Build your house on the rock
To my children:
While you are fast asleep, I lay awake. This is often the
case on nights when I am overcome by a complex web of thoughts. In the
stillness and darkness of midnight I read, listen, think….worry. I think about
you, your mother, family and friends. I think about tomorrow. How will you
navigate this beautiful, but often chaotic world we live in? What will you
build your life upon? Who will you build it with?
I am encouraged by my Faith. You will not go it alone. Everybody
joins a team in this life. You are born into your first one. As life goes on,
you will join other teams, some through friendship, some through romance, and
some through neighborhoods, schools, churches. There’s a role that you must
play on the team, and it will affect you as you affect it. All your teams will
have decidedly different fates. Some of your teams will win, some will lose.
Some or your teams will achieve their expectations, some will not. Some of your
teams will be remembered for their greatness, some will not. But none of your
teams will be considered a failure if the contributors make a total effort to
do the best that of which they are capable and remain true to principles.
Ultimately, the dividend of your team will be the complete peace of mind gained
in knowing you did everything within your power, physically, mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually to bring forth your full potential.
You and your team will need a solid foundation, founded on
Faith and constructed upon the Rock, Jesus Christ. Even with a firm foundation,
at times it will be tempting to yield to the pressures of life and become the
person others would have you to be. So clearly define your common set of
principles and remain true to them. Let me share with you four of my most
closely held principles, selected with meticulous care and consideration
following a variety of experiences in my life. Let me share with you about the
principles of Love, Unity, Honor, and Courage.
Love
To be good teammates in life, you will need to learn to
truly love one another. What do I mean when I say love? The word has multiple meanings, and it may be
a bit confusing. A familiar usage of love would include things like a strong
affection for another or a warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion to someone.
But I am thinking about love in the sense of “Christian love”; an unselfish
loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. Jesus tells us in the
story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 to “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind
and Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Both the Old and New Testament tell us to not love with
words and emotions, but with actions. We need to share with those in need,
whether that need is for food, water, lodging, clothing, healing, or
friendship. The love demonstrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan shows
that “Christian love” is not emotional love, but a response to someone who is
in need. And no one loves us more than God, for John 3:16 tells us that “For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. Since God made the ultimate of
sacrifices and Jesus laid down his only life for us, we must be willing to lay
down our lives for our brothers. Christ's total love and sacrifices for us
motivates our evangelism and compels us to become ambassadors for Christ,
spreading this good news to all that will hear.
I have seen many examples of Christian love in my life. My
first coaches, in the form of my parents, showed me love in the highest form,
consistently placing the needs of others above their own. They have, by
example, portrayed a deep devotion to one another and their community for a
lifetime. I have witnessed them helping an unknown somebody so they could get
where they were going or in exceptional times welcoming a stranger in need,
into our house, in the middle of the night. As a volunteer fireman, my father
selflessly devoted more than 50 years of his life to his community, rising at
all hours to respond to those in need. Most importantly my early coaches have
been friends and examples to all whom they have encountered.
Unity
Fundamental to your team success will be unity. Without
unity, you will simply be a loosely connected set of participants, likely bound
to quickly go your separate ways. However, a team conducted with the
choreography of unity and performing in concert with others is a wonderful
thing. Team unit has an inherent way or magnifying and multiplying the
performance of the individual. In this way, the group of players becomes more
than a team – they can and will become a force. John Wooden, legendary
basketball coach for the UCLA Bruins, when asked late in life about what he saw
as the key to team unity, remarked elegantly – “Love for one another;
consideration for everyone”.
The Bible places an extraordinary emphasis on the value of
“unity”, but how will you achieve it? The secret to unity originates with how
you view yourselves within the team and how you view your teammates. Ephesians
4: 2-3 tells us to be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with
one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace. A team filled with
such people cannot help but have peace, unity, and harmony. The truly humble
person sees his own faults in light of the perfections of Christ; he does not
seek to see the faults of others. A team
full of such people enjoying their “common salvation” will be unified in
carrying on the mission of
Christ.
Your church team is full of individuals who have a variable
set of backgrounds, uniqueness, and personalities. Even as part of the
Christian body, they do not all think alike or even perform identical
ministries. Such profound individualism could be counter to team unity. However
one of the things I appreciate about your Church team, of which there are an
abundance of things, is their ability to unite behind a number of causes. They
do this together, in spite of individuality and the numerous things that could
serve as divides. Most crucially this group has a common binder. The team’s
common unity comes from a Faith in Jesus Christ and a belief that he spread the
Gospel during his time on earth, died on the cross, and on the third day was
resurrected. So the team is unified in this Faith, working to spread the Gospel
of Jesus, and often gathering to celebrate this common purpose triumphantly
around the Communion table. The team is a beautiful example of centering on
common purpose of unity, in spite of outside influences that place a higher
value on apparent differences.
