2008_10_05 Safe or Brave
One of the benefits of being the Dad of two girls and two boys has been the opportunity to coach soccer, baseball and peewee contact football. By peewee, I mean kids that are seven, eight and nine years old. By contact football, I mean these kids put on the full gear (helmets, shoulder pads and mouth guards) and try to knock each other down, hard. It’s great fun.
One of the most fascinating moments of peewee contact foot ball occurs very early in the season. It is the magic moment when the brand new peewee discovers that contact football is about contact. The peewee has seen football on TV and may think it’s about a party in a big stadium. And after listening to the announcers, the colorful commentators and the adults in the room, he may think football is about how smart you can be in analyzing the game. Then he comes to the first week of conditioning practice before the equipment is handed out—and he can think it’s about running fast, dodging cones and catching passes.
Then finally—oh, finally—he is issued his shiny helmet, broad shoulder pads and dazzling new jersey. He takes the equipment home to show his family and dashes down the street to show his best friend. At this stage the glories of the gear seem quite enough; football is about the uniform. Then the first day of con tact practice finally rolls around, and the new peewee finds him self in a series of shocking and intentional collisions for which no one is apologizing. Shortly thereafter the magic epiphany occurs, and the peewee discovers what football is about—contact.
At such a moment, the new peewee is forced to make a decision: does he really want to be a football player or not? But sometimes peewees need help in clarifying the choice.
Author, Gary Haugen tells this story:
Riding home from one of my early contact practices, I told my mom I’d had enough. I didn’t want to go to practice anymore. Knowing a thing or two about her eight-year-old, my mom simply said, “Oh”—and then after letting me sit for a spell in the absence of enthusiastic affirmation of my decision, she said, “Well, I suppose you can turn in your uniform and equipment to the coach tomorrow.” This suggestion was, of course, horrifying to me - after all, I loved football. I certainly loved the idea of football and I certainly looked fabulous in the uniform. I was thinking maybe I could just be the kind of football player who wore the uniform but didn’t do all that contact stuff. My mom, however, helped me see that the contact stuff was precisely what football was about. After she encouraged me past the shock of the first few bumps, I found out I really was a football player because I truly loved what football was about: contact.
It might have been sweet of my mom to let me avoid the bumps and bruises of the practices and games, and just hold on to the uniform, pretending to be a Football player. She could have acted like it was possible to both be a football player and avoid the contact of football—to pretend that a choice wasn’t required.
But that wouldn’t be true, and thankfully she loved me more profoundly than that. Gloriously, she allowed me to discover one of the great, authentic joys of my childhood. Good parents, I think, help their kids clarify the reality of life’s choices. They teach us not only to be safe when we need to be, but to be brave enough to step out of our comfort zone to become what we are meant to be.
The choice between being safe and being brave is one of the most powerful themes in the Bible. Abraham had to choose if he would stay home and take care of the family business or obey the God that was telling him to go, and “Abraham obeyed, not knowing where he was going.”
Joshua was still wet behind the ears as a leader when God commanded him to “Be strong and courageous!” Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego were threatened with their lives if they didn’t bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:16-18
Jesus chose to be brave rather than safe on many occasions, but perhaps the greatest was in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed:
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42
Jesus repeatedly called people to follow him, no matter what. He still is!
He is inviting all of us on his great, costly expedition of transformation in the world—but we must respond. Are we coming or staying? Jesus is relentlessly issuing the invitation and forcing a choice to action. What are we going to do? I am much more interested in telling Jesus and others what I believe, but Jesus (and the watching world) knows that what I truly believe viii be manifested in what I choose to do.
For many of us the boundary of our range of action is determined by our ultimate fears, Of course, we prefer not to think of ourselves as limited by fear. And our fears often remain hid den (even From ourselves) right up to the very moment when we must act. Then, what we actually believe determines what we are able to do. In fact, as Jesus’ time on earth drew to a close, he was increasingly blunt about this: words weren’t enough; actions identified those who truly believed in him.
Many people admired, were attracted to, and wanted to be with and blessed by Jesus. But Jesus chose those who trusted him so much that they would drop everything to follow him. Some of the saddest pictures in the Gospels are of those who liked Jesus but couldn’t trust him enough to follow him,
One of the most powerful and arresting stories in this vein is the story of The Rich Ruler,” as many Bible versions label it. The subhead is unfortunate because it leads most of us to think the story doesn’t have anything to do with us. After all, we’re not rulers, we wouldn’t consider ourselves rich, and we’d never claim that we had obeyed all the commandments, as he did. Accordingly, I always pictured this spoiled and sanctimonious boy- king who gets his comeuppance when Jesus shows him to be the greedy sinner he really is. I thought this until I carefully read the story, and then what I mostly saw was me.
Looking at the Gospel texts (the story is found in Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-30; Luke 18:13 ) I find a devout believer who adores Jesus. According to Luke, he is a man of some unspecified authority or leadership in the community. Nevertheless, when it comes to Jesus, his posture is one of utter humility. He literally runs to see Jesus. Pompous, self-important authorities don’t run to see anybody. And this earnest young man not only runs, he kneels before Jesus. He addresses Jesus with titles of great reverence for his day: ‘Good master” or “Good teacher.” His heart and mind are directed toward the ultimate question of eternal salvation, and he thinks Jesus has the answer. Jesus points the young man back to what he already knows about obeying the law, and the young man says (in front of all his neighbors, who would know) that since he was a young boy he has been careful not to murder or commit adultery, to he honest and to honor his parents. Does Jesus rebuke him for his arrogant sell-righteousness? No. On the contrary, after the young man answers Jesus, the Bible says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him”(Mark 10:21). He loved him. Jesus didn’t roll his eyes or incite others to laugh. He “looked at him” and “loved him.”
But this earnest, extraordinarily devout believer is restless. He feels he has done what his religious tradition has taught him to do, but in the presence of Jesus it just doesn’t feel satisfying. In fact, after affirming his compliance with the basics of the law, the young man asks, “What do I still lack?” (Matthew 19:20). I-Ic knows his own personal piety is not enough. He knows there must be more to truly enter the kingdom of God. The young man asked the question, so Jesus cuts to the chase. He takes the young man right up to his particular boundary of fear and invites him to cross it: “You lack one thing,” Jesus replies, “go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
In one of the most starkly sad moments recorded in Scripture, the earnest young man, presented with the chance to truly follow the Maker and Redeemer of the world finds he has too much to lose. He walks away grieving. Why? Because he wants to follow Jesus. But he can’t, because he is afraid of what it will cost him too much.
It turns out he really doesn’t believe that Jesus is good is to say, that Jesus is the good, the ultimate good. At first, it seems like the devout young man thought Jesus was good, because he addressed Jesus as ‘Good teacher.” However, Jesus knows it’s not what we say, hut what we do. So he asks him. “Why do you call me good? No one is good--except God alone.” If Jesus is truly almighty God and the ultimate good, then it is the most fantastic bargain to abandon everything else and follow him, Indeed, if quizzed, tile reverent young man would probably answer correctly: Of course, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, and anyone who finds it would joyfully se all to buy that field. But it is Jesus’ call to action actually sell all he has -that reveals his deepest fear about the cost of following Jesus, and it’s just too scary.