Any good
adventurer knows that treasure is not stumbled upon through haphazard
exploration but discovered through calculate decisions and hard lessons
learned. Indiana Jones didn't just come across the Ark of the Covenant one day;
he outran massive boulders, dodged poison darts, faced his fear of snakes, was
tied up by Nazis, outwitted by evil-minded antagonists, etc. but at every turn
he somehow managed to elude certain doom with his intellect, charm, and a fair
amount of luck.
I always
tell my son, it's not a big deal to make a mistake, what matters is how you
handle it when you do. No doubt Indi
learned a lesson or two - "tricks of the trade", if you will - in his
many preposterously perilous predicaments.
That is
exactly what this blog article is about. Lessons I've learned, some of them
hard and deeply personal, through my adventures as a follower of Christ. Turns
out Jesus doesn't take the beaten path.
He takes this straight and narrow one that takes you up and down
mountains, through raging waters, skirting precipices, and all kind of
treacherous terrain. Not the popular route by any means but, the glorious
sights and experiences it leads you to are a thousand times more worth it than
the fleeting challenges you'll face.
I deemed
these rules "Kyle's Rules" because they very relevant to my life.
There are only four of them currently as I like to keep things simple. These
are rules that I continually remind myself of in my relationship with God;
rules that keep me out of religious Pharisee territory (which almost seems like
a contradiction since Pharisees were all about rules); and, perhaps most
compelling, rules that have resulted from my interactions with God.
God, thank you for being a patient teacher with us slow and
stubborn learners.
Rule # 1: Check Your Power Cord
It's
Computer Troubleshooting 101. Always check if something is plugged in before
proceeding. It's just embarrassing, not to mention a waste of time, to have a
PC tower dissected into mess of screws and components only to realize the thing
didn't have power.
The same
goes for operating as a child of God. Before you get your knickers all twisted
up about the most recent and inevitable drama that's surfaced in your life,
check your power source. Make sure you are plugged in and connected with the
One who sees everything and can make it all work out.
A while
back I was in a season of life where I had this insatiable desire to see
miracles happen around me but they just weren't happening the way I expected. I
was doing everything I thought was right - I was praying for people, I was
stepping out in faith, I was even reading a Smith Wigglesworth book - but still
no immediate results.
This went
on for quite some time - weeks, maybe months - and then, one day, I was praying
and asked God what I was missing. That's when He dropped this revelation in my
lap: I was more concerned about seeing a miracle happen than I was about seeing
someone healed.
Now, that
might seem like a redundancy to you but it made a world of sense to me. It was
a classic tunnel-vision mistake. I had lost sight of the big picture: God's heart.
God doesn't just want to heal peoples' physical ailments, He wants to see them
completely and entirely restored in mind, body, and soul and turn to Him.
Jesus
didn't just heal the paralytic that was lowered through the roof, he forgave
his sins (Mark 2:8). He didn't just heal the man who had been sick for 38 years
at the pool of Bethesda, he told him to get off his keister and pick up his own
mat (John 5:8). He didn't flaunt his super powers, he washed his disciples feet
and taught them humility and honor (John 13:5).
Isn't
that so like God? He bypasses our behavioral issues and cuts right to our heart
condition. I could have probably saved myself a whole lot of time by making
sure my power cord was plugged in and concerning myself with God's heart for
people.
Shortly
after the realization of this, I shifted my mindset from miracle-mode to
care-about-people-mode and as a result, God allowed me to be a vessel for
several really cool experiences. I prayed for someone's back pain and
afterwards asked them to test it out and they were able to touch the ground by
just bending over, which is impressive without the miracle in my book, but was
also something that would have caused sharp pain before. My wife and I also saw
a woman walking with a limp and asked if we could pray for her. Again, after we
finished, we asked her to test it out. She started walking as if to favor the
pain but gradually smoothed out realizing she didn't need to. So. Cool.
Praise God, the finisher of our faith.
As an
aside, when you pray to see miracles in your life, be careful; you just might
end up being the one needing one.
My advice
to you when you seem to have run into a road block in your life: check your
power cord. Are you even plugged in to the power source or are you trying to do
the impossible all on your own?
How?
Pray. Ask
God to reveal that which is holding you back from the good things he has for
you. James 1:17 says "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shadow of turning." Philippians 1:6 says "being
confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will
complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Stand on those scriptures, set
your eyes on hope, seek out peace, and wait on God, who knows what is
best for His children.
Another
thing that really helps is, well, my Rule # 2: Keep it Real. But you'll have to
stay tuned because I don't have it written out yet. More to come!
