Crosswalk.com--The Devotional

[Judy Harder]

September 17, 2010

Care Casting 
Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com Managing Editor

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:5-7, KJV

Peter was a fisherman. It's little stretch to imagine that his livelihood affected his ministry and his writings. At least, that's what I notice when I read one of his most-quoted verses, the one about "casting" our cares.

The word Peter uses here for "cast" is a less-usual one. The only other time the word epirrhipto is used in the New Testament is in Luke 19:35: "they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon." Epirrhipto means "to throw upon, or place upon."

Keep that in mind now as you imagine...

You are Peter. You're in a boat, afloat upon a vast body of water. Your method of fishing is not the rod-and-reel. Instead, you have this tangled, twisted mass that is your net. It's heavy, burdensome. Hard to work by yourself. Even so, you take this soggy, cumbersome thing... and you fling it away from you. Give it up. Let it fall trustingly upon the sea. Leave it to Providence.

The net represents your "cares," your anxieties... whatever is weighing you down. Don't carry it in your boat; that's not what it's for. Believe it or not, it has a purpose. That is, your own twisted mass of cares exists for the sole reason of trusting it to the very mighty arms that are supporting you.

And what happens then?

Well, let's check in on those cares. Go ahead, haul up the net. Chances are, it may just be full of fish. Has the simple act of tossing away your cares brought an abundance back upon you? Did humbly offering your net up to the one keeping you afloat bring back a yield of met needs? What would have happened if you had kept hold of that heavy mass and fretted over it yourself in your little boat? Yeah, nothing.

What's got you in a tangle? Finances? Marriage? Singleness? A dried-up spiritual life? All of the above?

Let it be so. Take that twisted thing from off your shoulders and huck it out upon the ocean. You can trust God. This is your act of submission, surrender. Peter tells us this is a path of humility. Admit that all your net-mending isn't doing a thing to bring in any fish, you fisher of men. So really chuck it out there. Let it land upon Him. And don't even ask why, because Peter tells us why: God cares for you. You are His own "care." He will bear you up for His own purposes.

And when He calls you to check in on those cares again, just be prepared for what comes to the surface.

The very things that entangle may become a snare for blessing and sustinence instead when given to the Lord.

Intersecting Faith & Life:  Have you ever handled a real fisherman's net? I haven't, but I intend to get my hands on one and see just how big, mended, and heavy it is. To see how it works. To ask how one knows where to set it down in the water, and how many fish it can bring up. Make a net of your own cares and anxieties and physically fling it out upon God's ocean of grace.

Further Reading


Getting Acquainted with Peter

[Judy Harder]

September 20, 2010 

Restoring Authentic Joy 
Alex Crain, Editor for Christianity.com

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."
Psalm 51:12

Decades ago, Schaeffer walked with his students in the rarefied air of the Swiss Alps and applied Christian theology to all of life. While the alpine option with him is no longer available to us, we can still follow his trail of thought through the books he left behind.

In her book, L'Abri, Edith Schaeffer wrote that her husband Francis was a man who wanted his life and work to be "a living demonstration of the existence of God," and it most notably was. But prior to the time of his most fruitful ministry years in post world war II Europe, Francis went through a period of severe crisis in which he felt he had to honestly address the lack of genuine joy in his life. What came out of that crisis is the content of his book, True Spirituality.

Assuming that you share Dr. Schaeffer's desire to live a life of authentic joy, let's look at some of the foundational things he learned that he shares in True Spirituality.  These are really the first things we need to be clear about concerning what it means to be a Christian:

We were created for fellowship with God, but there is a barrier in that God has a character. He is a holy God. We are sinners by nature and by choice.
We cannot breeze past these facts, but ponder them. Before we can become Christ followers, we must acknowledge our alienation from God and that we have real guilt deserving death and hell, not just guilty feelings requiring a therapeutic faith solution.
Only the finished work of Christ upon the cross as the Lamb of God—in history, space and time—is enough to remove our true moral guilt so that we can be brought into fellowship with God.
We must not attempt to add anything on our part to the finished work of Christ.
The only instrument for accepting that finished work of Christ upon the cross is faith alone.
On this last point about faith, Francis Schaeffer then goes on to discuss what the Bible actaully means by faith:

a.       Faith is not a leap in the dark—trying to believe in something that you doubt is true.

