The Purpose Journey

Spiritual Training Cycle: Submission (wk. 13/13)

1 Peter 5:1-7

The greatest basketball player of all time is widely disputed. You might be in camp Michael Jordan, “His Airness,” (six NBA championships) or loyal to LeBron James, “King James,” (four NBA championships). You might even throw the “Black Mamba” into the conversation if you want to make a case for the late, Kobe Bryant (five NBA championships). But my personal choice is Phil Jackson. As an athlete, he only won two championships early in his career and was plagued by injuries and setbacks. His biggest ‘wins’ didn’t really occur until after he shed the title of athlete and began honoring his greater purpose as a coach; coaching in 11 championship titles! I believe Phil’s difficult experience as an athlete, injuries and all, allowed him to walk with greater purpose and humility into his destiny as a coach. In both the game of basketball and in our walk of faith, true and lasting success usually requires that we rethink our purpose. Our purpose can be found in faithfulness.

Similar to Phil’s experience, we can also step into a new purpose for our spiritual lives when we respond with humility to our mistakes and ‘injuries.’ Spiritual wounds directly affect our faithfulness. When we offer these wounds to Jesus, He takes them upon Himself so that we’re no longer weighed down by those burdens. We can release the sin and refocus our attention back on our greater purpose as Christ followers. As we grow in our faith, we can then pass on this faithfulness to others.

We’ve been following Peter on his journey of faithfulness. It’s a tumultuous journey that includes spiritual wounds and developing humility. But like Phil Jackson, injury and setbacks aren’t the end of his story. In last week’s devotional, we saw the failure of Peter to claim discipleship and loyalty to Jesus. Jesus knows it isn’t the end of Peter’s story, and after Jesus rises from the dead, He seeks to reconcile with Peter. We see in John 21:17:

“A third time he asked him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

Jesus said, ‘Then feed my sheep.’”

Jesus is calling Peter to evolve into a new purpose as a leader. Peter must take everything he has learned up to this point about faithfulness in order to share these lessons with others. Restoration for Peter means Peter’s life is going to look different than it did before. He doesn’t just witness Jesus’ miracles but performs miracles himself.

Peter is a disciple to Jesus for only three years, but according to history, Peter is a Christian minister for much longer; 30 years in total. It is a triumph for Peter when we see him continuing to pass the torch and bring up new Christian leaders. It is no surprise that it looks and sounds familiar when Peter gives this message in 1 Peter 5:2:

“Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly - not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.”

Peter’s biggest wins didn’t occur as a disciple. In fact, we know that he messed up pretty bad in that capacity. But thankfully, Peter was able to use his spiritual injuries along with his faithfulness in Christ to become the most influential church leader of all time. These victories are a direct result of Peter’s restored faithfulness. Our purpose will be found on the other side of our mistakes when we live in faithfulness.

Questions for Reflection:

What spiritual injuries do you have?

What ways are you restoring your faith after these spiritual injuries?

Learning Opportunities

Spiritual Training Cycle: Submission (wk. 12/13)

Mark 14:66-72

My son is growing into quite the functional fitness athlete. Now, I don’t know where you stand on the whole “Is bench press a functional movement?” controversy, but no matter your stance, keep in mind that my 15-year-old High School Sophomore thinks it’s in. So, we like to bench.

A few weeks ago, things were looking good in the session, so we decided to try for a new PR. You could feel the tension in the gym rise as we loaded some more weight on the bar. I’ve been coaching and spotting the bench press for two decades, so let’s just say I have a sixth sense on if someone is going to have a successful rep.

And he looked solid. Until he didn’t. Attempt number one was a no-go. Along with attempt number two. But I just believed in all my heart that he had it. So we decided to make one more try. I put on his favorite Metallica song and cranked the volume to bring the mojo. He took the bar off the rack, had a good lift on the way down, and then on the way up, over the sounds of “The Memory Remains,” you could hear the roar of my son as he got his new PR. As we high fived and hugged, I told him, “Your first two attempts weren’t failures, they were learning opportunities.”

What do we learn when we fail in the gym? So many things. Like learning to try again. The voice in our head that tells us we can’t or we won’t learns to dial it down when we learn to try again. No failure, no learning opportunity.

We also learn not to be defined by failure. When someone asks what your one rep back squat is, you don’t reply with the weights you’ve failed. Failure does not define you, it refines you. That is, if you’ll let it.

