I WANT YOU TO FAIL

I want you to fail. Not all the time. Hardly at all actually. But unless you're trying, stretching, striving, and seeking to reach your fullest potential, you're almost certainly not failing enough! The path to success is paved with failures! And in Tasmania, we are surrounded by a culture that hates to fail. Ironically, this guarantees that we rarely succeed like we should! Fear. Fear of change. Fear of failure. Fear of hard work. Fear of facing challenges. If you want to be a success you must overcome these fears and occasionally fail!

As a believer you should be used to failing - because you are striving to be all God wants you to be beyond where you are currently. Yet, as you've experienced, you are not yet who you will fully be. Along God's journey for your life your sense of who God has made you to be grows. This sense of identity is honed by our failures. I think I am something but after continual repeated miserable failures I realise I am not. On the hand, I become curious about another pursuit, try it, fail, learn from it, grow my curiousity about it, keep trying and eventually succeed. Without a preparedness to fail you can never succeed.

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
First Timothy 4:10

One of the people I've been coaching was presented to me when she was 5 (she is now 12). At just 5 years of age her potential as a champion tennis player was obvious. But she had some obstacles to overcome. She had a number of dietary restrictions (dairy, nuts, gluten) which has meant that we have had figure out how best to fuel and build her. But by far her biggest disadvantage, and her severest handicap, is her perfectionism. Nothing has come close to causing the damage that this wretched disease has done to her. Two weeks ago, durng the school holidays, we trained together two hours a day. (We had previously only ever done one hour sessions a couple of times a week.) She was training for the try-outs to represent Tasmania - only the best of best girls would be chosen - and she was determined to be one of them. But she had tried-out last year and failed.

This year she was determined. When failure comes knocking, send Determination to answer the door! She knew that in order to reach her potential she had reach. Our training session were brutal. One earlier morning our court was covered in black ice and the temperature was still around 1ºC  then it started raining. But she continued to train. The day before the lead-up tournament to the try-outs, we trained even harder and did so under match conditions. While I felt like a bully, I beat her to 'love' in three of the five sets we played and only conceded three games. She got in her Mum's car after our session and cried. She had once again tasted failure on the eve of everything she had been working so hard for. But the next day, she brought her door-greeter with her (Determination) and dished out a few lessons of her own. Then in the try-outs she earned her place onto the State Team to represent Tasmania in Brisbane in October. Without facing failure she could never have succeeded. After her try-outs I told her that she played an almost perfect game. "But I made so many mistakes!" I then explained that under match-conditions she was always going to make mistakes. Whenever you are trying to succeed there will always be failures along the way.

"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."
Lke 13:24

Tasmania desperately needs people to strive toward fulfilling their potential. They are created by God to do so. There are Tasmanians whose destinies involve learning what's necessary to find cures for 'incurable' diseases. There are Tasmanians who have a destined purpose to produce art, music, literature that will literature mold a generation and change the course of history. There are Tasmanians who have a destiny to start businesses that provide cost effective solutions to those in need. There are Tasmanians who are called by their Creator to be in Government and positions of civic responsibility that will ensure that our State can prosper and flourish. There are Tasmanians whom God is calling to be a vital part of a local church that will grow bigger than anything the culture currently says is possible - not merely a church of dozens, or even hundreds.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 
Second Corinthians 9:8

Will you fail? Will you be who God has called you to be? Will you answer your fears' door-knocking by sending Determination to answer the door? Will you give your life so fully to Christ that you are prepared to humbly take your position in the picture that Christ is presenting to the world? Today, pictures are generally made up of small dots called 'pixels'. The bigger and more detailed the picture, the smaller and the greater the number of pixels required. One of the problems we have in Tasmania is that too many pixels want to be the picture - not make up the picture. Jesus is the 'Picture'. Not us. 

