Today is the Day to Stop Running and Do Hard Things
Do those words from the Psalmist hit home for you? Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm. (Psalm 55:6-7). We are wired to respond to acute stress by “fight or flight” in which we either meet our problems head on or we run from them. Not only am I a runner physically, but I am naturally a runner when it comes to conflict, too. I would rather have everyone just be happy and get along together. I don’t like conflict! I would rather run!
But the truth is that God calls us as Christians to do hard things. We are not called to run away from trouble.
Last week I mentioned the “faith hall of fame” in Hebrews 11, and how all of these heroes of the Bible lived by faith. They lived by faith even to the point of death, and they were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (Hebrews 11:13) Abraham left his family and followed God’s call, even though he didn’t know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). God led Moses to set aside his position as a son of the Pharaoh and to lead God’s people out of slavery. God called young David to fight Goliath. God called Esther to risk her life in order to save her people from genocide. Jesus told his disciples If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24) This is the exact opposite of taking the easy way out!
This is the only way to truly be a Christian. It’s not taking the easy way out. It’s not just taking things as they come, skating by, or just doing what comes naturally. In fact, Jesus went as far as to say Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus is telling us that to follow Him is to do hard things.
What kinds of hard things might God be asking us to do? Really, the possibilities are endless, but teenage brothers Brett and Alex Harris have put together a pretty good list in their book Do Hard Things. (by the way, if you are a teenager or if you have teenage or preteen children, this should be required reading) Check out their website at www.therebelution.com
They suggest that God will lead us to do hard things that will:
Take us outside our comfort zone: When I was in seminary, one day I was doing laundry at the Laundromat. You can meet some really interesting characters at the Laundromat! As I was doing my laundry, trying to read something or other for a class, I ended up in conversation with a woman who had been going through a really rough time. While we were talking, I think I heard God’s voice, telling me to pray for her. After she’d left, I was sure that was what I was supposed to do. I didn’t know how it would go, and I was nervous about it. And anyway I’d missed my chance. So I prayed that I’d get another chance, and that this time I wouldn’t blow it. Wouldn’t you know it, as I was loading my clean clothes into the car, she came back. I asked her if I could pray for her, and she immediately began to cry. Tears streamed down her face as she told me, “Nobody has prayed for me in years.”
Praying with a stranger wasn’t “within” my comfort zone. But it was needed. Some of you have some pretty small comfort zones, and they need stretched! What are some things you can do to stretch your comfort zone? Start this way: pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you as you move out of that comfort zone, that He will show you who to reach out to.
Go beyond what’s expected or required: This is what Jesus was talking about when he told his listeners “If someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:40-41). This is countercultural, and people don’t expect it. People expect to get the bare minimum. Have you ever had a waiter or waitress who really goes beyond the call of duty? You notice it, don’t you!
Listen to this story Mike Yaconelli shared in his book Dangerous Wonder.
Our town ins small by California standards – one traffic light and six thousand residents. One Sunday morning I was preaching about the unconditional love of God, a love that was outside the lines and resulted in the church loving outside the lines. Our church is different from most; the congregation feels free to interrupt me during my sermons. Just as I was finishing, a sixteen year old girl said, “This is a good sermon, Pastor, but I was thinking that if we are supposed to love outside the lines, then I know how we can do it. In three weeks the Siskiyou County Fair is coming, and with the fair come the ‘carnies.’” (The “carnies are itinerant workers who operate the rides of the traveling carnival. Every year the carnies are the talk of our rural town. Most of them are tough-looking and scary with lots of tattoos, huge muscles, and hard-looking faces. People always make derogatory comments about them.)
The high school girl continued, “I was thinking that instead of making fun of the carnies, maybe we should have a dinner and welcome them to town.”
The church agreed, and this young girl organized the entire event. She called the manager of the fair for permission, called the owner of the carnival to see if they would want a dinner. The carnival owner suggested a lunch just before the fair opened. “Okay,” said the girl, “We will barbeque hamburgers and cheeseburgers and have salads, desserts, and soft drinks. All you can eat. How many can we expect?” After some thought, the owner said to expect fifty.
The day of the lunch about twenty people from the church showed up to help serve. There was enough food for seventy. At twelve-thirty when the lunch was to begin, only four carnies showed up. By one-thirty, however we hadn’t served 50 carnies, or 75 carnies, or even 150 carnies. We had served 200 carnies. When it looked like we would run out of food, the young girl came running up to me, the pastor , and said, “We’re running out of food. GET SOME!” We did.
When the lunch was over, numerous carnies came up to the young girl and thanked her. One older lady who had been working carnivals for a long time said, “I have been doing carnivals for forty years, and this is the first time I’ve been welcomed to town.” The all-you-can-eat carnie lunch has been going for seven years now, all because a teenage girl was naïve enough to believe God loved a group of carnies as much as He loved her. (Mike Yaconelli: Dangerous Wonder, NavPress. 1998.)
