I don’t have the resources. I don’t have the money. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the talent. I’m scared of what will happen if it fails. I don’t know how people will react to it.
Man, am I used to hearing these sentences. Who am I kidding…I’m used to saying these things. We call them excuses; reasons not to__________ (you fill in the blank). Reasons not to do what I have the potential to do; to do what needs to be done; to do what I’ve dreamt of doing; to do what God has called me to do. They are different excuses, but all have the same result: regret.
What is the motivator? Fear. Always fear. Some might call it reality, or level-headedness, or good management. I call it fear. It is that thing that paralyzes us, keeping us from doing what can be done…what ought to be done. It doesn’t seem to matter that fear is not of God and “if God be for us, who can be against us.” The reality is that we still become neutralized into mediocrity. We still get relegated to the sidelines of complacency because we would rather play it safe and deal with the minimal results than risk losing it all…or achieving it all.
I’m working through Mark Batterson’s book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, with our men’s group on Tuesday mornings, and am challenged yet again to stop settling for all that the enemy wants for me. Did you hear that? Usually, Christians talk about all that God wants for us, but the reality, we usually settle for all the enemy wants for us. See, if he can keep me so afraid that I never attempt God-sized goals, I’ll always fall short of what I was created for. So, exactly what is a God-sized goal? I guess it depends on how big God is to you. To quote Batterson, God is the size of your biggest problem.
We’re about to celebrate Easter. Actually, a more accurate statement would be to say that we’re about to observe Easter (after all, as the President told the Turkish people, “we don’t refer to ourselves as a ‘Christian nation,’ but a nation of citizens…”). Well, true or not, many of us will be celebrating Easter, the resurrection of Jesus. The question we must ask ourselves is whether we believe the same power that could give life back to Jesus can breathe life into the impossible in my life. In your life. Can God do the impossible? If we believe that He can, can He do it in you? How, then, do we get from the point of believing it in our head to acting on it everyday? If we only believe it in our heads but it is not a reality in our lives, can we really say we believe it? I mean, really, big deal!
If I believe that, I’m going to prayerfully be expecting the supernatural. I’m going to begin attempting things that should not be able to happen. 
I’m going to begin to expect things that are not according to my limitations, but are based upon His limitless power and provision. I’m going to begin asking Him to do things that I know are otherwise impossible. It’s time to get past the platitudes! I’m sick of hearing…of saying…how much God can do, but “I’m just not there yet.” That’s a cop-out. If God can, then God will do much more than I have seen Him do in me for His glory.
It’s long past time to stop expecting less than what we say we believe. It’s unbecoming for one who says he’s put faith in an omnipotent God. Maybe that’s the reason Newsweek has declared “The End of Christian America”. Maybe it’s because we’ve gotten too caught up in an institutional religion and forsaken the real God who changes lives and makes an impact in not only us, but the world around us. If that’s the case, then I hope that Christian America does die and can be replaced with people who want and expect an America where those who claim to know Jesus will look for Him to move within and through us; that we become the organism, rather than the organization (which is a terrible representation of who He is and what He does in a life anyway). Now that’s the kind of America I want to live in.
May it start in me!
