see more evidences… more “in the flesh”..
Sometimes hurts and regrets more real to me than God’s presence. So… what is my barrier? Lack of trusting? Than again I can choose, as you said, Scott: “Start today to accept the gift of massive grace. Start cultivating an intimate and organic walk with Christ”.
And I guess I need all of this so I could not only teach people (sell the product), but live so.
Tanya, I’ve heard “sell the product” a couple times since posting this piece. Here’s my take on this dynamic:
I don’t think any of us fully comprehend the massive size of God’s grace. I don’t think we ever will fully. It’s only through the insight of the Holy Spirit that we can see as much as we are capable in this life without exploding.
Once filled with all the fullness of Christ, we touch people with the overflow. We simply explain the difference in our lives when people ask about it. We stay tuned to the Spirit’s wavelength to know when to speak and when to stay silent.
I don’t think of it as selling a product as much as a natural outflow of this massive grace we are given.
Of cause not, Scott, I didn’t mean you think of it so).