The Ghost Bear

In the movie, The Bear, a small orphaned grizzly cub finds itself lost in the Alaskan wilderness.  While scraping the ground for food, he looks up and sees an adult cougar fixed on him.  The cougar had obviously been stalking him and was sighting him in for the kill -- at only 10 yards away.

The orphaned cub does what it can do, and instinctively stands up on its hind legs to look at big as possible.  In a matter of seconds, the cougar looks startled and bounds off in the opposite direction, frightened by what it's seen. 

What the little cub did not know as it pushed itself up onto its hind legs was that a large male grizzly was standing behind the cub, towering over him; reared up on his massive hindlegs, neck hairs grizzled and bristling.  A protector had moved in behind the cub, with ghost-like stealth.  The cub didn't know what kind of force stood behind him.

But that's what the cougar saw.

I often wonder what sort of horrors I've been protected from, unbeknownst to me.  Though it often seems as if we're the abandoned and orphaned cub, it's far more likely that the Ghost Bear has come behind us more than we know.

What would Uncle Screwtape say about you?

C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, pulls back the curtain on another world, or more accurately, a concealed dimension of the world we now inhabit.  He gives us the eyes to see the invisible world that many would dismiss as the stuff of fairytales. However, in our Story, the darkness is real.  As I tell my children, "What you don't see is often more real than what you do see."

Uncle Screwtape, the elder and seasoned devil, is giving counsel to his young nephew, Wormwood, on how best to assault his 'patient' [ i.e. human victim].  Many of you have read this account.

But here's what I'm wondering: if you were young Wormwood's victim, how would Uncle Screwtape counsel young Wormwood to approach you?

Let's say Uncle Screwtape had a dossier - a briefing paper -  on you, which he shares with his young protege, complete with details about you, including where his young apprentice should exercise caution in approaching you.  Why should he fear you?  What would that dossier say?   [After all, he's been watching you for years; for you are his assignment.]

For example, the dossier might say: 

"Use caution when approaching Mr. Noble, for he has an uncanny ability to sniff out any shaming devices you might use against him.  Therefore, you will have to be more subtle and persistent if you are to unravel his confidence in his new identity."

Or,

"You will have to devote yourself to long-suffering as you vex and harass Ms. Noble, because she understands that you are after her beauty, and she is more than capable of deflecting the malicious barbs you might whisper in her ear.  Wear her down over time so that through sustained erosion, she will no longer believe she's lovely or loveable."

What unique strengths of heart, what confidence of identity do you possess that would thwart Uncle Screwtape's and his young apprentice's intentions for you?  What is so noble and firm within you that causes them to fear you, or at least re-evaluate their plan of attack towards you?

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.

Why God became ruined

"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."  - Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - What I Learned While Editing My Life

God is also a character in a Story. However, even though he is its author, though he could write a less painful part for himself, he subjects himself to the story.     He's in fact, the hero, the protagonist.  If he doesn't come through, then you don't get to live.  So what does God have to overcome in order to get what he's after? 

First of all, what exactly is he after? 
He's after the total and supernatural re-making of each person -- which means he has to rescue their hearts.  Rescue the heart and you rescue the person.  Only restored persons are able to live well in a restored habitat.  God is after the thorough remaking of all living things, so that they may receive his affection and direct, unfiltered Life. 

“This world is a great sculptor’s shop.  We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.”  - C.S. Lewis

This has already been done.  The Great Lion, Aslan, by the stirring of his own breath, has released those bound in stone into his own immortality.  Sodom and Gomorrah has been reversed.  This is the gift of salvation.

Second, what does God overcome to get it?
The unintended consequences of his Beloved's freedom. The unintended consequences of his Beloved's freedom.

He has to enter into conflict with his own creation's ruinous affliction and overcome it.  He ties the millstone around his own neck. He goes down with the ship.  Because he is truly free, he discards his own freedom by becoming ruined himself [God "became sin for us"], turning the human heart back towards his affection. He gave the Christian her new and noble heart, so that she could return to God with all her heart.

"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."

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.

Badly underestimating a life

On NPR today, a man was being interviewed who had made it his year-long quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread. 

My first thought was, "This guy has badly underestimated the cosmic drama unfolding around him."  My second thought was, "This guy has a really lackluster sense of his own personal calling."

Don't misunderstand me:  I think freshly-baked bread is one of life's true pleasures.  In fact, today I enjoyed a sandwich made with a nutty garlic and potato artisan bread:  Nourishing and hand-crafted.  But taking a year of my life to learn how to bake the perfect loaf isn't something that strikes me as urgent or enduring.  Rather, it strikes me as a bit naive. 

He has miscalculated two things:  the unfolding Story into which he has been invited; and his place in that Story.  It's much like the journalist in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, who had never seen battle before.  He's been asked to join a rescue operation.  He wants to bring his clunky and cumbersome typewriter; but the Captain, played by Tom Hanks says, "Here, take this instead" and hands him a pencil. The journalist didn't know what to take because he sorely underestimated the unfolding circumstances:  He wasn't taking another desk job  -  he was about to engage in field ops, where he would get shot at.

Surely the man who took a year of his life to pursue the perfect loaf has much more to offer the world -- a more needed and substantial treasure to give.   If our naivete persists, we might as well bring cookies and punch to flood victims; and board games to the clinically-depressed.  Surely much more is needed than that.

Why you've been selected for Special Forces

Army Special Operation Forces

"They free the oppressed...They win hearts and minds...They assure support." 
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Would you rather have a police squad or a special ops unit protect you? 

It depends upon the context, doesn't it?  Each is appropriate for different situations:  You don't need Delta Force to protect your town, your local parks, or inner cities, generally.  You do need Delta Force to locate and take-down Al-Quaeda and insurgency groups who are able to exact large-scale destruction over mass populations, or who can infiltrate high-level targets within our borders.

The kind of tactical force you need depends upon the story going on.  If you believe we're living in Lake Wobegon, you need not be concerned with the hazards of living in that story -- save for the gossip flowing from the pulpit of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility. 

However, if you believe the unfolding Story that God has invited us into more accurately represents Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, or Marc Bowden's Black Hawk Down, then you'll need a different missional vehicle -- you'll need Special Forces watching your back.  God has an enemy, and therefore you do. God's enemy is never people:  his Enemy is the one who fell from heaven, and the angels that fell with him. 
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Here's the unnerving news:  you've been assigned to Special Forces.  God could use the angelic forces, and he does; but he quite specifically chooses you.  Your unique capacities and the effect of your presence there is directly related to the needs of the unit, and to the outcome of the Story.

Furthermore, each gender has been selected, and every generation as well.

What do you bring?

Myth: "My calling is just to love whoever is in front of me."

Myth:  “My calling is just to love whoever is in front of me.”

Your calling has broader implications for the surrounding culture and what God is doing in the world.  What you can offer is not simply to impact who ever might cross your path at the time.  Don’t underestimate your place in the Story by thinking too casually,  “My calling is just to show God’s love wherever I am.”  It includes that dimension, but more.

God is not casual or haphazard in his efforts to redeem all of creation from the ground up.  If you are too casual about your place in the Story, whole groups of people may live without what you uniquely can offer them.  God doesn’t want to have to send them someone else:  you’re the best fit.  

This isn’t about pressure or guilt – it’s about getting perspective.  Even the devil doesn’t underestimate you. 

“Some Christians prefer to keep their faith to the level of the personal, the relational, the spiritual, and the simple.  I believe that such a view of faith is misguided.  Calling is certainly a truth that touches our personal lives intimately, bit it also touches cultural life potently.  Calling is more than purely cultural, but it is also more than purely personal.” (Os Guinness, The Call)   

Guinness laments further that

“…second only to the joy of knowing [Jesus] has been a sorrow at the condition of those of us today who name ourselves his followers.  If so many of us profess to live the gospel yet are so pathetically marginal  to the life of our societies and so nondescript and inconsequential in our individual lives, is there something wrong with the gospel, or does the problem lie with us?”  ( The Call)

What you are called to individually, is directly tied to what God is currently up to in human history.  It's that important.

Video - "The Power of Your Story"

QUOTES for shaping your own story

In my last post, I told you about Dan Allender's book, To Be Told -- know your story, shape your future.  Here are some great quotes from the book that I think you may find helpful:

The unique glory you offer:

What about God am I most uniquely suited to reveal to others?

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Living by the wrong scripts:

They have lived less in the light of the story of God and more by the inevitabilities of life's demands.  In other words, they allow circumstances to write their story.
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We have permission to shape our story:

We are called to co-author the ending [rest of our story] according to the themes that the primary Author has penned for us.  We are called to take up our pen and follow him.  It is the enormous humility of the sovereign Author to give us a voice in the dialogue.  And not only does he want us to write, but he cheers us on.
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Discovering your calling:

But how in the world do we know our calling?  I've seen that our calling always seems associated with the name that God gives each one of us.
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Vicarious living:

Too many people are missing their story because they're watching the stories of others.
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Your unique role:

God has ... given us a role that will reveal something about him that no one else's story can reveal in quite the same way.

Know your story - shape your future

I'm reading a great book by Dan Allender called, To Be Told -  God invites you to co-author your future.  Discover how your tradegies to this point have shaped your story and "unnamed you," sabotaging your identity.

And then learn how God wants to work with you to shape the rest of your story; so that you can live in your true and glorious name.  What does God want to say to the world through you, your unique story?