* Satan is on a mission of destruction.
* Israel did not listen to God, therefore God put them in a timeout for 70 years.
* We live in a world that looks like God is getting his butt kicked. But in reality, our world is a mess because we have not listened to God. Wonder what would happen if people, nations would come back to God?
* If I want to obey God, I have to purpose it to obey in my heart first. I then have to live out that obedience regardless of the outcome.
* Values are not what we claim, but what we do.
* Take a stand, then God comes in. God is waiting for us to take a stand.
* Do I follow God to change my marriage, or because He’s God?
* Do I follow God to help my family, or because He’s God?
* Do I follow God to get a big bank account, or because He’s God?
———–
Chapter 2

* No matter how rich or secure we get, there is always something troubling.
* I will come across things in this world in which there is no answer.
* The things that I’m good at, I typically do without God.
* Who/what does my life and gifts promote?
* Am I building an earthly kingdom or a heavenly one?
———–
Chapter 3

* Obedience = sacrifice
* I can’t serve two masters
* Things that get me in trouble… Fame, Fortune, Females.
* Light is brightest in the storm.
* Save me from the storm, or get me through it.
* Christianity is a call to be set apart, not blend in.
* Whose script am I following, mine or God’s.
* What idols keep me from God? History shows me my idols.
* Some idols that keep me from God, or “good” idols.
————
Chapter 4

* There is a big difference between pride and arrogance. There is nothing wrong with a healthy pride, but everything wrong with arrogance.
* What are areas where arrogance pops up within me?
* I need to remember all the hands that helped me get where I am.
* I need to ask “what’s in it for God?”, instead of “what’s in it for me?”
* I need to share credit much more.
* I don’t ever want a Nebuchadnezzar experience!
* Arrogance leads to disgrace, quarrels, and destruction, while humility leads to wisdom.
* God has a day in store for the arrogant. They will be humbled.
———–
Chapter 5

* One of the craziest, unexplainable stories in the Bible.
* King went from arrogant to helpless and fearful in mere seconds.
* Am I religious to have God bless me, or fix my life?
* We all live with danger around us. How do I live because of this danger? Fearful?
* My days are numbered, I have not measured up well.
* Who is the star of “my show?”
* Do I chase things eternal or temporary?
* What is my reputation with outsiders?
* Who do I call when I have no answers?
———–
Chapter 6
* The world doesn’t know God, but are great critics of Christianity because they watch me.
* Daniel was faithful for over 60 years in a corrupt government. How about me?
* Being a light in this world is not just doing my job, but doing it well.
* Past faithfulness is preparation for future faithfulness.
* My greatest challenge to faithfulness is my possessions and position.
* God is looking around the world for faithful people. Will he find me?
* Daniel was about 80 years old when he was thrown into the lions den.
* Integrity and faithfulness are huge in God’s eyes.
———–
Chapter 7

* There are a bunch of weird dreams and prophecies.
* Prophecy has two main purposes… 1) provide hope and confidence, 2) provide recognition not to satisfy curiosity. It is designed to recognize it when it happens, not so we have inside information.
* Speculation about prophecy makes Christians look stupid.
* Speculation is also more likely to produce arrogance than godliness.
* Why do I run to the Bible? The only reason is to figure out how to live.
* Spiritual people obey Jesus.
* Daniel didn’t understand the details of his own prophecy.

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, etc
Football, family friends
Days off work
Christmas Shopping season begins!

And with Thanksgiving, comes the church service we’ve grown to expect.
The message of the service is clear.
We are not thankful enough for our families, friends, jobs, and God.
We live lives that are too busy to be genuinely thankful, so we need churches
around the world to remind us of how thankful we should be.

AND THIS IS ALL VERY GOOD

We commit as a result, to be more thankful people, living lifestyles to be thankful.

AGAIN, THIS IS ALL VERY GOOD

But have you ever wondered if we’re missing something in the whole thanksgiving conversation?
We’re easily convinced to thank God for the things that have gone right in our lives;
But what about the things that have brought us pain?
What about those things?
Should we thank God for those too?