b.       Rather, faith is...

believing the specific promises of God,
no longer turning your back on them,
no longer calling God a liar by suppressing the testimony of Scripture, attested by history
but raising the empty hands of faith
and accepting that finished work of Christ as it was fulfilled in history upon the cross. 
This is sufficient for today and every day. Schaeffer's recap of the gospel—how we can be right with God in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone—provides that which is absolutely essential not only to the initial discovery of joy, but the ongoing recovery of it every day. The gospel is utterly foundational to authentic Christian living and it must be personally rehearsed again and again in all of its dimensions.

One gospel resource that resonates with Schaeffer's recap here is a book called A Gospel Primer for Christians by Milton Vincent. It is amazingly helpful for reviewing the deep truths of the gospel every day. For instance, this past Sunday, I shared the following excerpt with our congregation at the close of the service:

The gospel reminds me first that what I actually deserve from God is a full cup churning with the torments of His wrath (Rev. 14:10). This cup would be mine to drink if I were given what I deserve each day (Psalm 75:. With this understanding in mind, I see that to be handed a completely empty cup from God would be cause enough for infinite gratitude. If there were merely the tiniest drop of blessing contained in that otherwise empty cup, I should be blown away by the unbelievable kindness of God toward me.

That God has, in fact, given me a cup (Psalm 23:5) that is full of "every spiritual blessing in Christ" (Eph. 1:3), and this without the slightest admixture of wrath leaves me truly dumbfounded with inexpressible joy... Life's blessings, however small, always appear exceedingly precious when viewed against the backdrop of the wrath I deserve.
(pp. 47-48 A Gospel Primer for Christians, Milton Vincent)

Let's walk on now and be daily restored to authentic joy in the good news of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).

Intersecting Faith & Life: 

How blown away are you by the blessings of God in your life?
What is the reading on your authentic joy meter?
How central to your life is the habit of daily rehearsing the gospel?

Further Reading
Ephesians 2
John 6:68

[Judy Harder]

September 21, 2010

The Great Middle School Egg Drop
John UpChurch, Editor, Jesus.org

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
(Matthew 5:8, ESV)

The great middle school egg drop turned out to be a dud—at least for me. I got sucked into the concept, the prepubescent glory of it all. I blame the deceptively simple premise: Take one chicken egg—brown or white, the color didn't matter. Contrive a way to cram said egg into a small box such that when the box was thrown from the roof of the school, the egg didn't break.

There may have been some limitations about just what stuffing materials could be used, but I don't remember them now. I do remember my own expectations of crushing everyone else with my ingenious contraption. For my world-beating, shell-protecting design, I decided that all any egg really needs to avoid breakage are rubber bands and pillow stuffing. I simply needed to suspend the egg in the middle of the box with the rubber bands and surround it with as much stuffing as would fit.

Let me just say that an egg is not a cooperative subject in a bid for middle school domination. After an hour or so of frustration, I finally got the little thing to stay connected to the rubber bands (much tape was involved). That lasted only until I began surrounding it with a white cocoon of pillow innards, which yanked the tape free.

Finally, after spending a whole afternoon taping and cramming, my egg drop masterpiece came together. Although no cheering crowds greeted me when I got off the bus the next day, it was only because they didn't know about my creation. Soon, they would know and be amazed.

That afternoon, an intrepid teacher scaled a tall ladder and hauled all the entries to the roof of the school. I don't remember how many entries there were, but it took a while to chuck them off and check the results. When my name was called, I waited expectantly for the moment of triumph. So many others had splattered in failure—and even the ones that had survived were certainly not as amazing as mine.

Finally, my box arced into the air and thudded into the dirt. Nothing oozed out. This was good. When the ground crew picked up the box and pried it open, I smiled—until they said those horrible words: "It's broken."