Honor
When outsiders talk about your team, will they say you
conduct yourselves with honor? Do you
deserve their courtesy, respect, and reverence? Honor, in the form of praise
and adoration, is often conferred upon those of wisdom and intelligence, those
with wealth, political clout, power, and celebrity status. Such honor is fleeting, so don’t buy into the
hype; fortunes are won and lost, reputations will be damaged and destroyed.
True honor is living a life, infused with Spiritual humility, and based more
upon esteem for our fellow man rather than ourselves. Romans 12:10 tells you to
be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one
another above yourselves. When you learn the greatness of God you will learn
the futility of trying to make yourself great.
Our Founding Fathers clearly understood and followed this
Biblical understanding of honor. In 1776, the signers of our Declaration of Independence, in citing
abusive policies and foreign rule, recited the details of those conditions and
offered a remedy for them. Interestingly in the final section of the final
sentence, the founders stated “we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor.” The word honor was singled out as sacred.
To the founders, their lives and fortunes were not sacred; in the face of
overwhelming power, they apparently realized that the only thing likely to
endure an armed rebellion, if it came to that, would be their ideals, beliefs
and faith. When they added sacred to the wording, they were letting go and
committing their lives to God and each other completely, knowing that He would
ultimately be their judge. This was not something they did lightly.
Courage
It could be argued that the most basic challenge to your
practice of Faith is to overcome fear and remain faithful, to remain true to
your convictions and commitments, even when doing so leads to frustration or
pain or embarrassment – even when it leads to persecution. What will it take
for you and your team to remain faithful and adhere to your principles of love,
unity, and honor? It will take an abundance of courage underlain by a sense of
boldness and confidence. Faith will
provide you with the discipline, confidence, and courage, to move forward in
spite of your fears and obstacles that will fall in your way. Your faith will
reaffirms to you that God is ultimately in control of your lives.
God is clear about fear and courage. Psalm 23 reinforces the
concept where David writes Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. We will at times struggle through excessive
trials; more than a man can handle alone. Fear not, have courage. God’s power
will see you through. In 2 Corinthians 12:8 Jesus tells you that My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. God doesn’t
simply command courage with no reason behind it. Instead He says “fear not”.
God Himself, His nature, and His perfect plans allow you to set aside fear and
move forward with courage and conviction. The key in Christian life is not
trying to be strong in yourself, but rather letting God’s power and strength
fill and empower you through the inevitable difficulties of life and our Gospel
Ministry.
There are different types of courage, ranging from physical
strength and endurance to mental stamina and innovation. No story, no person
more perfectly exemplifies the virtue of courage to encourage men than that of
Jesus Christ. Within his brief lifespan Jesus stood up and defeated Satan when
tempted in the Wilderness; he continued to evangelize in spite of murderous
plots against him; he stood up to the false teachings of the Jewish elites and
corrupt economic powers; he stood up against mobs that were against him; he
overcame anguish and accepted the Father’s will, knowing full well the physical
hardship he would soon face; he stood up to the Romans; he endured torture and
persecution courageously even though he had many chances to recant and yield
the beliefs of his Gospel. Ultimately he accepted death on the cross, making an
infinite sacrifice of his life for the sins of all mankind. In the face of this
horrible end, Jesus courageously told his followers in John 15:13 “Greater love
has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.
Conclusion
When I was young man, my mother gave me a book of poems to
let me know that the world was a better place because I was part of the team.
The following poem is one of my favorites from the book. I hope it will be one
of yours as well, providing guidance and inspiration as you join all the
different teams in your life. The poem is entitled:
How can you measure the value of a man.
The measure of a man is not found in the things he owns,
or what he has saved for retirement
or even his accomplishments
The true measure of a man is found in his faith and his
heart.
Its found in the friends who stand by him.
the strength he displays under pressure,
the sensitivity he unashamedly expresses,
and his willingness to reveal vulnerability,
even at the risk of being hurt.
And its found in the truth of his words,
The genuineness of his life,
His unselfish actions,
And the values he lives by.
In the Bible you will find the bedrock principles upon which
to build a lifelong foundation of Faith. If you catch a vision of the work that
God is doing in the world, and the role he has given you to play in it, you
will be given a purpose big enough to be worthy of your commitment to love,
unity, honor, and courage. You can have faith that our God has acted, our God
is acting, and our God will act in times to come.