Can we possibly trust God enough to thank him for the teenager who refuses
to give God a chance?

Can we thank God for the divorce that left us helplessly broke and alone?

Can we thank God for the loneliness we feel when there honestly doesn’t seem
to be a Mr. Right, or a Mrs. Right?

Can we thank God for the inability to conceive a child?

Can we thank Him for the loss of a loved one?

For the lying co-worker

For the overbearing boss

For High Cholesterol

For the unexplainable cancer

Can we possibly acknowledge the greatness of God by giving Him thanks for
these things too?

Job put it this way, when explaining this concept to his wife…
Job 2:10 “Shall we accept good from God & not trouble?”
Later he would put into terms what we should never forget….
Then he fell to the ground in worship and said…
“Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart.”

NOW DON”T MISS THIS RIGHT HERE

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”

It’s one thing to thank God for the good stuff.
It’s another thing entirely to thank God for the Bad, Unexplainable, Doesn’t-make-sense-at-all stuff.

God never promises that we’d live safe, uneventful lives.
But in the middle of it all, He promises us that He is, above all…

GOOD.

Thanksgiving is here again. Will it be the same?
1 Thess 5:18

Some moments are forgotten almost instantaneously, while others are recounted for decades with a vibrancy that would seemingly date them only moments prior. We write about them, photograph them, tell stories about them, draw them, paint them, sculpt them, reenact them for others, and sing about them. Abraham Heschel suggests, “Something sacred is at stake in every moment.” If that is true, then the most ordinary of moments in an ordinary moment could possibly become extraordinary, showcasing not only our humanity but also His Divinity, if only we had ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart ready to receive.

In his book, Seeing What is Sacred, Ken Gire offers a unique perspective on the exchange that happens through the written word. He suggests that books are sacraments that provide a communion of sorts between author and reader. They provide a medium in which the musings of one heart are made available to another, like wafers that represent a remembrance, given by one and taken by another. Gire writes, “It is not the words that are sacred but God who is sacred…and the person to whom He comes…the heart that writes the book and the heart that sits in silent communion to take and read what has been written.”

Is this true only of written words? Can this idea of sacraments for communion not also be applied to all forms of creative worship? Creative worship is the opportunity to share your relationship with Him with brothers and sisters in Christ. What is He telling you? What are you learning about yourself and about the world around you? How are you being changed and being transformed? What are you laughing about? What are you fighting about? What are you learning of the Kingdom? What is He revealing to you about Himself? What intimate moments are you sharing? What ordinary moments have become extraordinary because of Him?

Creative worship is not about having a magnificent piece for others to “ooh and ahh” over. It’s also not about creating for the sake of creating. Creative worship is about your communion with Him, your fellowship with Him, your life with Him, expressed in a sacramental form and offered for communion with Him and with others.

As we prepare for art Sunday, may we not be limited by our considerations of what others will think or by our own judgment of what is artistic. Rather may we come joyously to the altar together sharing with one another the treasures that He has given, the secrets He has shared, and the hope that we have in Him alone. There is great cause for celebration! In Him, the ordinary has become extraordinary!

See you September 2nd at the altar…

Ashley Vass

Quite suddenly my roommates all moved out of state this summer. I had to move my belongings into storage and take up temporary residence with a friend in her apartment. The place is small, the neighbors are noisy and quite disruptive, the smells are less than pleasant, and I often have to park some distance away when arriving at home at night. I am discontent, longing for space, for quiet, for my things, and a yard for Kitty to once again roam in. I am convinced that I must be settled, have stability, and all of the comforts I once knew restored to me.