Because of all the tape and stuffing, the egg guts had been contained by the cellophane and fuzz. But all my work and frustration couldn't keep the shell from taking the brunt of the blow. I'd merely kept the gore from showing on the outside. My chance at self-made glory rose and died in a single thud.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Since those heady middle school days I've learned a thing or two. First, use duct tape. Second, and most importantly, no amount of human contriving or planning or ingenuity can fix something that's fundamentally imperfect on the inside. Two layers of protection shielded my egg—three, if you count the box. But the shell still broke and all the slimy innards oozed out.

After middle school—and, yes, there was life after such a horrible embarrassment—I tried my best to build a beautiful white wall around my life with the words "I'm a good guy" plastered on the outside. Eventually, Christ allowed me to test that barrier when I plummeted to the ground of depression. My carefully constructed façade didn't work because the inside was rotten. In other words, the egg broke.

The only real way to be made strong on the inside is through the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit. And that first involves God scrubbing us clean to make room. When trials come and we find ourselves hitting the dirt, we no longer have to worry about what will seep out. His preparation and His work in us make the core—the heart—pure.

Further Reading

Romans: Cornerstone of Christian Living

When There's Strife, There's Self: In Pursuit of Radical Humility

[Judy Harder]

September 22, 2010

Shadows and Quicksands

Laura MacCorkle, Crosswalk.com Senior Editor

O God, The Eternal All, help me to know that
all things are shadows, but Thou art substance,
all things are quicksands, but Thou art mountain,
all things are shifting, but Thou art anchor,
all things are ignorance, but Thou art wisdom.


The Valley of Vision:  A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions
Arthur G. Bennett, Editor

I've felt distant from God lately. Not again.

Spending time in shadows and quicksands can do that to you. They can make you feel stuck and lost. But I don't always know that I'm in a place that's shifting or that I'm spending my time on that which is ignorant ... until I start paying attention to my condition. 


Recently a friend mentioned how Scripture was coming alive to her and how she was enjoying digging in the Word during this season of life. When I heard that, I realized that I hadn't felt that way in quite a while. Where is the joy of my salvation? And why am I not finding peace in my life right now?

The answers are this: I've been spending my time elsewhere and not looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. I've been in places, in activities and in thoughts that are keeping me away from the light and keeping me mired in entanglements.


But what are or easily can be the shadows and quicksands in my life? I'll start with what I can see: family, home, job, hobbies, possessions, church, ministry opportunities, social activities, volunteering, and so forth. And then there is that which is unseen: hopes, dreams, obsessions, idols, jealousies, insecurities, anxieties—to name just a few. 


It is so easy to "live" and get "stuck" in these types of things. They suddenly become our whole world. And sometimes what are blessings or good things in our lives can quickly become something which we mishandle or view in unhealthy ways. Not everything is inherently wrong in and of itself. But it is how we approach what is in our lives, how we prioritize, and how our perspectives can keep us away from knowing and focusing on what the puritan prayer so eloquently stated:


But Thou art substance ...  but Thou art mountain ... but Thou art anchor ... but Thou art wisdom.

It's a slippery slope into shadows and quicksands, but God's Word gives me footholds and that which I can cling to when my feet give way.


I think David must have felt the same way as he struggled in his faith walk, to


Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long ... Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way ... For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him ... My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare (Psalm 25).

So where is your focus today? Are you stuck in the quicksand of your career? Or are you living in the shadows of whether or not your children will do well in school this year? Maybe you're mired in the drama of a relationship or you're lost in the dashing of a dream you've hoped would come true. 


Remember, you don't have to stay in shadows and quicksands. You can be moved. And you can be delivered. 


Intersecting Faith & Life:  Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle of it. In the first column, list out the words that exemplify the very nature of God. And then in the second column, record what is going on in your life right now (people, situations, struggles, achievements, thoughts, dreams, etc.). Which column ultimately brings you more joy, more peace and more focus? And which column contains that which is leading you astray or blocking your humility and surrender to the Lord? 

Further Reading

Micah 6:8
Matthew 7:24-27
Hebrews 12:1-2

[Judy Harder]

September 23, 2010

When I Grow Up

Katherine Britton


"Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, then we will live and also do this or that."
James 4:15

"You can be anything you want when you grow up, sweetie."

