Summer Reflections:Throw Down Your Staff
Summer Reflections: Throw Down Your Staff
09.02.05
Pastor Mark Batterson
This evotional concludes the Summer Reflections series. Every summer I take a short sabbatical from preaching. In Exodus language, I take off my sandals and throw down my staff. Last week's evotional focused on taking off your sandals. This week's evotional is about throwing down your staff.
To check out Mark's daily blog or subscribe to the podcast, visit http://www.evotional.com/.
Throw Down
In Exodus 3, God called Moses to lead the greatest rescue operation in history-the exodus of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses had a laundry list of excuses and concerns. In all fairness, you would too!
Moses isn't just concerned about the Egyptians. He wonders whether the Israelites will embrace his leadership. He says in Exodus 4:1: "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you?' Then the Lord said to him, 'What is that in your hand?'
'A shepherd's staff,' Moses replied.
The Lord said, 'Throw it down on the ground.'
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it.
Then the Lord said, 'Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.'
So Moses reached out and grabbed it and it became a shepherd's staff again. 'Perform this sign, and they will believe you,' the Lord told him. 'Then they will realize that the Lord-the God of Abraham, the God if Isaac, and the God of Jacob-really has appeared to you'."
Like all ancient shepherds, Moses had a staff. It was probably a six-foot long wooden rod that was curved on one end. It was a walking stick. It was a weapon. It was a prod used to guide his flock. And Moses never left home without it. It was his badge. It was his ID.
The shepherd's staff represented two things to Moses: identity and security.
It's easy to read a story like this and second-guess Moses. Moses said, "Please send someone else." Why the hesitation when God called him?
The answer is pretty simple. When Moses looked in the mirror all he saw a shepherd. Moses had been shepherding for forty years. And he fell into the trap many of us have fallen into. He allowed what he did to define who he was. That's backwards! God wants who we are to define what we do. When God asked Moses to throw down his staff He was asking Moses to throw down his identity.
He was also asking Moses to throw down his security. The staff represented physical security and financial security. It even represented relational security. He tended sheep for his father-in-law.
Let me ask you the question that God asked Moses: what's in your hand?
Where do you find your identity? What is the locus of your security?
Is it a job? A relationship? A brokerage account? A title or degree or position?
There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but let me cut to the chase. If you find your security in anything other than a relationship with God then you have a false sense of security. And if you find your identity in anything other than a relationship with God then you have a false sense of identity.
You need to throw down your staff.
What If
Here's the $64,000 question: what if Moses had held on to his staff?
Here's my hunch: his staff would have remained a staff. His staff would have remained an inanimate object. He would have forfeited the miracle!
Moses experienced some amazing miracles during his lifetime. He had box seats for the ten plagues; the parting of the Red Sea; and the manna in the wilderness. But there is something unique about the staff becoming a snake. As far as we know, this is the first miracle Moses ever experienced!
If Moses had held on to the staff he would have remained a shepherd. He would have spent the rest of his life counting sheep. Here's the bottom line: if you hold on to whatever is in your hand you'll never experience the miracles God wants to perform!
Defining Moments
When I was nineteen years-old I felt like God called me to full-time ministry. Check out the "cow pasture" video on my blog (September 1, 2005). I was excited. But I was also scared. I've learned that whenever God calls us to take a leap of faith, fear is in the neighborhood yelling "don't jump" at the top of its voice!
It was an agonizing decision for me.
I had a full-ride scholarship at the University of Chicago. It was a top-ranked school academically. I knew a degree from the U of C would open doors. That's why I went there. And by the end of my freshman year I had earned a starting position on the basketball team.
On paper it was the perfect.
But I felt like God was calling me to throw down my staff and transfer to Central Bible College. Friends told me I was committing academic suicide. The move made absolutely no sense academically or financially. But I look back on that decision to throw down my scholarship as one of the defining moments of my life.
So much of my identity and security was wrapped up in academics and athletics. But when I threw down that staff, miracles started to happen. God opened doors of opportunity. And I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for that decision. It's as simple as that.
Sometimes you have to throw down what is in your hand so God can make you into who He wants you to be. If you hold on to the staff you'll count sheep the rest of your life. You'll never experience the holy rush of stepping out in faith. You'll never experience the holy high of being used by God in ways you never imagined. You'll never know what you could have accomplished with God's help. You'll never know who you could have become. Your staff will remain a staff.
Throw it down.
And at the end of your life, you'll realize that you got back more than you gave up. In the words of Jim Elliott: "He is no fool for losing what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Just think of the experiences Moses would have forfeited if he had held on to his staff.
Agent
Moses asks the wrong question in Exodus 3:10: "Who am I?"
That isn't the issue!
Hit the rewind button a few verses. God is talking in the first-person. Let me summarize what He says: "I have seen." "I have heard." "I have come."
In other words, God is revealing what God is going to do.
And Moses says: "Who am I?"
God doesn't even answer his question. He says, "I will be with you."
Who you are isn't as nearly important as whose you are.
I have a new appreciation for this truth. I'm realizing more and more that what you know isn't as important as who you know. In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the importance of connectors. Connectors are people with relational leverage. Connectors have extensive relational networks.
A few months ago I hired an agent for a very simple reason. I feel called to write, but I don't know the first thing about publishing! I have no name. I have no contacts. I have no leverage. But that's where my agent comes into plays. It seems like he knows everybody! And he's using his relational leverage to pitch my books to publishers. And it's working !
Think of God as your Agent with a capital A. God is in the business of bringing the right people into our lives at the right time.
Here's the bottom line: what you can do for God isn't nearly as important as what God can do for you. Who you are isn't the issue! The issue always has been and always will be who God is.
Louis Giglio hits the nail on the head: "We become intoxicated by the lie that the sum of our lives depends on our effort alone."
Your success doesn't depend on what's in your hand. Read the Exodus account and you'll find three distinct references to "hand." God says He is going to stretch out His mighty hand. He promises the Israelites that they won't exodus Egypt empty-handed. And He tells Moses to throw down what is in his hand.
Here is the fundamental mistake we make: we think the way to avoid being empty-handed is by hanging on to what we have.
The real key is throwing down what is in your hand so that God can stretch out His hand and fill your hand with what's in His hand. But God can't put something in your hand if you're clutching your staff.
We worry way too much about what's in our hand.
Louie Giglio says, "It's about doing everything we do with the quiet confidence that our lives, families, businesses, ministries, relationships, and dreams are in His hands."
If God's hand isn't in it we can't succeed. If God's hand is in it we can't fail.
Sabbatical
Every summer I take a short sabbatical from preaching. It's my way of taking off my sandals and throwing down my staff. I try to disengage from the day-to-day responsibilities of ministry.
It's a healthy reminder that it's not about me or up to me! I'm just privileged to be part of what God is doing at National Community Church.
It's hard for me to describe what has happened over the course of my sabbatical this summer, but I've been describing it in terms of Galatians 5:25: "Let us keep in step with the Spirit."
Whenever I read that verse I always have this mental image of a little child holding hands with a parent as they're walking. And the little child is hanging on for dear life! Have you ever seen a small child try to keep up with an adult who is taking full-length, full-speed strides?
That's how I feel right now. The Holy Spirit is taking full-length, full-speed strides and I'm trying to keep up! It's almost like I made a decision to take off my sandals and throw down my staff and the Holy Spirit shifted gears into overdrive!
I feel like I'm on one of those moving sidewalks at the airport. I downshifted and opportunities started reproducing like rabbits. Every time I turned around God was opening another door. I've experienced more miracles in the last four weeks than the last ten years combined.
And the timing is not insignificant. It's all happened during my sabbatical. The significance of that is this: none of these miracles could have been man-u-factured. It's the hand of God.
Let me share a few of them.
About two years ago I sensed that God was calling NCC to become a teaching church. Just as there are hospitals and teaching hospitals, there are churches and teaching churches. Teaching churches don't just help people. They help churches as they help people. It's not that teaching churches have it all figured out. They probably have as many issues as any other church made up of imperfect people. But they're good stewards of their strengths and weaknesses.
In the past few years, I've met with hundreds of pastors and church planters. Almost every weekend, someone is doing reconnaissance at NCC. I think those opportunities are evidence of God's calling. We're called to help churches as we help people.
Two totally unexpected things happened four weeks ago. National Community Church was recognized by the Assemblies of God as a transformational church. NCC was one of thirteen churches (out of 10,000) that were chosen. Then Terry Storch and Tony Morgan came out with a list of the top ten innovative churches in America. And somehow NCC was on it.
And that's the tip of the iceberg. The Washington Times did a front page story on NCC in July. NCC will be featured in Leadership Journal in their fall issue. NCC was invited to be on the panel at the first national forum for multi-site churches at Willowcreek Community Church in Chicago. And the New York Times did an article on Godcasting that featured National Community Church. That article has had a domino effect that has resulted in interviews with newspapers and radio stations around the world.
And here's the thing: none of those things could have been manufactured. No how. No way.
Long story short, I think God is raising our platform and giving us a voice so we can help more pastors as we help more people! In fact, we'll host our first church conference next May. The Buzz Conference will be a way that we can help the larger body of Christ.
Now let me say this: if the press produces pride it become self-defeating. A swollen ego is more deadly than cancer. All these opportunities do is raise the stakes.
The blessings of God can present a grave danger to our spiritual health if we find our identity and security in those blessings!
Read that again.
That's precisely what happened to the Israelites.
God promised the Israelites that they wouldn't leave Egypt empty-handed. And they didn't.
Exodus 12:36 says, "And the people of Israel did just as Moses had instructed and asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold. The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So, like a victorious army, they plundered the Egyptians."
Do you remember what they used those God-given blessings for? Read Exodus 32. They manufactured a golden calf with the gold jewelry they plundered from the Egyptians. In other words, they worshipped the very thing God had put in their hands. And the blessing became a curse!
Wax On
I was in Urban Outfitters a few weeks ago and I saw a T-shirt that said Wax On, Wax Off. I almost bought it. Remember that classic scene from Karate Kid? Daniel LaRusso asks Mr. Miyagi to teach him karate. So Mr. Miyagi has him paint his fence, sand his deck, and wax his car.
Daniel-san gets frustrated because he can't make the connection between painting, sanding, waxing and karate! He feels like a slave! But Mr. Miyagi is training Daniel without Daniel knowing it.
That is how God works in our lives.
When God decided to use Moses to lead his people, He didn't send him to Harvard Business School. He has him tend sheep for forty years. Why? Because he knew that tending sheep was about as close as Moses would come to leading millions of Israelites through the wilderness!
By the end of his internship, Moses knew where every watering hole was. He knew the weather patterns. He knew the wildlife. God put Moses through forty years of Wilderness 101 and Moses didn't even know it.
All of that to say this: God may be preparing you for something and you may have no idea what it is.
David is Exhibit A.
David wanted to be on the frontlines with his brothers fighting the Philistines. But he was stuck on the sidelines tending sheep. But God was honing an uncanny skill that would catapult David into the national limelight. Every time a lion or bear or wolf would attack his flock, David would pull out his handy-duty slingshot and kill it. Little did he know that his proficiency as a slingshooter would earn him the admiration of an entire nation! You never know what skilzs God is developing. You never know what skilzs God is going to use.
But one thing is sure: God is using past experiences to prepare you for future opportunities.
And those opportunities can't be manufactured.
Question: what's in your hand?
Fear tells you to hold on.
Faith tells you throw down.
Which voice will you listen to?
Norman Cousins said, "People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams."
Throw down your staff. Take up your cross. And follow Christ.
09.02.05
Pastor Mark Batterson
This evotional concludes the Summer Reflections series. Every summer I take a short sabbatical from preaching. In Exodus language, I take off my sandals and throw down my staff. Last week's evotional focused on taking off your sandals. This week's evotional is about throwing down your staff.
To check out Mark's daily blog or subscribe to the podcast, visit http://www.evotional.com/.
Throw Down
In Exodus 3, God called Moses to lead the greatest rescue operation in history-the exodus of Israel out of Egypt. But Moses had a laundry list of excuses and concerns. In all fairness, you would too!
Moses isn't just concerned about the Egyptians. He wonders whether the Israelites will embrace his leadership. He says in Exodus 4:1: "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you?' Then the Lord said to him, 'What is that in your hand?'
'A shepherd's staff,' Moses replied.
The Lord said, 'Throw it down on the ground.'
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it.
Then the Lord said, 'Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.'
So Moses reached out and grabbed it and it became a shepherd's staff again. 'Perform this sign, and they will believe you,' the Lord told him. 'Then they will realize that the Lord-the God of Abraham, the God if Isaac, and the God of Jacob-really has appeared to you'."
Like all ancient shepherds, Moses had a staff. It was probably a six-foot long wooden rod that was curved on one end. It was a walking stick. It was a weapon. It was a prod used to guide his flock. And Moses never left home without it. It was his badge. It was his ID.
The shepherd's staff represented two things to Moses: identity and security.
It's easy to read a story like this and second-guess Moses. Moses said, "Please send someone else." Why the hesitation when God called him?
The answer is pretty simple. When Moses looked in the mirror all he saw a shepherd. Moses had been shepherding for forty years. And he fell into the trap many of us have fallen into. He allowed what he did to define who he was. That's backwards! God wants who we are to define what we do. When God asked Moses to throw down his staff He was asking Moses to throw down his identity.
He was also asking Moses to throw down his security. The staff represented physical security and financial security. It even represented relational security. He tended sheep for his father-in-law.
Let me ask you the question that God asked Moses: what's in your hand?
Where do you find your identity? What is the locus of your security?
Is it a job? A relationship? A brokerage account? A title or degree or position?
There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but let me cut to the chase. If you find your security in anything other than a relationship with God then you have a false sense of security. And if you find your identity in anything other than a relationship with God then you have a false sense of identity.
You need to throw down your staff.
What If
Here's the $64,000 question: what if Moses had held on to his staff?
Here's my hunch: his staff would have remained a staff. His staff would have remained an inanimate object. He would have forfeited the miracle!
Moses experienced some amazing miracles during his lifetime. He had box seats for the ten plagues; the parting of the Red Sea; and the manna in the wilderness. But there is something unique about the staff becoming a snake. As far as we know, this is the first miracle Moses ever experienced!
If Moses had held on to the staff he would have remained a shepherd. He would have spent the rest of his life counting sheep. Here's the bottom line: if you hold on to whatever is in your hand you'll never experience the miracles God wants to perform!
Defining Moments
When I was nineteen years-old I felt like God called me to full-time ministry. Check out the "cow pasture" video on my blog (September 1, 2005). I was excited. But I was also scared. I've learned that whenever God calls us to take a leap of faith, fear is in the neighborhood yelling "don't jump" at the top of its voice!
It was an agonizing decision for me.
I had a full-ride scholarship at the University of Chicago. It was a top-ranked school academically. I knew a degree from the U of C would open doors. That's why I went there. And by the end of my freshman year I had earned a starting position on the basketball team.
On paper it was the perfect.
But I felt like God was calling me to throw down my staff and transfer to Central Bible College. Friends told me I was committing academic suicide. The move made absolutely no sense academically or financially. But I look back on that decision to throw down my scholarship as one of the defining moments of my life.
So much of my identity and security was wrapped up in academics and athletics. But when I threw down that staff, miracles started to happen. God opened doors of opportunity. And I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for that decision. It's as simple as that.
Sometimes you have to throw down what is in your hand so God can make you into who He wants you to be. If you hold on to the staff you'll count sheep the rest of your life. You'll never experience the holy rush of stepping out in faith. You'll never experience the holy high of being used by God in ways you never imagined. You'll never know what you could have accomplished with God's help. You'll never know who you could have become. Your staff will remain a staff.
Throw it down.
And at the end of your life, you'll realize that you got back more than you gave up. In the words of Jim Elliott: "He is no fool for losing what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Just think of the experiences Moses would have forfeited if he had held on to his staff.
Agent
Moses asks the wrong question in Exodus 3:10: "Who am I?"
That isn't the issue!
Hit the rewind button a few verses. God is talking in the first-person. Let me summarize what He says: "I have seen." "I have heard." "I have come."
In other words, God is revealing what God is going to do.
And Moses says: "Who am I?"
God doesn't even answer his question. He says, "I will be with you."
Who you are isn't as nearly important as whose you are.
I have a new appreciation for this truth. I'm realizing more and more that what you know isn't as important as who you know. In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the importance of connectors. Connectors are people with relational leverage. Connectors have extensive relational networks.
A few months ago I hired an agent for a very simple reason. I feel called to write, but I don't know the first thing about publishing! I have no name. I have no contacts. I have no leverage. But that's where my agent comes into plays. It seems like he knows everybody! And he's using his relational leverage to pitch my books to publishers. And it's working !
Think of God as your Agent with a capital A. God is in the business of bringing the right people into our lives at the right time.
Here's the bottom line: what you can do for God isn't nearly as important as what God can do for you. Who you are isn't the issue! The issue always has been and always will be who God is.
Louis Giglio hits the nail on the head: "We become intoxicated by the lie that the sum of our lives depends on our effort alone."
Your success doesn't depend on what's in your hand. Read the Exodus account and you'll find three distinct references to "hand." God says He is going to stretch out His mighty hand. He promises the Israelites that they won't exodus Egypt empty-handed. And He tells Moses to throw down what is in his hand.
Here is the fundamental mistake we make: we think the way to avoid being empty-handed is by hanging on to what we have.
The real key is throwing down what is in your hand so that God can stretch out His hand and fill your hand with what's in His hand. But God can't put something in your hand if you're clutching your staff.
We worry way too much about what's in our hand.
Louie Giglio says, "It's about doing everything we do with the quiet confidence that our lives, families, businesses, ministries, relationships, and dreams are in His hands."
If God's hand isn't in it we can't succeed. If God's hand is in it we can't fail.
Sabbatical
Every summer I take a short sabbatical from preaching. It's my way of taking off my sandals and throwing down my staff. I try to disengage from the day-to-day responsibilities of ministry.
It's a healthy reminder that it's not about me or up to me! I'm just privileged to be part of what God is doing at National Community Church.
It's hard for me to describe what has happened over the course of my sabbatical this summer, but I've been describing it in terms of Galatians 5:25: "Let us keep in step with the Spirit."
Whenever I read that verse I always have this mental image of a little child holding hands with a parent as they're walking. And the little child is hanging on for dear life! Have you ever seen a small child try to keep up with an adult who is taking full-length, full-speed strides?
That's how I feel right now. The Holy Spirit is taking full-length, full-speed strides and I'm trying to keep up! It's almost like I made a decision to take off my sandals and throw down my staff and the Holy Spirit shifted gears into overdrive!
I feel like I'm on one of those moving sidewalks at the airport. I downshifted and opportunities started reproducing like rabbits. Every time I turned around God was opening another door. I've experienced more miracles in the last four weeks than the last ten years combined.
And the timing is not insignificant. It's all happened during my sabbatical. The significance of that is this: none of these miracles could have been man-u-factured. It's the hand of God.
Let me share a few of them.
About two years ago I sensed that God was calling NCC to become a teaching church. Just as there are hospitals and teaching hospitals, there are churches and teaching churches. Teaching churches don't just help people. They help churches as they help people. It's not that teaching churches have it all figured out. They probably have as many issues as any other church made up of imperfect people. But they're good stewards of their strengths and weaknesses.
In the past few years, I've met with hundreds of pastors and church planters. Almost every weekend, someone is doing reconnaissance at NCC. I think those opportunities are evidence of God's calling. We're called to help churches as we help people.
Two totally unexpected things happened four weeks ago. National Community Church was recognized by the Assemblies of God as a transformational church. NCC was one of thirteen churches (out of 10,000) that were chosen. Then Terry Storch and Tony Morgan came out with a list of the top ten innovative churches in America. And somehow NCC was on it.
And that's the tip of the iceberg. The Washington Times did a front page story on NCC in July. NCC will be featured in Leadership Journal in their fall issue. NCC was invited to be on the panel at the first national forum for multi-site churches at Willowcreek Community Church in Chicago. And the New York Times did an article on Godcasting that featured National Community Church. That article has had a domino effect that has resulted in interviews with newspapers and radio stations around the world.
And here's the thing: none of those things could have been manufactured. No how. No way.
Long story short, I think God is raising our platform and giving us a voice so we can help more pastors as we help more people! In fact, we'll host our first church conference next May. The Buzz Conference will be a way that we can help the larger body of Christ.
Now let me say this: if the press produces pride it become self-defeating. A swollen ego is more deadly than cancer. All these opportunities do is raise the stakes.
The blessings of God can present a grave danger to our spiritual health if we find our identity and security in those blessings!
Read that again.
That's precisely what happened to the Israelites.
God promised the Israelites that they wouldn't leave Egypt empty-handed. And they didn't.
Exodus 12:36 says, "And the people of Israel did just as Moses had instructed and asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold. The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So, like a victorious army, they plundered the Egyptians."
Do you remember what they used those God-given blessings for? Read Exodus 32. They manufactured a golden calf with the gold jewelry they plundered from the Egyptians. In other words, they worshipped the very thing God had put in their hands. And the blessing became a curse!
Wax On
I was in Urban Outfitters a few weeks ago and I saw a T-shirt that said Wax On, Wax Off. I almost bought it. Remember that classic scene from Karate Kid? Daniel LaRusso asks Mr. Miyagi to teach him karate. So Mr. Miyagi has him paint his fence, sand his deck, and wax his car.
Daniel-san gets frustrated because he can't make the connection between painting, sanding, waxing and karate! He feels like a slave! But Mr. Miyagi is training Daniel without Daniel knowing it.
That is how God works in our lives.
When God decided to use Moses to lead his people, He didn't send him to Harvard Business School. He has him tend sheep for forty years. Why? Because he knew that tending sheep was about as close as Moses would come to leading millions of Israelites through the wilderness!
By the end of his internship, Moses knew where every watering hole was. He knew the weather patterns. He knew the wildlife. God put Moses through forty years of Wilderness 101 and Moses didn't even know it.
All of that to say this: God may be preparing you for something and you may have no idea what it is.
David is Exhibit A.
David wanted to be on the frontlines with his brothers fighting the Philistines. But he was stuck on the sidelines tending sheep. But God was honing an uncanny skill that would catapult David into the national limelight. Every time a lion or bear or wolf would attack his flock, David would pull out his handy-duty slingshot and kill it. Little did he know that his proficiency as a slingshooter would earn him the admiration of an entire nation! You never know what skilzs God is developing. You never know what skilzs God is going to use.
But one thing is sure: God is using past experiences to prepare you for future opportunities.
And those opportunities can't be manufactured.
Question: what's in your hand?
Fear tells you to hold on.
Faith tells you throw down.
Which voice will you listen to?
Norman Cousins said, "People are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams."
Throw down your staff. Take up your cross. And follow Christ.
2 Comments:
Great post Mark!
phenomenal...more please!
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