Kitty is quite discontent as well. Her meowing has not stopped since we left the old house. She doesn’t eat, and she doesn’t sleep. I hold her, pet her, feed her, play with her, and still she sits by the door and/or the window and cries. So I resort to talking with her. My conversation with her is almost verbatim everyday, “I’m sorry. I know that you are sad, but this is our new home. I’m sorry that you can’t go outside here, it’s just not safe.” The crying persists and so I continue, in more of a lecture format now, often extremely frustrated at this point (largely due to my lack of sleep), “I love you. I have given you a good home. I take care of you. I feed you. I protect you. I could have left you at the other house, but you would be all alone. Isn’t it enough that we are together? What else do you need?”

Today as I was talking with her, I heard the same words echoing in my own heart. “I’m sorry. I know that you are sad. I love you. I have given you a good home. I take care of you. I protect you. Isn’t it enough that we are together? What else do you need?” And then it hit me; my discontent is no different than Kitty’s. I have tasted freedom, adventure, and life on my own. Now I cry, scream, and fight for what I think I want and am convinced I need. I complain, I whine, I persist, in hopes that maybe His answer will be different. All the while professing I want more of Him and less of me, my heart betrays me. I want Him plus everything else.

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Phil. 3:7-9)

To have Him, to really have Him, means that if I had nothing else, I would truly have all that I need. Has He really given me all that I need in relationship with Him? What about my stuff? What about the husband I haven’t found, let alone married? What about the children I haven’t birthed? What about the relationships that haven’t been restored? What about the financial freedom that I haven’t acquired? Am I willing to relinquish those things if it meant I would gain more of Him? Do I consider knowing Him something of surpassing greatness and everything else by comparison rubbish? Sadly, my relentless pursuit and dependence on these things and others testifies to the contrary.

I am learning there is nothing that is hidden that will not be revealed. If He is to be enough, my contentedness will continue to be tested and refined and I will continue to be stripped and broken until at last, He is all I have. I don’t know if it is worth it. I am scared. The pain seems overwhelming. I don’t want to let go. Will I choose to continue this journey knowing what it will cost me? Will I trust Him? Do I love Him enough?

He is exposing my heart and revealing Himself through conversations with my cat. Listen closely…He whispers to you too.

Ashley Vass

This challenge is appropriate for all ages; whether a student or an adult, what have you compromised, presented falsely, or kept secret to “fit in” with the people in your circle? Consider for a moment your closet of secrets. What do you see when you open these doors? Do you find inappropriate relationships with others, a violation of sexual boundaries, affairs, same sex involvement, and/or addiction to alcohol, drugs, pornography, shopping, food, or gambling? Perhaps there are financial concerns, debt, overspending, bankruptcy, poor financial planning. What about your conduct in business? Is there stealing from the company, embezzlement, failure to complete job responsibilities? And last but not least, what about familial concerns? Are there ongoing quarrels with family members, failing marriage(s), divorce, children who are out of control?

What is in your closet and how long have those issues been in there? What has it cost you and/or profited you to keep those secrets hidden? What keeps you from opening those closet doors? What do you imagine might happen if those doors were open for others to see? Would exposure cost you a job, a relationship, personal freedom, jail time, loss of personal property, your reputation, acceptance by family and friends?

Universally, it would seem that what largely dictates our exposure of ourselves is the reaction that we anticipate from others. More often than not, we fear that certain exposures might result in rejection and abandonment as well as the imposition of consequences. In the same respect, we anticipate that other (more positive) exposures might gain us acceptance and sometimes even career or social advancement. Thus, from an early age, each of us begins to create a persona that we project to others while maintaining the “incongruent” pieces of ourselves in secret. The longer that we live life this way, the heavier the burden and the more fearful we become at the idea of being “discovered” and fully known.

The Bible admonishes us with this truth, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” (Luke 8:17). Whether in life or in death, it is true that at some point for each of us, all will be made known. If you are a parent, there is a strong possibility that your children will “out you” given time, and for those who have experienced this, how much better to “out yourself” than to be “outed” by someone else! Thus we are all faced with the choice to continue to conceal or to reveal. If we wait until the truth leaks out, our hand will then be forced to come clean, to be honest by default or extend denial in a continuing effort to “save face”.

