Determination

One of my best friends, Mike Fabian, who is a pastor outside of Detroit, told me a story about the summer before his junior year in college. Mike was on camp teams that summer for Great Lakes Christian College. Camp teams go from church camp to church camp all summer long, representing the college. He was also planning on playing soccer again in the fall. Before the summer started out, the coach warned the team that the first practice in the fall would be a two-mile run and everyone would need to finish the run in under twelve minutes if they wanted to play. My friend Mike had never even ran a six minute mile in his life. Let alone two six minute miles in a row. Even in tiptop shape, his legs, because he has cerebral palsy, just won't let him do it.

So Mike approached the coach after the announcement, and the coach told Mike, "You have to want it." Mike replied, "No matter how much I want it, my legs just won't let me have it." The coach repeated, "You have to want it."

Fearing failure and not being able to play on the soccer team that he loved, Mike set some goals for himself over the summer. He was determined to achieve what he thought was an impossible goal and woke up early every morning before camp to run. On the weekends, he ran the actual two-mile course he would have to run in the fall. He ran and ran and ran all summer long. He even timed myself. He wanted it. But he still could not run the two miles fast enough.

The first day of practice came. The day of the run. Coach gathered the team together and said, "Hopefully, you guys have been training all summer for this. Here you go. You got to want it." Mike was going to give it his all. He wanted to be on the soccer team and would run his heart out. He ran as hard as he could for two miles and even sprinted the last quarter mile. He wanted it.

As he came around the final turn, his teammates were clapping. They were cheering. Coach was encouraging, "Want it! Want it, Fabian!" Mike ran harder and harder.  As he finished, his time was called out - and remember, he had to run it in under twelve minutes. "14:23."

Under fifteen minutes for two miles is Mike's personal best to this day, but it wasn't under the twelve minutes that it needed to be for Mike to make the team. He was really disappointed. He put his hands on his dropped head, breathed heavily in his slumped chest, and walked away. And then threw up. He really wanted it. And he didn't achieve his goal.

Coach blew the whistle and called the team in. He said. "This season - if we are going to succeed, you gotta want it." Then he continued and said something that Mike will never forget. "You have to want it like Fabian wants it. No one ran harder than he did." Mike was second to last that morning, but coach used him as an example of someone who wanted it because, despite his limitation, he gave it his all. He was determined. He prepared. He worked hard. He left everything he had on that run. He wanted it. He made the team!

Determination doesn't mean you will succeed. Mike showed determination, yet he failed. Determination means that you will try your hardest. It means that you will work toward it even if you can't accomplish it.

We need to introduce a little crazy determination back into our faith.

Determined to live out the life of Jesus, ShaneClaiborne has moved into the inner city of Philadelphia and lives among the poor.  Also determined to live out the life of Jesus, other lesser known, yet just as faithful, brothers and sisters in Jesus live with him.

Determined to live out the life of Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr. stood up against racism in our nation.  Also determined to live out the life of Jesus, many others marched with him.

Determined to live out the life of Jesus, Milton Bates, a pattern maker at General Motors, after seeing disaster strike Bangladesh in 1972, started International Disaster Emergency Service, which has been helping around the States and around the world when disasters strike. 

Determined to live out the life of Jesus, Mother Theresa moved to Calcutta to help the poor.

Determined to live out the life of Jesus, Millard Fuller, in 1976, started Habitat for Humanity and since then, Habitat, with the help of many other determined volunteers, has built over 400,000 homes.

Determined to live out the life of Jesus, a group of people from this area started a place to help kids in need. This place we know as the WoodburnChristian Children's Home. Since it started forty-one years ago, hundreds of lives have been made better because of the determination of a few who decided they were going to live out the life of Jesus.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

More Than A Drop

One drop of water does not reflect the sun all that much, but many drops together in a body of water like a lake or the ocean can cause the sun to reflect magnificently.

In order for the ocean to reflect the sun a lot has to happen. Each individual drop must work with each other drop and do its part. Some drops find themselves down in the depths, holding up all the water above it. There is great significance to doing the work that nobody sees them doing. Others are right there on the surface, with the light reflecting off of them. In the end, the beauty of the ocean isn’t the ocean in itself, it’s the ocean combined with the light reflecting off of it. It’s the culmination of perfect sunlight with many individual drops working together to bring about beauty.

Jesus taught, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” [Matt 5:14-16 (ESV)].

Reflecting the glory of God is the ultimate purpose of church, and Jesus said that people will give glory to our Father in heaven when they see our good works.

I recently heard Dave Ramsey tell a story that he said Zig Ziglar used to share.

Belgian plow horses are really strong. You can hook one up and it can pull 8,000 pounds. That’s around the weight that a Ford F-150 can pull.

The interesting thing is that if you put two Belgian plow horses together, they can then pull 24,000 pounds. Compare that to a Ford F-350 Superduty. It can only pull 19,500 pounds. Two Belgian plow horses can do more together, even when not trained to work together, than just doubling their individual strength. They feed off one another. They encourage one another.

But if you take two Belgian plow horses and train them to work together, they can pull 32,000 pounds.  You need to get into tractors, semis, and other heavy machinery to pull that much. The International CXT has the largest towing capacity of any truck at 40,000 pounds.

We, like the Belgian plow horses, can do much more together, especially trained together, than we can do apart. You, like me, are just one tiny drop, and we need more drops to come alongside us if we are going to make significant steps in bringing about God’s will.

Mother Teresa is attributed as saying, “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.”

The idea that we each have different talents, abilities, and passions and that by using them together we can do greater things than we can do apart is the very foundation of society. We, Americans, have always struggled against working together because a frontier nature has been ingrained in us from our birth. We exalt the idea of the rugged, independent, individual. This individualism, when consistently expressed and lived out, prevents us from doing the great things that we can only do together.

Individually, we might be special and unique, but we are just a drop in the bucket. Together, we can provide life to the thirsty and reflect the glory of the Son.

Mother Teresa's Feet and Sacrificial Giving

An excerpt from Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (167-168).

There’s an old story from the desert fathers and mothers, people of deep faith who found it necessary to go into the desert to find God. They lived in little clusters of communities (much the way many of our communities now live, only our desert is the inner cities and abandoned places of the empire). Someone had brought one of the communities a bundle of grapes as a gift. That was quite a delicacy, maybe sort of like giving someone chocolate truffles today. They got so excited, and what happened next is fascinating. Rather than devour them all, they didn’t eat a single one. They passed them on to the next community to enjoy. And that community did the same thing. And eventually, those grapes made it through every community and back to the first community without being eaten. Everyone simply wanted the others to experience the joy of the gift. I’m not sure what ever ended up happening with those grapes. I think maybe they had a big party, or maybe they made some wine. But no doubt God was happy. One of the quotes on my wall reminds me of this daily: “The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.”

Mother Teresa was one of those people who sacrificed great privilege because she encountered such great need. People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it’s like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery, like a beautiful wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never forget—her feet. Her feet were deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn’t going to ask, of course. “Hey Mother, what’s wrong with your feet?” One day a sister said to us, “Have you noticed her feet?” We nodded, curious. She said, “Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet.” Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet.