This morning I am reading some verses from James, chapter four once again. It seems like I have been spending quite a bit of time in James, of late. I certainly don't mind, as i greatly appreciate his practical and straightforward direction. This morning I had a thought that I don't know that I have ever had before, and it was based a few sets of verses - James 4:1-3,13-17 NIV:
[1] "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? [2] You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. [3] When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
[13] "Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” [14] Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. [15] Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. [17] If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them."
As I was reading these verses, and had previously read some from 2 Cor 6, I was seeing a correlation between the struggles for unity and the ability to love one another, and selfishness and self-focus. This certainly isn't rocket science, as our selfishness and self focus will cause us to consider others needs less then our own, and will cause us to think our perspective is the correct one. While basic human nature, it is upon this fault that much of the division in the church is founded. Anyway, as I was reading this, I had a sense of how the church has failed to mature in many ways, and much of it can be blamed this spirit and this issue.
What I thought this morning, was what would it be like if we decided to put our own desires and wants on the back burner, and decided to embrace a larger scale vision, one that is multi-generational? The line in verse 14, "You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" got me thinking about the futility of us trying to affect real change in a single life-time, not saying we shouldn't try, but rather that many issues are decades, centuries and even a millennium old and societal change, takes time, and we would be wise to plan accordingly.
So often the teaching and preaching I hear is about the here and now, applications to our life, and that is good and healthy, but it seems we have lost our long-term vision, our understanding of being part of a greater plan, a greater purpose, and we need to connect to that! In our constant focus on our present life, our present actions, we can easily lose track of the longer-term, Kingdom vision that the Lord would have us embrace.
In my mind, I saw it like it was a hundred year plan that everyone understood and embraced and passed to the next generation. Key to this would be an understanding that each generation has a purpose and part to play, but that it is impossible, aside from a great move of God where He utterly changes everything, to see this type of change in a single generation, and thus requires a long-term vision and plan.
I guess I could liken this to the difference between buying a lottery ticket every week in the hopes of setting up my kids with a great financial blessing, and starting a company with the intent of passing it to my children, as a source of long-term blessing. One takes significant effort, the other is made possible by a some stroke of luck. As I think about revival, it seems too often my mindset is more of the lottery, just hoping God will move in one big Divine invasion, rather than working to affect change that will produce long-term generational blessing. While the latter seems like the antithesis of what James is writing about in verses 13-16, I think his focus is on selfishness, and self-focused plans, and not on God's plan for Kingdom advancement.
So, how do we break out of our self-focused, short-term vision and lift our eyes, hearts and minds to the bigger picture? First, it seems that we need to make sure our local congregation has an understanding of the greater Body of Christ. We must understand that all of the local congregations with their different denominational affiliations are all part of the same Body of Christ! We must start to learn who they are, love them and be for them, we must be for all who are part of the Body of Christ! We are not in competition, we are meant to encourage and strengthen and bless our brethren!
Secondly, we must come together at some level and start asking God for a greater vision, an understanding of His purposes and plans for our region, for our city, for our state and even country! It is hard to embrace a vision, if we have none! Often times in past generations, the belief that they were in the last generation before the return of the Lord was pushed strongly by certain organizations, and while this can help turn peoples eyes to the Lord, it tends to be a short-term focused effort, with no real generational planning, as there won't be another generation!
I guess its the difference between a sprint and a marathon, in a sprint you have a short distance to cover and you can expend everything quickly, not thinking or worrying about the long-term. In a marathon you have to plan and conserve energy for the later parts of the race. If you run the first leg of the marathon like a sprint, you will likely not finish well, unless you are part of a marathon relay team, where everyone just runs a short distance and hands the baton to the next runner. In this way,
Moving back to the greater vision for the Church, we must learn to come together and raise up the next generation of leaders who have the same vision and desire for advancing the Body of Christ. We must learn to build ministries that embrace the passing of the baton to the next generation! If we embrace this notion of being part of a marathon relay team, we can each run as fast as possible, but also be planning to hand the baton to the next generation all along!
When asked about the end of the world and what I believe, I always say I don't know if the end of the world will come in my life-time, but I do know "My End of the World" will come in my lifetime. I need to run the race to the best of my ability, and part of that running the race is making sure that those who might follow after me, have the same purpose and vision, in case Jesus' second coming lingers.
I don't know how long we have in this world, nor when Jesus will return, but I do know we are in the laster days, as the day of Jesus coming again is closer than when Peter announced on the day of Pentecost that we were in the last days (See Acts 2:16-17). I do know that many generations have gone before me, and many of them thought they were in the last days. I do know that I am called to run the race before me with everything in me (Heb 12:1). I do know that no man knows the time of the date (Matt 24:36) and so we must all be prepared, and I believe part of that preparation must include raising the next generation to run the race!
Lord, I pray that You will provide insight and understanding and help us to think differently, more like sprinters as a part of a great marathon relay! Help us to run our race and make sure the hand-off to the next generation is secure! Help us to look beyond our own cares and concerns, our local and individual mindset, and let us pray for strategic vision from Holy Spirit, that allows us to join ourselves to the greatest plan, the greatest race the world has ever known!
Amen!
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