A Chance at Something Greater
In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and his mother own a cow. We are led to believe that it was as good a cow as any, but it was also all that they had.
When Jack sets out to sell their cow at the market he winds up trading it instead for a handful of beans. Beans that were allegedly magical. But what did he know of magic beans?
The story goes that Jack went on to plant these beans, climb the beanstalk, pillage the giant and return to his mother with more gold than they could count. But really none of this is the most interesting or applicable part of the fairy tale.
The only reason there is any story at all is because Jack decided not to trade his beloved cow for money or a sure thing. He traded it instead for a chance at something greater.
Sometimes we make decisions that end up steering our life on an unimaginable course. Or maybe more accurately - a divinely inspired course.
This past week we celebrated my wife's 30th birthday. It was a sweet but somber day. Sort of sad because we would spend it on opposite sides of the country but also filled with great gratitude given the work that she is able to do.
I found myself looking at my favorite picture of her from her childhood and asking her over Facetime what that little girl would think of the life she now lives. She told me the little girl would never believe it.
Kaitlyn has too many good qualities to list but my favorite thing about her is that, like Jack and his magic beans, she is courageous enough to say yes when there is a chance at something greater.
I believe that this is a trait that resonates deeply with the intentions of the God I read about in the bible. Maybe not the one I grew up fearing, or even the one that I learned about in seminary. But the real God we see represented when we actually read the book for ourselves.
So many men spend their lives in a sort of silent standstill - confusing stagnation for long-suffering. Content to wonder if one day God will bless their willingness to sit in the storms of life with no questions or commentary. It is not a coincidence that these men will rarely be seen in a Hangar circle on a Tuesday night.
Intentionality and action go hand in hand.
Life can be hard, there is no doubt about that. But I have great doubt concerning whether or not God would have us resign ourselves to hurt and hardship.
This past Tuesday, Joe Barlow opened our time in Gluckstadt together by reading John 10:10, one of my favorite passages .It goes like this:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10(NIV)
Jesus said this referring specifically to salvation, but it is a theme that we see consistent throughout the course of scripture. God promotes abundance. The enemy promotes affliction.
God brings more life. The enemy brings less.
I wonder sometimes what life would look like if we consistently chose to lean into the chance of something greater. I know magic beans and fairy tales hold little water in the real world, but I also know there is something different about the words of Joe and the apostle John. The way Kaitlyn has chosen to live her life.
How would God use that faith if we chose to deploy it? I have to imagine that he would do what he always does: he would bring about more abundance.
Posturing and prosperity aside, I want to encourage the hangarman and not just a hardcore Southern Baptist. These things are true: the God of the bible loves you and wants good things for you. It hurts him when he observes you hurting.
My hope is that we could be a community that learns to truly rejoice and weep with one another well. (Romans 12:15) That we would not allow our brothers to sit stoically when God clearly wants something so much greater for our lives. That we would spur one another on towards a deeper means of living. (Hebrews 10:24)
And that maybe one day we would look back at a life that could only be set on course by a God who loved us dearly and our ability to say yes to the chance of something great.
