The Square Peg

To recap the truths that would revolutionize our decision making processes:

1) God knows what’s best for you better than you know what’s best for you
2) Everybody you lay eyes on is a person for whom Christ died
3) God is up to something in the world and you are invited to play a part

Ready for the fourth?

• The single greatest obstacle to living a breakaway life is that when we wake up, we don’t set out on a truth quest.

We only chase what makes us happy. When we become people who make decisions that will make us ‘happy’, we have to make up excuses to justify that decision.

If I bought a new car and told you I bought it because it’s safer than the Trailblazer, that’s crap. That’s not why I’d buy a new car. I’d be buying a new car because my ‘wanter’ kicked in and I ‘obeyed my thirst’ (no, Sprite isn’t paying me for that plug). And I’d get something with heated leather seats, an in-dash multiple CD player, GPS, MP3 capability, and a sun roof. And that’s just for starters. But buying a new car would only make me happy until I got the new payment and realized how much further in debt I am; then I wouldn’t be happy anymore. So which is it? Did buying the new car make me happy or not?

The thing is, when we make excuses to justify our actions, the people we tell don’t believe it. And we don’t believe it when they tell us their excuses, either. But we convince ourselves it’s true, and our self-deceit is our biggest hindrance to living a breakaway life.

Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? We already heard it once earlier in the series, and here it is again: you can’t trust your heart. If we pursue happiness rather than truth, God’s will will always seem extreme. When we chase truth, God’s will doesn’t seem so severe. In fact, when we seek truth, we’ll realize God’s will brings peace and contentment rather than the unrest that often follows carrying out our own will.

Joe wasn’t trying to change anybody’s behavior; his point was that we aren’t always honest with ourselves. He challenged us with these questions:

• Why am I doing this, really?
• If someone in my circumstances came to me for advice, what course of action would I recommend?

Since it starts here, I think I’ll go look in the mirror.

In 1 Chronicles 29, David’s son Solomon had been chosen to build the temple and it was a huge undertaking. David gave his resources to the buiding of the temple: gold, iron, silver, wood, bronze, onyx, turquoise, stone and marble. After he gave a huge amount (the Bible lists the specifics but I’m not going to), he gave his personal treasures to be used as well. Then he asked the assembly if any of them would be willing to give as well. Everyone gave willingly.

David never saw the temple built, but he gave a lot of resources to make it happen. Ditto for the folks under him. And the Bible says they did it willingly. Sidebar: I had to sit and let the principle of giving even though you might not see the result sink in. The point is that God owns it all. We can call stuff ours, but the truth is we’re just the managers of that stuff.

This is where it gets a little weird. Money is one of those things that makes people a little crazy or uncomfortable or trippy when it comes up. But money is just a tool; nothing more, nothing less. Most folks don’t think they have enough. Others seem to have an endless supply. But everybody has strong beliefs about how it should be managed. I’ve heard some say that you have to have money in order to have something to worry about managing. But that’s not true. There’s a Biblical principle that says if you manage what you have well, you’ll be given more to manage. And that’s pretty much true in all of life; employees who manage their tasks well are often given more tasks. Why do we complain about being given more responsibility at work to manage, but never about being given more money to manage? What’s up with that? I’ve seen people with plenty of money somehow manage to have nothing to show for all they’ve made, and others who have made very little, yet stretched it quite far. Most people fall somewhere in the middle.

What really stood out to me was David’s giving out of his kingly resources and then giving out of his personal accumulation. OK, I’ll bare my soul a little here: it seems that when I feel comfortable with what’s in my bank account, I tend to be more generous, but when I feel I have very little, I tend to become more stingy. But if I’m just a conduit, what am I worried about? God can give me some of His stuff to manage, and then move it right on along into someone else’s hands to manage for a while or maybe even for forever. Shouldn’t I care more about the way I manage His stuff, rather than how much of it I manage?

This week’s truth:

Sounds overly simplistic, doesn’t it? Sounds small, huh? Like it’s not that earth shattering. Like the sixth grade school play, right? Nu-uh. Not this. And definitely not when you read Psalm 33:8-11 (New International Version)

Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. (hint, ‘ALL’ means that none are left out!)