My parents profoundly ignored that phrase when I was growing up. I never heard them say those words, although the self-esteem trend was certainly making its way through the schools and Saturday morning cartoons. That's not to say that they told me the opposite or never encouraged my efforts. On the contrary, my mother carted me to iceskating practice, art lessons, piano lessons, debate club, and even soccer (for one pathetic season). She pushed me to do my best at whatever activity or homework assignment came my way, because it was a matter of "doing all things for the glory of God." And that's exactly why she and my father never told me I could be anything I wanted when I grew up.

My parents knew better.

Instead of the infinite-potential catchphrase, they would tell me things like, "If God wants you to be a concert pianist, then you will be," or "God gave you this talent for a reason, so we're going to cultivate it." That took the focus off of what I "wanted to be" and onto how God had gifted me. For that reason, my mother pushed me into writing tutoring even though I absolutely hated it at the time. I certainly had no intentions of being an editor when I grew up. Little did I know.

Can we really be anything we want when we grow up? The famous verses in Proverbs suggest otherwise. "In his heart a man plans his course," says Proverbs 16:9. Sure, I can make plans to be anything I want. "But the Lord determines [my] steps," as the verse concludes. My parents understood this from their own crazy life stories. So they told me not about my endless potential, but about God's ability to take me to places unknown and undreamed of.

I laugh inwardly when people ask me where I want to be in five or ten years, because Heaven only knows where I actually will be. Besides, I'm still inexperienced in all this career and marriage stuff, and still figuring out my goals. How comforting it is to know that it's my responsibility to cultivate the little talents I have and let God decide where to take them.

Even at this point in my life, I can look back and see the long line of events, circumstances, character-building chances (oh boy!), and opportunities that I couldn't have orchestrated myself. I see now that I couldn't have been anything I wanted. Instead, I have become - and will become - whatever God wants me to be. After all, He knows me more intimately than I know myself. He knows exactly how I can serve His kingdom best. Yes, that's what I want to be when I grow up.

Intersecting Faith & Life:  "If the Lord wills, then we will live and also do this or that." Are we aware just how fully dependent we are on God? Does this give us comfort? Or does it scare us that we control so little of our lives? Are you excited to see where God will take you, or afraid that His plan will be different from your own? It all comes down to a single question: are we willing to surrender our plans for His glory?

Further Reading

Psalm 119:35

Jeremiah 10:23

Can I 'Do All Things'? Examining Philippians 4:13

Why Potential Doesn't Equal Success

[Judy Harder]

September 24, 2010

Be Still 
Sarah Jennings, Crosswalk.com Family Editor

Be still and know that I am God. (Ps. 46: 10)

The affairs of God are accomplished little by little and almost imperceptibly. The Spirit of God is neither violent nor hasty. -- St Vincent de Paul

The past several weeks have been filled with jam-packed schedules -- a never ending stream of noises, technology, and motion. It seems the older I get, the more those lazy summer days of childhood feel like fairy tales from another life.

If you're American, you're probably just as busy if not busier than I am right now. We're a country filled with activity. Studies show we're some of the most sleep-deprived people in the world. We work long hours, come home to more work (completed with the television blathering on in the background) before collapsing into bed to repeat the process again the next day.

Why do we live such frantic, hyper stimulated lives? Sometimes it's out of a sense of obligation - we feel it's a sin to say "no" so we overextend ourselves trying to fill the roll of Savior for everyone around us. Sometimes our frenzied lives stem from a sense of inadequacy - "If I work hard and accomplish such-and-such, I will have value." Sometimes it's a mode of escape - burying ourselves in work or in a TV program keeps our minds off life's disappointments. And sometimes we've just lost sight of our priorities, defaulting to the heightened pace of the culture around us, unaware that we've let our down time slip away little by little.

Regardless of why we're living in the fast (and loud) lane, deep down we all know we need to get out of it. Our souls crave peace, stillness, and silence. And even if we can ignore the cries of our souls for awhile, our bodies demand it when they eventually wear out.

