The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat is an amazing book. The author, Daniel James Brown, made me interested in a sport I never cared about – rowing. I came to admire the young men – they called themselves “boys” – who rowed to Olympic gold in 1936. I was mesmerized by the story of nine young blue collar guys with no money, no college scholarships, and seemingly no chance, who stuck it to the Third Reich and struck a blow for liberty, impossible dreams, and American exceptionalism.

They rowed for the University of Washington, but they did all of America proud. They came up when America was down, mired in the Great Depression, with millions out of work. Hitler’s Germany was on the rise, and the Berlin Summer Games was a propaganda colossus engineered by Hitler and Goebbels to assure the world that Germany was no threat to anyone.

The Race

I believe I hear a distant roar

A stadium full of witnesses

Not spectators but finishers

I hope they’re cheering for me

Because I can’t even see the tape

Maybe it’s yet a mile or ten

I’ve given up on any prize

I’m not even sure I can finish

I have to loosen the straps

And shrug off this pack of distractions

Slowing me down

It’s time to strip off

This stinking tangling robe

Tripping me up

But I hear the roar

And suddenly I know

It’s for another Runner, the only real Finisher

Who carried my weight and didn’t fall

Now I quit looking for a tape

Just let me see His face

And the joy He won

And so I run

I think He’s watching for me

I pick up the pace

What Keeps You Going?

My friend Bob told me about attending a conference at his church where a panel of veteran missionaries were asked, What keeps you going? 

Bob was intrigued with the question, and posed it to his small group Bible study. During our week in Dallas with Bob and Nancy, that question became part of the dinner conversation one night.

It’s a good question because it admits that life is hard. We need to figure out how to keep on keeping on. Certainly missionaries who serve God cross-culturally need special endurance, but so do all of us Christians. It's also a good question because when we share our answers, we help one another find more ways to keep running our race.

So what is it that keeps us from tubing out? How do we continue to walk in holiness when enticements to impurity assault us at every turn? How do we keep trusting Christ when God allows or allots suffering and heartache? How can we finish our race when it would be far easier to drop out and sit on the sidelines?

I’ve been pondering Bob’s question for a week or so now. I know that ultimately my perseverance is God’s gift and not my effort. Without His steadying hand and sustaining power, I would surely stumble and fall. [He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8).
 

But here are some of the ways He keeps me going.

Encouraged in the Lord

King David learned how to “encourage himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6, KJV). All of us who follow Christ need to learn this lesson. Since my last couple posts have been a little dark (that’s what my wife said, and I’m sure she’s right), I thought I’d share briefly what has encouraged me in the Lord in the last couple weeks.

1. A new granddaughter. Chloe Jane was born to our son Andy & his wife Cheryl on July 5, their fourth. A little early, she weight 5 lb. 13 oz, and was 20.5 inches long. Having a new little one reminds you of all God’s good gifts.

2. The prayers of God’s people. Four friends sat with me while Dionne was still in the ER, and prayed before they left. My cell phone didn’t get reception in the pre-op section of the hospital, so after they wheeled Dionne into the OR, I walked outside and I found I had 85 texts, mostly from our friends pledging their prayers and support.

3. God’s word. The Lord led me to one of my favorites, Isaiah 41, the other night when I was struggling. Here’s what I read. (The bold is what encouraged me the most.)

⁸ But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; ⁹ you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; ¹⁰ fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹³ For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”

4. Meditating on Jesus’ suffering. I’ll probably write a post on this, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the only time Jesus said anything about His personal pain on the cross: I thirst (John 19:28). It’s just one word in both Greek and Aramaic. I find it easy to complain about the slightest discomfort, but Jesus said only this word as He was dying. Our Savior knows what it feels like to be overwhelmed, beset by pain and stress and trouble. That’s why He is a sympathetic High Priest and why, in drawing near to Him, we receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

5. Oyster tacos. Okay, I guess this isn’t spiritual, and I realize for some people, eating an oyster seems like a form of torture. But, for me, the oyster tacos at TJ Oyster Bar (the older, little one) were sublime. I think they did my soul good. I know they did my stomach.

I hope you're encouraged in the Lord!

Focus

Today my wife and I drove up to Lake Murray and took a walk. We had actually come for the first time last week, and discovered that you can’t make a circuit of the lake. You go 3.2 miles up to the dam, and then turn around and come back. So (stay with me, here, non-math people) the whole walking/running/biking route is 6.4 miles.

We just did a short 15-minutes-up, 15-minutes-back walk, but on the way up we met two older men jogging back. I don’t know whether they were completing 6.4 miles, but it sure looked like it. Decked out in running shorts and running shoes, they were drenched in sweat, steadily grinding out the last few hundred yards of the course.

We saw the same two men last week, too. I don’t know how old they are, but they had at least ten years on me, and they were still cranking out the miles.

The Bible talks about life as a race: let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. It’s one thing to make it to the dam, the half-way mark. But we’re called to run all the way to the end, all the way home.

The older I get, the more tempting it is to stop, drop out, take it easy. Let the younger folks run. I’ll amble…shuffle...saunter. Or sit. But I want to be like those two older guys. Still motoring, still cranking out the miles, still pursuing Christ as my number one ambition.

So my question is, how do you keep going to the end. How do you finish well?

Let 'em Go

If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because man, they're gone. 
Jack Handey, Deeper Thoughts: All New, All Crispy.

Twenty years ago I used to love "Deep Thoughts" on Saturday Night Live. But sometimes humor reveals "deep" truth. "Let 'em go" is good advice. Especially if you're trying to follow Jesus.

