I recently read a sermon from Bill Hybels, the leader of a church outside of Chicago called Willow Creek. He was sharing from the passage in Luke where Jesus was preaching to the crowds and selecting his first group of Disciples. Hybels noted that Jesus tested these guys to see if they would be followers. I don’t know why, I just have a partiality to this story and reading this sermon made me draw a corollary to Paul and Margaret Porter and the work we do at the YMCA.
Hybels wrote that once the buzz of this great catch of fish happens, you would think that everyone would just go home and the whole event would be over, but Jesus poses a test. And His timing is impeccable. There is still the buzz in the air for the catch of all this fish, and Hybels imagined it unfolding kind of this way, it’s like Jesus says to Peter and James and John, “Wasn’t that a ball? Wasn’t that great? To gather all those fish, to do it in team. You did it together. You got them all ashore. Wasn’t that a ball?”
Hybels puts out there that Jesus maybe said, “Well think for just a moment. Think a grander thought. You’ve got a kick out of netting a bunch of fish. Think what it would be like to catch or to redirect the lives and eternities of hundreds of thousands of people. Wouldn’t that even be more fun? Nothing against fishing, you understand, but just compare the stakes. You bring the fish in and you take them to the market and you get some dollars. Nothing against dollars. But just take a moment and compare the value of a dollar against the value of someone’s destiny! Think about that. You can continue to just catch fish for dollars, or you can accept my invitation to go after people’s destinies. You want to catch fish or you want to catch people? You want to do dollars or do you want to do destinies?”
Now it’s very important that you understand there was no shaming going on here. The test was not if you are a bad person you will keep doing this, and if you’re a better person you will do the other. It wasn’t about that. It was just a vision test. In other words, He was saying, “If you see it as I’m describing it, if you get it as I’m explaining it, if you understand the value of a destiny versus the value of a dollar, you will want to orient more of your life around destinies instead of dollars.” You’ll want to. It’s not any nobler, necessarily. It’s just smarter. It’s destinies over dollars.
Now, here is the application for our YMCA today.
Paul and Margaret Porter were solicited to give money all of the time. They have resources. Their gift mattered. Their gift had impact. Their gift had value. It had so much value that their name has appeared somewhere on a building or in a brochure many times. It had so much value that their picture and even a newspaper article was written about their support. Their gift was so important that many people publicly thanked them for what they had done. They have prepared for it. For them, it is their personal mission to support philanthropic causes. It is their calling, and they believe it is what you are supposed to do with the great resources that you have been blessed.
That kind of giving is fun! They got impact, they got recognition, and they got satisfaction. But I want to draw you closer to the dollars and destinies discussion. I believe that Paul and Margaret understood that their giving was not about bricks and mortar, naming opportunities, and economic development. They understood that their philanthropy was more about destinies.
They knew about the lives that may be saved because the Y taught kids how to swim or taught people how to be great lifeguards, and then they went on to save a life.
They thought about that teenager from a broken home. She has no one to talk to about the changes in her life and even the changes in her teenage feelings and emotions. But she finds a Y staff person who listens, guides, advises, and just shares with her. That teen is going to grow up and be the same mentor for her own daughter or even her neighbor’s children.
They understood the importance of a father who gets to live 25 more years and see his children graduate high school and college. He gets to walk his daughter down the aisle at a wedding and he gets to hold his grandchildren. All made possible by the life change that happened when the doctor prescribed a new wellness plan at the Y so he won’t have a second heart attack.
They could see the 10 year old child that sits with his after school counselor and ask questions about Jesus.
They could see life changes. They can see that their check was more than just bricks and mortar; more than just a feeling of civic pride. I have witnessed that at the core of who they are, what they really care about, is big fish, its human beings. Over the past few years I have been able to see it more clearly.
I think God puts this vision test in front of us virtually every day. You go through your life and you can get completely engrossed into just living life. That everyday stuff that keeps our engines running. You don’t really look at the bigger redemptive picture during the day. You’re looking at little fish and just the same day after day, life every day, all day long. And then God reminds us we don’t understand this grander vision and we are missing out? So God is now inviting us into a grander vision saying, “I invite you in to people catching and destiny altering.”
So the next time I write a check I need to think about the grander vision. I will write that check with the understanding that I am prepared to go after big fish and bigger destinies.
This is not a guilt thing not this test, it’s just about getting it, seeing it, being seized by it and going throughout my day saying, “I know I have to pay the rent. So I want to honor God with doing well in my job, but the affection of my heart is on the destinies that I can alter, and I can see that clearly!”