Warning! All your plans are candidates to be cancelled and He might not check with you first. But His plan CANNOT be stopped. No matter what people try to do to stop it. No matter what they say. No matter who they tell. No matter the circumstance. No matter the money situation. No matter how many times you screwed it up before. No. Matter. What.

If you don’t chase God’s plan rather than your own, when you get what you thought you wanted, you’ll discover it wasn’t worth the chase.

That’s freakin’ huge. At least it is to me, cause I’ve chased a lot of stuff that really wasn’t worth my time and energy.

God’s plan is gonna happen. And His plan for you is good. He said so in Jeremiah. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Have ya read “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren? That book confirmed what I’ve felt in my gut most of my life; that we’re meant for something big. Something important. Something more than we ever could’ve imagined on our own. That we’re meant to do something that’ll last forever; long after we’re gone.

Do you want to breakaway? Read Rick’s book.If you don’t have a copy, let me know and I’ll get one to you. Message me. It’s that powerful. And your life is that important.

When you were young, you wanted to blaze a trail (I still do, that’s why I drive a TRAILBLAZER!). But what happened? You woke up one morning and realized you’re nowhere near where you wanted to be. Culture tells us to runaway rather than to breakaway. Can the whole trajectory of our lives change in a moment?

The second life changing truth Joe shared this week is this:

That includes the well dressed lady you saw in the grocery story, the dirty, smelly guy you saw at McDonald’s, the kid with the mohawk, tattoos and piercings standing in front of you in line at the gas station, and the one whose reflection you see in the mirror every day.

Simple economics says that value is determined by what we’re willing to pay for something. Since God wants to have a relationship with us, He sent His Son to pay the price for our sin (which is death), so we could be with Him. The value of our souls was worth the cost of His Son’s death. Yeah, sit there and let that sink in for a second…I’ll wait.

OK, so that means the framework of every relationship we have needs to be based on the understanding that God valued every person you come into contact with so much that He died for him or her. God doesn’t love us because we’re valuable. We’re valuable because He loves us. Has anybody else ever offered to give up their life to save yours?

In Breakaway 1, I told you I’d share 4 truths that would revolutionize your thinking about decisions. Here it is; simple, yet threatening at the same time:

Sometimes when we reach a place in life where we want to breakaway, we end up running away instead. Is there another way to breakaway in life? What does it look like to be who you were created to be? A breakaway life is one that’s lived in sync with our Creator and how He designed us.

Romans 12:2 (The Amplified version) says: Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

What you believe fuels your decisions, and your decisions determine your outcome. Many times we get an outcome we didn’t want, so we go back to the decision we made to figure out what went wrong. That’s good. But sometimes we may need to go back farther. For example, if you believe that gravity isn’t a real force and you make the decision to jump out of a flying plane expecting to soar like an eagle, your outcome will be bad. *Thank you, Captain Obvious.* However, if you believe correctly that gravity is a real force that will pull you back down to earth, and decide to put on a parachute BEFORE you jump, your outcome will be better. See, the decision to jump out of a flying plane isn’t bad in and of itself, as long as your belief system is on track. *Not something I would do, but, hey, to each his own.*

Renewing your mind is similar to doing a renovation project in your house. If you’ve ever done any kind of remodeling, you know there are 3 truths that usually come into play: it’s messier than you thought, it takes longer than you thought, and it costs more than you thought.
It’s the same with renovating your mind.

What are the deeply held beliefs that led me to make the decisions that brought me to this place?

In the next Breakaway blog, I will introduce the first of 4 truths that will revolutionize the decision making process.

My friend Lori had this crazy idea tonight that she and I should take some of the kids from our youth group and go toilet paper a friend's house. I used to do this all the time when I was a teenager and was pretty good at it (I was even asked to 'decorate' a yard for a wedding.) We had so much fun!

I wrapped all the bushes and the trailer sitting on the side of the house, and the kids and Lori did the trees and put the forks in the ground. I wish we could've been there to see David & Kelly's faces faces when they came home.

I think I'm going to add 'Outdoor Design' to my resume and business cards. :)