how david beats goliath

How did a girls basketball team consisting mostly of players who had never touched a ball before, and coached by a guy who also had never played win a national championship?

This is one of the most interesting things I’ve read in a while. It’s long but worth reading for all the stories, examples, and tie-ins to the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The main points are very simple though:

• Acknowledge your weaknesses and play to your strengths. David knows how to handle a sling and a staff, not a sword and a shield,  “What happened, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5 to 63.6. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.””
• Effort can substitue for ability. “the slingshot part—is what made David famous. But the first sentence matters just as much. David broke the rhythm of the encounter. He speeded it up. “The sudden astonishment when David sprints forward must have frozen Goliath, making him a better target,” the poet and critic Robert Pinsky writes in “The Life of David.” Pinsky calls David a “point guard ready to flick the basketball here or there.” David pressed. That’s what Davids do when they want to beat Goliaths

Tim Keller

Not sure if everybody knows, but Tim Keller’s church, Redeemer Presybeterian Church, expanded their free sermons page. They’ve got about 150 free ones now.

My recommendation: His series on The Prodigal God in What is the Gospel? Keller uses the story of the Lost Son to cut to the heart of what lost-ness is, who God is, and what salvation is.

The Struggle for Love. Heard this my freshman year, and it totally changed how I see the gospel in the Old Testament and how I read Genesis.

Level 5 Leaders

I just started reading “Good to Great.” A book looking at companies who went from mediocre to excellent. The first chapter is on “Level 5 leaders.” The author of the book wanted to completely ignore the leaders of the companies because of all the hype on leadership, but the research they did over 5 years made a major correlation between good to great companies and their leaders.

They call these leaders “Level 5 Leaders.” What is interesting is that the distinguishing characteristics of a “Level 5 Leader” is his humility, his will to push forward no matter what, and his focus on what will happen after him. In other words, the highest level of leadership is a servant-leader who cares about generations.

As I read about this, I couldn’t help but think about the leadership around me. I am very blessed to have many of these kinds of leaders in my life. Humble, determined, faithful men who pray they can “eat the dust” of those they lead and see them go further than they could.

Evangelism

One of my favorite books is “The Great Divorce” and this is one of my favorite parts of it. I love how the second voice, the voice of the man who is trying to convince his friend to abandon his pluralistic views of religion and repent and believe, is simple and bold. For the full version, click here.

“Now that you mention it, I don’t think we ever do give it a name. What do you call it?”
“We call it Hell.”
“There is no need to be profane, my dear boy. I may not be very orthodox, in your sense of that word, but I do feel that these matters ought to be discussed simply, and seriously, and reverently.”
“Discuss Hell reverently? I meant what I said. You have been in Hell: though if you don’t go back you may call it Purgatory.”
“Go on, my dear boy, go on. That is so like you. No doubt you’ll tell me why, on your view, I was sent there. I’m not angry.”
“But don’t you know? You went there because you are an apostate.”

…

Well, this is extremely interesting,” said the Episcopal Ghost. “It’s a point of view. Certainly, it’s a point of view. In the meantime…”
“There is no meantime,” replied the other. “All that is over. We are not playing now. I have been talking of the past (your past and mine) only in order that you may turn from it forever. One wrench and the tooth will be out. You can begin as if nothing had ever gone wrong. White as snow. It’s all true, you know. He is in me, for you, with that power. And—I have come a long journey to meet you. You have seen Hell: you are in sight of Heaven. Will you, even now, repent and believe?”
“I’m not sure that I’ve got the exact point you are trying to make,” said the Ghost.
“I am not trying to make any point,” said the Spirit, “I am telling you to repent and believe.”

starting to learn

This is from the blog What’s Best Next.  I think it can be applied to starting anything, including a missionary venture.

There is no surer way to undermine a new business venture than to measure it by the profits generated, rather than by the learning accumulated.

He gives IBM as an example of a company that has learned this lesson:

IBM’s top-level growth team understood that when it comes to building a new business, you have to learn before you earn. Given this, they wanted to counter the debilitating assumption that if you’re not holding a new venture accountable for profits, you’re not holding it accountable for anything. Many of IBM’s past growth efforts had stalled when an early push for profits limited a venture’s potential upside by prematurely truncating the learning and experimentation that would have, in time, yielded a more powerful, and better targeted, business model.

I want to learn how to better communicate this when I talk to supporters who think Tim and I should instantly yield a certain number of people in these early stages. It is hard to convey the hard to see fruit of learning a new culture, of cultivating deeper personal character, of laying a foundation of prayer.

storms

I’ve been back in Hawaii since the 4th of July. Right after that, my friend Masashi came from Japan to visit me here for 2 weeks. It was a great time, but exhausting. At the same time I’ve been trying to raise funds for next year. 2 days after he left, I strained a muscle in my back. It has been incredibly painful, and for the last 3 days, I’ve barely been able to walk. Thankfully, it is getting better.