And finally, we learn the value of failing. It’s ok to fail. You’re not going to PR all the time. But if you don’t see the value of failing, then you’re likely to hold yourself back. To “reign it in” more than you should. We learn so much when we fail in the gym.

When it comes to spiritual fitness, we can learn a lot from our failures too, including when we fail to have faith in God. Full disclosure, I’ve failed to have faith so many times. I wanted to trust God so bad and believe in His good plan for my life, but then I let worry in. Followed by anxiety. Followed by trying to figure it all out on my own. And if you’ve ever done that then you’re in good company like me. Because so did one of Jesus’ closest disciples. A guy named Peter.

Peter was having a rough night. He’d just watched Jesus get arrested and hauled off to be questioned and tried by the Jewish leaders. And he was scared. Even though Jesus had told Peter how the whole thing would go down, Peter let his fear and anxiety take over. So much so that he denied even knowing Jesus three times that night. By the way, Jesus told Peter that was going to happen too. God knew Peter’s faith would fail him. When our faith fails, it doesn’t make us a failure. Those moments are simply learning opportunities.

When we fail to keep our faith in God, we also learn a few things. First, we learn how good God really is. The Savior of the world already knows. He already knows you’re trusting your bank account. He already knows you’re gonna question if there’s even a God at all. And in those moments when you find yourself trusting in something other than Jesus, you see just how good God is because He never stops loving you.

We also learn that we weren’t meant to do it on our own. Isn’t that really the end game of losing faith or hope in God? That we end up trying to do it our way or in our time. Trust is the currency of any great relationship. So, when we lose trust in God, it’s like we’re ending the relationship. Which puts us back out there trying to find something else we can trust in.

Finally, we learn that God is ultimately in control. He’s architecting the whole thing. And our restoration to God through faith in Jesus helps us to better see just how in control He actually is. Which means we don’t have to wonder if we’re good with God. We are. He’s bigger than your failures. Even your failure to put your faith in Him.

Questions for Reflection:

What are some situations in your life where you lost trust in God?

What have you learned from failure?

In what areas could you trust God more?

Just Show Up

Spiritual Training Cycle: Submission (wk. 11/13)

Matthew 16:13-18

The start of a four-year journey

At the beginning of the Covid lock-down, my athletic wife got me started on my CrossFit journey.  The gym she was going to immediately pivoted to free Zoom classes. My life of travel as a business consultant had come to a screeching halt, I finally had time to get serious again about fitness, and I followed my wife’s lead on joining these on-line classes streamed to an iPad in our backyard.

I hid from my coach the first several weeks I did CrossFit

What I didn’t realize is that the coach didn’t just instruct us in a daily set of body-weight exercises, he actually wanted to watch us – via Zoom - do burpees, air squats, push-ups, sit-ups and a variety of other exercises.  At first, I tilted the iPad screen, or had it focus on my wife or anything I could so that the coach couldn’t see how bad I was at these exercises.  It became a reoccurring game of hide-and-seek between Coach Justin and this embarrassed participant.

Momentum builds slowly, creating a better future little by little

But, in the ensuing weeks and months, I slowly got back into shape.  Our gym re-opened, I found a community of friends who loved fitness, and I came to believe what Coach Justin had been saying all along: “just show up” – just show up and let the process work.

Four years later, I’m reaching fitness goals I haven’t reached in decades.  At the beginning of this year, I set two ambitious fitness goals for myself.  I hit the first one – a new bench-press PR - six months into the year.  My second goal is still in front of me, motivating me to just keep showing up.

Jesus prepared his friends and disciples for their future

Jesus spent three years molding a group of his followers into world-changers.  They didn’t know it at that time, but they were doing their own version of “just show up” as they spent time with Jesus, building momentum that would circle the globe in the next two thousand years.

As his earthly time with them was drawing to an end, Jesus asked these friends of his what they had learned about him.  Peter’s response?  “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matt. 16:16). Peter’s awareness was in some respects “the beginning of the end” of them just being followers of Jesus.  Now they were also being commissioned to be leaders of God’s new movement to change the world.

Faithfulness builds momentum

When Jesus’ disciples first responded to his call, I doubt any of them knew what was coming. He took a full three years of living with them and teaching them about his ways and who he was before he commissioned them to make disciples across the world.  Their faithfulness to him during those three years prepared them for the work he had for them in future.

Questions for reflection

What has your life with God taught you about who he is and how he works?

How can your faithfulness to God change the world around you and build even more momentum for his gospel?