Louder doesn't mean truer: Why your false desires shout false things.

"But it feels like I really want that.  How can I enjoy my good and noble heart when I still want the things that trip me up?"

What happens when you hear the message that your heart has been made good and true in Christ, yet your desires pull you in the opposite direction?

• That desire that seduces you?


• That pseudo-addiction you "can't help"?


• The anger at your kids that seems so...automatic?

Here's the problem: 
We've been taught that powerful feelings and attachments must be true of us.  The louder those feelings shout, the more true we think they are.  We've allowed feelings to be the cornerstone of our identity, rather than God's redemptive assessment of us. 

We mistakenly think that:

If I feel I want that other woman, it must be true that I want her.

If I can't let go of anger, it means my anger must be stronger than my patience.

If I can't let go of control, it means I must be a controlling person who can't let go.

It's destructive circular thinking:  "Because I experience a powerful pull, I must want that.  Worse, I must be the kind of person that wants that."

Here's the lie:  "Yeah, the 'good and noble heart' is a nice ideal; but you're not there yet.  There's no real power in it."

We've forgotten what God knows about us:  That those dishonorable desires are no longer us.  We have a new set of desires waiting to be released within our new hearts.  More accurately, the Holy Spirit is right now in the process of releasing those new and noble desires within us.

Here's how God might answer your doubts:

"You are my son [daughter] in whom I am SO-pleased!  Yes, you may have those wayward desires, but they are no longer you.  You have them, but they no longer have you.  Celebrate the new power, new resources, and new desires I'm now releasing in your good heart."

VideoBlog: "The Monkey Experiment"

A rewards and punishment system will backfire. It did with monkeys and it will with people. Learn about Harlow's monkey experiment and how it can help you understand your new and good heart.

Myths about your calling

MYTHS ABOUT CALLING:

Calling happens more quickly for others. 
No.  What we see as 'success' in another is merely the long and arduous accumulation of tears, testing and time.  We're merely seeing them on this particular summit.  Calling shouldn't be thought of in terms of months or years; but often, decades.

The journey of calling shouldn't be this hard. 
No.  As John Churton Collins says, a person often fails "because he thinks what is difficult is easy."

Your calling is only valuable when you're getting paid or recognized for it. 
No.  You know your true art and calling when you're willing to do it whether or not anyone sees it or pays for it. You do it because your heart won't let you do anything less. I've tried several times to quit: I couldn't. My heart wouldn't let it go.

Impact is measured by newsletter subscribers and social media "reach." 
No.  None of these existed when Jesus healed dying bodies or launched human history's defining revolution.  Paul and Barnabas received their direction from the Holy Spirit to "go there" or "avoid that town"  increasing the Gospel's "reach" and rootedness.  Technology can be a tremendous vehicle for delivering our message, but there is no substitute for the direct voice of the Holy Spirit and his outpowering of power.

Taking up your cross is the opposite of following your heart's desire.
No.  As a Christian, your heart is now alive with the very goodness of Jesus.  The desires of that heart are noble and ought to be pursued.  [Your 'flesh' may have other, ignoble desires, but we're talking about your new heart's desires here.] Taking up our cross and following our heart's desire are the same thing.  Following your heart's desire and calling may be the hardest thing you could ever pursue.  But that's what noble people do.

 You and your calling are already fully approved:  I can hear the Stadium of Witnesses roar with the Lion. 

Related posts:

Futility is a man's deepest fear

What does calling have to do with your heart?

Video:  'The Long Desire'

Podcast:  'Calling As a Journey:'  with guest Gary Barkalow, author of "It's Your Call"

Futility is a man's deepest fear.

Image-courtesy Kansas' "Leftoverture" album coverFutility plagues a man’s life more than anything else:

“My life is of little consequence.  My best efforts are in vain.  I will be an obscure footnote in History's appendix.  I long for significance, but suspect my efforts are a pebble's drop into a dark, hollow well.   My life will be a long testimony to failure.”

It is the lament of the writer of Ecclesiastes:

"Meaningless!  Meaningless!" says the Teacher...There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."  - Eccl. 1:1, 11

We’ve come to expect that breakthrough comes soon and comes at a younger age.  We’ve looked to the exceptions to give us our timeline:  Citizen Kane, Orson Well’s masterpiece was written at age twenty-five.  Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 was composed when he was twenty-one.  Many of Picasso’s most celebrated paintings were done in his twenties.  [What the Dog Saw, Malcom Gladwell]

However, as David Galenson, who has studied our assumptions about creativity points out, there are many other cases in which genius peaked much later:  Robert Frost wrote 42 percent of his anthologized poems after turning fifty.  Alfred Hitchcock directed his films, “Rear Window,” “Psycho” and “Virtigo” between the ages of fifty-four and sixty-one.  Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was published when he was forty-nine, and Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe at fifty-eight.  The master painter, Cezanne’s, finest work was done in his senior years.  [What the Dog Saw, Malcom Gladwell]

Malcom Gladwell calls those who peak later in life, “late bloomers.” [What the Dog Saw] For me, it offers an antidote to a man’s fear that his life won't amount to much:  breakthrough is a slow bang.  It is a long fuse that culminates in vivid splendor only after it has burned that slow, steady, coil upon tedious coil of fuse. 

But note:  the fuse still gives off spark and light at each moment leading up to the bang.

Indulge Your New Nature

A friend of mine told me that because of the message he was hearing in church each week, he expected to sin.  He didn't expect to love well, follow in Christ's footsteps, or live in the strength of the Holy Spirit.  He expected to sin.

His Christian leaders taught him to expect that.

And this is the message being offered most Christians on any given week.

It's like a Christian suffering with an addiction,  confirming the worst [and least important] thing about him at the weekly meeting:

"Hi.  My name is _______, and I'm an alcoholic."

Stop right there:  Your behavior and struggle is no longer a reliable indicator of your identity.  No matter how it feels to you, you are under a different, more powerful influence. 

The problem with the expectation to sin is that it contradicts the already-remarkable work of Jesus in the Christian.  Rather than fearing we'll indulge dangerous desires, seductive temptations, or selfish ambitions, we ought to think about indulging our new nature. 

• Bing on our new goodness.


• Dote on our new, God-given passions and desires.


• Cater to our circumcized hearts.


• Nourish our new purity.


• Pander to our new heart's super-natural potency.

By the way, this is exactly what the Holy Spirit is up to in you:  he is releasing the new and noble goodness he's birthed in your new heart.  He's inviting you to the bash he's throwing there and waiting to see what kinds of unadulterated love gets stirred up in you, spilling and splashing onto those who need your life.  Your new heart is a wellspring of life cascading out and advancing into barren places.  Indulge your new goodness and let it come out and play.


Packhorse Christians

Lithograph image, courtesy Degrazia.orgWhen I was serving in the organized Church - first as a pastor, then as a contemporary worship director, it didn't take long for me to notice that utility replaced desire as an indicator of calling.  In other words, "You are here to do whatever needs to be done."  If there's a need, you will fill it.  If the leadership has told you to do it, you will, or risk being downsized.

Usefulness, replaced desire.  It didn't matter that you were endowed with unique desires that indicated a unique calling.  What mattered was that you filled a need - any need - that came across your path. 

I call this the "packhorse" model of ministry: 

"Just carry whatever load you are asked to, whether or not it has anything to do with your particular gifts, dreams, or desires."  All that matters is that the ministry machinery is kept going.

In the packhorse model, people get used.  You're a burro, a donkey for the organization.  It depreciates people who could be making a far greater impact doing what they were designed to do, and turns them into beasts of burden.  A tragic misuse and misplacement of divine giftings and desires.

The horse wants to run, but the organization wants to keep it tethered:  Mustangs don't belong in the corral where the spirit is broken and the steed is altered to become a drafthorse. 

We need permission.  This doesn't mean that we act alone, ignorant of the common good - It means we aren't simply a part of the machinery.  Your calling isn't about becoming more and more domesticated so that you can please the higher-ups. 

You will find your calling through your heart's deepest desires:  Pay attention to them, for in them God has tied ribbons to trees to mark the way back to the wild purpose of your life.



We've been taught to mistrust our desires.

We've been taught to mistrust something God himself has given us:  desire.  All desire.

Here are some common assumptions Christians have often made about their desires and passions, and those assumptions have actually prevented Christians from discovering God's will:

1. Your desires will get you into trouble.
2. Your desires are inherently selfish.
3. Your desires are naturally in opposition to God's will.

We love to quote James 1:14

...but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

No where in this passage does Scripture say that all desire is bad.  In fact, in other places, God actually endorses our desires:

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed...May the Lord grant all your requests.  - Psalm 20:4

You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips.  - Psalm 21:2

In fact, Jesus' work in the blind beggar's life  started with, "What do you want me to do for you?"  - Matt. 20:32

Let's be clear:  There are desires of the flesh that can lead us into trouble; and there are whispers from the dark that can entice us.  But the desires of our new heart are good and noble.  As God redeemed our heart, so did he redeem the deep desires of our heart.

Try this:  Allow Jesus to ask you, "What do you want me to do for you?"  What if Jesus is trying to "entice" you with a brand new set of appetites and desires he's already placed within your heart?


Update on Friday, April 8, 2011 at 1:04PM by Jim Robbins

• Watch the video, THE LONG DESIRE

• Listen to the "LONG DESIRE PODCAST."  God has given us permission to desire.

New video: "THE LONG DESIRE"

What have you done with your desires?  Can God be trusted with your deepest longings?  Can a Christian trust the desires of their heart?  Yes!

New video from THE GOOD AND NOBLE HEART MEDIA:

Podcast:  "THE LONG DESIRE:"
The podcast is paired with the video and is for those hungering to learn more about desire and their good and noble hearts.  God has given us permission to desire.  Our heart's longings matter to him.  Can we trust him with our heart's longings even amidst setbacks? Can obedience and desire co-exist?

This audio is excerpted from Chapter Nine of my audio book, Recover Your Good Heart. 



Podcast: Permission to Desire

Podcast: "THE LONG DESIRE:"  What have you done with your desires?  Do our heart's deepest longings really matter to God?  Can obedience make room for desire?  Yes!

The following podcast is excerpted from Chapter 9 of my audiobook, Recover Your Good Heart.

As many of you know, my creative side also shows up through music.  I've been a professional musician for many years and recently wrote a video music score for an upcoming video, "The Long Desire."  You can hear the music for that video here.



Podcast: "Dialing in Your Calling" - Jim Robbins

"DIALING IN YOUR CALLING:"  Here's a glimpse into the process I've used over the last 10 years to hone my sense of calling. [13 minutes]

You can also read my post, "Dialing in Your Calling" here.

[Podcast theme music written and performed by Jim Robbins - Expressive Music Scores.]

Dialing in your calling

For me, it has been important to narrow my sense of calling as much as I can.  Truth be told, there will always been an unfinished sense of mystery to our calling, an inability to pin it down with 100% clarity.

Having said that, here's a bit of my thought-process:

Rather than saying, "I'm a teacher," or "I help people gain a better understanding of what the Bible says about them," or "I talk about the heart," I get even more specific:

"I like to challenge assumptions that impair and wound a Christian."  Or,

"I expose beliefs that shame and diminish Christians."

When I dial-in my calling more specifically like the above, it answers a couple of questions:

1.  Who am I trying to reach, or who are the people that most need what I bring?

2.  What, specifically, am I bringing or doing?  ["challenging assumptions that impair and wound," or "exposing beliefs that shame and diminish."]

There are even key verbs in those statements that resonate with me:  "challenge,"  and "expose."  And, as I look back over the last 15+ years, I've always challenged destructive "assumptions."

I can bring this calling to any context I'm in - whether paid or not, at home or with others.  That's the beauty of it. 

How would you dial in your calling?

Podcast - CALLING AS A JOURNEY - author Gary Barkalow joins Jim

PODCAST:  'CALLING AS A JOURNEY' - part 7 of 7 in the Calling Series with Gary Barkalow, author of It's Your Call - What Are You Doing Here?.  Jim and Gary talk about the nature of calling as a journey that unfolds with increasing clarity.

This podcast will be really helpful for those who look at someone else's life and assume, "I should be where they are. What's wrong with me? Is God holding out on me?" 

Listen to the entire seven-part series on Calling:  'THE GLORY OF YOUR LIFE.'

New podcast - "DISCOVERING OUR CALLING" - Calling Series -- Part 5 - special guest Gary Barkalow joins Jim

How does God reveal our unique calling to us?  What's the pattern he uses?  Join special guest Gary Barkalow and Jim as they unpack how God brings us into a deeper clarity of our calling. This is part five of their seven-part podcast series on calling.

Gary is the author of the upcoming book, It's Your Call -- What are You Doing Here?  to be released in October.

Gary's website:  www.thenobleheart.com

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Download the podcast for iTunes here.

More podcasts here.

That story is too small for you.

How can you tell if the story you're living in, the script that you're following, is too small for you?

1. Life becomes about managing risk, more than audacious faith.


2. You'll borrow others' stories -- through pop-culture magazines, novels and reality t.v. shows -- because yours feels uneventful and boring.


3. You won't think of entering into the stories of friends and family -- getting to know their hearts, their wounds and desires -- because you're not even aware of how your own story has developed.


4. The nature of your prayers hasn't changed for years, perhaps:  stalled and sputtering, rather than asking the Father the sorts of things Jesus did.


5. You'll feel that the stories of the Bible are distant and disconnected from your own experience -- that your own story bears little resemblance to the distinctly supernatural interplay those of ages past enjoyed with God.


6. You'll feel disengaged from your own heart's desires -- perhaps even dismissing the life you most deeply want.  Or, your desires may be so deeply buried or denied that you're not even aware of them.


7. Perhaps the story you've adopted is too small for you.  Perhaps it isn't God's story for you.

God's heart is strongly for you:  listen to his tailor-made invitation for your life.

THE ASSAULT AGAINST YOUR CALLING - new podcast in the 'calling' series

Special guest Gary Barkalow, author of the upcoming book, It's Your Call:  What are you doing here?, joins Jim again for part four of their series on living from our calling. 

What has been coming against your heart to shut it down?  What is at stake as we pursue the deep desires of our hearts and the calling that is written there?

This was a powerful conversation with Gary Barkalow, who brings a deep clarity to the struggles of calling.

What does 'calling' have to do with your heart?

You may be wondering why a guy like me, who typically speaks about the heart, is talking about 'calling' lately. 

The first reason is that the topic of calling is part of a book I'm working on.  Second, because you can't find your calling without believing Christ has given you a good and noble heart.  Calling flows from heart.

Within your new heart lie the clues to your place in the Story - your 'calling.'  These clues come in the form of your deep desires, as well as the story your heart has been living in.   Beneath the defining events of your life, the pattern of wounds, the activities that made you come alive, something was happening in your heart - shaping it, calling it up and out.  Your heart has a unique history and a story to tell.

If you believe your heart is deceitful and selfish, it will be hard to see your deep desires and to believe that there are now good and noble desires within your new and noble heart.

That's why I write about calling.  Calling flows from heart.

Those who are hungry for what you bring

What kind of people most need what you offer?

Jesus’ invitation was extended to those with an appetite for what he had:  hungry and thirsty people.  An individual is not going to come to his table if they are neither hunger nor thirsty.  It’s not their desire to do so ... and desire is the difference.  If they don’t want it, they won’t come.

Therefore, when you consider your own calling, the affect of your life, your unique offering to others, it’s appropriate to ask:  “What type of person will be most receptive to what I offer?  Who will be hungry for what I bring?” 

This is a general guideline for determining the direction in which our calling can go.  However, as with the kind of environment we most want to flourish in, there are occasions where God will place us in adverse environments, surrounded by people who don’t want what we offer.  We ultimately offer our hearts in service to God, and therefore may be asked to bring our selves to those grating and ungracious people.  For a time. 

Take heart – our environment need not define us:  a caged lion is still a lion.  He may wish to return to the open savanna, but only his surroundings have changed; not his noble strength, not his regal splendor. If our appointment to a job (mission) is only for a time, we can take comfort from the fact that the people there can never diminish our splendor or remove our unique glory – for they did not give it.

So what kind of person is most likely to need and want what you bring to the Story?

Podcast - CALLING SERIES - part one - "Orientation" - special guest Gary Barkalow

ORIENTATION - Calling Series - part one - special guest Gary Barkalow joins Jim.

Many Christians love Jesus, but have no idea what their place in the Story is.

How do we become oriented to our location in the Story?  Gary talks about three points of orientation that keep us "alert and oriented" to our place in the story:  story - desire - journey.  (This is part one of a 7-part series Gary and Jim will do.)

Gary Barkalow spent 7 years with the Ransomed Heart mens' team and is well-known for his teaching on calling.  Visit his site:  www.thenobleheart.com. 
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Leave your comments below!

VideoBlog - LOSS OF IDENTITY

Use verbs that reveal your design

Choose verbs that reveal your design.

I have this need to figure out why something or someone exists,  their design or purpose.  Because of that, I've written countless memos to myself, scratching out statements and creeds that help me understand my own design.  Through this process, I've gained greater and greater clarity about why I'm here.  It's clarifying.

Here's my calling credo:  "I have consistently loved to create and reveal design."  And here's how that has showed up in my life:

• Loved to sketch as a teenager
• Loved to create high-quality music since a child
• Love identifying the layers of instrumentation in a song
• Love to create digital graphic design – website headers, images
• Love to help others see their design (purpose, identity, true heart)

Notice the two verbs that I used in my calling credo:  "create" and "reveal." 

Here's a credo sentence structure you can use to help you: 

"I have consistently loved to (verb/verbs) _______________________________."

Here are some common verbs.  See if any resonate with your heart:

lead, challenge, create, provoke, identify, develop, influence, train, support, comfort, heal, transform, encourage, prepare, invite.  [There are more common verbs here.]

Here are some sample credo statements:

• I have consistently loved to identify others strengths.
• I have consistently loved analyzing information in order to help organizations or people perform at their best.
• I have consistently loved encouraging and developing courage and confidence in children.

Of course, at the end of your credo sentence is the what that you want to see happen:

• "others strengths"
• "help organizations or people perform at their best"
• "courage and confidence in children."

What verbs would you use to describe what you consistently have loved doing?

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Related posts:

"Is there a specific calling for each of us?"