Why do we crave that stillness? It seems the "noise" of life is more often man-made than God-ordained. In Scripture we see that time and again, God calls us to find peace in Him, to lighten our burden with Him, to set aside our anxieties and meaningless business. We see God speak to the prophet Elijah through a "gentle whisper" and tell an anxious Martha that her sister Mary chose the "better" part when she abandoned household duties to sit at Jesus' feet. (Luke 10: 41-42)

After a long day of running here and there, I find myself longing to be peaceful Mary whose only job is to be with Christ. So how can we become more like Mary when the vast majority of us more closely resemble worried Martha? I love the opening Scripture verse -- it's so simple, it cuts through all the junk clanking around in my brain. Be still.

In the midst of the activity surrounding her, Mary made a simple choice. To sit and be still. You and I can make that simple choice too, even when life seems to be pressing on all sides. It may be awkward at first - we may be tempted to grab for the remote or cut our time with God short. But by seeking stillness we are effectively saying, "Nothing else is as important to me as You at this moment, Lord." When I've spent time at our local Adoration chapel - a place void of constant noise and movement - I find I am never sitting in an empty room doing "nothing" but a place filled with God's presence and love, a place I can truly know God.

Intersecting Faith & Life:  Visit a local chapel this week where you can sit, reflect and be alone with the Lord for one hour.

Further Reading

Luke 10: 38 - 42
1 Kings 19

[Judy Harder]

September 27, 2010

What are You Drunk On?
Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com Managing Editor

And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others were mocking and saying, "They are full of sweet wine."
Acts 2:12-13

"These men are not drunk, as you suppose," Peter told the bewildered crowd at Pentecost. "This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel." The Holy Spirit had been poured out, and I've always found it fascinating that its effects could be mistaken for the pouring out of, shall we say, less holier spirits.

To be sure, the Bible instructs Christ-followers to be "sober-minded" (1 Cor. 15:34, Titus 2:6). And there's honor and maturity in a steadfast, stoic reaction to life's trials. But then there's this fantastic scene in Acts that just fills me with tiny bubbles of delight. There's so much joy and power and overflowing involved with the Holy Spirit, that sometimes, well, we Christians just seem a little bit crazy. Flipped-out. Punch-drunk. Downright giddy.

And who wouldn't like to see more of that side of us these days?

Reflecting on this kind of Spirit-trusting, God-leaning fun reminds me of my three summers as a Christian youth camp counselor. The labor was hard but not in vain. The purpose was evident. The craziness was everywhere. "Go nutso-picasso," our Director would say, and show these kids that being a Christian isn't some droll, fun-killing existence, but something real, life-giving, sustaining, and joyous.

And indeed it was, and is. My closest friends and I had an odd high school experience, in that we had a hard time understanding why our peers found it so fun and/or necessary to involve alcohol - illegally, even - in their weekend plans. We were having more laughs and fun than we could imagine without any drugs. What were we filled with? Why didn't we need anything else?

Later, when I worked at camp, one of the things we would do is create a video of each week for the students to take home with them. One of the features on each week's video was a "blurb" from one of the counselors, an off-the-cuff, from-the-heart snippet of encouragement. I recently found the videotape of the week I was interviewed, and my response reminded me so much of what today's verse means to me, what real life under the guidance and excitement of the Holy Spirit is about. Here's what I said:

I think so many times in our youth groups back home we get tired of hearing the same things: don't drink, don't do drugs, don't have sex. And that's good advice to be sure, but why? So many kids here at camp and the ones I knew growing up weren't doing these things anyway; don't we have any more to offer them? Do we have any explanation for what is filling them, and what they can do with it? It just seems to me that those I've come across who are involved in these so-called "greater sins" are often engaging in them just to fill a void caused by, maybe, disobedience to parents, rebellion, lying, or a poor self-image. So what I like to do is show them that Jesus has given them everything they need to be content, secure, high on real life. And it takes a lot of energy to do that, but I find that the energy is there when I need it, and anyway, if it means leading a young person to the Lord or just reconciling someone to their parents, hey, that's worth it to me.

That's healing through a Holy infectiousness. Won't you take a sip and pass it on?

