He's good; scary good

Photo courtesy of Bern Altman (http://mostlymaritime.photoshop.com)

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God is good; scary good.  And so it is with Christ; good Christ but scary Christ.  It’s an odd juxtaposition but I find it in the story Steve shared of the disciples, the sea, the wind and Christ in control.  I know it well.  Christ and the disciples are headed across the Sea of Galilee when a squall rises up and threatens to drown them.  They wake Jesus. He rebukes the wind, the water and the disciples themselves for their lack of faith.  Heard that.  Got that.  Then I read on.

With wind and sea subdued, Luke records that the disciples went right back to being afraid (Luke 8:25) only now of Jesus Himself instead of the natural elements around them.  One fear has been supplanted by another.  Hmm...  I check Mark 4:41; same account, same result; scary storm and scary Jesus. This time when the disciples find Jesus, He's asleep unfazed by the storm and they have to wake him up.  Didn’t Christ just call them out on their fear?  Wasn’t He clearly in control?  Shouldn’t they have trusted in Him?  Yes and that’s what I now get.  To be fair, who wouldn’t have been more than a little unsettled by a man, fully-man, with these kinds of powers?  He’s fully God too, we now know, but this was pre-resurrection Jesus.  The disciples were ignorant of that fact.  If there isn’t a Bible translation with the modern term “freaked out” in it, there should be.  These guys were freaked out.  I would be too.

And yet we know that by then the disciples were dealing with a predictably miraculous Christ who had already healed the disabled and raised the dead.  Weren’t they to feel more confident and less afraid?  Didn’t Jesus always have their back?  My guess is that recorded or not, there was a constant state this God is of great fear around Jesus.  Who was He?  What would He do next and to whom?  Where were they going?  How would it end?  Being a disciple of Christ was scary business.  I get that.  But I think on another level we’re also afraid of the simple notion that He is God and we are not.  Where is He taking us?  Have we a choice?

I can’t stand being in the passenger seat on an icy road even though I know with full confidence that the driver next to me is more skilled, more experienced and more calm under the conditions.  I want control.  In life I am hard pressed to share the wheel with God, much less give him the control He already has.  It’s irrational but I deny Him His due.  My fear drives me to take control, not give it.

Like the disciples we fear lack of control even when, and they didn’t fully know this at the time, God is in charge.  Do I believe God is in charge?  Absolutely.  Am I afraid of it?  Sometimes I am.  God works in His own time and for His own ends.  While I trust God’s will and His goodness, I’ve seen enough in life to know that God offers no assurance of immediate safety or relief.  My escape plan is seldom His.  I do think this is something Christ perfects in us throughout our walk.  We grow our capacity to trust His purposes and yield to His outcomes.  The yielding bends back against our pride and our instinct to control circumstances we fear.  I battle the storm then desperately shake Him awake when I finally realize that He’s been in control the whole time.  What’s battering your boat?  Will you wake Him? 

written by Rob Ames

15 Minutes of Fame or a Lifetime of Significance?

I wanted to get the job. Why? there were only six of these jobs on the entire campus. You were respected. You were admired.  If you got the job, you were in charge of a dorm for 200 college undergraduate students. You had power. So I thought. 

So after a year of hoping and dreaming of the job, I got it. But the power and authority didn't feel like I thought it would. It didn't really work like that. 

I was helping freshmen who had gotten locked out of their room. I was doing administrative paperwork. I was telling people the keep the noise down.

I quickly realized the more influential I perceived myself to be, the less effective I felt. I had the job I wanted, but the feeling of power wasn't there.  

Enter Jesus. Jesus' thoughts on power are upside down of the way we naturally think of powerful people. Jesus (in John 13)  has just one week to live. You do things very intentionally when you know you're going to die. I had a friend who had a terminal cancer; he knew just how important his last days were. He passed on important parts of the family business. He told his family he loved them. 

If you know you're going to be gone soon, you take time to pass on the most important lessons that you can. 

Jesus does it. And one of the final times he's gathered with his disciples, he gets up from the table at dinner and does something that only a servant in that age would have done. 

It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

John 13:2-5

Meals were common settings for teaching sessions from a rabbi like Jesus. He does teach, but not with words now. Washing the disciples' feet involved:

• kneeling down and removing their sandals which were covered in dust.
• actually touching their feet (I don't know the last time you touched somebody else's feet, you don't do it by accident)
• getting himself a little dirty in the process of washing the dirt off the others' feet

Why? Jesus is not seeking to become famous in this moment. He will become famous but not because he sets out to. He sets out to serve. They will understand in a few days time, after he is killed and comes back to life, how he truly washed the dirt from their lives.

Where are you seeking fame? What would it look like to serve somebody today. Serving will lead to a life that is significant. And significance is way better than fame, which will last about 15 minutes.

#winning: fame, power & other stuff

April 14 Coaching Guide