Truth has a price, and so does deception. While we have reasoned and justified it as something altogether different (unique to our own situation of course), the question we must all wrestle with is, “what have we given into in exchange for our soul?” Life is not a popularity contest. At the end of the day, there is but One to whom we offer an account. Each of us must come to terms with the journey that we walk and the choices that we make. To live a life of integrity is to live a life of freedom. To live a life of secrecy is to live a life of bondage. Indeed, the Truth will set you free. Only when our commitment to do the right thing is accompanied by an honest exposure of our inadequacies/failures/mistakes, coupled with accepting the consequences for our choices (past and present), and then moving in a different direction, can we expect to find freedom and truly live.

Is the payoff of freedom greater than the humiliation of exposure? Am I willing to let the chips fall where they may in pursuit of a life that is pleasing to Him?

Life as a popularity contest…

What will you choose? What will I choose?

Ashley Vass

Jesus also told a story of a homecoming. In response to mutterings spoken by the religious leaders of that day about Jesus welcoming and eating with sinners, Jesus offers three parables, one of which is the story of the prodigal son. In all three parables the theme is the same, something is lost and is now found and with that is great rejoicing. While the first two seem to involve the depiction of a relationship that is two dimensional, something lost, something found, the parable of the prodigal son, unique to the other two parables, has the addition of a third element, the elder brother.

The elder brother was the obedient and dutiful son who always did as the father asked. While the story does not offer much surrounding detail, it seems that this elder brother was the “model son”, the one would set the standard for comparison, the one who was always praised, the one who could do no wrong, the one who was always highlighted in the annual Christmas letter. The younger brother is pictured, in stark contrast to this elder brother, as being aloof, interested in his own pursuits, demanding and selfish, and not at all concerned with duties and responsibilities at home. Only upon the return of the younger brother, is the heart of the elder brother exposed. I believe there is something in the exchange between the father and this elder son that offers us great insight into the economy of the divine.

When the younger brother returns, the response of the father is one of lavish love. He runs to meet him and immediately sets in motion the makings for a fantastic celebration. The elder brother, who is working in the field, hears all the commotion and is told by a servant that his little brother has returned and Dad is throwing a party. The elder brother refuses to join the celebration and Dad goes out to meet him. Instead of anger and disapproval at his son’s stubbornness, we see a picture that is gentle and heart that is longing for his family to celebrate together. The father pleads with his son to come in. The older son is angry, though, and begins spouting a list, comparing what he has done and what he has been rewarded with what his brother has received and it seems grossly unfair. Yet again, the father’s response is soft, “My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, for this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:31-32).

We don’t know how the story ends and whether or not the brother had a change of heart, but there is no question of the longing of the father’s heart. The brother responds from a place of presumed merit while the father is inviting him to a place of lavish grace. The father is making clear, “It’s not about the money. It’s not about what you do or don’t do. It’s about us being together!” The elder brother was looking for a reward, looking for something else that he had “earned”, and the father was inviting him to see that the reward was being together!

The economy of the temporal is so vastly different from the economy of the divine. The temporal toils and earns while the divine lavishes and receives. It is often only through great suffering and loss that one catches a glimpse of this vast difference. For some, the heart is moved and the eyes are opened to see the world through different lenses. For others, the heart continues to remain cold and distance. Anyone who has lost a loved one or faced the possibility of such loss knows the joy of the homecoming. There is nothing temporal that can replace or exceed the value of simply being together once again! There is no expense that is spared when there is hope of a return. There is only one goal, to bring the lost one home.

Only when we have the heart of the Father can we truly celebrate. When the heart is so intimately tied with the one that we love that the only longing that we have is for all to come home that is when our heart is free to celebrate, no matter what the offense. When our motivation for service is what we get, it will always appear as though someone else has gotten the better deal and our duty is no longer a labor of love.

God’s passion is for all of His children to come home. Scripture is clear that the angels celebrate the homecoming of every one that returns! Living at the father’s house with family is the reward! We cannot earn it, we don’t get more because we have been obedient longer, and we aren’t given special merits because we stay at home. The privilege is being home with dad, working with dad, and sharing in all that he has.