Intersecting Faith & Life:  Are you in a prolonged stupor, or are you tipsy on the outpourings of the Holy Spirit in your life? What's holding this back? Is there a dam keeping the river from flowing forth out of you, keeping it fresh and alive? Take the first step to remove it by looking back to a time when you were first saved or relying entirely on God to do work in His Kingdom.

Further Reading

1 Corinthians 14:23
Acts 7:51
Expect the Holy Spirit to Work in Your Life

[Judy Harder]

September 28, 2010

Your Birthday: The Most and Least Important Day of Your Life
Alex Crain
Editor, Christianity.com

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
John 3:3


Just before our second son, Henry, was born earlier this year I remember standing with my wife in the nursery, looking around and just taking in everything. The wooden crib stood assembled and accessorized with matching mobile, blankets, padding and pillows. Diapers, booties and footy pajamas were tucked away in the bureau. The oak rocking chair sat sturdily in the corner nearest the window. In only a matter of days a tiny boy would fill that little room with life and great joy.

People love babies. There is an unexplainable excitement that surrounds the beginning of life. But as soon as the day of birth arrives, it becomes simultaneously the most important day and least important day of one's life. It is the most important because, without it, one wouldn't have life; but it is also least important because it is only the starting point and then it's past. After the moment of birth, the most important thing is, of course, living.

Obvious as it seems, I was reminded while reading Francis Schaeffer's book, True Spirituality, that many professing Christians seem to languish in denial of this fact regarding the moment of their own spiritual birth. Ask a friendly, "how is your relationship with the Lord?" and you may hear an answer emphasizing a past decision, a moment of crisis, or an experience—as if past events were all that mattered. Schaeffer wrote,

"In one way, the new birth is the most important thing in our spiritual lives, because we are not Christians until we have come this way. In another way, however, after one has become a Christian, it must be minimized, in that we should not always have our minds only on our new birth. The important thing after being born spiritually is to live." (ch. 1)

Yes, we are grateful for the past. We look forward expectantly to the bright future ahead with Christ in His manifest presence. But our present walk with Christ, right now, is the most important moment. Romans 14:17 says, "The kingdom of God is [present tense] ... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

First John 1:7 reaffirms this emphasis on the present—true spirituality is concerned with walking [present tense] in the light "as He is [present tense] in the light, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us [present tense] from all sin."

Intersecting Faith & Life: 

Refocus today on your present walk with Christ. If your fellowship with the Lord is broken, let 1 John 1:8-9 illumine the path. It says, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Trust God's promise of forgiveness and cleansing in Christ, and begin to walk with Him again. The important thing after being born spiritually is to live spiritually.

Further Reading

Psalm 86:7-12

Continuous Revival, by Norman Grubb (Chapter 1: "The Walk")

[Judy Harder]

September 29, 2010

Pushing the Red Button

John UpChurch, Editor, Jesus.org

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9, ESV)

Up till then, we'd crushed the competition. Granted, this wasn't a sporting event. In fact, the most physically taxing aspect involved pressing a red button. But we had other skills—scholars' bowl skills. We could answer questions, rack up points, and bury other teams with our wit and finely honed memorization. In fact, we'd rarely been challenged.

Then came the county tournament. I grew up in a sparsely populated county. As far as scholars' bowl competitions, this was it. Sure, we traveled outside the area and competed for exhibition prizes, but the county tourney meant validation at home. And we knew we could win.

In the two-bracket competition, each team in the county usually played every other team. That only worked because it amounted to playing around three games apiece (as I said, a small county). At the end, the last team standing in the winners' bracket played the last team standing in the losers' bracket.

Match one involved our team pressing those little red buttons into submission. We outscored the other guys by something close to a two-to-one margin. In other words, we cleaned house in our nerdy way.

And then came match two against Maury Middle School. We went in glowing; we came out stunned. Let's just say that they completely trounced us—wasn't even close. Afterwards, we rebounded to an easy win in the last match, but that only meant we had to play Maury again in the championship.

