The Ride of Your Life

Following Jesus is a personal choice, and those who make the decision discover it can be a wild ride.  I remember very well as a teen my first visit to Magic Mountain, a theme-park filled with roller coasters in Valencia California.  The wildest rides I had ever ridden to that point were in Disneyland, but the Matterhorn had nothing on Revolution or Viper!  When I balked and told my friend I would rather sit a ride out, he said something to me like this:  "You're going on every single ride.  You don't have a choice.  It's going to be awesome."  I did have a choice, but his encouragement was what I needed to discover I loved roller coasters.  I had the greatest time and when new rides were built I was all in.

Roller coasters are specially engineered to safely utilise the force of gravity to thrill.  As you are secured in your seat anticipation builds as the ride slowly clinks up to the highest point.  Some find this slow ascent terrifying and audibly pray before the death-defying drop.  Are you a person who white-knuckles their way through the ride or raises your hands over your head screaming for joy?  I remember a little boy shouting with his eyes tightly shut as we rode "California Screaming" in Anaheim, "I don't like it!  I don't like it!"  After the ride is over, there are basically two responses in people new to roller coasters:  it is either, "Let's do that again!" or "I am never doing that again!"

In my life I can say following Jesus has been a lot like a roller coaster at times.  God has led me to do things I never imagined doing or wanted to do, and He has been faithful all the time.  I used to endure rides before I learned to enjoy them.  Grabbing the seat hard and gritting my teeth didn't stop the ride or make it more safe.  Letting go, raising my arms over my head, and committing myself to the experience with an aim to enjoy it was key to me running back to the front of the line to have another go.  When you choose to follow Jesus, it will be the ride of your life.  There will be waiting which seems to take forever, slow ascents and rapid descents, rushes of feelings good and painful, corkscrews and moments when everything is upside down.  But as someone who has followed Jesus for a while I say by the end, regardless of the trepidation I had when I faced new challenges and seasons, "Let's do that again."  Seeing the happy faces of people disembarking the ride gives potential anxious new riders encouragement.  I want to be one of those happy people! :)

How are you enjoying the ride Jesus has you on?  Know He has designed it especially for you and always has your safety and eternal future in mind.  You can grit your teeth all you want, but how much better it is to turn our eyes towards Him, lift our hands in praise, and commit ourselves to Him completely.  There is joy, peace, and comfort in this posture - without queasiness or a sore neck!

Approaching the Unapproachable

The apostle Paul spoke of God's glorious nature in 1 Timothy 6:15-16:  "...He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honour and everlasting power. Amen."  God is from everlasting and His power is infinite.  We cannot stare into the brightness of the sun for long without damaging our eyes, and if we attempted to draw near to this great star the heat would consume our bodies long before our feet ever touched upon the surface.  God is even more inapproachable, and though we cannot see Him the power of what He has made by the words of His mouth causes our hearts to fail.

To be summoned to appear in the court of a king would be a fearful proposition.  I was never comfortable to be called into the office by my boss when potentially my job hung in the balance:  how much more disconcerting to be called before a king who possessed power over life and death!  All he needed to do was say the word and the life of the mightiest subject was forfeit.  When evil Haman plotted the destruction of the Jews, Esther the queen was compelled by her cousin Mordecai to approach her husband Ahasuerus the king of the Medes and Persians to intercede on behalf of the Jews to expose grave injustice and bring about deliverance.  You might think, "Big deal!  She's the queen and married to the king.  She can do anything she wants!"  You would be quite wrong in that assessment, for the law said otherwise.

Esther knew the law of the Medes and Persians, and the law only condemned all in her position should she enter the court without being summoned.  She explained this in Esther 4:11:  "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden sceptre, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days."  Going before the king unannounced was an automatic death sentence.  The only exception was if the king held out the golden sceptre.  By this benevolent act the king could go above the law to save who came to him.  After three days of praying and fasting, Esther approached the king, he held out the sceptre, and the rest is history.

It is with such trepidation and soberness we approach the LORD God who has revealed Himself to us by His grace.  Under the Law we are condemned and have no hope of deliverance.  There is nothing we can bring in our hands which would cause God to accept us on our merits.  When we approach the unapproachable God humbly in faith, He has extended grace and deliverance to us through Jesus Christ.  God forbid we would see Jesus only as a friend and not first as God and King of whose presence we are most unworthy.  Esther and all the people knew the law of the Medes and Persians which could not be changed, and many people do not know the Almighty God who does not change.  He is without beginning or ending, immortal, unapproachable, to whom is honour and everlasting power.  When you pray to Him, do not barge into His presence.  Do not be presumptuous to do all the speaking.  We are only able to approach Him boldly because He has already summoned us to appear before His throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

Our God is a consuming fire, and at the prospect of His might our natural inclination is to run and hide.  Trying to hide from God is futile, for His light shines in all darkness and His understanding is infinite.  Let us draw near to Him in faith even as Esther did before her king.  She did not appear because she was assured of favour from the king but the urgency of her need.  God has assured all those who repent and trust in Him favour, deliverance, and salvation.  The Law which condemned us has been blotted out and nailed to the cross for good measure with our Saviour Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:13-15), and our King lives to make intercession on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25).  How glorious is it is to be known and accepted by the most high God!  Let us fall on our faces in worship, for He is worthy!

Ponder Your Path

"Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. ²⁷ Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil."

Proverbs 4:26-27

In this crooked generation God's people ought to be brave pioneers of righteousness and purity, and our path is the one Jesus Christ has already established us to walk in.  In every circumstance we are directed by God to go the righteous way, for even in temptation God provides a way of escape.

We wander into trouble when we are aimless and are not circumspect concerning 1) where we have been, 2) the direction our lives are heading, and 3) our intended destination.  For this reason the wise Solomon urges those who fear the LORD and have ears to hear to ponder the path of their feet.  Mountain climbers do not reach majestic summits without a clear plan and specialised equipment.  If we do not do the equivalent of climbers who prepare their bodies for altitude and ready gear to traverse known risks which lie ahead, we will fail to reach our potential.  If we do not consider or analyse the path we take beforehand, we will likely make poor choices under pressure.

"Ponder the path of your feet," Solomon said, and we do well to consider the immediate path which lays before us.  In "Empire Strikes Back" Luke Skywalker was criticised by Yoda for being so focused on the distant and murky future he did not consider where he was or what he was doing.  Worrying about his friends and trying to save them was more important than finishing the training which would prepare him for what lay ahead and enable him to save them.  He believed he was ready when he was not ready.  At the end of the film Luke flew away to save others but needed to be saved himself in the end.  Having aligned ourselves with the will of God revealed in His Word, we find our path illuminated.  The wicked do not realise what makes them stumble in the dark.

Continuing along the highway of holiness we are to remove our foot from evil.  Jesus will never lead us into temptation, and we are held responsible to take drastic measures to remove evil influences from our lives.  Ridding ourselves of sinful temptations we know about is a key step in pondering our path and walking uprightly.  Levi Lusko wrote in his book Swipe Right, "Close the computer...walk out of the movie...delete the contact from your phone, break up with that person, change schools, or quit your job if you have to.  Pluck out the eye, cut off the hand.  Do something drastic to your sin, or sin will do something drastic to you.  I know this all sounds way intense - and maybe it is - but know that you can't have a healthy soul and mainline toxic substances." (“Swipe Right: the Life-and-Death Power of Sex and Romance.” by Levi Lusko, W Publishing, an Imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2017, p. 105.)

Having pondered our path, let us continue to progress in faith, hope, and love.  When we are tempted by other routes along the way let us ask ourselves:  where does this darkened, winding passage lead?  Know there are no shortcuts to the celestial city.  May our ways be as established as the Way God has provided for us.

The Wisest Teacher

"The Karate Kid" (1984) movie was an instant classic.  I remember my brother and cousin rehearsing the final "crane kick" over and over, trying to make it look as real as possible without making contact.  The film had a bit of everything people like in movies:  classic lines, funny moments, and the underdog winning.

My favourite character in the film was Mr. Miyagi, the gruff custodian who had an amazing house, sprawling deck, car collection, and taught karate like a boss.  By looking at him you just knew Mr. Miyagi was a stud and was not to be messed with.  Who sits around trying to catch flies with chopsticks?  When whingy Daniel complained about all the chores Miyagi told him to do after agreeing to teach him karate, he was as surprised of the plot twist as I was - he had unwittingly been doing karate drills all day and into the night when he was waxing cars, sanding floors, and painting the fence.  Miyagi was wise, though Daniel didn't think so as he worked.  The one Daniel likely cursed under his breath of being a lazy, lying, selfish Sensei was the one who was forging him into a champion.

Mr. Miyagi didn't write a book on wisdom, but the methods he employed to train Daniel are similar to the ways God trains His people to serve Him.  In his sweat and toil Daniel grew bitter because he wasn't doing what he wanted to do, and we can act the same towards God.  We have these arbitrary expectations of what God has called us to not realising He desires to do a work in us too.  Many people are impatient to enter into missionary or pastoral work thinking it all begins with arriving in the field or being ordained by men.  Do you find it interesting Jesus did not go to the synagogue or utilise Pharisee Labour Ready to fill His full-time ministry staff vacancies?  He went to fishermen as they mended their nets; He called a tax collector when he was on the job.  In my case, He sought me out after a career spanning a decade in mechanical insulation I genuinely loved and was content.  He had ordained me to be a pastor and directed me and my family to leave my home in SoCal for Australia.  Even Mr. Miyagi couldn't have predicted that.

So you want to serve God in ministry?  Don't be surprised if He has you doing the equivalent of sanding floors and painting fences - things which seem totally unrelated to what your ideas of ministry preparation are.  One thing about Daniel LaRusso we should take to heart is he stuck around.  He had an awful attitude, sour as can be, but he gritted his teeth and did every task he was directed morning to night - even when unsupervised.  And when he couldn't take it anymore, Mr. Miyagi graciously let him in on what he was doing by throwing punches at him.  Suddenly Daniel realised:  there was a reason behind all those chores.  What seemed completely unrelated and a waste of his time was a critical investment in his development.  God requires His servants to be found faithful (1 Cor. 4:2).  Daniel's labours did not earn him the right to learn karate, though that is what it seemed at the time.  Not one of us is worthy to be acknowledged, taught, or trained by God to accomplish His purposes, but the servants worth their salt are those who gladly do the hard yards in obedience to Jesus.  God is much more than a divine "sensei" for the word means, "one who came before."  Jesus existed before the beginning of all things and will endure forever as the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last who graciously gives eternal life to all who trust in Him.

I believe there are many people called by God to be His special ministers who miss their chance because they weren't willing to faithfully do the little things God has placed before them.  They are called to preach and teach, not clean carpets and give rides.  They are called to lead worship, not move chairs or update a website.  They are not content to do chores but want the equivalent of a black belt based upon their sense of God's calling alone.  This sort will always fall short of God's potential for them.  If we labour and are useful for the glory of God, it is all of His grace.  No task is too low for a child of God to embrace, for Jesus humbled Himself to put on human flesh, be the servant of all, and willingly died on the cross.  If God has you sanding floors, do that monotonous and back-breaking task with all your might unto Him.  Someday the season of sanding will finish and you will be blown away how God used it to smooth your rough edges.  If Jesus is your Good Teacher, you will discover His ways and methods are higher than yours!  For those who humble themselves to take the lowest place, ultimately God will say to them:  "Friend, come up higher!"