Where do you see yourself in the story? Are you far off and needing to come home? He is watching and waiting for your return. Are you doing all the right things and hoping that it will pay off in the end? He is coming to meet you too and remind you that the reward is not only yet to come, but now. Are you like the father watching and waiting, hopeful of the return of your loved one? The heart that loves deeply, grieves deeply, but the homecoming is worth the pain.

Sonship is the gift! May your heart overflow with great joy as you consider your homecoming and celebrate the homecoming of your family! In the end, nothing else matters.

Ashley Vass

During our ride home the conversation was flavored by critiques of the experience, the restaurant choice, the food, the service, and the ambiance. We even “assessed” the other patrons who were dining there as well. After our discussion, the vote was unanimous; we would most certainly dine there again.

Days later I was writing out my schedule for the upcoming weekend, making out my list of things to do. I discovered that when I wrote out the word “Church” under the Sunday morning block, I paused to ask the question, “How does my preparation for Sunday morning compare to my preparation for a dinner party?” While this comparison initially seemed odd and misplaced, the questions persisted. “In preparing for Sunday morning, what is my focus? What is my attitude? Do I spend time preparing my heart or simply my wardrobe? Am I showing up to be entertained or to participate? Am I looking to make an investment or hoping that my expense will be minimal and calculated? Am I coming to be a consumer or to make a contribution? Am I pleased to not get my hands dirty or am I coming ready to serve? Is my time afterwards spent critiquing the execution of the service or considering what God might have me to learn?”

It seemed the question wasn’t misplaced after all. Sunday morning…dinner party…how about you?

Ashley Vass

It was difficult to stop crying when I beheld so many seeing the printed words of God for the first time ever. I cannot begin to imagine what such an experience would be like. In fact, I tried to remember my first encounter with the Bible. Unfortunately my memory failed me. I was saddened to admit that the image that took its place was one of having reached for my own Bible, but having opened it with sighs of exhaustion. My eyes were too weary to read and I portrayed an attitude that I wasn’t really interested in or entertained by reading the words that were all too familiar. I thumbed lackadaisically through the pages with little passion, eagerness, or anticipation of what I might find therein.

Bibles are commonplace in so many homes. They decorate our coffee tables, our nightstands, and our bookshelves. Many people have numerous Bibles of various sizes, in different translations, and in different languages. Yet, I fear that that kind of “overexposure” and our easy access to Christian teaching have somehow left our own discipline in our study underdeveloped. We have the luxury of choosing from an array of places to worship. In fact, we do not even have to leave our home. We can watch services broadcast over the television or even listen to them on the radio. While I feel blessed that we live in a country that allows us the freedom to worship, I cannot help but wonder, ‘has this freedom somehow corrupted our gratitude as well as stifled our desire to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth?’

With such an abundance of possibilities, it seems we have reasoned that it is almost nonsensical to devote time to study on our own while we can much more easily enjoy the hard work of someone else. Why reinvent the wheel, right? I mean, most people have not gone to Bible school and certainly pastors understand more of the Bible than the common layman. Most of us cannot even pronounce some of the words in Scripture, let alone understand all the history, culture, and language. And who has the time or energy to devote to that anyway? Thus we justify ourselves as being practical and intelligent when we turn over our responsibility for personal growth to our Spiritual leaders and burden them with fulfilling our expectations for our own developing character.

Sadly, many people are lead astray by this unhealthy dependence. Other people remain underdeveloped and see a distorted view of themselves like when an anorexic girl looks at herself in a mirror. Is it possible to live a healthy Christian life dependent solely on the teaching of someone else? What if there was no weekly service? What if there was no one to teach? Would we continue to grow in faith, love, and service to God? Would the discipline of studying the Word be easier or more difficult? Would it be important at all? If we were to consider the number one factor that contributes to our developing relationship with the Lord, what would it be? What should it be?