Because it's a serious question: how do you keep going in this life of faith? Following Christ is not a sprint, but it is a race. We’re supposed to run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1). But how?

Well, one thing is to lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely.

“Weight” (NIV: “everything that hinders”) means mass, bulk. In the ancient world it was sometimes used of a person’s pretensions. Pride adds a lot of unnecessary weight. But really any bulky thing that keeps us from moving toward Christ needs to be dumped.

And “sin that so easily entangles” pictures a guy trying to run in long robes. In the first century world, you had to “gird your loins” – hike up your robes to keep your legs from getting tripped up.

Sin will entangle and ensnare us, trip us up, just like the weight of our own egos. We've got to let them go. Following Jesus is too important.

Heroes

A couple days ago I read a story about former Army Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha, who was just awarded the Medal of Honor. The Army’s narrative of Romesha’s actions during a long day of fighting reads like the script of an action movie, but the bravery and leadership of this young soldier are the real deal. 

Here’s one summary statement: Staff Sgt.Clinton L. Romesha displayed extraordinary heroism through a day-long engagement in which he killed multiple enemy fighters, recovered fallen Soldiers, and led multiple recovery, resupply, and counterattack operations.  

Do yourself a favor, and read the whole thing by clicking here. It made me proud that we still have men like this. We all need heroes, but the right kind.

Bullies

The gym of our old high school was a floor down from the primary classroom building. Two sets of stairs opened from the main hall down to the small gymnasium.

One morning after P.E., I was walking up those stairs, heading to my next class. To my dismay I encountered a group of upperclassmen, my sometime tormentors, who were walking down the stairs. “Hey, Carp,” one of them taunted, slugging me hard on my left shoulder. Without thinking, I slugged him back.

Which triggered the rest of them, five or six guys, to begin cursing me and hammering the same spot on my deltoid muscle. That pummeling pretty much summarizes my 9th grade.

Lots of people have terrible, scarring memories of bullying. I never experienced the bad stuff. No “swirlies” in the restroom, no really damaging physical violence. My early high school years were not a living hell. A living heck, maybe.

But because I was not a jock, but a “brain,” a nerd, I experienced my share of contempt, ostracism, and various attempts, often successful, to humiliate me.

Man in the Wilderness

Long before Richard Harris played Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter movies, he was in a small film called “Man in the Wilderness.” His character is the scout for a group of fur trappers in the early 1800’s. When he is badly wounded in a bear attack, the trappers decide to leave him behind, assuming he’ll die of his wounds.

The movie is a tale of redemption for the “man in the wilderness.” Terribly injured, his will to survive comes first from a desire for revenge. He’s determined to recover, find the men who abandoned him, and wreak havoc upon them.

But he discovers one of the men has left a small Bible in his pocket. As he reads it, the message of the Scriptures transforms him, so that when he finally confronts the trappers, he forgives them.

I thought of the movie as I read these verses:

And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."  The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Mark 1:11-13

 Jesus was the original Man in the Wilderness.

When Bad Dreams Come

The other night I had a disturbing dream in which one of my children was experiencing a devastating trial. I was powerless to help. It grieved me so much that, in the dream, I was shaking and unable to stand.

I woke at 1 a.m., confused and upset, in that state when you’re not quite awake and still under the sway of the nightmare.

I lay there, heart pounding, and tried to tell myself the dream wasn’t real. As I began to pray, a wonderful thought entered my mind. “But they have a Shepherd.” I whispered it over and over. Tears of joy began to flow. They have a Shepherd, a Good Shepherd. And even when nightmares are real, our wonderful Savior is there for us.

I thought of Peter, and the humbling thing the Lord Jesus told him right before His arrest.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31, 32

Jesus told Peter that Satan wanted to sift him. Actually the “you” is plural. Satan wants to sift all the disciples, including you and me. So how did Peter make it? Jesus even lets Peter know that he will stumble badly, but will “turn again.” Why?

The reason Peter turned back again, kept faithful, made it through to the end, was not because of his inner strength. It was because He had a Shepherd who prayed for Him.

What wonderful words from our Savior: “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” This time the word “you” is singular. “I have prayed for you, Peter.” And for you, Jim. You, Karen. You, Ted, and Jose, and Maria. If the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (James 5:16, NASB), what about the prayer of the MOST righteous Man who has ever lived?

·        Who regulates the heat of our trials so they will purify and not destroy our faith?

·        Who stands guard to blunt the assault of the enemy so that his mischief becomes a tool for our growth and not our permanent ruin?

·        Who keeps watch all through the night?

·        Who gives us faith to persevere when we would have given up?

·        Who comes near to comfort us with His word when we wake from a terrible dream in the middle of the night?

·        Who provides a way of escape when temptation looms to entrap us?

·        Who settles us in peace when the turmoil that swirls around us might otherwise drive us mad?

·        Who bore the lash and the nails and the spear instead of us?

·        Who carries us in His arms through the flood and the flames, safe to the other side? 

·        Who forgives us seventy-times-seven when we stumble again into sin?

·        Who walked ahead of us through the valley of the shadow of death to blaze a trail through that dark place we all must travel?

·        Who prepares a place for us and will come again to take us to that place?

·        Who foils the enemy’s charges against us by His own presence before the Father (Romans 8:34)?

·        Who saves us to the uttermost, because He ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25)?

·        Who prays for us, that our faith may not fail?

Our Shepherd.

Our Jesus. Our King and Savior and Redeemer and Friend. O how we admire Him and love Him and depend upon Him. Whether in the middle of the night, waking from a terrible dream, or on a sunny day when life is calm. He’s the one we look to and depend upon, who will never give up on us or let us down.