I’m going to revisit a theme I wrote about a few years ago,
as it came up again in a message I preached this weekend; yet, as often happens,
with some new insight and thoughts for our lives. I wrote and shared, (and
preached about), Lessons from the Balance Beam…
In the message I made the following points about the beam…
1.) You must stay looking forward
2.) You must stay absolutely centered
3.) You must focus on where you want to land
4.) You must trust… even when you can’t see the landing
All these lessons have great implications for our
spiritual lives; yet as I was studying again this weekend my mind zeroed in on
the actual routine… the “tumbling run.” The mere name of it sounds risky. The truth
is that a gymnast that climbed onto the beam and just stood there would not be
very impressive… one wouldn’t call her a good gymnast. Nor, would we say that
about a young lady just because she could walk a straight line down the beam.
But we are amazed when a young lady mounts a 4-foot-high, 16-foot-long, 4-inch-wide
piece of would and begins to tumble… In fact, in order to get scored for the
beam event there are required elements of a gymnast… i.e. leaps, jumps, acrobatic
maneuvers, dance, etc.
Why is it that when thinking about what makes someone a “good”
Christian boy or girl we tend to just focus on what they don’t do… granted it
is impressive to not “fall off the beam” but not if someone is just standing still…
we must be moving forward; not if someone is never getting out of her comfort
zone… we must be making a difference in others lives (especially in the “least
of these” lives)!
When we engage in culture… in people’s lives… there are
risks… we are on a “tumbling run.” Yes, we need to strive to stay centered in that
run, but even if we “fall off the beam” we can get back on!
We can find many examples in Scripture of those that took
risks, fell, got back up, and finished their “routine”, their “tumbling run.” One
shining example of this is David…
Think about the boy David, and the risky “tumbling run”
he was on… we know the story as he was getting ready to face Goliath and was
being warned to not take the risk… in 1 Samuel 17:37b David says of God, “He
will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.” He was willing to go forward…
because God had shown him before the He (God) could be trusted. Right before
this confident statement about the battle he proclaimed (17:37a) “The Lord, who
delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear…”
My point is that David was willing to live a life of
risks in order to serve the Lord. (And yes, we know of his conquests and his
failures as King… yet even when he failed (“fell off the beam”) he came back
strong…
I simply want to remind us that being “good” at something
requires more than just not messing up. We need to in the risky, messy business
of life and love… serving the Lord by reaching our culture!
Going MAD (Making A Difference) demands that we perform
the "required elements" of the Great Commission (evangelism and discipleship) and
the Great Commandment (loving God and loving others)!
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