Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out wiht a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. An the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:54-60
Kind of makes you feel all warm and tingly inside, doesn't it? If there was a sarcasm font, I would use it there.
Yesterday I went to The Porch at Watermark, a church here in Dallas. The message was very moving for me and I want to unpack it here. The basic outline is not mine, I'm going off of my notes from last night, but I'm adding my own illustrations and thoughts about what it meant to me personally.
Let me start by putting the passage above in some context. When you read Acts, you're reading stories of the early stages of Christianity. It's full of passion and sacrifice and suffering and miracles and salvation and it's EPIC. If it were a movie I feel like it'd be right up their with 300 or Braveheart with Mel Gibson as the lead screaming "freedom!" Verses 54-60 (above) come in right after Stephen gives a powerful speech to the council and the high priest after being seized on claims of blasphemy. These claims are similar to what Jesus faced before dying on the cross - persecution for preaching the gospel. The entirety of Acts 7 is Stephen's speech to the council. I just went back and read it myself and encourage you to do so as well. He accused the council and the teachers of the law of resisting the Holy Spirit and murdering the "Righteous One." They were mad - mad enough to stone and kill him. And that's where the passage above comes in. Then following that passage, we see Saul (who later becomes Paul) ravaging the church and killing men and women who follow Christ.
Alright so now you have some background. What I'm mainly going to talk about is living life to the fullest, and living your story, the story God wrote for you, the adventurous, epic, bigger than you, story.
I became a Christian at a very young age. I'm thankful that I was taught the good news of the gospel so young, and was thus saved out of alot of sin and heartache that comes with living a life without God as a rock and the Holy Spirit in your heart. But I also never had this huge awakening moment where I pulled a complete 180 from a life of darkness to a life of light. As a result, I am guilty of being complacent in my relationship with God all too often. Because He is full of grace and mercy, I am always growing in my faith, but it's not always at my own initiative. I can be comfortable, and happy; I'm optimistic and things generally go my way. When they don't, I lean on the Father; when they do, I give Him thanks. But how boring is that? That isn't a life that God calls us to. Is that adventurous? Is it epic?
A story of epic adventure always involves risk.
What does that mean for us now in the culture in which we exist? What risk is there to take? We live in America where we aren't persecuted for believing in God. We face our own set of challenges and cultural influences, but we don't fear being stoned for standing up for the Faith. We drive nice cars, live in nice houses, have pets, and nice clothes, and gadgets and computers and ipads and iphones and everything we could possibly need and we are comfortable. So what risk is there to take? You won't find the answer here. Part of your story, part of your adventure - part of my story, and my adventure, is figuring out what risks we can take.
Here's a quote by Francis Chan:
“The truth is that the Spirit of the living God is guaranteed to ask you to go somewhere or do something you wouldn’t normally want or choose to do. The Spirit will lead you into the way of the cross, as He led Jesus to the cross, and that is definitely not a safe or pretty or comfortable place to be. The Holy Spirit of God will mold you into the person you were made to be…”
Last night, the preacher said this: "Take a risk. Let's go write a story." And I was excited. He gave an illustration about taking his little girls to Disneyworld. He talked about how he has one of the nicest strollers around. It's like the deluxe of the strollers. It's comfortable and they love it. They almost always fall asleep in it it's so comfortable. But then once they got on the rides at Disneyworld and were taking risks (for a 3 year old) and were being adventurous, he couldn't get them back into the comfort of their stroller. He had to park it somewhere while they ran all over the theme park. My thought is that that is exactly what taking risks does to you. Once you start living an adventure, you don't want to go back to the life of comfort you were living before. The risk no longer scares you. It excites you.
Many years ago I read a verse in Isaiah: "Here am I! Send me!" - Isaiah 6:8. That verse has stuck with me for 15+ years. I didn't set out to memorize it. And though arguably it wasn't hard to memorize because it's only 5 words, I have never forgotten it. I think the reason for that is that it terrified me. I wouldn't have admitted that to myself then. As a Christian we are called to die to ourselves daily, to take up our cross and follow Him. It stands to reason that we should be willing to go where God calls us. But for me, that verse was more than obeying God, and more than living out my faith. It meant going some place that was uncomfortable. It meant shaking my world up a bit, and taking a risk. Somewhere along the way, and I only recently came to this realization, so maybe it's been a recent occurrence, it doesn't scare me anymore. It only excites me. I also believe now that as I set out to take risks, and I set out to live the adventure God has waiting for me, the risks only lead you into more of an intimacy with God. With an intimacy with God comes an ear for His words, His truth, and His guidance. And with that comes living a life to the fullest. "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10).
Risks will always present obstacles. The response is up to us.
Note Stephen's response to the "grinding teeth" of the councilmen. He "gazed into Heaven" at Jesus. He didn't look at the circumstances and the trials around him or at his problems. A mob of men with stones in their hands I think would constitute as a problem. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Our circumstances are what change. Jesus should be the focus. In everything, it all comes back to Jesus. My prayer for myself is that I would be so captivated by my Father that I am willing to wait and wait and wait just to be in His presence. When we have obstacles in our lives, we are called to gaze at Jesus.
Your story is bigger than you.
Look at the passage in Acts again. Stephen's speech in all of Chapter 7 is about the great story. It's a summary of God's promise to Abraham, of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, all the way up to Jesus. It's the great story. And now Stephen is playing his part. He's living his adventure. And when his story seems to end, when he is stoned to death, his garments are laid at the feet of Saul. Saul ravages the church. Christians are scattered, yet the gospel moves forward. Saul becomes Paul. All because Stephen's story is bigger than himself. Paul, as you know, goes on to write half of the new testament. Everything we do in our lives affects other people's stories.
Your story is bigger than you and what you do with your story is up to you.
One of my most favorite authors is Donald Miller. He recently wrote a book called "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." Coincidentally, the book runs right alongside this idea of living out a great story. As a quick summary, Donald Miller wrote Blue Like Jazz, a New York Times best-seller; you've probably heard of it. Some guys wanted to make a movie out of the book, so they spent some time with Donald Miller writing the script. But as they were writing, they changed his entire life to make it appealing to a large audience. This sent Donald into a sort of depression, because he realized that he hadn't really done much with his life after writing that book. There was this high from having a best-seller, and then he didn't really do anything else that exciting. And so though the process of writing this screenplay, he began to think about what makes a story great. Alot of what he said matches what I wrote above. A story involves risk, an inciting incident, a character who wants something and won't stop until he gets it. There's more involved, but the point I'm making is that he set out to live a great story and has done some amazing things since. He rode his bike from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Atlantic. He started a mentorship project for children in need of a father-figure. Among other things. He's living a greater story now. And he inspired me to live a greater story.
This is one of the reasons I decided to do Timothy Team. My world as I know it flipping upside down for me to go do this for a year. It's all in God's timing and He made it clear to me that this is what He wants me to do. But in essence, it's a risk. I am taking it, and I see it as being an adventure and an experience.
Back to A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and your story being bigger than yours, there's a quote that sticks with me from that book.
He said to me I was a tree in a story about a forest, and that it was arrogant of me to believe any differently. And he told me the story of the forest is better than the story of the tree... At one point I turned when I heard a tree drop a heavy limb to the ground. I sat by the fire until the sun came up; and asked God to help me understand the story of the forest and what it meant to be a tree in that story.
In my own story, I want to be the central character. But the story is not central to anyone else but me. We may all want life to congratulate us and to be comfortable, but that's not what it's about. We are a small part of a much larger story, and the best we can do is find the places where our story can weave together with the stories around us. That's being the body of Christ.
And to close, I want to share a quote my mom emailed to me recently. I don't know what I want to do for a career in my life, it's one of the great questions I'm asking now. But I do know that I want to live a great story, a great adventure and take risks. And I want to do as this quote says:
Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
-Gil Bailie
Live life and live it to the full.
