A New Definition of Greatness

Recently I’ve been reading/listening to many sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One of his more famous sermons, titled “The Drum Major Instinct”, is one that I have found particularly challenging. King preaches on Mark 10:35-44, and towards the end of the sermon begins to focus on what it means to be great,

…and so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

While I agree wholeheartedly with King, I find this challenging because often times I don’t have a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. This is where I most definitely need God’s grace and God’s help.

Its very easy to want to convey this point to the youth group that I work with, and many times I do. But at the same time, my example speaks louder than my words do. If I don’t have a servant’s heart and if I’m not trusting in the LORD to work this into my life, then I’m not going to provide a good example to backup exhortations of service.

A Lesson on Prayer from Isaiah 38

I’ve been thinking about prayer a lot lately. I’m not a very prayerful person. I think this is due to the fact that I never grew up in a family where we prayed very often. The only time I saw my father pray was before a meal, and even then it wasn’t for very long (and I’m actually thankful for that! Long prayers while a nice meal is in front of your nose can be difficult to deal with…).

I know that the Scriptures have a lot to say about prayer. And while the gospels and Paul’s epistles might be a good place to turn in order to learn the importance of prayer and how to pray, I’m always reminded that the why should we pray? question is often answered in the prophetical books. The simple answer:God hears and answers the prayers of his people. One of the most amazing portions of Scripture that speaks to the fact that God indeed hears and answers the prayers of his people is found in Isaiah, chapter 38. There we read about a king named Hezekiah, a descendant of David, who reigned over the southern part of the kingdom, Judah. Hezekiah is described as a good king, though certainly flawed. He sought to bring reform to the nation of Judah, destroying idols and false worship centers that had been established throughout the country. We remember that the nation was no longer a united kingdom, as it had been under the reigns of kings David and Solomon, but it was a divided kingdom. The northern part of the kingdom, Israel, had fallen at the hand of the Assyrians and were now threatening to do the same to the southern kingdom, Judah. But instead of paying tribute to the king of Assyria, Hezekiah rebelled against him. However, Hezekiah made the mistake of entering into an agreement with Egypt, rather than trusting in the LORD to deliver Judah. Because Hezekiah failed to demonstrate faithfulness and trust to the LORD as the nation’s representative, the LORD became unhappy with Hezekiah and Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. This leads up to what we read in Isaiah 38:1,

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.

What happens next is simply amazing. Its amazing because Hezekiah does something that is so contradictory to what you and I would do if this word came to us. I’m willing to bet that our limited understanding of God’s sovereignty and decrees would lead us to obey – we would put our house into order and prepare to die. After all, this is the word of the LORD. He said it, therefore we can expect it to happen, right? Well, Hezekiah does something amazing. He turns to the LORD in prayer! We continue reading,

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, "Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Hezekiah repents. He pleads to the LORD to remember how he has been a faithful king. What happens next is perhaps the most amazing thing in all of Scripture,

Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: "Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

What!?!? Read that again. God HEARD Hezekiah’s prayer and ADDED FIFTEEN YEARS TO HIS LIFE! Even AFTER the LORD said Hezekiah would not recover and would die! I mean, talk about wrecking my limited view of God’s sovereignty. Had Hezekiah not prayed to the LORD for mercy, pleading with him to remember his faithfulness and crying real tears of repentance, Hezekiah would have certainly succumbed to death. But instead, he feels the need to pray to the LORD – asking him to change his mind. And God does. God changes his mind based on Hezekiah’s prayer. It is simply amazing.

This is why we pray. Prayer changes things. God hears the prayers of his people and acts accordingly. Sure, God is indeed sovereign and has foreordained everything that will come to pass. I firmly believe that and I do not deny it. But events in life are often contingent within the scope of God’s sovereignty. Prayer is indeed important.

So, this doesn’t fix my problem of not being a very prayerful person. It doesn’t teach me how to pray necessarily, but it does teach me why we pray. God hears the prayers of his people. What an encouraging lesson for you and I to learn today. May we be a people who pray to our LORD and our God, confident that he hears us.

Not Dark Yet

If you haven't heard Bob Dylan's "Not Dark Yet", please...stop reading this. Watch the video here.

The song is one of the many jewels found in Dylan's 1997 release Time Out of Mind. I'm hesitant to offer an interpretation of this particular song because I think it can have many different meanings. Dylan is hard to interpret to begin with. In my opinion (which doesn't count for a whole lot), this is one of the few glimpses we have into the soul of the greatest song writer to ever live (I dare you to dispute that claim!).

Its hard to deny that this song is about aging. In our culture, and perhaps around the globe, there is the understanding that "wisdom comes with age". I think this song is the realization that this saying isn't particularly true for Dylan, if the song is indeed about him. When I listen to this song, I can literally hear the fatigue in Dylan's voice. I hear a man who is tired. Tired of traveling, tired of writing, and perhaps tired of living.

Two lines in the song stand out to me in particular.

Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain.

Here we catch a glimpse of Dylan the theologian. Contemplating this line reminded me of a quote by Al Wolters in his book, Creation Regained,

“The effects of sin touch all of creation – no created thing is in principle untouched by the corrosive effects of the fall.”

Dylan is right on the mark. There is indeed much beauty to find in life, however because of the fall, brokenness and pain are found around every turn as well. And many times, pain doesn't heal, especially with time. Earlier in the song, Dylan claims,

I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal.

If we fully rely on time to heal our pains, we'll be disappointed. While I do believe that time can help to heal pain, it isn't the solution. We'll never experience true healing on this earth until Jesus' second coming - when the King will make everything new (Revelation 21:1-5).

The second line in the song that stands out to me in particular is found in the third verse:

Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear.

Don't we all carry burdens? If you're anything like me, you've got past issues/problems (perhaps from childhood) that still haunt you. Of course these can be heavy, especially when coupled with present day burdens. Lately I've been thinking a lot about "ministry" and what it means to enter into people's pain and brokenness. In effect, when we do this we take on other people's burdens and it can often feel as though it is too much to bear.

I have a deep appreciation for Dylan's honesty and vulnerability in this song. He has such a gift for writing songs that people can relate to. I hope you can enjoy this song as much as I have.

The Struggle For Self-Respect

I'm reading an excellent book at the moment. It is called, "Raising Cain", and I highly recommend it to anyone who works with boys, whether it be as a parent, teacher, youth leader, mentor, etc. I read this last night:

Most boys, despite feelings of anger and pain, are quieter students of emotional suffering. They long for love, acceptance, and approval from their parents and peers. They struggle for self-respect.

While I was reflecting on this quote, I couldn't help but to think of my own past experience of growing up a boy. I don't believe that I was a "quiet student of emotional suffering", but that doesn't mean that I didn't suffer. I think I tended to be a little more loud, and tended to act out as a result of my emotional suffering. My issue was not so much that I kept things in (though I certainly did that), but that I often acted out in anger and had a wild, uncontrollable temper.

With regards to a boy's longing for love, acceptance, and approval - I couldn't agree more. To this day I still long for approval from my father, and from others as well. I guess you could say that I'm a people pleaser. This longing for love and approval has definitely shown itself in my marriage.

The sad truth of the matter is that this quote is not only true, but I've come to see that parents, especially dads, often fail to show the love and approval that their sons so desperately need. Every young man longs to hear somebody, really anybody, tell them that they are proud of them. Until educators, mentors, youth leaders, etc. get this, I fear that we will continue to see generations of young men who will turn to anybody or anything for the approval they so desperately are searching for.