What I am learning from this time is that I hate weakness in any form, and that when I feel weak I immediately feel insecure. The theme that Jesus is strong in my weakness has been one that has been so difficult for me to embrace and truly live out. I strongly desire outlets for feeling weak, and the last thing I want is to be told that true strength is found in weakness.

A day before I hurt my back, I was meditating on Mt. 8. I have been going back through the gospels focusing on the places where I previously noted where Jesus is being bold. This is one of them.

The scene is the disciples freaking out because a sudden storm comes on them. There are experienced fishermen among them, men who have grown up around the sea and boats, and they afraid for their lives. Their master is below deck, asleep. Waves rock the boat violently while water washes over its sides. The disciples shake Jesus awake, “Don’t you care if we drown!” Jesus’ reply, with the chaos of the storm and the visible anxiety of the disciples around him, is “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” This question seems ridiculous because the answer is so obvious, “We are about to die!” Matthew says that “then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” I would like to imagine then that Jesus goes back to sleep, and the disciples are left to wonder with fear and amazement, “What kind of man is this?” What kind of leader is this? A charismatic speaker? A good teacher? No, he is one who is not afraid to push my limits, who will lead me into situations that I can’t control with consequences that could be disastrous.

This is what I feel right now. It is a mixture of awe and fear at God’s boldness and willingness to bring hard things into my life. I have felt more weak in more ways than ever in this past year. I also realize that all these situations make me stronger. My faith in God’s faithfulness grows, my friendships get deeper, and I become more  humble. More and more this is what I think it means to fear God. It is to be genuinely afraid of the power that God wields in your life, but to grow in the knowledge that the deeper he leads you into difficulty, the more fully he reveals his love to you.

Environment of Grace

Ryan told me about a workshop he had on creating “environments of grace.” And he said these were based on how Jesus related with people, and based on Jesus and the woman at the well.

I have heard much on how “Environments” are really important, and I agree. However, after I’ve been reading through the gospels again, I don’t think that Jesus cares that much about them. Lately, I’ve  been focusing on the boldness of Jesus. With that in mind, here’s my reading of John 4:

-Jesus’ initial question toward the woman was a bold move. Culturally, Jews and Samaritans don’t mix, and neither do guys and girls when they’re alone.
-”I have living water.” A pretty weird and interesting statement from a Rabbi.
-”Go call your husband.” A deeply relational, confrontational, hard question.
-”You don’t have one, in fact you’ve had 5.” He straight-up calls out her sin. No ambiguity at all, no tiptoing around the issue.
-”Worship is not here nor there.” Jesus calls out her error in religion.
“I who speak to you am He.” Jesus powerfully and clearly reveals himself to her as Savior and God.

 This is not just making small talk until a good conversational topic comes up. Jesus intitiates boldly. He does not ignore sin, but confronts it. He clearly reveals himself to her as Savior. Jesus creates an environment of grace, but it is an active kind of grace that is confrontational.

I think the emphasis on an “Environment of Grace” falls on the word “Environment,” when it should be on “Grace.” Emphasizing “Environment” means you’re trying to make sure the timing is right, your words are culturally acceptable enough, or the presentation relevant. This is a passive way to handle the gospel of Grace. Emphasizing “Grace” means that you believe that grace will create its own environment.

Extravagance

The only thing I want to be extravagant in is generosity.

Some of my dreams:

Give away my car
Give away my house
Erase others’ debt

I am praying to be able to do this as soon as possible.

Spectacular

The last message I heard was from John Piper. And I have to say that it was one of the best Piper messages I’ve heard, and it’s not just because I got to see him give it.

It answers a lot of big questions that I have: Why does Satan exist? Why does God allow evil in the world? Why did Jesus choose Judas to be one of his disciples?

This is a great message upholding the sovereignty of God while He allows sin to be in the world, and how a holy God can allow and use evil to bring about His good purposes while upholding His holiness. Here’s a quote from the book “Spectacular Sins” which Piper’s message is basically from:

The aim of this book has been to show that over and over in the history of the world, the epoch-making sins that changed the course of history never nullified but only fulfilled the global purposes of God to glorify his Son and save his people.

With that said, here’s the sermon.

Stories

The essence of a good story is a person making a decision. It is not enough to have a string of interesting events. It is not enough for the people who are listening/reading/watching to think, “What will happen next.” You need your reader thinking “What will he decide.” And consequently challenging them intellectually, morally, spiritually, “What would I decide?” “Would I have the courage to make that decision?” “Would I have the strength to live with the consequences of x, y, and z of this decision?”

It is decisions that show the true substance of the character, that reveal the inner courage or cowardice of that individual. It is the character inside characters that we long to see, that we must see, in order for stories to matter or have any power in our own lives. Without this, stories/movies/commercials/blogs/tweets are essentially entertainment for the sake of amusement and therefore useless.