Alex Tran

Pastor: Turn your bibles to 2 Kings, Chapter 2.
you: *thinking to yourself* That’s the story of Elijah and Elisha. I am a Bible scholar!

Pastor: Open up to the book of Esther.
you: recalling Oooh, good book. That’s the book before Job. Man, I’m good.

Pastor: Let’s start reading from Luke 2:1.
you: *turning to neighbor* Aha! This is going to be another sermon on the birth of Jesus. Just wait and see . . .

Familiarity is a funny thing. Knowledge is too.

What happens when someone tries to talk to you about something you already know? You check out. The attitude is there is nothing you need to know. No new wisdom can be obtained.

Ever check out of a sermon? Ever read a passage in the Bible but really just skimmed it because you’re already familiar with it?

1 Corinthians 8:1-2 (NIV)
¹ […] We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ² The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

Familiarity and knowledge are funny things. They keep us from what we “ought to know.”

I can encourage people. I can challenge people. I spend time with God daily. I’m comfortable praying out loud. I can give advice and guidance.

In essence, I am a leader. I can do things that leaders do.

I can talk the talk.

I realized this today in a small group I am attending. I can read, extract practical application, and talk about the areas that God is “challenging me in.” It all sounds good. Makes me look like I have my spiritual life under control.

But am I doing anything with that talk?

The answer is no. Don’t deceive yourself Alex.

James 1:22-24 (NIV)
²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Disclaimer: I’m not off the deep end. This is not a post confessing I have been a deceptive leader. God is just challenging me to the next level of leadership. One that I have yet to answer because I have been deceiving myself.

Consider this a light bulb moment post.

A moment where you realize what God desires from you will actually require some action. More commitment. More drive. More humility.

A moment where you realize what God desires is actually worth the sacrifice.

Today’s song of the day is Undignified by The David Crowder Band.

1 Samuel 6:21-22 (NIV)
²¹ … I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. …

In King David’s own words, “I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” In my own personal translation of that, “I just don’t care.” I just don’t care what the world thinks.

Have you ever thought about what Jesus has done for you? What reasons you have to “celebrate before the Lord?”

It’s crazy to think about all the things God has done for each one of us, yet our lives don’t reflect that goodness. Instead, our lives may unknowingly tell God what he has done for us is not enough; not enough to overcome being self-conscious about what the world thinks.

Matthew 13:44-46 (NIV)
⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

What we have to celebrate before the Lord should be as compelling as the treasure/pearl in the parables above. We should look at our lives and be overflowing with joy, gratitude, love, etc. for what Jesus has done for us.

It should compel us to want to live lives that are “even more undignified than this.”

That joy should be so compelling that we just don’t care what the world thinks. We want to tell about it from the rooftops; to everyone we see. We wouldn’t be afraid to pray for someone in need in the middle of a community pool. We wouldn’t be afraid to jump up and down during worship in celebration of the goodness of God. We wouldn’t care what our friends or family think about how much we love Jesus.

But why are we afraid?

I love Jesus. But why do I sometimes still look around to see what the world thinks?

Awhile back I took a look at the different options for maintaining multiple WordPress blogs with a single install in order to streamline WordPress and plugin updates. I looked at pretty much all the options on this Codex page and only one stood out.

In fact, it was head and shoulders above all the other ones.

So I introduce you to Stephen Rider’s Virtual Multiblog based on Allan Mertner’s original idea.

It currently powers stovallweems.com, kerriweems.com, shineinc.org, and awake08.com.

Please check it out. I love the elegance in it’s implementation!

Ponder with me . . . pick something you’d like to be good at and think of the results you could have if for the next ten years you spent two hours a day everyday deliberately practicing that “craft.”

According to the research conducted in what’s called the Expert Performance Movement, if pondering the above went into practicing the above, you would be approaching superstar status in your craft. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet. Those kinds of superstars.

Now ponder with me . . . pick something you could do that would advance the Kingdom of God. That would reach a community with the love of Jesus. That would train fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

What kind of results would we have?

You better believe we would have results. We would be uber-influential for Jesus. God’s army would be ridiculously larger.

But is that worth it to you? Is it worth even just 30 minutes a day?

What if we were to create a growth environment focusing specifically on one thing for the next ten years?

What would you focus on?

1 thing. 10 years. You can make a difference.

Further Reading

Check out some of these other articles on the idea of “deliberate practice” and frame the concept into something that would be of value to Jesus. ;)

Studying the Bible. Leading small groups and volunteer teams. Preaching. Sharing Jesus to random strangers. Reaching out to the lost and hurting of your community.

• Secrets of greatness: Practice and hard work bring success (if you only read one article, read this one)
• How Did A-Rod Get So Good (if you can only read two, read this one too)
• A Star Is Made