Many people who have experienced swimming in the Dead Sea, or the Great Salt Lake talk about how easy it is to float. The salty water is 20% more dense than fresh water, so you can literally lay in the water effortlessly and read a book without sinking. Imagine if I came to the Dead Sea, went in up to my ankles and when I came back home I told my friends “It’s not any different from the ocean or any other body of water. I didn’t float.” It’s an absurd illustration, yet figuratively speaking, we tend to act like that in many areas of life.
During my studies at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in the beginning of my first year, the dean of the school made an interesting recommendation for us students. He told us that while we were part of their school, that it would be wise to not try to be feeding on a bunch of different streams or attending other conferences etc. during the time we were in school. He explained that while you’re in the school it’s kind of like being on the operating table, and you can’t really let the surgeon do his job unless you just sit still, until the operation is done, and really let the experience happen to you in it’s full form. At that point I decided that I would set my heart on being engaged, fully submitting myself to the program. You can always disagree with something later, but if you’re hasty to be skeptical about something before you’ve let it run it’s course, and get the full experience, then you can miss out and come to inaccurate conclusions about the experience.
Don’t let the quest of finding the best tool keep you from getting the job done.
Whether it’s a home group model for a church, or a fitness program for an individual, these are all tools that help get a certain job done.
Humans love to debate and compare things, and act like we’re all experts as we stand around arguing about what’s better.
We dabble.
We go one time.
We give it a try.
But when we see a challenge or run into resistance, or don’t see instant results we decide that it’s not a “good fit.”
Sometimes we’re like a bunch of carpenters sitting around arguing about what kind of hammer is best for the job, instead of just getting to work, and we lose sight of the fact that any hammer is better than no hammer.
Many churches study various successful home group models or programs for ministries, and after seeing a few things the model or program lacks, they come to the conclusion that “it won’t work with our people” or “that won’t work in our culture” and they just pick a few elements they like, get rid of half the engine, and one of the wheels they didn’t particularly like, and then wonder why the car won’t run as expected.
If you don’t like the hammers available for the job, that doesn’t mean not using any of them is going to be more effective.
Whether it’s a shootout between Cross Fit, P90X, and Insanity or The Columbian G12 vs. the Yonggi Cho home group model for churches, there’s one thing we have to understand.
They’re all tools.
And in most cases any tool is better than no tool.
How is your dentist supposed to do a good job, if several minutes into the dental procedure you always stop him as soon as you have doubts about whether he is THE BEST dentist in the world and jump up and leave, just to make sure?
Yet we do that with the tools of life, work and ministry.
I’m not suggesting we don’t spit out the bones.
However, with any of the things we try out we have to always keep in mind that there is a commitment threshold that must be attained, before we can make accurate conclusions of the experience.
We come up with all kinds of excuses why some financial coaching program won’t work for us, and then just keep living in debt, with our finances out of control.
It’s rather comical, but many of us, who aren’t doing anything about our physical health, know more about various strength training programs and weight loss programs than some of the people who are actually doing them.
Knowledge doesn’t do much good if it’s not applied.
It has been said that personal finance is 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior.
You can know everything there is to know about what fishing rod or tackle is better, but that won’t make you a better fisherman if you don’t get out there and do a bunch of actual fishing.
Let the experience of whatever you’re engaging in hit you with it’s full force.
Submit yourself to the program 100%.
You can always analyze, and come to conclusions later, and spit out any bones.
But if you don’t commit, or you do a half-done job then you’re conclusions about the quality of the given tool will always be skewed and inaccurate at best.
In his book Outliers: The Story of Success
Talk about sticking with something!
When people used to approach John Wimber and tell him that healing doesn’t work, and he would find out that they had prayed for three people, who didn’t get healed, he would say
“Go pray for at least a hundred people and then come and talk.”
So stop dabbling and get in deep enough, and stay in long enough to get the full experience what of what God has set before you.
Question:
What are some areas of your life, where you might have not been committed, or engaged enough to really get all the juice out of the experience?
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Image courtesy of Viktor Karppinen on Flickr
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