How much of our Christian journey is spent feasting on the provisions provided by others while we fail to prepare our own feast in which others could share? How much of what we learn comes from the experiences of others and not from our own? How much of what we spout as “new knowledge” is simply regurgitated rhetoric and not original discoveries found in our own explorations with Him? How often do we base our continuing development on the findings presented by our leader instead of carefully considering and testing with Scripture what is told?

This challenge is not meant to shame but to invite. While our culture is saturated with Christian teaching, let us not entrust the responsibility of our spiritual growth to someone else. Let us not miss the opportunities to discover our own treasures with Him. Let our freedom of worship be celebrated by our discipline and our hunger to know Him personally!

“Now [they] were of more noble character…for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

May your journey be characterized by eagerness and examination!

Ashley Vass

This conversation prompted me to think about why I haven’t worked out since May, and in the spirit of true self-evaluation, why I haven’t really worked out consistently in over ten years. The list of reasons or “excuses” that I have used to justify my lack of discipline in this particular area includes, but is not limited to, vacation, work, too tired, too cold outside, too hot outside, not enough time, not really ready yet, gym clothes are dirty, everyone there is so in shape and I will look stupid, housework, other commitments, hanging out with friends, I can’t work out and smoke, holidays, don’t want to go by myself, I feel sick. I am certain that I have forgotten still more, as it has been ten years.

It is interesting to examine the relationship between the changes that we allegedly want to make and our willingness to actually change. We all know the things we want to and/or should do, but when it comes to actually doing it, that’s a different story. What I have realized is that, sadly, most of our life is spent making excuses for why we can’t and/or won’t do the things we ought to. We typically don’t have such a laundry list of reasons why we can’t do the things we ought not do because again, if we’re honest, those are the things we are actually doing most of the time.

Let’s consider some of the things that we want to do but usually don’t get around to. We want to save more, spend less, live on a budget, eat healthy, work out, focus on our marriage, work less, invest more in our kids, quit smoking, cut back on drinking, start a new hobby, read and study more, cut back on television, repair broken relationships, work on the house, volunteer, give to charity, tithe, say “I’m sorry”, ask for forgiveness, quit gambling, stop looking a pornography, enhance personal growth, develop my relationship with the Lord. This sampling is obviously a microcosm of an exhaustive list.

What I have seen in my own life and witnessed in the lives of others is that before we know it, we wake up one day and realize that another year or maybe even ten, have gone by and still no positive change, no closer to reaching the goal. Do not be deceived into thinking that change has not taken place for with the passing of time there is always change. The difference is that through the passing of time, instead of moving ahead, we find that we have actually slipped down the mountain even further, making the summit seem an even more impossible feat. We have gained more weight, have become more out of shape, have only increased our knowledge base of the latest reality series and not real life happenings, increased our debt, our relationships have become more distant and cold, our dreams seem more of a burden than a blessing, the clutter continues to mount both inside and outside the house; and all the while, life has become rather comfortable and routine.

While going through our days, I think it rare that we really devote much time to pondering the actual consequences of our choices and decisions. My hunch is that if we took even a few minutes for reflection, our hearts would be moved to action. We see the immediate call to change as a sacrifice that is inconvenient in “the now” while failing to consider the greater sacrifice we are making through such neglect. The reality is that we are making sacrifices everyday. We are sacrificing our health, our families, our personal satisfaction and fulfillment, our potential, our personal growth, our ability to impact the world around us, our present as well as our future, our dreams, our relationships with others, and most certainly our relationship with the Lord.

It has been said, “Change happens when the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change.” The lack of immediate pain that we feel in the present however, is often what keeps us from not changing. This lack certainly is one of the facets that encourages the belief that tomorrow we will look at the world differently and consequently want to “do life differently”. If we don’t want to do it today, what makes us think we are going to want to do it any other day? Another day passes and still we tell ourselves, “It’s just not the right time. I’m not ready yet.”