Because we don't want the picture of our lives visible to the world to look bad, we refuse to join the other pixels who are striving to form the grandest picture they can of Christ. This fear of failure then impacts directly on our spiritual health. But just as John The Baptist said, I must decrease and He must increase (John 3:30). Please fail more. Please. Tasmania urgently needs Christians who have tasted, learned from, and overcome failures - who understand that life is not about them and their needs. In other words, it's not that we want or need you fail as if that is the end of the story. Failure for winners is never the end of the story. Failure for winners is the schooling, strength, and strategy for success. And Tasmania must have you succeed beyond anything you've ever enjoyed thus far. Your success is our success. But wait, I hear a knock at our door. Shall we answer it? Or shall we send our Door-greeter?

Ps. Andrew

HOW TO TREAT A WOMAN

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has revolutionised how women are treated. Jesus Christ was a radical in the way He treated women. He honoured women. He gave them respect. Women's sense of worth took on new bounds of pure dignity. Rather than being relegated to menial tasks to serve unappreciative men, Jesus Christ shocked everyone by entrusting His mission to women as well as to men. Indeed, the first people to witness then proclaim His resurrection were women. So deep has the Gospel permeated the Western World, that we now take it for granted the inherent dignity that women deserve. And above all, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has dramatically reinstated God's intention for marriage for women. 

At the time of Christ's earthly mission, women were treated, excuse me, mistreated, as little more than objects. They were frequently physically, sexually, and financially abused. They were generally not equal partners in marriage. Outside of Israel, women entered marriage for various reasons but rarely for anything noble. In fact, study Roman history around the time of Caesar Tiberius and you'll be horrified to discover that women were  "subservientem" (utterly subordinate ones). This is why Christ's statements about marriage in Matthew 19, for example, were utterly shocking to His original audience. We sometimes think that marriage today has become a relatively disposable commodity, but back in the First Century, divorce was rife! 

Matt. 19:3 ¶ And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 

Matt. 19:4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

Matt. 19:5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Matt. 19:6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Marriage from the beginning, said Jesus, was designed by God to be between a male and a female (Mat. 19:4) so that a woman would be "held" (provided for, protected, cherished, and loved) "fast" (permanently close) by her husband (Mat. 19:5). When Jesus declared that God had joined a man and a woman together, He was making a powerful statement about the abuse of women through unjustifiable divorce.

This Gospel teaching about the indispensable role of women and the purpose of marriage to ensure that  they can flourish is expounded by Christ's apostles in their epistles. The concept of love in a marriage (which we now take for granted) is taught by Paul in Ephesians 5. He charges husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. If husbands do nothing more than strive to fulfil this charge, they will  go a long way to ensuring that their wife reaches her potential happiness! The Apostle Peter similarly charges husbands to honour their wives, strive to understand them, and treat them with gentleness - so that their prayers may not be hindered! (1Peter 3:7). So highly does God consider His female image bearers that He warns husbands about spiritual barrenness if they don't honour (to treat and value as most important) their wives.

This elevation of womanhood by Christ and His Gospel doesn't start with the redemption of marriage though. It goes back to how a woman is to be treated before she's married. A very important part of nearly every wedding vow is to live together after the holy ordinance of marriage. That is, before marriage a man is not to treat the woman he will marry as if they are married. In fact, the Apostle commands men to treat women they are not married to as either their mother or their sister!

1Tim. 5:1 ¶ Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,

 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Young men, just because you're engaged to a young lady doesn't mean you can treat her as if she is your wife! You are commanded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to treat her as a "sister". Until you marry, your fiancé is your sister not your wife! Don't do anything with her that you wouldn't do with your sister. This level of man to woman respect is desperately needed today and sorely lacking. Every time a man sleeps with his fiancé he is teaching her that it's OK to sleep with someone you're not married to! 

The Gospel instructs for women to be with tenderness, respect, honour and dignity. Showing common courtesies such as opening doors, stepping aside, assisting with arduous physical tasks is not old fashioned - rather, if more men understand the Gospel in this matter, it should be fashionable.

Andrew Corbett
   

THEREFORE, MORE THAN A THEORY

I'm a functional kinda guy. If I don't see a purpose, I don't buy in. Just after Kim and I were married, we went to the Shepparton Show. At Kim's behest I demurely agreed to "do the big zipper". As my lanky frame origamied into the cage with which it restrained its victims, I looked across at Kim's extremely excited face. "This is going to be such fun!" was written across her Song-of-Solomon-4:7-face. As the "Big Zipper" began to move, I wondered, "Why I am doing this?" As we passed Mach3 I wasn't able to wonder anything because breakfast was mostly on my mind (ordinarily bacon and eggs on thick toast with a side of baked beans only brings up fond memories). Some how between Mach4 jerkings from this retired Soviet torture device I miraculously managed to ask: What's the purpose of this? To which the only jocular person in our cage said- Because it's fun!

For me there was a huge disconnect between the theory of fun and reality! This week, as I prepared a Bible Study on Romans 5 for our Small Groups, I was struck by the opening verse and its life-changing implications.

¶ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

"Therefore" constitutes, what is for many, four chapters of pure theoryon the doctrine of salvation just presented by Paul. This is a tragic view of Romans 5:1. The first four chapters of Romans not only declare us guilty-then-forgiven before an infinitely holy God, they also reveal that we have been reconciled to God. We are no longer enemies of God. We are able to approach God. Wow! Paul's statement that the believer now has "peace with God" is earth-shaking.

Have you ever experienced a lack of peace? I don't mean mereuneasiness. I mean, deep anguish mingled with mortifying fear. Imagine if this kind of lack of peace was produced by the presence of one particular person. This is more or less how Paul has described everyone before God. He has explained how Jesus Christ has borne our deep anguish and mortifying fear (the result of our sin-induced estrangement from God). We experience the forgiveness of our sins by placing our trust in Christ as our Substitute. Therefore...we have peace with God. For some, this is just a doctrine. But not for me. I'm a functional guy. This is no mere theory for me.

Peace with God is not simply sins forgiven and forgotten. Peace with God involves sweet fellowship with God as a beloved adopted child of God! Parents who adopt choose their child. An adopted child is a wanted child. We have peace with God - we have been adopted by God!

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
Romans 8:15

The "Therefore" of Romans 5:1 is not the only therefore of the Epistle. In fact, chapter 5 contains three therefore's. It is a profoundly functional chapter. But these are not the only therefores of the Epistle. There is another 11! This Epistle may sound like lofty theological theory - but it is richly functional. Within it are the secrets to inner peace, mental health, spiritual well-being, social cohesion, and societal harmony, and political stability! It is far more than a theory!

¶ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 
Romans 8:1

Confessing your sin to God is not to be reduced to a tidy tick on a Doctrine Questionaire. Experiencing peace with our Creator is not to be treated like the right answer in a Bible "Trivia" contest. Don't read Romans quickly! Your soul deserves to be treated far better than a mere theory. The peace, ease, healing, and joy you are craving are found in sweet fellowship with God and this is more than a theory!

Ps. Andrew

The National Purpose of Israel, Part1

Misreading The Value Of Gap Years

THE GAP YEARS

The stories of other people's lives are told using their highlights. The biographies in the Bible are no different. We read the stories of great people in their highs and lows and swept along with the pace of their lives. That's how good story-telling works. But it's not how life works. 'Moments' shape our lives but the gaps between the moments determine how we will be shaped.

¶ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.Gen. 12:4

What you do when you're doing nothing will have a large bearing on what you do when you have to do something. These 'life-gaps', those parts of our stories that are too uneventful to include in the telling of our stories, are perhaps the most important parts of our lives. These are the moments when we are in routine mode. They're not spectacular. They would bore our readers if we wrote their details down. And we often refer to them as "nothing" (Q: What did you do today? A: "Nothing"). Oh how wrong we are!

Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
¶ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless"
Genesis 16:16; 17:1

It's easy to live for the big moments and feel that life is empty when "nothing" is happening. Moments are exciting. Even crisis moments provide a certain kind of attention that we occasionally revel in. But 'everyday', 'mundane', 'ordinary' and 'usual' are considered to be of little to no value in the overall story. Abram was seventy-five, then eighty-six, then he was ninety-nine. Three significant moments happened at each of those ages. But what happened in between?

What are your moments? Perhaps for Winston Churchill it was April 25th 1915? His disastrous handling of the Allied War effort in the First World War saw him demoted and devastated. He then reemerges in 1939. From the ending of World War I in 1918 to his appointment as Prime Minister at the commencement of World War II, is an 'Abrahamic' eleven year gap. When war with Germany breaks out though, those eleven 'gap' years have transformed the beleaguered former Minister Of War into the victorious Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces. 'Gap years' may look as if nothing is happening. As we descend into the depth of one of the coldest Winters Tasmania has ever experieced, we are again lulled into thinking that Winters are like Gap years. But we would be mistaken. What is necessary for a fruitful Spring and a lush Summer, happens in Winter. What is necessary for you to handle life's 'moments' happens in the gap years of your life.

¶ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.
Galatians 1:18

Leadership guru, John Maxwell, famously says that he could tell what a person will be like in a decade by just spending a day with them. He says that it's the little daily habits, decisions, priorities, use of time, which reveal where a person is going with their life, and ultimately where they will be in a decade. I'm not as adept as Mr Maxwell, but I have noticed that people who are in their gap years who are "Waiting for the time to..." rarely find such bonus time. Whereas I have noticed that people who understand that gap years are golden years, talk about "Making time for..." I have learned much from people who view gap-years as golden years.

¶ Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 
Galatians 2:1

Have you ever considered the gaps in the story of Jesus' life? We are introduced to Him at birth. We see Him again briefly when He is twelve. Then we get to know Him from the age of thirty. There's two big gaps in the story of Christ's life. But those gap years must have been important because God doesn't waste anything. God ordained that His Son's thirty-three years of incarnation required thirty (gap) years to maximise His three years of ministry! Time spent alone is not wasted time. Time spent in prayer is not wasted time. Time spent reading God's Word is not wasted time. Serving others is not wasted time.

Gap years can be golden years. Time spent in these routine, mundane, everyday non-moments help to shape our character and resource us to deal with the big moments that are not always welcomed. Mike and Julie were interrupted a few months ago with a moment of bad news. I spoke recently with Mike about a course in Apologetics he had commenced with Biola just prior to receiving their news of Julie's cancer. We marvelled together how much of the course had intellectually and emotionally helped him to handle this most difficult moment. Last week I spoke briefly with Craig and Louise about their same news. Their gap years, where they sowed the Word of God into their lives, planted themselves in a church, and served others, is going to pay dividends at this difficult moment.

You might be dealing with a 'moment' now. However, you are probably in a 'gap' year. I guarantee you - what you do now in this season of uneventfulness will determine how well you deal with your 'moments'. Today, I dealt with someone who went to church for all their life without ever managing their 'gap' years at all well (they hadn't been discipled, they hadn't learned to seek God in prayer and Scripture). They were then rocked by a series of moments: his marriage failed; his parents' marriage failed and his father remarried some objectionable woman; his employee made him redundant - and he clenched his fist toward the sky and shook his fist at God for letting him down so severely. After hearing his story, I am again stirred that some people waste their gap years. This is why each Sunday I preach to improve people's gaps. It's why each week I write this pastoral gap-filler. It's why I use my gap time to produce teaching videos, and small-group Bible studies for download. I hope you recognise these days ofyour gap years and began to make time for what's important so that unwelcomed moments don't cause you to shake your empty fist at God. Rather, when horrible or joyous moments inevitably come your way, your open hand lifts in worship and thankfulness to God.

Andrew

The Importance of Looking

The First Look

Before my accident, I had already participated in two advanced rider training courses. One of the things that was stressed by our experienced professional trainers, was the importance of looking. They made us go through some drills where we had to suddenly dodge some obscured obstacles with one simple instruction: look where you need to go - not what's stopping you from getting there. My unfortunate accident didn't provide me with the opportunity to employ this new skill (because I was blindsided from behind). But this principle of looking is not limited to advanced motorcycle riding. It's also a life-skill.

A potential road accident provides several distractions. On a motorcycle your best chance of minimising harm is to look at where you have to go rather than the potential collision ahead demanding your attention. Even at the time, I pondered how profound the Advance Rider Trainer's words were. So many harmful things in life are caused by a lack of focus on the right things. I think the most common harmful distraction is the Urgent. We should always keep the Important as a higher priority. Yet urgent things jump out at us on the road of life and scream for our attention.

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?
Matthew 6:31

Not all distractions are themselves harmful. Our family has just had two weeks of delightful distractions. In the midst of times like this it is too easy to forget what Jesus taught about what should be our focus. At a time when the Romans had recently come through and massacred Galileans, Jesus gathers the survivors and nearby residents on a hillside and begins to tell them how they can have a blessed life by forgiving, serving underservedly, and being kind to their enemies! Sure, most people were still reeling from the recent Roman atrocities, but their most common distractions were far more urgent: What are we are going to eat or wear? In the midst of such horrific and mundane distractions, Jesus teaches the supreme instruction about priorities andlooking.

¶ "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 6:24

"Seek first", Jesus said. This tells us clearly that He regards what He is about to say as the priority for His followers. The fact that we have to be told to put this "first" indicates just how difficult this will be for us because we have so many other things vying for our attention (especially urgent things). But Jesus isn't giving us a merely urgent imperative. He is giving His followers the most important imperative. When it comes to priorities, this is "first", says Jesus.

We are told not just to make this our first priority, we are told how to do it. We are to seek. Last week, Kim lost her iPhone. We rushed back to the motel to seek it (to no avail). Compared to what Jesus is about to tell us to seek, an iPhone (despite costing $1200) is worthless! Christ tells us to seek. I guess the fact that we spent so much time and effort looking for a gadget indicates how Christ wants us to enact this supreme priority. He told the story of a woman who relentlessly searched high and low for a single coin lost in her house as a model for how we are to seek and the extraordinary effort required to obey Him in this.

¶ "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.'
Luke 15:8-9

"Seek first the Kingdom of God" Jesus said. Seek. First. The Kingdom of God. To His original audience, the Kingdom of Rome was all encompassing. It impacted every area of their lives. Jesus says, don't look to Rome. Don't seek Roman approval. Seek the Kingdom of God - first - where My Father is King.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33

This is done through prayer and faith. Prayer, that surrenders our heart to God and acknowledges that He is King of our life. Faith, that takes up the Word of God and communes with our King each day. Prayer, that we might better know and represent our King. Faith, that we might obey our King even when so many distractions hinder us from doing so. Prayer, that increasingly sounds like worship. Faith, that increasingly acts like we love our King.

The next time you are distracted, either pleasantly or sadly, remember to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness(Matthew 6:33). Is Christ and His Kingdom "first" in your life? The New Testament lists three firsts for the follower of Christ: 1. Seek First the Kingdom of God; 2. Treat the Gospel as of First Importance (1Cor. 15:1-4); 3. Return to your First Love (Rev. 2:1-7). Be a person who puts first things first. Resolve to be a person of deep prayer and deep faith. When you do, quietness becomes your aid and your Bible your companion. This will rarely be urgent, but it will always be important.

Ps. Andrew

That Was Surprising

There is One Person who is never surprised. I'm not He. When surprises rock my world, He remains calm - not the calm of not caring, but the calm of knowing exactly what's going on (and why). He never panicks. He never reverts to Plan B. Yet, He experiences the pain of other people's surprises and is, more often than He deserves, the object of their blame for these unwelcome surprises. Yet there are some who have learned that life's unpleasant surprises are best handled by looking to rather than at God. Like a prodigy watching his Master's every move, I gaze at the Unsurpisable and learn. Although I can't see what He sees, I can see Him. Unruffled, content, assured. I admire this.

The eyes of all look to you...
Psalm 145:15

It's surprising how surprising surprises are. You'd think that we would accept them as a normal part of our journeys. Alas. Perhaps the amount we are surprised is proportional to the amount we thought we were in control of our lives. Perhaps the extent of our surprise is due to the belief that God will ensure nothing painful ever happens to us. Perhaps the depth of our surprise is the related to the level of our self-absorption. Whatever the cause, we are all surprised.

Surprises can be pleasant. Last Sunday in church Kim and I were presented with a gift from the church to help us celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We were surprised by this. Pleasantly surprised. It enabled us to get away for a night. To enjoy a tryst. To experience a very surprising meal together in a restaurant, alone. But I'm not thinking of such pleasant surprises. I'm thinking about the kind of surprises that have paid some of us a visit this year. Surprised by loss. Surprised by cancer. Surprised by surgery. Surprised by breakdown. Surprised by divorce. Unpleasant surprises. Painful surprises.

King David was surprised that his sexual liaison with another man's wife led to her becoming pregnant. After he arranged the murder of her husband, he was surprised that God both knew and was angered by it. When he took the woman as his wife he was surprised that the child was born sickly. He was surprised to have Nathan the Prophet pay him a visit and charge him with wrong-doing. He was surprised that his son's health deteriorated. But then he looked to the Non-Surprised One and began to see things differently.

When David's son died, he was not overcome with surprise (the disappointment kind).

But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" They said, "He is dead."
Second Samuel 12:19

Unwelcome surprises will come you way. When they do, you can shake your fist at God in anger, or, you can raise your open hand to God in surrender and worship Him.

Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
Second Samuel 12:20

The Apostle Paul began his journey with Christ by being surprised. While on the road to Damascus he encountered an all-too-glorious appearance of Christ and was knocked off his horse to the ground. His life story reads like an exposition of the art of surprises. He is initially surprised by the Church's rejection of him. He is surprised by Barnabas's acceptance of him. He is surprised by his countrymen's hatred of him. He is surprised by how quickly he understands the deepest mysteries of God's eternal plan. He is surprised by how the Holy Spirit transforms him from being a Pharisaical Law Keeper into a Grace-Changed Forgiving Follower of Christ. And one day he is preaching in Philippi and was surprised to find that he was now in prison for his obedience to God. But rather than looking at God he does what David did, he looked to God, and worshiped Him in the midst of his unwelcome surprises.

¶ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them
Acts 16:25

Sickness, injury, loss, betrayal, will come our way (Romans 8:20). We can be overcome by such surprises, or we can worship the One who is Unsurprisable and begin to experience a new peace that comes from such worshipful trust.

Ps. Andrew

Life - What It's All About

We were created for a purpose. There is a reason you are on the planet. It is no accident that you are who you are, where you are, and why you are the way you are. There are two great and humanly invinceable forces at work in your life. You don't have to be religious to experience these forces. Actually, you can't not experience them. The first and greatest is a force in your soul like that of a compass needle which always points north - but in your soul's case gravitates to True North. The second force is miniscule by comparison. But even a tiny magnet can, when brought close to the compass, distort the needle's rotation. Yet most people have had their souls distorted so that their soul's compass needle is no longer pointing 'True North'. Let me explain...

I'm surprised that people are surprised when they discover that most highly successful and driven people are empty and directionless. One of the main reasons highly successful people become highly successful people is because are inwardly so unsuccessful. They are empty. They are dry. They are frustrated. They are in pain. They often loathe themselves.Yet outwardly, they have adoring fans, nice toys, investments, and famous 'friends'. They are afflicted with a series of tiny magnets that have distorted their soul's compass. These tiny magnets involuntarily veers their soul's compass needle away from 'North' to 'South'. Despite the compass needle doing all it can, and despite the massive magnetic pull of True North, the tiny magnet's proximity to the compass steers the soul's ship away from its Northerly homeward bound journey.

You've probably met South-bound people. They hold back. Their lack of transparency is a clue that something has magnetically spun their compass out of whack. If you could hear their heart you would hear ache. Who am I? What am I doing? Why doesn't anyone really care about me? Where am I going in life? These are pained questions. These are the questions that a malfunctioning compass causes when it sends its victim 'South'.

God is our True North. Augustine wrote, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." When our Enemy first entered the First Garden and began to spread his magnetic lies, our representative (Adam) should have pulled the compass of his soul away. But he didn't. He went rogue and has steadily drifted South ever since. This Southerly drift uses magnetic lies to maintain the scam. "Life is about you" ... "You deserve more" ... "Your happiness in life is your most important purpose" ... "You have a right to feel positive about who you are and whatever you chose to do" ... "You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else" - all highly magnetic (attractive) lies that distort the God-created-and-designed- inclination of our soul's compass needle to True North.

The Sunday gathering of God-lovers ("Church") is quite repulsive to our Enemy's little magnets of sin. These little magnetic South Inclining Nodes find something quite repulsive about the strong True-North-Magnetic field present in the gathering of the Redeemed. When the Church gathers it is a reminder to each member about their journey toward True North because every otherperson is a physical declaration from God that life is not about me - it's about others. Our Northerly journey is marked by continual opportunities to model God's forgiveness to others (even our North-bound brothers and sisters can offend and upset us at times). Our Lord had to head North out of Jerusalem to die for us on Calvary, but not before He demonstrated forgiveness toward those who were hurting Him. His demonstration of the Father's love should both inform and inspire our own North-bound journeys.

The journey "South" is a journey of deception. It fools its victim into thinking that the journey is about them. The journey "North" however is the journey toward Christlikeness and increased servanthood. Thus, God. our True North, calls His children to represent Him and show His love to others by serving them. The person who feels that others don't serve them - even though they feel they are serving others, is almost certainly heading 'South' even though they think they're heading 'North'.

So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, 'We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.'"
Luke 17:10

What's life about? It's about walking in the ways, Word, and will of God ('North') which leads to us having the little pesky magnets of the Enemy pulled off our soul's compass. The journey 'South' is one where travel alone - because it's about me. The journey 'North' can not be travelled alone - because it's about others. In yet another counter-intuitive truth, the more we bless and others, the better we feel!

Life? What's about it? It's about being God's blessing to others.

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Matthew 22:37-40

God has made you. You are not an accident in His eyes. No matter what you've done or who you've done it with or how many times you've done it, God loves you and wants to forgive you. He wants you to live on purpose. And this purpose is to head 'North' by increasingly coming to know Him and making Him known by being His blessing to others.

Ps. Andrew

The Choice To Become Who You Are

It's a sad but all too common thing. For most people the journey to the start-line ends far too late. Yet for those rare souls who discover the shocking truth they are journeying toward, there is the priceless reward of sublime contentment awaiting them at the start-line. It's the journey before the Journey. It's meant to be the shorter of the two journeys. It can be. It should be. Discovering who you are. Andre Agassi reminded me of this.

Dr. F.W. Boreham said, "We make our decisions then our decisions make us." Choices. Sometimes they are made for us. Sometimes they need to be made for us. But there comes a time when we have to start owning our choices in order to be who we really are. When we can, and should, be making the choices that direct our lives, but are deprived from doing so, it causes us to live without integrity. Integrity comes from the word integer - meaning, whole, complete. If you can remember your school maths, a number could be a fraction, or an integer. When we don't (or won't) own our choices, we are a fraction of who we really are.

God wants us to become who we are. He has gifted us with particular opportunities. He has ensured that we are influenced by appropriate teachers. He has placed desires within us that motivate us to meet certain needs within a community. When we are children, we have two great factors shaping who we are. The first factor is the people who serve as our guardians - usually our parents. They make certain choices for us. The second factor is the limitations we are constrained by. A child does not realise who they could become partly because they haven't had enough experiences yet. A child growing up in today's world will probably work for a company that hasn't even started yet, and will probably undertake a job that has not even yet been thought of! Thus, in the meantime, his parents and guardians will make many of his choices for him. By far, most parents will make right/good/wise choices for their children. These benevolently imposed choices shape us as children into who we are becoming.

But there is something else happening in a child that is attempting to shape a child. But this factor is not benevolent (kind and helpful). It drives the child to rebel. It drives the child to despise not just the choices being imposed on them - but also the ones making their choices. I've observed this since my childhood, not just in others, but mostly in me. But I was reminded of this as I read Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open, kindly given to me by Birchalls Bookstore Launceston (before it was released to the public). Andre Agassi describes the first part of his life as a search for who he really was. For the first 15 years of his life he was barely allowed to make any choices for himself. Our choices make us. Andre was not making his choices therefore he did not know he was. When he was sent to a Tennis Academy from the age of 14, he was lonely, confused, and frustrated. He did not want to be there. He did not want to play tennis. He grew his hair long, had it dyed outrageous colours, and given a punk spike. He did this, not to stand out, but "to hide". "I don't know who I am!" was perhaps Andre's defining statement during this period of his life.

At some point, we have to start making our own choices. But before we can, we have to start owning our choices that may be given to us. We may resent the choices imposed on us. Yet, they still make us who we are. God wants us to choose. He wants us to choose the right/good/wise. His choices for our lives might be imposed on us when we are children. Some children may resent their parents for this. Some children also resent God for this. There comes a point in every child of Christian parents when they must choose to make the borrowed faith of their parents their own, or to hand it back. God wants us to freely choose Him, His ways, His will, for our lives.

How do we know which choices are right for us? Some people own the wrong imposed choices. They are beguiled into believing that they are someone they are not. "You're a loser!" "You're an accident!" "You're a mis-fit!" "You were born that way - it's your genetics - and there's nothing you can do about it!" So grossly untrue are these imposed choices upon some people, that those who force them on others are continually battling the truth that -

• every person is precious to God;
• God longs for every person to honour Him with their bodies, minds and souls;
• God has a beautiful purpose for every person that involves serving another;
• we are created to worship the True God within the community of God's people.

For those imposing wrong choices on the vulnerable, they must go to extraordinary lengths to make their case seem remotely plausible. Extraordinary lengths. Legislation must be changed. Primary School curriculums must be developed. Movies must be made. Novels must be written. Songs must be sung. OAMs must be awarded to the 'right' people. Billboards must be erected across Brisbane promoting the blatantly false idea that some people cannot choose to actually be who God has created and designed them to be. Extraordinary lengths. Yet there's always a kid in the crowd who points at the king and whispers, "But he's got no clothes on!" It must frustrate those going to such extraordinary lengths, a similar frustration that the person trying to bail the ocean out with a tea-spoon must experience, when despite their best efforts to impose "you are born to rebel", "All Christians are haters!" "Christianity belongs to a by-gone era!" "All Churches are led by graying, old men, who are out-of-touch with reality!" "The Bible is full of mistakes...it is the opinions of bigoted narrow-minded unenlightened men!" Yet, people continue to discover that God loves them - but loves them too much to be destroyed by the false choices imposed on them. People told that they were "born that way" are discovering that this imposition was never true - something that their deep misery gave them a clue to - and that God can help them to become who they really are. People are discovering that God empowers right choices.

Andre Agassi eventually discovered a glimpse of who he was. It happened around that age of 16. He had already turned to drugs and hard liquor. At least these acts of rebellion allowed him to make choices. But they were the wrong choices. By the age of 36 having achieved what only a handful of people have ever achieved, Andre continued to wonder: Who am I? I wish I could have a few coffees with Andre and talk this through with him. I'd probably mention to him that we have a Creator who wants us to become who we really are by owning then making right/good/wise choices. I'd probably share with him my story. And I'd hope that as I shared he would detect the genuine contentment in my soul that has come from discovering who I am.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

Who are you? What defines you? What choices are you making that are making you. Have you been told that you cannotchoose to be anyone other than who people tell you are? Are being lied to that your 'genetics' make your choices for you and cause you to be dogged by guilt? Choose God. Choose the right/good/wise plan that God has for your life. You'll discover this plan in Romans 12. The choice is yours. If you make the Romans 12 informed choices, you'll become who you realy are. I'd choose to share that with Andre, if I ever had the opportunity. In the meantime, I'd like to share with you, and hope that you might choose to share it someone else.

Ps. Andrew