Paul and Margaret passed this test. I hope I score as well on my final exams!
Hybels wrote that once the buzz of this great catch of fish happens, you would think that everyone would just go home and the whole event would be over, but Jesus poses a test. And His timing is impeccable. There is still the buzz in the air for the catch of all this fish, and Hybels imagined it unfolding kind of this way, it’s like Jesus says to Peter and James and John, “Wasn’t that a ball? Wasn’t that great? To gather all those fish, to do it in team. You did it together. You got them all ashore. Wasn’t that a ball?”
Hybels puts out there that Jesus maybe said, “Well think for just a moment. Think a grander thought. You’ve got a kick out of netting a bunch of fish. Think what it would be like to catch or to redirect the lives and eternities of hundreds of thousands of people. Wouldn’t that even be more fun? Nothing against fishing, you understand, but just compare the stakes. You bring the fish in and you take them to the market and you get some dollars. Nothing against dollars. But just take a moment and compare the value of a dollar against the value of someone’s destiny! Think about that. You can continue to just catch fish for dollars, or you can accept my invitation to go after people’s destinies. You want to catch fish or you want to catch people? You want to do dollars or do you want to do destinies?”
Now it’s very important that you understand there was no shaming going on here. The test was not if you are a bad person you will keep doing this, and if you’re a better person you will do the other. It wasn’t about that. It was just a vision test. In other words, He was saying, “If you see it as I’m describing it, if you get it as I’m explaining it, if you understand the value of a destiny versus the value of a dollar, you will want to orient more of your life around destinies instead of dollars.” You’ll want to. It’s not any nobler, necessarily. It’s just smarter. It’s destinies over dollars.
Now, here is the application for our YMCA today.
Paul and Margaret Porter were solicited to give money all of the time. They have resources. Their gift mattered. Their gift had impact. Their gift had value. It had so much value that their name has appeared somewhere on a building or in a brochure many times. It had so much value that their picture and even a newspaper article was written about their support. Their gift was so important that many people publicly thanked them for what they had done. They have prepared for it. For them, it is their personal mission to support philanthropic causes. It is their calling, and they believe it is what you are supposed to do with the great resources that you have been blessed.
That kind of giving is fun! They got impact, they got recognition, and they got satisfaction. But I want to draw you closer to the dollars and destinies discussion. I believe that Paul and Margaret understood that their giving was not about bricks and mortar, naming opportunities, and economic development. They understood that their philanthropy was more about destinies.
They knew about the lives that may be saved because the Y taught kids how to swim or taught people how to be great lifeguards, and then they went on to save a life.
They thought about that teenager from a broken home. She has no one to talk to about the changes in her life and even the changes in her teenage feelings and emotions. But she finds a Y staff person who listens, guides, advises, and just shares with her. That teen is going to grow up and be the same mentor for her own daughter or even her neighbor’s children.
They understood the importance of a father who gets to live 25 more years and see his children graduate high school and college. He gets to walk his daughter down the aisle at a wedding and he gets to hold his grandchildren. All made possible by the life change that happened when the doctor prescribed a new wellness plan at the Y so he won’t have a second heart attack.
They could see the 10 year old child that sits with his after school counselor and ask questions about Jesus.
They could see life changes. They can see that their check was more than just bricks and mortar; more than just a feeling of civic pride. I have witnessed that at the core of who they are, what they really care about, is big fish, its human beings. Over the past few years I have been able to see it more clearly.
I think God puts this vision test in front of us virtually every day. You go through your life and you can get completely engrossed into just living life. That everyday stuff that keeps our engines running. You don’t really look at the bigger redemptive picture during the day. You’re looking at little fish and just the same day after day, life every day, all day long. And then God reminds us we don’t understand this grander vision and we are missing out? So God is now inviting us into a grander vision saying, “I invite you in to people catching and destiny altering.”
So the next time I write a check I need to think about the grander vision. I will write that check with the understanding that I am prepared to go after big fish and bigger destinies.
This is not a guilt thing not this test, it’s just about getting it, seeing it, being seized by it and going throughout my day saying, “I know I have to pay the rent. So I want to honor God with doing well in my job, but the affection of my heart is on the destinies that I can alter, and I can see that clearly!”
Paul and Margaret passed this test. I hope I score as well on my final exams!
No comments:
Post a Comment