Be excellent...

If you’re around my age, you may have gone through primary school at a time when teachers gave children coloured, silver or gold stars for good work. They would write little comments in your notebook, iike, “good” or “very good,” or even “excellent.”  Every child knew that there was a difference between good and excellent; everyone hoped that their work would be worthy of a gold star. Even a child, then, can understand what the Bible means when it tells us in Romans 16: 19 to, “Be excellent in what is good.”

Sometimes, when you’re speaking with non believers, or even when speaking with Christians, you’ll hear people say, “I live a good life” or, “I’m a good person.” That’s all very well, but what sometimes gets forgotten is that God never asked us simply to be good; He asks us to be outstanding, to be excellent.

Amidst the stories of many evil kings in the Old Testament, the first two verses of 2 Chronicles 25 tell us about a man called Amaziah who reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years and who did what was good. Yes, for nearly three decades, this king did what was right in God’s eyes... but verse 2 tells us honestly that he didn’t do it with his whole heart. Amaziah was good, but he wasn’t outstanding; he wasn’t excellent.

In contrast, we read in Numbers 14: 24 about a man who was outstanding. God Himself said that Caleb had a different spirit from those around him and was following the Lord wholeheartedly. That’s what he was known for. It’s mentioned again when Caleb, even as an old man of eighty five, was not willing to settle only for a good and comfortable life, but raised his sights higher and aimed for excellence. (Joshua 14: 10 - 14)

Excellence. Holiness. That’s what’s on God’s heart for us. When we read the New Testament with this understanding, we’ll notice that the Bible doesn’t simply ask us to be thankful; it asks us to be thankful in all circumstances. We’re not only exhorted to be joyful, but to be joyful always. We’re not instructed just to pray now and then, but to pray continually. In addition to holding on to what is good, we are to avoid every kind of evil. (1 Thess 5: 16 - 22)  It’s only when our lives are outstanding, that other people around us can truly see the difference that God makes. We can’t do it alone, but only by asking for the Holy Spirit’s power to work within us. It’s not enough, like Amaziah, to be a “good person.” By God’s grace, we can be people of excellence.

When things turn out different from expected...

This morning in my daily Bible reading, I was reflecting on two stories whose protagonists found themselves confronted by situations that simply weren't what they'd been expecting. It's interesting to observe the reactions of these different Bible characters, and to consider what my own reaction would be like in similar circumstances.

The first story was in the New Testament, in John chapter 11, and it begins with the news that Jesus' dear friend, Lazarus, is critically ill. When the Son of God and Creator of the Universe happens to be a close and personal friend of yours, I'm sure you expect that He will come immediately and perform a miraculous healing. But that's not what happened. Some verses later, we discover that Lazarus has died and his two sisters are left grappling with the question of why Jesus failed to show up.

Have you ever been in that situation? You've been praying for healing and it didn't happen; you were trusting for financial provision and it looks as if it's not going to come in time; your longed for pregnancy ended in miscarriage or your fairytale marriage ended in divorce; your talented teenager gets caught up with drugs, drops out of school or is diagnosed with leukaemia….  How do you respond when life deals you a blow that is totally not what you were expecting or hoping for?

The second story I read this morning was in the Old Testament and was the story of a remarkable teenage boy. Daniel's life turned out completely differently from what he expected. As an intelligent boy from a wealthy family, he had a bright future ahead of him…. but Daniel was stripped of absolutely everything - everything but his faith in God - when he and his people were carried off as slaves by Babylonian invaders. Instead of becoming bitter or sinking into a victim mentality, this godly teenage boy chose to hang on to his belief that God is ultimately in control and that He is not thwarted by the hard blows that life deals us. Daniel began to look for his new destiny - for God's purposes in his new situation. Later, as an old man (Daniel 7: 13 - 14), he had a vision of the throne room of God, a confirmation that God does have authority over all nations and all situations. 

(This is not the same as saying that everything that happens is God's will. We live in a fallen world and lots of things happen that God would not have planned or desired for us. But God is not thrown off balance by the unexpected; even when He has reasons for not intervening immediately, like Jesus in the Lazarus story, He is keeping a close eye on our situations and never at any time is He helpless or taken by surprise.)

So, what about you and me? What do we do when confronted with situations and circumstances that were not at all what we were expecting? The circumstances may be different: illness or accident, loss or bereavement, injustice or crisis… Have you ever experienced something like that? I can clearly remember two times in my life when things didn't turn out as I'd been expecting; didn't turn out as God seemed to be leading me.  People throughout the Bible (Joseph, Esther, Jeremiah…) and throughout history (a whole host of victims of war, disease and natural disasters….) have been in this position too.

Do we blame God, blame other people, or sink into self-pity? Do we struggle with questions of why God didn't intervene to heal or rescue or provide? Or do we, like Daniel, Joseph and Esther, push into God, seeking His redemption of the unexpected, His purposes in the new and unfamiliar, and His guidance for our own part in it. Daniel, Joseph and Esther are all teenagers when we first meet them in the pages of the Bible. Yet each one of them had sufficient faith in God to rise above life's blows and find out God's ways of giving them grace and victory. Mary and Martha still reached out to Jesus, despite their confusion and disappointment at the death of their brother… and they were witnesses to an amazing resurrection.

When we focus on Jesus and His power, instead of on our outward circumstances, we still may not have all the answers, but we will begin to see life from a throne room perspective. That's why the Bible says that God wants to "seat us with Him in the heavenlies" so that we can see things they way He does. (Ephesians 2:6)

When Joseph reached middle age, he was able to say, "People planned evil against me, but God turned it into good. (Genesis 50:20) When Daniel reached old age, he was able to proclaim, "All authority is given to the Son of Man, and nothing can destroy His kingdom's rule." (Daniel 7:14)

I want to look at my life's circumstances from that throne room perspective. Dealing with the unexpected will never be "easy"… but we can have have God's strength and grace to face any situation that life throws at us.

Summer service

Summer is a time when a big chunk of our church congregation (those who are year-round missionaries here in Spain) often head home to the US or the UK to visit their sending churches. Meanwhile a brand new group (those coming to Spain for summer outreach in our church's English Camp) arrives to swell the numbers  at our Sunday services again. This year we're hosting outreach teams from New York and Oregon, and we have forty local children and teenagers enrolled in our two weeks of English Camp.

Those of us who remain in Malaga for most of the summer usually end up recruited into service as plant-waterers and animal-carers for the families who have gone overseas. This month I'm checking up on my friends' cat, Luci, and yesterday I was also on "puppy duty" for my former housemates, who were going to the beach for Gabriela's birthday, and didn't want to leave their brand new tiny puppies alone in the house all day.