There will, however, come a time when we will all have to reckon with the choices that we have made and our decisions not to change. Sadly for many, it will be too late. Life is tragically impacted by the diagnosis of cancer, a heart attack, the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage, missed opportunities when kids are grown and have moved away, the debt that will take two lifetimes to settle, the limited ability to pursue dreams, the inability to enjoy physical activity. Everything has a price. What I am learning is that the sacrifice I can make now is much smaller in comparison to the one that I will have to make if I continue wait.

So how long will you wait? How long will I wait? Change is inevitable and always comes at a price. What are you willing to sacrifice? What are you sacrificing now? Time passes so quickly and, before you know it, you might wake up and find that most of your life here on earth is behind you. Will that time be one of regret or rejoicing? I know the changes and decisions that I must make. And with tears in my eyes and sadness in my heart, to some things I still say, “Not today.”

What will you say?

Ashley Vass

Where does greatness come from? How can one become great? Who is the judge of what is great? In America, we are taught from an early age that we can be anything that we aspire to be and can do anything that we put our minds to. With the right education, the right connections, the right combination of skills, and the right resources, the world is ours for the taking…or at least that is what we are told. We are taught that greatness comes in the form of power, leadership, influence, and having a platform on which to stand. Is this truly greatness? Do the Lord and the world define greatness synonymously?

As Christians too often we answer this question with a “yes”. As a result, we seek to hold great positions and to do great things (sometimes in the name of the Lord) by seeking to change the culture and the world around us. We stand to proclaim a message, promote a cause, protect a value, or protest against anti-Christian politics. This is not to say that all of these cannot be good things. All too often however, our focus is outward and not inward. We seek to influence and impact the world without doing the necessary internal work to first change as individuals. We buy into the idea that change comes through the masses and thus our efforts become concentrated outwardly.

The Christian community as a whole, for example, is unhappy that prayer has been taken out of the schools in America. We have conducted research studies to link the increase in pregnancy and violence in schools to the time that prayer was taken out. It should be noted that Christians were not banned from schools, nor were their freedoms of speech or right to worship taken from them. The presence of prayer in school didn’t have to change just because the legislation did. We can be certain that one day a year there is prayer in school though. There is a National campaign called “See You At the Pole” where students show up for school early to pray around the flagpole. I have no objection to this collective National prayer time. However, if prayer is really an important value to everyone participating, why not show up everyday to pray? This is what I mean when I say that we concentrate on things outwardly vs. inwardly. We make a lot of noise, when so much more could be accomplished if we just practiced the very things that we are fighting for!

There was One who walked among us who showed us with His life that greatness does not come through power, education, position, or majority consensus. In fact, His life portrays almost the antithesis to what the world presents to us as greatness. He did not have any formal education, never wrote any books, was hated by the religious leaders of His day, was scoffed at, mocked, beaten, and ultimately crucified. And yet, He was the greatest Man who ever lived. He changed the course of history and the destiny of all people for all time past, present, and future. He said that greatness comes through serving, “Instead [in contrast to what the people had been taught], whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be the first must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43b-45).

Jesus taught and demonstrated to the world that greatness comes through humility, sacrifice, service, and love. How we invest our life is up to us and what He chooses to do through that investment is up to Him. Greatness cannot be manufactured. It cannot be earned with degrees, negotiated with positions, or purchased with money; greatness comes as the result of becoming a servant.

What does your life say about greatness right now? If you were to ask others what makes you great, what might they say? Is your life characterized by service and sacrifice? Where do you focus your energy and resources? What message do you communicate to others about the love and life of Jesus through your own? Could it be said of you that you live life to serve and not to be served and offer yourself for the sake of others? If not, what needs to change? What will change?

Our life and our legacy, through Him, could be used to impact generations to come. Are we willing to humble ourselves through service and sacrifice, trusting that though the world may never see it as great, we are pleasing to the One who judges justly? What will it take for us to be that great generation?

I believe that it falls upon every generation to be great. I believe that each one of us is destined for greatness. But greatness as a generation cannot take place without the commitment of individuals to first become great individually.

Ashley Vass