Lessons from a SuperDog

Call me immature, call me childish.  Tell the world I have not yet chosen to grow up.  I don't care. I truly enjoy the movie Bolt.

Bolt is the story of an ordinary dog who thinks that he has super powers.  Super strength, super bark, super vision, he believes he can do it all.  When is owner is allegedly kidnapped, he travels across the country to rescue her from her terrible fate.  Despite the fact that is super strength vanishes, his bark has become ordinary, and he really can't see that well, Bolt continues to fight against all odds because he believes that he can not fail.   In the end, he manages to not only find his beloved Penny, but he rescues her from certain death.  He believed he could not fail; and, did you notice?  He didn't.

Bolt believed that he could do anything; and I think that is a vital lesson for us all.  My Pastor often asks the question, "What would happen if we actually believed this stuff?"  If we actually believed we could do all things through Christ?  If we actually thought our itty bitty faith could move mountains?

When I was a kid, adults at church always fed me the same line.  "God may not do what you ask him to.  He knows best and it will all happen in his perfect timing." As such, I have always prayed with the expectation that my prayer probably would not be answered, and only now do I realize the folly of my ways.  God can do anything, but how much more if we actually believed it?

I propose to be like Bolt.  While I do not intend to live my life believing I cross wide ravines in a single bound, I choose to believe that through the power within me, I cannot fail.

How Good I Am Not

I have been a church kid my whole life.  In fact, it is hard to remember a Sunday without a church service of some sort.  I know many verses, thousands of worship songs, and most bible stories.  I even used to teach a Sunday school class on a regular basis.  I know Jesus is my provider, my protector, my healer, my comforter, and he loves me more than I could possibly imagine; but some how between the Sunday school classes, summer camps, and missions trip, I never really understood a very important aspect of the Christian faith-Jesus as my Savior.  The one to rescue me from the horrible things I have done.

I have never done any of the "big" sins; never murdered, never abused any substances, never had pre-marital sex, and never robbed even a piggy bank.  I have told lies, disobeyed and disrespected my parents, treated my sisters badly, been extremely prideful, and horribly judged people before I knew them.  Even so, I've never had "that moment."  The one where you find yourself covered in the filth of your own mistakes, at the end of your rope, in the deepest hole you can dig, and desperately need Jesus to save you from your sins.  I have always considered myself to be a pretty good person; at least until I read this verse:

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." James 4:17

Woah.

I am a terribly sinful person.

How could anyone possibly live up to that standard?!  To be so completely selfless that they do all the good that they know they ought to do? Always have a listening ear, never say the mean thing on the tip of their tongue, always take less and share more, always give the homeless person a dollar or a meal, always do what they know to be right. 

It is impossible.  It goes completely against human nature.  Without an immense amount of help from Jesus and an incredibly strong will it can never be completely accomplished.  I can only imagine the millions of times I have not done the good thing I ought to do, and the BILLIONS of times to come when I will not do what I know to be right.

Suddenly I realize how much I need Jesus to be my Savior.  Only he can rescue me from both how bad I am, and how good I am not. 

Eating Vegetables on the Road of Life

Life is often described as a journey.  A long road or path we all must walk until we die and go to Heaven or Hell.  Many things can happen on this journey; good things, bad things, fun things, sad things, things that hurt and things that heal, things that give and things that steal (the rhyme was entirely unintentional). What really matters is how we react to what we are given.  Samwise Gamgee in J.R.R. Tolkien's book entitled The Two Towers would agree with me.  For those who are not familiar with The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam is the ever faithful friend of the main character Frodo Baggins.  The find themselves on a quest alone and in an evil land, far from the other members of their company who were not only taller, but were also far more capapble. Frodo says how he would never have chosen to be where he is now, but is reconciled to it, understanding that "so our path is laid."  He has a task and walking through the destitute land of Morgul is part of it; and there is nothing he can do about it.

"'Yes, that's so,' said Sam.  'And we shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before we started.  But I suppose it's often that way.  The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them.  I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say.  But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind.  Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you pit it.  But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't.  And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten.  We hear about those as just when on - and not all to a good end.  You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same - like old Mr. Bilbo.  But those aren't always the  best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in!  I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?"

Sam is pointing out that no one looks for "adventures" that often lead to headache and frustration (not to mention the constant threat of being captured and mauled by orcs).  But it is what you do, when caught in the middle of one at the deepest, darkest, moment, when all hope seems lost, that really matters.  Will you turn back in despair? Or will you go forward into victory?

Hebrews chapter 11 is all about faith.  Paul lists off many of the great acts of faith in the Old Testament.  Noah and the arc, Abraham following when God promised him new lands, Moses' parent's who kept him safe from the Pharaoh, Moses leading the Israelite people, the People trusting to cross the red sea, the People marching around Jericho, Rahab hiding the spies, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel: far too many to list in one chapter of the bible!  All of these people faced a seeming insurmountable challenge.  They all had a moment when they could have turned back-when the world seemed too dark to press on, when the risk of ridicule appeared more than one individual could suffer-but they didn't.  They pressed on.  They kept going, they took the chance, they continued to do what they knew was right.

Why?

Because they had faith.  They believed in the good that was promised to them, and it was worth every cost to attain because they knew without a doubt that it would happen.

Allow me to break it down to an experience we can all relate to-eating vegetables.  Most kids hate at least one kind of vegetable.  And in most families unless you eat those vegetables you will not get dessert.  As such, most kids suck it up and eat those vegetables.  They suffer through every individual pea, every string bean, or-if their parents are really heartless-every single bite of steamed spinach on their plate, because they know that chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is coming.  It is a complete certainty in their life.  Clean your plate of all it's nasty, and you will get a delicious reward.

I want to live with faith that scarfs down vegetables because it will make dessert come even sooner.