Which of these carnies expected to get welcomed to town? Let alone an all-you-can-eat meal. Yet this girl and her church went above and beyond what was expected and truly served them.
Are too big for us to do alone: Have you ever thought about a problem and shook your head and said: I could never do something about that? I’m just one person…
Ginghamsburg Church is a 4500+ United Methodist congregation in Tipp City, Ohio. In December 2008, Senior Pastor Mike Slaughter challenged Ginghamsburg’s attendees for the fifth year to match what they spend on Christmas gifts bring that in for the Sudan Project “Miracle Offering.” This year’s result? Nearly $700,000 to continue Ginghamsburg’s child protection & development program, serving 19,000 children in Darfur, Sudan, while also expanding a four-year project enabling 14 water yards that will provide safe water and sanitation for 219,000 people, the most critical health need in Darfur today. The 2008 offering total was especially miraculous given the economic crisis and that Dayton, Ohio, was named by Forbes magazine in August 2008 as one of the 10 fastest dying cities in America.
They have put 6900 Sudanese families back into the farming business in 2005 and had a successful harvest that has now expanded to feed 80,000 people. They have trained 190 teachers, constructed or rehabilitated 149 schools and gave 19,000 children educational materials.
Which of us could do that on our own? But together, one church has accomplished all of that.
Don’t pay off immediately: Learning how to study, even when schoolwork comes easy. Shooting 500 free throws every day. Getting up early to start your day in prayer every day. The first day of a diet. Deciding to forgive.
Go against the crowd: remaining sexually pure. Not cheating on your taxes. Driving the speed limit. Not cheating on tests. Not accepting a victim mentality and working to better yourself. Deliberately not climbing the corporate ladder, even though it would mean more money – because you’ve chosen to spend more time with your family. I remember being a part of a Sunday School class of yuppie newlyweds. When we were having a discussion about career and children and Tara said, “I want to stay home with my children,” you would have thought she was speaking Greek by the way our colleagues responded. How about reaching out to people who your society has labeled as undesirable?
I’ll add to their list this one: Do hard things that nobody will know you did. I remember coming home from church after the first snow we experienced in New Knoxville, only to find that my sidewalk had been completely shoveled. I had no idea who had done it. Later I found out that my 90 year old neighbor had been out shoveling. Once I got to be a part of giving an anonymous gift to some families at Christmas time. That was so fun, and I remember seeing the thank-you note they wrote to the church and was just excited to have been a part of it.
My friend Rob Turner is a pastor in Zanesville and one of my closest friends. He was actually one of my top motivations to run a marathon. The following link goes to a video he made for us.
I love this quote from Rob: If you can force yourself to run 50 miles on purpose with nobody chasing you, don’t you think you could let me help you do some other hard things, like face your junk or deal with your stuff? That 50 mile race hurt you for months, but this stuff has been hurting you for years.
I know many of you do hard things already - so when was the last time God led you to do something hard? If you can’t think of a time, maybe you’re not listening to Him. This might be the hard thing God is calling you to do: stop simply getting fed by the pastor and start eating solid food on your own. In 1 Corinthians 3:2, Paul tells the people of Corinth that he had to treat them as spiritual infants. He said, “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” In Hebrews 5 we find a similar statement: By this time you ought to be teachers, but you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food… But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:12, 14)
Maybe God is calling you to do the hard work of actually reading and studying His Word for yourself.
Here’s the thing: God blesses us when we do hard things. I remember as a small child, I was horrified to find out that other children weren’t going to get toys for Christmas, and I decided that I needed to help. Now I had plenty of toys, but I felt like I needed to give something nice. So I gave my favorite toy, a beat-up old camera. It wasn’t so much about the camera itself, but the hard thing I did, to give my favorite toy away. And somehow someone heard about it and gave me a really neat toy camera (and a real one, too). I ended up being the one who was blessed.
When I was appointed to Stonybrook UMC, we went to Appalachia to do a service project every year, and when we were done working, sweating, sleeping in gyms, enduring hard circumstances, do you know who felt most blessed? It was us. But God also blesses others when we do hard things. God blesses the world through us. And it’s often because of the hard things we’re willing to do that others take notice, not just of us, but of Him. They say, “You’re different, and I want to know why!” And then we get the wonderful opportunity to point them to Him.
Remember how we started this message? Oh, that I had the wings of a dove, that I could fly away… Jesus also talked about birds. In Matthew 6:25-26, he said this: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? If God loves the birds and takes care of them, don’t you think He will take care of us as we do hard things for Him?
And there will be people whose eternity is sealed because you were willing to do hard things… or not.
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