|
My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
February, 2013
|
Past Articles |
|
Now, as a good football
coach prepares his high school players for the season, he's going to bring
up the dangers of what he will call playing tentatively. I know no one's
anxious to get hurt, and so there's a natural tendency to hold back a
little in a contact sport; to hold back when you hit, when you block, when
you tackle. But the coach is going to tell you that the best way to get
hurt is to play tentatively, half-heartedly. Either give it all you've got
or don't play.
Ecclesiastes 9:10; is a verse that could be one of those life-principle
verses like maybe a good wall plaque. It's almost a motto that you could
repeat to yourself at work, and in sports, or while you're doing your
homework, while you're doing dirty work, while you're listening to
someone, or you're trying to finish a job. It's one of those repeat over
and over statements. Okay, why don't we find out what it is? Ecclesiastes
9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."
Well, that's consistent with four words that appear over and over in the
Bible, "with all your heart." Whatever you do, do it with all your heart,
or in this case with all your might. One of my personal heroes is Jim
Elliott, who was a missionary that in the 1950s was one of five American
missionaries martyred as they went to a tribe that had never even heard
the name of God. And out of that martyrdom came a flow of missionaries and
people in Christian service.
One of Jim Elliott's mottos went like this (you ready?), "Wherever you
are, be all there." Somebody may have said to you, "You're not all there."
Well, yes, wherever you are, be all there. If you've got something to do
anyway, why not do it with all you've got? If you've got to be there, why
not be there with all your heart?
There's a little wisdom I saw on a bumper sticker. It says, "Lord, help me
do with a smile the things I have to do anyway." Got to do them anyway,
might as well really do them. A Christian should be known as a "hundred
percenter" in everything he or she does. You listen with all your might.
When it's time to work, you work with all your might. When you pray, you
pray with all your might. When you play, you play with all your might.
When you goof off, you goof off with all your might. When you help
somebody, you help with all your might. When you study, oh yeah, you know
by now, yeah, you do it with all your might.
You can do that because you know that you are leading a God-planned life.
Psalm 37 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He
delights in His way." Psalm 16 says, "The Lord has assigned me my portion
and my cup." Now, you know that God who loves you and knows best has
brought every situation into your life. So you make every situation the
best it can be. And you do that when you tackle it with all your might;
not just the things you like to do or not just the things you feel like
doing. This says "everything your hand finds to do."
Don't play tentatively. Do it with intensity. In football, in everyday
life, playing tentatively invites injury and defeat. Either give it all
you've got or don't play...good advice for Church, good advice for Life,
good advice for Life Abundantly.
See you in Church,
Rev Chuck
|
|