What happened? If you guessed the underdogs roared back to take the trophy, then I would love to confirm that. But, no. In front of our families and teachers, we got beaten even worse than before. In fact, I remember the match being out of reach soon after it started and all of us feeling powerless to do something.

We'd practiced, studied, and prepared ourselves. We'd won match after match prior to the tourney. But still, we couldn't overcome this one team—even when given two shots. Our superiority turned into inferiority in a single day.

Intersecting Faith & Life:  If there's one thing I've learned about human effort and human ability, it's that there's always someone better. Someone can always write better, think more creatively, or hit the ball farther. Someone can always outscore, outplay, or outcompete. And, yet, we humans spend so much effort trying to overcome, overwhelm, or just plain win. We compete, and we fight to prove ourselves.

Jesus brushes all that aside in a single sentence: Blessed and happy and satisfied are those who seek peace with God and peace with others. This isn't a condemnation of competition, but it is a blunt reminder of the point of our lives. We're not here to see who's the best at sword swallowing or chicken juggling. God calls us children when we seek the good of other people above our own good.

If we win or if we lose (or if we get completely whipped twice by the same team), God's blessing on our life doesn't increase or decrease based on the score. Instead, He expects us to love Him and other people—even the ones who are better than us at something.

Further Reading

A Season of Need: Maintaining a Heart that God Blesses

When There's Strife, There's Self: In Pursuit of Radical Humility

[Judy Harder]

September 30, 2010 

Walking by Faith

Laura MacCorkle, Crosswalk.com Senior Editor

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:6-7, NIV

In college, I took a course in which I was instructed to bring a blindfold to class one day. 

Sounded a little suspect a first, but I soon found out that it was just a harmless exercise in trust. We were paired up with classmates and had to take turns walking around campus while wearing the blindfold. The partner who could see would audibly guide the blindfolded individual.

When we reconvened in the classroom, we were to discuss what we were feeling and thinking while blindfolded. Were we fearful? Did we have faith in our partners? Did we trust in and follow their instructions?

I can't remember if I had a good guide or not. But I do remember not liking being blinded to what I could see. I didn't like being out of control. It was disconcerting, and I was thankful when the exercise was over.

As believers, this illustrates how our lives are to be lived. We all are wearing "invisible blindfolds," if you will. We are never promised that we will see everything we want to see in this life. Nor are we guaranteed to understand our circumstances or why we must face times of hardship and struggle on earth.

Instead, we are told to follow the voice of the Lord. To focus on the eternal, not on the temporal. To trust in what we cannot see.

Several examples in the Bible encourage us in this kind of "by faith" living. ...

Gideon ...who defeated the Midianite army with a force of only 300 men. They carried no weapons—just clay jars and lanterns into a battle with the Midianites, who numbered 135,000! A surprise attack in the dark of night only confused the Midianites, and they turned their swords on each other. Only God could have orchestrated this unbelievable victory (Judges 6-8).


Esther ... who risked her life to save her people from death. As the wife of King Xerxes, Queen Esther could do something to stop Haman, the evil prime minister who was plotting to kill all the Jews in the empire. She could have chosen to play it safe and not speak up. But she obeyed the Lord and bravely approached the king with her request to save the Jews (Esther 1-10).

Jonah ... who lived in the belly of a fish and didn't know if he would make it out alive. When God instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh to warn the people of their sin, he first disobeyed and got on a ship heading the opposite direction. God then brought a storm and caused Jonah to be thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish. Jonah prayed and repented, and he was spit out. Jonah then went to Nineveh and preached, and God did not destroy the city (Jonah 1-4). 

Today, you may feel like you're facing insurmountable opposition—the size of a 135,000-member army! Or perhaps your circumstances make you feel like you're stuck in the hopelessly dark belly of a big fish. 

But God knows what opportunities lie ahead for you, so be encouraged! And may you and I continue learning to live each day by faith and not by sight.

Intersecting Faith & Life:  Looking back on your life, think of the times when God asked you to do something that seemed "strange" to you. How did you respond at the time? Can you see now that his plan was the best way? Thank him today, that through your life he has indeed done marvelous works!

Further Reading

1 Corinthians 13:12, NIV

2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV