Adrian Rogers said, "What you are in the small things is what you are.  What you are in the secret things is what you are."

Even a believer's smallest compromises in telling the truth, withholding maximum effort, or failing to honor those in authority, create an opening for more extreme temptation in the future.  For example, if you think you can shape the truth to make yourself look better, withhold your best effort or disrespect authority because of the way you feel God or your boss, mate, coach, co-worker, a business or friend has treated you, an attitude of self-promotion develops.  You will begin to believe that you deserve special treatment or indulgence--that it’s okay to cut yourself some slack, remove the pressue, or give yourself a break when it comes to complete obedience to God.  That attitude sets you up.  It makes you vulnerable to bigger mistakes and more powerful temptations. 

So, be careful not to slide toward either of two traps--dangerous extremes in your attitude.

1.    PERFECTION:  Thinking that because you have performed well in the past for God, you can handle anything, and you deserve anything you want, or you can simultaneously manage both a godly lifestyle and sinful stuff.

2.    FAILURE:  Listening to Satan or critics who say that because you have sinned, messed up, or made mistakes in following Jesus, it means you are a failure, you are not worthy, you will never achieve anything, or you will never change.  Those false thoughts make you think that obeying God is not worth it.  Satan's argument at this point is deceptively simple toward you, "If you have already failed, then who cares?  Why try to change?  Why not just give up trying to please God and just do whatever you want?"

Consistency in the little details.  Obedience in the small things.  It makes sense.  It will save you.  But do it out of love for an amazing God or else the motivation to win over temptation will fade when your undetected weakness intersects with the unexpected opportunity!

Sometimes it seems like nobody cares, right?  What is the best strategy when nobody else cares?  From the 5th century B.C. Old Testament profile of Nehemiah, who volunteered to return to his home base of Jerusalem and rebuild from the ruins, I’ve discovered 7 things he did to define reality and motivate people despite the fact that nobody seemed to care about the conditions around them:

1.  He challenged them without blaming them. (see 06-07-10 Blog)

2.  He believed in them. (see 06-14-10 Blog)

3.  He focused on just one step. (see 06-21-10 Blog)

4.  He targeted something they already knew was needed.  Nehemiah said, “YOU [emphasis mine] see the distress” (Neh. 2:17a).  Everybody in Jerusalem knew a wall was needed.  It was essential.  No convincing necessary because they lived daily with the threat and oppression from enemies.  Most of your battle is won when you go after the stuff people already know should have been fixed.  Your daughter knows grades reflect effort and discipline, and determine success in college, so don’t attack her.  Convince her that changing her attitude and habits are the right thing to do.  Rather than jumping on the husband that knows he has killed his wife’s spirit, challenge him to step up, act like the spiritual leader, and fix things!

5.  He spoke the truth.  People respect leaders who will speak the truth.  It may be uncomfortable, some may resist, but everybody knows it’s needed.  The wall was down, gates burned, and city in ruins.  Even if you poured chocolate over that message, it was still brutal.  Nobody likes to be told they have failed, sinned, been undisciplined, are lazy, weak, incompetent, or lack courage.  Who wants to hear, “Your family is messed up and a divorce is near”?  Yet you have to have a starting point.  Coaches focus not just on improving the strengths of their best players, but fixing the weak points.  The people would not have followed Nehemiah if they thought he was disconnected from reality.  If he didn’t have the courage to confront them, then he would fold in front of their enemies.  It would have been a waste for Nehemiah to hedge by saying, “Guys, Jerusalem is an old city, but tourists will still come if we clean it up some and create a new marketing campaign.”  Partial truth is still a lie.  Not that the sword of truth can be randomly swung.  But you have to face the truth.  Like when a wife asks her husband, “Do I look fat in this outfit?”  Sometimes there’s nowhere to go.  By the way, husbands only have milliseconds to answer that last question or they’re already toast.

6. He gave them the best motivation.  Nehemiah bundled the challenge with “that we may no longer be a reproach” (2:17c).   He appealed to the most compelling motivation for fixing the problems—restoring their image as people prospered and protected by God.  If people don’t respond to the most important reasons for change, you’ve lost anyway.  It was not just that their situation was embarrassing.  Worse than that.  Nehemiah couched it in bigger terms.  God’s reputation was being trashed.  Their enemies were laughing because it was obvious God wasn’t showing up for the Jewish people.  The highest motivation to change or make commitments is to honor God—to make Him known.  Rather than focus on the past, he was creating great future for them by saying in effect, “You can be a success.  Life can be different. You don’t have to be in bondage to anybody’s opinion or your past sins and failures.  Things can change!”  You don’t tell your son that he has to improve his grades because you said so.  Instead, explain to him that he honors God when he gives his best.  Yes, we need to be cleansed of sin to communicate with God.  But one of the best reasons for restarting and rebuilding our commitments to God after falling away is to communicate the right image of God to non-believers.  Non-believers look at an inconsistent life and consider it confirmation that God either isn’t real, isn’t powerful enough to change a personality, or isn’t important enough to change anything you’re doing.  Wow.  That hurts.

7.  He told them God was in it.  Nehemiah boldly stated that God was behind this, implying success was guaranteed:   “And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me” (Neh. 1:18).  In fact, he argued that the backing of the King of Babylon was the first sign of confirmation that God’s favor was upon Nehemiah and this project.  If the leader doesn’t believe God is in it, it’s dead before it starts!  That plane won’t get off the ground.  If Dad believes, the family will come around.  If the Pastor casts a big vision, it’s contagious.  If your boss thinks something will work, people usually get on board.  If the coach believes her players can win, they work harder.  If the doctor believes there is hope, the patient’s spirits are lifted.  When you tell people you believe God is in it, everything changes.  People start expecting miracles.  They realize they are accountable to God for caring again.  Disobedience can’t be tolerated.  Nobody wants to settle for defeat any longer.  They want a start over.  It’s easier to rise above discouragement if you believe God is going to come through for you.  Disagreements and hurt can be overlooked because there is something bigger at stake that God is doing.  When is the last time you thought God was totally in something you were doing?  Wouldn’t it be great to be in that place again?

What’s the best strategy when nobody cares?  Start by speaking out!

1.  He challenged them without blaming them. (see 06-07-10 Blog)

2.  He believed in them. (see 06-14-10 Blog)

3.  He focused on just one step:  “Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem” (Neh. 2:17).

There was no insane 2,000+ page task list that resembled Obama’s health care reform bill.  This was a simple, obvious first step that was desperately needed.  People can get overwhelmed if you dump the whole project on them at once.  If a guy and girl planning a wedding were told all the stuff they were going to have to face in their married life, they’d back out!  Give your teenager the big list of things they have to get done and they’ll pick up their iPod, put in the ear buds and zone out.  Leaders who focus on just 1 issue or task at a time will be the most successful.  It’s easier to define priorities and make choices to stay on track when you know the “one” thing that you must get done first.  Too many issues or choices add to a spirit of discouragement, because it seems like nothing ever gets done. 

If you can’t write the purpose of your business, ministry, or life for at least the next year on the back of a business card, you probably are NOT getting things done that count.  Could you do the Donald Trump thing—“the elevator pitch”—and present your purpose or pitch your product to the CEO on a 60-second elevator trip?  When you can put the purpose or project in a sentence and pitch it like Nehemiah, so that what you are asking someone else to do is understandable enough to be repeatable and explainable, then you can start!  “Let us build the wall” is kind of hard to mess up or misinterpret.  Details come later.  People are motivated when they have a specific direction.  Likewise, when nobody else cares, focusing on one step at a time as a leader helps stir up some interest.

The challenge to rebuild the wall was huge, but not beyond their reach.  It was not impossible.  Success can build confidence.  To finish the wall—they ultimately did it in 52 days—brought them back to life.  Like the New Orleans Saints winning the 2010 SuperBowl that re-ignited the spirit of their entire city, completing the wall project represented a comeback that was underway. 

…to be continued

Faced with unprecedented failure and complacency by the Jews in his former capital city of Jerusalem, Nehemiah emerged as God’s leader for his moment (5th century B.C.).  Taking on something nobody had ever done before, Nehemiah chose to be the first to start believing again both in God and in the people.  So Nehemiah’s strategy for rebuilding unfolds from his finished tour of the disaster site (Neh. 2:13).  Nothing had been done for years.  The people were oppressed.  It was not God’s will to live in those conditions.  God wanted more for His people.  Yet, not a single person had stepped up to change things.  What is the best strategy when nobody else cares?  His first strategic decision was to call out the problem.

“You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” (Neh. 1: 17).

In my study I’ve discovered 7 things Nehemiah did to define reality and motivate people despite the fact that nobody seemed to care about the conditions around them:

1.   He challenged them without blaming them. (see 06-07-10 Blog)

2.  He believed in them.  His challenge was based on a real confidence that they could get this done.  Discouragement is the thief of hope.  Over time, it can choke the life and energy out of almost anybody.  People can do amazing things if they think you and God still believe in them.  If there is a second chance, most people want it.  If somebody will come alongside, provide some direction, and refuse to give up, it can be done!  Belief in your son, daughter, mate, boss, coach, team, employees, or members is your least expensive and most valuable resource.  Start believing in God and that hopeless person again! 

Baseball announcer Chuck Thompson told the story from the 1950’s about then Yankees Manager Casey Stengel.  The team was in St. Petersburg, Florida for spring training.  After meeting with media guys until early one morning, Casey got on the elevator with them to return to his room.  Back then, hotels had elevator operators to host their guests.  When the elevator operator greeted Casey and 2 or 3 of the media guys who got on, Casey handed him a baseball and said, “I got to give this ball to a kid tomorrow.  Do me a favor, if any of the guys come in later, get them to sign the ball, and give it to me a breakfast.”  The next morning, Casey was the first at breakfast, and the elevator man handed him the ball covered with 4 or 5 signatures of Yankee players who had come in later that night.  Stengel took the ball, thanked the man, and promptly fined all the players who had signed the ball $50 for breaking curfew!

Don’t focus on what they have been, but what they can become!  The road to healing, recovery, and effectiveness begins with simple expressions of belief.  Whether you feel like it or not, be their biggest fan and most consistent encourager.  If your encouragement to them is contingent on their performance, then you’ll still be withholding it.  Dads, don’t wait on your kids to be good to love them and believe in them.  Love them and speak confidence into their heart first, and they’ll want to please you and God.  You have to sow belief before you reap it.  Step up to the plate like Nehemiah and speak confidently that you together can make it happen!

…to be continued

Faced with unprecedented failure and complacency by the Jews in his former capital city of Jerusalem, Nehemiah emerged as God’s leader for his moment (5th century B.C.).  Taking on something nobody had ever done before, Nehemiah chose to be the first to believe both in God and people.  As I mentioned in the last blog, the first responsibility of any leader is not to cast vision, but to define reality.  And God has to be the biggest chunk of your reality.  He was there when the nation of Israel rebelled, and was now showing up when Israel needed restoration.  The first proof that God wills something to get done is the emergence of a determined leader.

So Nehemiah’s strategy for rebuilding unfolds from his finished tour of the disaster site (Neh. 2:13).  Nothing had been done for years.  The people were oppressed.  It was not God’s will to live in those conditions.  God wanted more for His people.  Yet, not a single person had stepped up to change things.  What is the best strategy when nobody else cares?  His first strategic decision?  

Step No. 1:  Speak out.  Talk about the elephant in the room.  Make people deal with issue, not to prove a point, but to move things forward.  Don’t forget about the opportunity cost.  Sometimes leaders hesitate to confront and solve problems because they fear being misunderstood, losing friends or a job, stirring up conflict, or becoming a target for criticism.  What’s rarely mentioned is the price tag of compromise.  Failing to speak up, face the real issues, and work through stuff actually costs you more in the long run.  It’s like hoping cancer goes away, or the oil light on your dashboard doesn’t really mean anything.  There is only one healthy option in each situation.  To pretend problems don’t exist in your workplace, church, classroom, team, marriage or with your kids is delusional and sets everybody up for failure.  Like if you are a fast-food restaurant manager and you know the cook consistently drops the burgers on the floor but picks them up and serves them anyway, you can’t let that go.  Overlooking it means somebody eventually gets sick, you lose customers, or the health inspector shuts you down.  Imagine a wife that knew her husband was consistently cheating on her and was willing to live with it.  Then, when a friend confronts her she says, “I don’t want a fight.  I just want my marriage.  I don’t want to lose him.”  Ridiculous?  Sure.  She has no marriage right now!  He’s already checked out.  Yet, that’s the insanity of trying to protect whatever you think “security” might be.  So, for Nehemiah to speak up naturally meant the comfort zone and lifestyle of the Jewish people would be challenged.  Why?  Because neither God nor any sane person should be living in bondage or oppression.

Speaking out generates some momentum in the right direction.  It forces people to talk about what’s involved and what’s at stake.  His initial statement to the depressed minority in Jerusalem consisted of 36 words that framed both the reality and the vision:  “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” (Neh. 1: 17).

To finish the question from the last blog, let’s look at 7 things Nehemiah did to define reality for his crowd:

1.  He challenged them without blaming them.  It was a challenge to build, preceded by a raw description of the magnitude of the problem.  Medium-well done gates and a leveled city equals distress, because enemies have unhindered access to make life miserable.  Nehemiah avoided the obvious mistakes though.  There was no review of his resume to build credibility for leadership.  He chose not to review their past sins and incompetency.  His focus was not on the enemies.  There was no “victim” mentality here.  Nehemiah wasn’t a prosecutor looking for someone to blame.  Nobody gets inspired to change their life, surrender to Jesus, or chase their potential if they are being blamed.  Tell your mate, kid, employees, or team how bad they are and watch what happens.  They may be convicted, but rarely committed.  It’s hard for somebody to rise up after they’ve been beat up.  Neither were excuses offered for zero progress.  Leaders who focus on the past inevitably bind people to the past.  Leaders who are future-obsessed free people from the past.  Continuing the negative talk about your son’s bad grades doesn’t inspire him to perform better.  He knows he messed up.  He knows you know he messed up.  He wants help getting out of the hole.  Here, Nehemiah’s implication was that the motivation of the Jewish people was the greatest hindrance—not enemies, resource shortages, or vision.  Movements and ministries seem always to collapse because of internal compromise rather than external pressure (which seems to purify motives & refine beliefs). 

...to be continued   

Former Vice-President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, announced June 1, that after 40 decades of marriage, they were “separating”.  The relationship that endured Vietnam, political campaign wins and losses, almost losing their 6-year-old son in a car accident, and a son in rehab during 2007, finally is folding.  In an e-mail sent to friends, the Gores said it was “a mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration.”  Their media statement is that they “grew apart”, each pursuing separate interests.  So apparently a lot has happened since the famous kiss on the platform during the 2000 Democratic presidential convention.

Without chasing the obvious talking points like “Where’s commitment anymore?” and “What were they thinking?”, I discovered another truth.  There’s a strategy for everything.  Well, almost everything.  I guess, technically, the Gores had a storybook beginning strategy, falling in love after their senior prom and getting married in a 1970 Washington Cathedral ceremony.  Washington’s power couple with the “happy” image worked on a strategy for ending their marriage, but a strategy to sustain it over the last 10 years was not in place.

Or how about the Gulf oil spill?  Over 36,000 ideas to cap it have been received by BP since the crisis began, but there was no pre-existing strategy.  President’s Obama’s blank stare at the oil blobs on the Louisiana beaches revealed he lacks a plan.  So, adding in Al and Tipper, BP, and my spontaneous impulse decision to drive to Starbucks for coffee this morning, at least 3 things on the planet went forward without a pre-planned strategy. 

I’m wondering if it’s the norm.  Do most people just float with life like rafting whitewater, hitting the paddles when needed to keep from being dumped or drowned?  Is it simply good to go with the daily flow of life circumstances without a specific plan of action?  Is life all about reacting to the stuff that happens to us?  Is life just an existence held together by the next text message, project, game, anniversary, movie, meal, party, payment, laugh, baby, paycheck, trip, exam, doctor’s appointment, funeral, drink, or car wreck?  Where’s the strategy?  Do we even need one?  

Yes.  Let’s go deeper.

For example, what’s your strategy when nobody else cares?  What do you do when nobody is concerned about what is happening in your life?  What is your response when nobody is interested in getting something important done?  How do you react when you see a need but nobody else gets it?  Maybe it’s a wife dying for attention and answers from a pre-occupied husband.  Or a son needing direction on a big decision but afraid to approach his dad who really doesn’t know him anymore.  There’s a frustrated employee who sees co-workers unconcerned about getting work done and resolving problems.  Perhaps there’s a husband whose wife is totally unconscious when it comes to controlling her spending or sticking with a budget, and bankruptcy is a reality.  A coach struggles with a team that won’t give 110% and isn’t bothered about losing.  Possibly there’s a disappointed dad whose daughter should be a 4.0 student and she’s already over 10,000 texts this month.  There’s a teacher frustrated when the administration won’t be proactive with student discipline.  The single mom knows nobody is going to step forward to make her car payment, fix the meals or plumbing, help with homework, or babysit her kids.  Sometimes sub-contractors don’t show up for the builder.  What’s the strategy when you know what needs to be done and either everybody else is clueless, unmotivated, or maybe even hostile to moving forward in sales, winning games, rediscovering romance, fixing the finances, finishing the house, finding a babysitter, enforcing the rules, getting the GPA, or maximizing potential?

Every person—every leader, mom, dad, coach, boss, player, employee, teacher, manager—walks through moments or seasons of zero reaction.  When the back-up doesn’t show-up, when the support is not there, people are content to just keep on living like they have been, and you realize if things change that it’s all on you, what’s your strategy?  When you realize that nothing will be done unless you get focused, start it, and keep it going for awhile, what are you going to do?  Believe it or not, those who are tired of propping up, pushing, pleading, and persuading, had better have a survival plan.

Nehemiah did.  The 5th century B.C. Jewish cupbearer to the Babylonian king felt compelled to return to the total disaster in Jerusalem and revive a failed project—rebuild the city wall.  To achieve that goal required that he assume leadership of a depressed minority, recreate confidence, restore moral standards, and reinstitute serious worship of God.   Tragically consistent with every situation or relationship that requires rebuilding is that disillusionment had decayed into complacency.  Not a single person had been willing to restart a movement or ministry from that mess—not “the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others” (Neh. 2:16).  Whether they had intentionally given up, or just slowly abandoned the idea that things could ever be better, the population was co-existing with failure and fear of real enemies.  That’s a miserable life.  Think about it.  They are still going through the motions of worship and making a living while the whole infrastructure is in shambles.  No different than the Gores faking a real marriage for several years.  How can anybody ever get to the point where they no longer care, are no longer willing to fight the enemies, or no longer energized to give their best for God?

Here’s some of what I discovered as I investigated Nehemiah’s response.  His strategy was definitely God-driven.  So, if you’re in a tough place, facing a huge responsibility and nobody cares, maybe these thoughts will help.  Hope you buy in.

The best strategy when nobody cares?

Step No. 1:  Speak out.  Talk about the elephant in the room.  The reason you speak up is totally because nobody cares.  How does caring about wasted lives and lost opportunities get started?  Simply by somebody willing to stir things up.  The tendency is to back away in self-pity because nobody cares, shut-up, or carefully parse words to avoid controversy, conflict, and opposition.  Everybody wants approval, but waiting until you’ll be liked or appreciated will cost you the opportunity.  Speaking out will simultaneously reduce your fears and increase your determination to follow-through with doing what’s right.  Start the chain of caring.  Laundry doesn't start until momma yells, "Pick up your clothes!"  Couples can't solve problems unless they talk about problems.  Maybe your mate will start caring when they see start the conversation.

Get loud if necessary.  Be animated if it works.  Get informed.  Embrace the role of being the smartest person in the room on this issue.  Know your facts, but show your passion. The longer a person or group has tolerated something that is sinful, sub-standard, or inflicting suffering, the more anesthetized they become. 

So God requires leaders to wake people up!  What you say will be controversial and challenging because things are upside down.  John Maxwell says, “The reason people are unchanged is because they are unchallenged.”  The most miserable people in the world are not non-believers, but compromised believers!  Regardless of whether people want to talk about what needs to be changed or their personal responsibility, somebody has to serve it up to them.  If you wait until everything is perfect, until it’s easier, until everybody is in agreement, until you are supported, until circumstances are better, nothing gets done.  It’s not about perfection—it’s about direction!  Get something going by making people aware of what’s at stake.  If a married couple waited to have kids until they could afford them, they’d never have kids!

The positive take is that sometimes you get a happy ending like Nehemiah did.  Walls get rebuilt.  Grades improve.  Marriages heal.  Sons talk to their dads.  But stuff only gets worse if ignored.  Walls don’t get rebuilt by thinking positive or wishing it to happen.  Somebody has to initiate the conversation.  Talk about the elephant in the room.  Face the sin and the people who permitted it to go down and stay down.

Surfacing the need is also the first real proof to yourself and others that you are committed to getting involved.  Repeat the message often.  People usually don’t get it the first time they hear it.  Keep it simple and understandable.  Demand to be heard.  Whether it’s your husband, wife, son, daughter, team, students, co-workers, voters, mom, or dad...expect people to listen.  If you don’t think the issue or need is critical, they won’t.  If you display urgency, it forces them to vote up or down about whether a problem exists and who really has their arms around the problem.

After Nehemiah had taken an individual, private tour of the disaster area with its broken down walls and burned gates, rather than retreat in depression, overwhelmed by the size of the task, he steps up.  It’s not that the people were confused like BP over which strategy would work—they weren’t even talking about rebuilding anymore.  His first media statement of 36 words framed the problem:  “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” (Neh. 1: 17).

The first responsibility of any leader—a dad, CEO, coach, teacher, contractor, congressman, Wal-Mart manager, or talk-show host—is not to cast vision, but to define reality.  Nehemiah defined their reality in such a way that the people immediately voted “yes”.  They said, “Let us rise up and build.”  It was like saying, “We’re in!  This is what we’ve waited for!  We believe!  Let’s do it!”  How did he “speak out” in a way that inspired them to do what nobody had been willing to do before?  What was there in his approach that motivated the people to commit to this on the spot?  What principles can you take away to help your family, business, ministry, team, school, or clients?  Check it out in the next blog . . .

(to be continued in the next blog)

Whether it’s Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal taking the initiative to block the BP oil spill from touching their beaches and destroying the lives of the fishermen and their families, or a Chick-fil-A employee who proactively cleans a spill on the floor to prevent injuries to customers, real leaders are on top of issues sooner rather than later.  They are visible not because they seek reward, but because they get out front to find a way to fix problems.  They get personally involved.  Leaders believe energy, compassion, and resolve cannot be delegated, hired, or purchased.  You can coach and teach and inspire, but leadership is best grasped when it’s poured out on a real-life situation.  Leaders capture the moment, demonstrate the idea, and demand that things must change.  When Jesus discovered a man with a crippled hand attending synagogue on the Sabbath, He couldn’t tolerate the insensitivity or the man’s suffering.  Breaking all traditions, He healed the man on the spot (see Mark 3:1-6).  Then He moved on.  Get in His wake or drown seemed to be the message.  His agenda was pre-set.  Let the self-righteous debate the rules.  Leave them to struggle with believing what they saw.  Jesus made a statement, healed a man, and walked.  Ultimate Leader!  He got “out-front” every time!

In my personal worship time this morning, I read Nehemiah 1:2-4.  God surfaced that “get-out-front-first” leadership quality through Nehemiah’s immediate concern for the survival of the Jews left in the rubble of Jerusalem (5th century B.C.):  "Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.  And they said to me, 'The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.'  So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

You don’t break down, or even do serious prayer and confession, unless you make an intimate connection with someone else’s tragedy.  You don’t go from hearing news to making news unless you are intentionally begging God for the opportunity to lead, to change the situation, and to leverage your position for unselfish reasons (see Neh. 1:5-11).

The Jewish nation had been conquered, dispersed, and resettled by the Babylonians.  Nehemiah was assigned to the king's service in Babylon, technically still a displaced captive.  Yet he remained deeply concerned about the conditions in Jerusalem and the survival of his nation.  Ultimately this Jewish cup-bearer waited on God's perfect timing and the alignment of resources from the King, so he could relocate to Jerusalem, assume leadership of a depressed minority, rebuild both the city walls and their confidence, restore moral standards, and reinstitute serious worship of God.  When nobody else was willing to relocate or rebuild, Nehemiah could see the need and took the risk.  He would be the NEW NORMAL!

The threat of enemies was close, real and powerful, the conditions harsh, the people’s confidence at an all-time low, and the task of rebuilding the city wall had never been done before.  That’s the worst nightmare if you live in it.  But if you are called to lead through it, it’s your greatest opportunity.  Leaders know you can’t steal second base with your foot still on first base.  They don’t just face risk, they eat it for breakfast.  Authentic leaders aren’t really happy unless they are engaged in the challenge.  Death is preferable to boredom for a leader consumed with a vision.  More than the adrenaline-rush of a rescue, a protest, a project, or battle, leaders crave results.  Progress is their drug of choice.  Statistics are meaningless unless something is achieved—unless something happened to move things forward.  Leaders—whether husband, mom, CEO, coach, student body president, broker, senator, waitress, pastor, reporter, or soldier—are not called by God just to make speeches, but model service.  Not just to pray, but to plunge into the need.  Not to delegate ministry, but to deliver ministry.  Not to condemn the mess, but to clean up the mess.  Not to focus on rules, but free people.  Not to prepare for retirement, but to prepare for rescues.

How can you spot a leader?  They’re out front.  Usually screaming about the problem until somebody listens.  Always with dirt on their t-shirts.  Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.  Consistent in believing they are sinning if they don’t respond.  They may be lonely, but their vision has charismatic appeal.  Confident that they are making a difference on some level.  They are not intentional rule-breakers, but they may seek forgiveness rather than wait on permission.  You know what they believe because they are unafraid to speak it.  There’s no hesitancy to take a position, but pit bulls couldn’t move them once they assume a position.  They can’t stand by and let evil triumph or let oil reach a beach.  We sometimes think aggressive leaders are obsessed, out of balance, or out of touch.  They believe we are.  They were not originally searching for causes, but seized by causes.  Before they set out to conquer, they were personally captured by the cause.  Leaders believe they don’t have to slow down for critics or always explain their vision.  Their legacy is not manners but ministry.  They are the blood-splattered soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the representatives talked about in cafes and coffee shops, the spiritual leaders scrutinized in the media, the police cussed out when they make arrests, the teachers defied in the classrooms, the entrepreneurs rejected for loans, and the physicians and nurses underpaid for ER surgery—but they amazingly keep doing it.

And we love to watch them.  Agree or disagree with their cause, their passion cannot be ignored.  Whether it’s Jan Brewer (Arizona’s governor who signed the controversial immigration law on April 23), Glenn Beck (writing and commenting about the threat of socialism), President Bush (leading in the aftermath of 9/11), Bill Gates (Microsoft creator and billionaire philanthropist who wants to wipe out diseases), Sarah Palin (once governor of Alaska and VP candidate, and now political speaker), Steve Jobs (Apple’s revolutionary tech genius), Nelson Mandela (enduring 26 years in a South African prison to destroy apartheid), Mother Theresa (giving her life for the poor and dying in the streets of Calcutta), Billy Graham (preaching the gospel around the planet for 3 generations), Senator Ted Kennedy (promoting healthcare, education, and the Special Olympics), Paula Deen (raising two boys as a single mom and building a food empire), or your local firefighter—leaders impact their generation.  Culture is different because they have pursued their cause.  Whether you love them or hate them, people can’t take their eyes off leaders.  Maybe it’s because they believe those leaders are doing what they would do if they had the opportunity. 

Regardless, you can be God’s leader where you are.  We would never have known the name “Nehemiah”—he never would have made the cut for Scripture—if his first priority was not checking out the latest needs from his hometown.  It was “Hands On Jerusalem” for him.  He was ordinary, unknown, destined just to be another Jewish body buried in the dust of Babylon’s history, until he cried out to God and surrendered to God’s destiny to be a leader—a “Patriot!”, to use a Bill O’Reilly label—that wouldn’t settle for the status quo.  Never satisfied.  Swinging from righteous anger to unrelenting work hours, Nehemiah was characteristically intense.  Leaders don’t watch clocks, they make them irrelevant.  Truth, timing, testimony, and touch are all tools employed to reach the goal.  Limits don’t exist—especially when a leader believes God is in it.  God defines success—not the crowd.  Nobody quits.  And nothing is dead until God says it is. 

 We know Nehemiah now.  We have a completed story.  Why?  Because he was a leader.  And leaders GET OUT FRONT!

I just read Jesus' last words again.  Every statement He made from those hours of suffering on the cross is significant.  "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do," is probably the most widely recognized and quoted statement.  But the real final words before his last breath were, "It is finished!" (John 19:30).  We know Jesus was shouting out that He had paid the full punishment for our sins.  But it also represented a statement about a completed assignment.  He had lived a life in total perfect obedience to the Father. 

We all have stuff to finish, projects and dreams that are right now in progress or maybe on hold for one reason or another.  No matter where your stuff is ranked on the scale of life and death emergencies, whether it's cleaning the house, getting that master's degree, getting through the season with the team, learning a new language, paying off a loan, reading the Bible, or planning for a wedding, finishing is a big deal.

To finish something is to get to the end of a course, task, or undertaking.  It's the opposite of quitting.  Quitting is walking away, bailing out, or giving up.  A purpose is unfulfilled when you quit.  Questions linger with people who depended upon you or believed in you.  Frustration, disappointment, or guilt are the toppings when you quit.  You might even stop believing in God or yourself. 

To finish requires a definite start, a specific direction, and an intentional closure.  It means you wrap things up when a goal is achieved or everything that was supposed to be done has been done.  It is the end of something, but unlike quitting, there's a sense of satisfaction that you have overcome, and developed the perseverance to conquer something.  To complete something, you had to reject fears and maintain focus over time.  Regardless of the level of results, finishing builds confidence. 

When you finish, you are released to move on to the next dream, rather than being haunted by a feeling of failure or fear of what it will take to start over again.  If you finish, it inspires others to do it also.  Finishing qualifies you to encourage and rescue others who have quit or are thinking about quitting.  Because Jesus finished His call, He could approach Peter, who had quit his call, and recover him for service again. 

Need a laugh about finishing?  One comedian said, "Relationships are hard.  It's like a full-time job, so we should treat it like one.  If your boyfriend or girlfriend wants to leave you, they should give you two weeks notice.  There should be severance pay, and before they leave you, they should find you a temp."

Are you finished yet?

It works the same with prayer.  We’ve got to focus our intercession on the source of a need, not the outwardly visible symptoms.  Convenience and laziness can prevent us from getting specific about the needs of people.  Normally when asked to pray, it is all about a crisis situation and we quickly agree to pray.  So the default prayer lines are things like, “God, please heal them, deliver her from addiction, provide him a  job, protect him in Iraq, find her a mate, help him on the test, give that family money for their bills, make their teenager respectful”, etc. 

What if it’s not the obvious?  What if God is up to something unusual?  After all, He knows hearts and we don’t.  Without a clear target, we risk failure in our prayers by asking for something that conflicts or competes with what God is trying to accomplish in that person’s life.  James 4:3 says, “When you ask you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong” (NLT). 

Instead of just assuming that we should pray for our friend that just lost their job to find another job quickly, maybe we should pray with emphasis on the source issues.  We could pray that God would help them:  avoid resentment, change any unhealthy attitudes, reconcile broken relationships, be obedient in the secret things, maintain their integrity, learn to worship more intimately, grow in their ability to walk by faith, be teachable about finances and generosity, and confess their trust in God’s perfect outcome for his life.  If we really believe God is sovereign, then that person could not have lost their job without God planning or allowing it to happen, so God is responsible for that family’s provision and will make that happen at just the right time. 

Take the example of Joseph being thrown into slavery in Egypt.  If the ancient prayer network had received that news, the spiritual instinct would have been to pray him back home.  But God’s purpose was radically different.  God wanted a journey that would keep Joseph in Egypt permanently and develop him into an uncompromising and influential national leader.  The track included things like:  to personally conquer the temptation of adultery, share his faith with his boss and wife, learn how to cope with false accusation, be transferred to prison, and experience the power of God to overcome non-believing leaders, family betrayal, and economic collapse.

Instead of praying for addictions to be broken, pray for a repentant heart to be humbled.  Instead of praying for a teenager to be more respectful, pray that the parent would be more patient and loving.  Instead of praying for God to protect your child, pray that they would surrender to God’s call to a high-risk, gospel-deficient place.  Don’t leap to the obvious, easy, convenient, or comforting prayer lines.  Quit repeating the standard stuff.  Get to the source.  That’s where God is.

Last week I went to my favorite “guy place” for my regular haircut—Sports Clips.  The customers are surrounded by gazillions of screens, all showing ESPN!  Nothing but “guy” magazines, sports stuff, lockers, and even a locker room smell at times!  And the girls are the best at haircuts.  So I plopped down in the chair, assumed my usual position with a magazine and just wanted to be left alone.

Suddenly every TV screen shifted from sports news to the replay of Tiger Woods’ confession. Commentators were in a feeding frenzy.  His whole character train wreck is simultaneously sad, loud, messy, controversial, and addictive for most people.  So I should have seen it coming.  The hair girl broke the silence.

“Would you forgive him?” She posed the question with sincerity.

I realized this might be a God-moment, so I wanted to be precise: “You mean me personally or if I were his wife?” 

“If you were his wife.”  Her tone made it feel like something about this issue was personal.

Maybe she was personally struggling with marital or forgiveness issues.  You don’t ask that kind of a question or chase a hot topic hoping for a bigger tip.  It’s too big a risk.  So, I decided to get to the real issue faster than NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson gets out of the pit. Obviously I wondered if women viewed the Tiger-Elin-adultery-trust-marriage-golf-kids-media-billion-dollar-brand-embarrassment-stuff differently. 

“If I were Elin I would be forced to forgive.  Resentment and bitterness would only hurt her, not Tiger.  She has to do that to get past it.  Somebody said that holding on to bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.  It only destroys you, the victim.  Now trust is another thing.  I don’t know if she’ll stay married to him.  After all, it was like he committed adultery 12 or more times.”

“Yeah, I would forgive him.  But I wouldn’t trust him. Do you think he’ll come back to golf?”

“Yes, but he said he didn’t know when.”  Then I realized the God-moment, so I tried to build a bridge just in case she wanted to go deeper into the spiritual zone:  “It’s sad.  You can chase all that stuff, have everything but God, and still be thinking you’ll be happy.”

Silence.  I heard a slight "Hmmm."  God was there.  I could feel His presence. She took it in.  I knew she was sincere and thinking.  So was I.  She gave a great haircut and graciously listened.  It's awesome to see God in the mix of real stuff we face everyday...speaking to both of us.

God was revealing Himself just in that quick exchange.  There were so many directions the conversation could have gone from there.    Like, real forgiveness is only possible if you know Jesus.  Or, Jesus can forgive any sin and restore any home.  People waste their lives and do the “soul-exchange” thing every day (Matthew 16:26), thinking they can build a life or discover happiness apart from a relationship with God.  Even, do you want to know how to find forgiveness? I am passionate for opportunities to talk about who God is, and what He can do, with anybody who will listen.

God was definitely at Sports Clips.  He got there before I did.  He had an appointment.  Glad our appointments overlapped.

What keeps us from seeing the potential?

1.  Focusing on the failures, not the future. Peter sounded definitive when he was the first to announce “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Matthew 16:16).  Looking like the role model for faith, he ruled the moment when he stepped out of the disciples’ boat in a storm and briefly walked on water with Jesus (Matthew 14:29).  But, to see the influential leader Peter would become, Jesus had to see PAST Peter’s worst moments.  When Peter performed the “trifecta of denial” at the most critical moment before Jesus’ execution (Luke 23:54-62), and then went back to fishing after the resurrection (John 21:2-3), he was anything but a “rock” of reliability upon which to build a movement. Biggest mistakes at the biggest moments?  Not the best recommendation or resume.  With those deficiencies, he definitely didn’t look like the best choice to speak to thousands in the streets of Jerusalem (Acts 2:14) or be the first leader to challenge prejudice by taking the gospel to another race (Acts 10).  Yet he did that stuff.  Would your mate or kids or employees or teammates or friends, say that you brag about their future or bring up their failures?  Dads, coaches, leaders, Pastors, churches, and just folks in general, can lose hope by buying into the belief that failures prevent future success or that any one failure accurately defines who you are as an individual, family, or group.

2.  Lack of belief that people can change.  Jesus knew that Peter could become a consistent, bold, persuasive advocate for the gospel.  Peter’s strong, risk-loving personality would be captured for crushing cultural barriers to the gospel. Why?  Because Jesus not only SEES potential, He SHAPES potential.  Jesus didn’t just call Simon, He controlled circumstances to develop him.  Remember the moments prior to the 3 denials?  Jesus said, “Simon…Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:331-32).  Don’t rule out what Jesus is doing.  He is in the transforming business.  Fishermen to Leaders?  YES!  You have no clue what Jesus can yet do with your life.  

3.  Hesitating to challenge people to their best.  Calling him “Peter” (or “a rock”), on the front-end of their ministry together, would challenge Peter to live up to the potential Jesus saw in him.  In fact, it was a clear signal to Peter, defining the extreme makeover Jesus would perform on his life.  There was more that Peter could do and become.  He needed to be stretched.  Jesus wasn’t going to allow Simon to remain content with his commitments and level of faith.  Whatever Simon had been was insufficient compared to what Jesus expected.  Why apologize for challenging your church, your family, your company, or your team to be their best?  Why is it that some churches back away from the real and raw challenge of following Jesus radically?  Challenging someone to live at a level they have never experienced proves you really care about them and their success.  It builds confidence and inspires people toward belief when you challenge them to experience more of what God has designed them to be.  Normally it takes a challenge for us to see weaknesses and work through them, but also to taste what we can achieve.  Your best won’t be visible until you come up against something bigger than you, stronger than you, and smarter than you.  And that’s when you realize that Jesus alone can “make you fishers of men”.

Yesterday, Lindsey Vonn won the gold medal in the Women’s Downhill skiing competition for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  With a devastating shin injury just 2 weeks ago, hopes for a gold medal were in jeopardy.  When the race was over, she screamed with joy, “I’ve given up everything for this.”   As she collapsed into her husband’s arms, weeping, his first words to the new Olympic champion were, “You deserved it.” 

In a post-ceremony interview, Lindsey said, “I’ve achieved the dream I’ve had since I was 9 years old.”  As a child, Lindsey committed everything to her dream.  No sacrifice was too great.  Everything in her life has revolved around becoming the world’s premier downhill racer.

Nobody handed the gold to her.  This was about crushing the competition. Lindsey had to compete against the world’s best, pushing herself to the limits of physical endurance to achieve her goal of becoming one of the world’s elite athletes, the best in 2010.

Competition is also reality in the battle over ultimate truth.  Jesus was labeled as the “true Light” that came into the world (John 1:9).  That implies there was existing competition for truth.  And the competition has gone to massive levels in our generation.  However, that’s not always bad for followers of Jesus.  Competition for the truth is positive in the sense forces Jesus-followers to define beliefs, choose a position, and sharpen skills.  Competition can actually increase motivation. 

I was also struck by the fact that Jesus came into the culture without being invited.  He came to reveal truth that was not received (John 1:10-11).  He intentionally inserted truth to expose the darkness, to provide a radical option to the stuff that was already being believed.  If believers don’t get into the marketplace of ideas with the truth, how else will people know…or believe?  

I have never understood why believers choose to live under the radar.  If you have the truth, the answers, the hope…why withhold it?  Is it embarrassment, weakness, cowardice, or just blending with the world?  I am actually crazy enough to believe that the truth about Jesus is bigger and can survive any argument, no matter how loud or threatening.  Ready to get into the competition?  “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).  That verse says the truth CAN beat the competition!

How could it not be the will of God?  Obviously, a sovereign God had controlled the decisions at corporate Starbucks years ago to select this particular location, make it successful, and have it open at just that moment.  Sort of like knowing that Joseph and Mary didn’t pick a random town for tax payments, when the prophecy all along had been Bethlehem.  Or knowing the census was ultimately not ordered by Herod but God, so the calendared birth of the Messiah would coincide with the executive order for bigger government that swept up Joseph and Mary.

So, with my theology intact, this was a justified, if not deeply spiritual decision.  Not just the ordinary, no-adventure-order, made by inexperienced, risk-averse, rookie customers who stall the lines while staring at the menu board.  No, today, I was committing to a Tall Caramel Brulee Latte (almost sounds like a marriage proposal, doesn’t it?)!  Not the girly-gingerbread or kiddie-peppermint.  Not even the imported-from-some-unpronounceable-country-bold coffee of the day.  C’mon man!  370 calories of tongue-stinging sugar and caffeine wake-up call!  Let’s go!

I placed my order.  “Sorry, we’re out of that flavoring.”  Now I was awake.  And staring in disbelief at the manager.  Okay. I backed up the coffee train and reluctantly asked for another brew.  The answer was the same:  “Sorry, we’re out of that flavor too.”  For every request, the answer was the same.  What happened?  Was there a terrorist attack?  Did thieves hold the manager at gunpoint and steal the flavoring at 6am?  Did the DEA decide “brulee” was a drug and intercept the last shipment?  An ordering mistake by a teenager?  C’mon, man!  This is America!  This is Starbucks!  Take my job, take my home, take my car (well maybe not my car but take the payments), take my 401K, but don’t mess with America’s drug of choice at Starbucks. 

I laughed.  I didn’t really mean it, but I said, “Okay, give me whatever.” 

I settled.  Why do we do that?  Was it because I felt compassion for the manager?  In part.  Was it because of the time deadline?  Maybe.  Was it because I had no real conviction for that flavor?  Probably.  Convenience rules.  Preferences change.  Passions shift.  Convictions don’t.

Isn’t that the prevailing attitude in our churches?   Where has conviction gone?  What is left that is non-negotiable?  What is it that we refuse to compromise under any circumstances?  If we are willing to change what we believe for convenience then it’s not about conviction. 

Convictions are normally not comfortable and usually controversial with people who don’t have any,  but they will outlast and outperform pure passion.  Conviction is the determination never to waver or walk away from what you know is true, especially about God.  Convictions based on biblical truth are not slaves to tradition, don’t flex with opinion polls, are emotion-free, and pressure-tested.

Despite what the mainstream media says, the reason we are winning in Iraq and Afghanistan is because of the conviction of our soldiers, not passion, and certainly not preference.  Passion and the preference to challenge a terrorist disappears with the first bomb blast, bullet fired, or dying buddy.  The reason people stick out the tough times in marriages, issues with kids, pressures on the job, rejection by friends at school, or challenges in ministry is because of conviction.

It was conviction that made Joseph follow through on his promise to make Mary his wife in the original premier of our Christmas story.  He heard God’s explanation for the crisis of the unexpected pregnancy, and a conviction formed that had to be obeyed.  It was conviction that ultimately took that baby to a cross.  Jesus actually “despised the shame” of that death, but went anyway (Heb. 12:2).  That’s conviction.  That’s why you and I can actually have hope beyond the holiday, in spite of wars, cancer, deaths, job loss, divorce, or even “coffee shortages”.

All the jungle animals feared him, but they still liked having him around.  His terrifying reputation had spread to the farthest parts of the jungle, and that kept them safe from other animals that might hurt them. The only thing in the jungle that didn’t hide or run when he roared was an old, large tree, growing right outside his den.  It was really in his way.  He passed it every day.  He could climb it, and roar at it.  He had even put his claw marks on it just to prove he was more powerful than the tree.  But it didn’t move.  It didn’t make noises.  He didn’t think about it at the time, but the tree was really good for him.  The old tree had really protected him from the hot sun with its long, powerful limbs, hanging vines, and wide leaves.  It even attracted lots of monkeys and birds that lived high in the towering parts and screeched and squawked to warn him when something was wrong in the jungle. His den was hidden because of it.

One day the giant tiger who had everything was lonely.  He wanted a family.  He searched and searched and finally found one of the most beautiful girl tigers ever.  Then they had some cubs.  They were beautiful like their father.  He now had a family but he still wanted to roam.  He thought there was more to conquer in the jungle.  And there was.  He traveled to the big mountains and across mighty rivers, and roared loudly until he found girl tigers. 

Those tigers were also beautiful. These girl tigers from the faraway places thought they could be important just by playing with this most famous tiger, and they loved to play.  He played with them for a long time.  But what he didn’t know was that these tigers had a disease in them.  It was a disease that made you believe nothing you did was wrong, that you could never get hurt or make a mistake.  When the big tiger played with them, he caught the disease and became weak.  The proud tiger thought he was even stronger and more special because he could play anytime he wanted with anyone, as long as he wanted.  But he was really losing his strength and judgment and didn’t know it. 

When he finally returned home one night, his tiger wife was unhappy.  She wanted him to stay close and just play with her.  They had a big fight.  Both of them roared.  But he was weak.  He wasn’t the same powerful tiger.  She knew it.  The tiger was so angry he ran out of the den fast and didn’t look up.  SMACK!  He ran right into the old, giant tree headfirst!  It really hurt.  The big tiger lay on the ground for awhile.  He was down. 

Immediately the monkeys and birds shouted the news that the giant tiger was lying on the ground.  Within minutes, all the jungle animals knew that the mighty tiger, that they thought could never be hurt, was weak.  As they came running to the scene, the tiger hid.  For the first time in all his life, he was just like all the other animals.  He felt small.  He wasn’t as strong.  He was scared.  “Now,” he thought, “I won’t be able to go anywhere I want.  What will I do?”  But he didn’t think about all the playing he had done that made him weak.

Jungle animals started talking and laughing when the fearsome tiger fell down.  Not one of the animals could believe it happened, and they wondered if the tiger would ever be strong again.  When the tiger was all alone in his den, he began to think.  “I know what happened,” he suddenly said with a loud roar and the old tiger gleam. “It was the tree.  Everything was fine until I ran into the tree.  That old tree embarrassed me.  If the tree had not been there, none of the other animals would be laughing now.  I am not weak.  I am strong.  I am still the biggest, most terrifying tiger!  I will show everybody.”  The tiger felt better immediately.

So, the tiger thought of a plan.  He called all the jungle animals together and made a big speech.  He explained that all animals make mistakes.  Then he announced a new plan for his jungle life.  He would not roam around, and especially stay away from old, tall trees!  Instead, the now very serious tiger would be just like all the other animals. The giraffes were stunned.  Rhinoceroses rolled their eyes.  The pythons hissed.  Some elephants flapped their ears in disbelief.  Zebras ran around in circles.  Parrots swung backwards on limbs.  This was not the jungle order they knew.  Yet, inside, the tiger still believed he was the strongest in all the jungle!  If it just had not been for that one night, that one tree, nobody would have seen him weak.  He could have played and roamed anytime he wanted, without a care.

That fairy tale gets more real.  There really is a Tiger.  And there really was a TREE. 

Image is everything.  At least for politicians, CEO’s, actors, and sports icons.  And sometimes, for ordinary people like you and me.  With the 24/7 news cycle and media feeding frenzies, image can now be created or crashed in milliseconds.  Tiger is the latest casualty.  His image so powerful, grossing $90 million annually in endorsements alone, that I only needed mention his first name.

What happened?

The reason we are so disappointed and shocked is because we so desperately wanted to believe “the image”.  In ESPN sports analyst Rick Reilly’s “Go Fish” blog, he calls Tiger the “first superstar athlete chased down by a digital posse” and believes when this is over, “Woods will still be the most successful and willful and talented athlete alive, but he will be a much different person than he was -- chastened, humbled and, at long last, human….The man won a U.S. Open on a broken leg. He's the first athlete to make a billion dollars. He is on pace to swoop past Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors before he's got a gray hair. Maybe when you can make little dimpled golf balls go 340 yards and land in a target the size of a throw rug, you start to believe you can do anything in life and get away with it.”  We all bought in.  So did the Tiger.

“The image” took its first hit when 33-year-old Tiger drove over a fire hydrant, crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a neighbor’s tree, and was found lying barefoot and bleeding on the pavement in that bizarre incident in front of his home near Orlando about 2:30am, Nov. 27.  What has happened since is already staggering.  An empire…AND an image…is beginning to crumble.  Statements from self-proclaimed mistresses, tantalizing denials, dirty text messages, recorded phone calls full of panic and strategy, witnesses, and photos all combine to create the jungle buzz: “The mighty tiger is down.”

Tiger, who guards his image and words closer than the secret service surrounds the President, spoke with personally incriminating words like, “not perfect, my fault, embarrassing to my family and me, I’m human, regret, personal failings, and transgressions.”  Then he said, “This is a private matter.”  Sorry.  You can’t have the most revenue-producing image in the world, hit a tree, AND get a pass.  Not from the media or the fans.  Especially not from God.  Yes, this tiger apparently believes his moral decisions can actually be separated from his character and reputation.  Tiger apparently had everything…except integrity…and self-control…and commitment…and sense.  You get the drift.  Like the rest of us humans, this tiger thought he would never be in a situation like this.

The Crash

It wasn’t Tiger’s Cadillac that crashed that night.  It was his image.  And behind that image was his belief that he could manage two lifestyles, be two different people, and be bullet-proof.  We’re all control freaks at heart.  The Bible says that we actually deceive ourselves.  We argue (by lifestyle) that we can believe in God and have a “no-boundaries” pleasure-driven life.  Jesus said we can’t serve God and materialism simultaneously.  Two competing gods, idols, priorities, lifestyles, or whatever, cannot co-exist.  It’s not just that it’s challenging to manage.  No.  It’s impossible. 

THE crash also reveals a routinely voiced belief that a person can casually violate God’s laws and never get caught or pay a price.  God is still here.  He’s still God.  He is still in control.  If we just had access to heaven’s files, we would know that tree did not grow there by accident.  The tree just represents a God who called a quick time-out.  A God who refused to be ignored any longer.  God effectively, said, “That’s enough.  Keep living this way and you self-destruct.  It’s time to back-up the image industry and look at the real person.” 

God doesn’t seem to rate any media space, though.  Even Rick Reilly skips over the obvious spiritual impact:  “This will cost him millions of dollars and lots of sleepless nights, but in the end, I think he'll be a better man for it.”  That’s American culture rounding the curve toward 2010. 

“There’s still an opportunity for Tiger to stop the bleeding,” said Mike Paul, the president and senior counsellor at MGP & Associates public relations in New York. “But he cannot just remain silent, out of sight. He should have done a one-on-one interview within the first 24 to 48 hours. “He should have done something like Oprah, and he needs to do that type of interview, and soon.” That’s par for our culture, pun intended. 

Destroy your family, disillusion kids looking for a role model, embarrass friends, violate corporate contracts, and humiliate your peers and sport.  Then the image makeover.  Stick to the script.  Act changed.  Get back to the schedule.  Our culture’s good with that.  That’s all we require.  After all, who hasn’t committed serial adultery, got caught by their mate and a golf club, crashed their Cadillac into a tree, bled a little, and had to make a media statement?  And we push God back to being a sidebar.

TREE-MOMENT!

Every man has a “TREE-moment”, when the self-constructed image crashes and he is shaken to the core.  It’s a moment, normally not scheduled, when he is forced to deal with the life and character created not by one really stupid decision but years of selfish pursuits and self-deception.  Every person ignoring God will eventually have it.  God sets it up if we don’t.  Few change.  Everybody needs to.  America won’t ultimately go down because our troops run into terrorists in Afghanistan or Iraq.  We’re weakening from the inside-out.  It’s an epidemic more scary than H1N1.  Our character is suspect.  More people are “crashing into trees” and nobody cares why.  Media circles like vultures.  Talk shows hosts joke.  Gatorade pulls a contract.  Life goes on. 

David Letterman did a “Top 10 Ways Tiger Woods Can Improve His Image” countdown: 

10.  Crash a state dinner at the White House.

9.  Change name from “Tiger” to more adorable “Puppy”.

8.  Fix this whole health care mess.

7.  Put on a scarf and hat and sing Christmas carols with Regis.

6.  Instead of sweatshops in Asia, have NIKE merchandise made in a sweatshop in the USA.

5.  Retire, then come back and play for the Vikings.

4.  Safely land golf cart in the Hudson River.

3.  Release list of women he has not been with.

2.  Find Osama bin Laden.

1.  Blame Letterman

The national audience laughs because Letterman is still in his own “TREE-moment”.

Oh, by the way, there was another historic “TREE-moment” when a man’s image seemingly crashed.  Jesus, Son of God, was nailed to a wooden cross.  The state-controlled media of his era believed they succeeded in putting Him on it, but He was there by choice, to pay for the tragic, destructive choices we’ve all made.  Because He loved us, He took the blame for our indiscretions and evil, and went down.  The only perfect and innocent person ever to live, died for heart crimes He did not commit.

 And…believe it or not…Jesus died for Tiger.  Tiger needs to know about the OTHER tree.

Our culture is over-populated with “dream-killers”.  A dream-killer is simply any person that is positioned to stop your dream.  Dream-killers expect you to surrender your dream if it doesn’t fit their thinking.  My wife and I were warned that raising preschoolers was extreme stress.  It wasn’t.  It was great.  We refused to surrender our dream that God was in control and had a bigger dream.  Who is trying to convince you that your marriage can’t be awesome, that your career can’t go forward even with a job loss, that your ministry is over, that your finances will never rebound, or that you’ll never find that one right mate?  Don’t let them kill your dream.  By the way, they can’t actually steal it, you have to surrender it!

I define dreaming as “believing God has a bigger plan and can change any circumstance.”  Announce your dream.  Go ahead, risk it.  Count on a lot of drama.  Nothing can remain the same.  But dreamers exist for that journey.  They can’t wait to see what God is going to do next.  They know God is real and they have an incredible future.  The dream-killers (professional critics) label dreamers crazy, emotional, anti-intellectual, controversial, unrealistic, radical, uncooperative, insensitive, or intolerant.  They don’t ever have dreams.  They exist to kill them.  It goes with the territory for dreamers.  Sometimes you can’t even explain the dream.  You just know you have heard from God and it’s real.  And it’s too important to walk away from, regardless of the pressure.

Sometimes a dream starts specific and controversial. Take the story of Joseph.  Genesis 37:5 says, “Joseph had a dream”.  God gave Joseph a dream—a simple preview of an incredible future as a leader, even for his family.  As a 17-year-old he made a tough choice to embrace what even his own family couldn’t envision.  His “dream-killers” were in his own family.  They were insanely jealous of Joseph’s character and success, obsessed with preventing his dream from happening (Gen. 37:20—“let us…kill him….We shall see what will become of his dreams!”)!  But Joseph never surrendered his dream.  We’re all going to surrender to something.  It’s actually safer surrendering to the Dream-Giver (God) than giving up on our dream by surrendering to the dream-killers! 

Why is dreaming so risky and controversial?

1.  Dreams convict.  Dreams expose and threaten people who don’t want to go forward with God.

2.  Dreams challenge.  Dreams force us to choose priorities, move toward a goal, improve or excel.

3.  Dreams create.  Dreams start new thinking and new directions.

4.  Dreams compete.  Dreams cannot co-exist with failed strategies.

5.  Dreams connect.  Dreams will inspire people and you won’t be able to control what God does.

6.  Dreams confine.  When you first announce the dream, you will stand alone with your beliefs.

Remember, nothing ever changes until somebody gets a dream from God.  It starts with just one person.  If you want to be a dreamer, you have to be willing to endure until it becomes real, until God does what He intended.  Joseph protected his dream through a series of bizarre circumstances, ranging from slavery, promotion, persistent sexual temptation, false accusation, imprisonment, friends who failed, and pressure to become politically correct with his spiritual convictions.  He did become an international-known leader who saved his family and shaped the destiny of a nation.  It worked because it was God’s dream from the beginning and Joseph refused to let the dream-killers win.

The TOP 10 Things Letterman Believes!

Just days after shocking CBS, the media, his staff, and his fans by revealing on his show he'd had sexual relationships with women on his staff, David Letterman rocked the entertainment nation again by issuing a public apology to his wife on air during his Oct. 6 "Late Show".  He confessed that she had been "horribly hurt by my behavior".  The confession followed the arrest of a CBS producer who allegedly attempted a $2 million blackmail scheme, threatening to expose the illicit, and possibly, illegal behavior.  Letterman, 62, whose labeled his sexual relationships "stupid", was interrupted by laughs and applause with what was obviously a confused live audience. 

In typical Letterman style, he mixed jokes with his version of regret with statements like, "It's chilly outside my house; chilly INSIDE my house".  As if trying to climb out of the hole by self-humiliation, he pitched, "This is only Phase 1 of the scandal. Phase 2: Next week I go on 'Oprah' and sob" and later joked, "I got into the car this morning, and the navigation lady wasn't speaking to me. Ouch."

Appearing serious, Letterman's mea culpa included a statement about his beliefs:  "if you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to fix it."

It's a tragic moment to see any family crash, especially with a national audience.  Another prime time king, King David of Israel, had his sexual misadventures exposed to a national audience, but his reaction was radically different (2 Samuel 12:12-13).  Although he had to be exposed, he was exhausted from trying to cover up his sin and drowning in guilt for nearly a year, because he knew he had sinned against God and the only way to fix it was to deal honestly with God (Psalm 51).

The truth is that personal crisis does not shape behavior as much as it surfaces beliefs. 

David Letterman has never claimed to be a Christ-follower, so out of the mix of his jokes, statements, confessions, and decisions we can learn what he believes as a non-believer.  So, with his own format . . .

 THE TOP 10 THINGS LETTERMAN BELIEVES! 

10.  You can attack God and get away with it.

  9.  You can hide your sin for years.

  8.  Regret + apology = moving on.

  7.  People are “stupid” but not “sinful”.

  6.  It’s only wrong if you get caught.

  5.  It’s possible to hurt other people.

  4.  Adultery is more fun than marriage.

  3.  Fear media, lawsuits, and bosses, but not God.

  2.  Sin is something you can joke about.

And the No. 1 thing David Letterman believes is . . .

  1.  There is a God.

Yeah.  He knows there is a God.  The Bible tells us that everybody does.  But now he knows it in a personal way, because this is a God-moment.  God is speaking to him louder than words. 

Whether Letterman will ever confess that, or be interested in God, is anybody's guess.  But God does speak with serious clarity and precision when we've made our biggest mistakes and grossest sins.  In fact, Jesus always seemed to show exactly when people were in the ditch, their worst moments, like with the corrupt tax collector or the woman caught in adultery.  Believe it or not, Jesus is even there when we make those choices.  John MacArthur once commented that when we choose to sin its as though we did it in front of God's throne.

Jesus loves David Letterman.  Jesus died for him and us.   Jesus has a plan for his life, just like for yours.  We're no better.  What sin we cover, God uncovers.  What sin we uncover, God covers. 

Never stop praying!

Pastor Russ