Category: Leading and Helping When People Want to Stay Stuck

How can we use our limited resources to make the biggest impact in the world?

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The Lesson of Saint Patrick’s Day

The Roman Empire in the West was crumbling. In A.D. 383, the leaders of Rome made a strategic decision. They would give up on Britian, the homeland of Patrick, and leave them to their fate.

The results were inevitable. The poorer nations around Britain invaded and took land, treasures, and slaves. When Irish marauders landed on the beach of Western Britain, they demolished Patrick’s town, stole all they could, and took Patrick captive as a slave back to Ireland.*

There, Patrick had a terrible life. He was cold, lonely, and isolated as he watched over his master’s sheep. Patick’s parents raised him in a Christian home. He knew the faith of his fathers but had not made it his own. In captivity, he cried out to the Lord and found comfort and solace in a newfound relationship with Christ.

One day, he believed he heard a voice telling him that his ship was ready. He walked around 200 miles to the coast. There, he joined some traders headed for the European mainland.

Once Patrick returned to the Empire, he trained to be a minister of the Christian faith. Eventually, he returned to Britain. There, he made a rather remarkable decision. He would go back to Ireland to tell them about his faith and urge them to turn to the one, true God.

This was no easy task. The Irish were not asking him to come. They were a warlike people who had no qualms about pillaging towns and enslaving people. When Patrick went, he was often in danger and had to pay the Irish chieftans for safe conduct through their lands.

What would drive Patrick to do this? Somewhere along the line, Patrick had taken into his heart the command of Jesus, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20a). He believed that Jesus had commanded His followers to make disciples of every nation.

He not only believed that God wanted him to go, he also wholeheartedly trusted the promise of Matthew 28:20, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He would not go alone. This sentiment is commemorated in his famous “breastplate” or prayer: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me; Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me; Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me . . .” This expressed his confidence and trust in the power and presence of the Triune God as he stepped forward into the uncertainty of his missionary endeavor.

Even though he did not know how it all would work out, he was optimistic that these efforts would be successful. He had in his mind the promises of the Old Testament such as, “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Is. 49:6, compare this to what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 15). Patrick explains this in his “Confession,” which you can download here or read online here.

The point is that Patrick believed in a mission that was more important than his own peace, safety, or comfort. God blessed his efforts, and Patrick had tremendous success as a missionary, essentially turning the entire island of Ireland from paganism to Christianity.

He concluded his “Confession” by encouraging others to take up the same vision:

Now I have given a simple account to my brethren and fellow servants who have believed me because of what I said and still say in order to strengthen and confirm your faith. Would that you, too, would strive for greater things and do better! This will be my glory, for a wise son is the glory of his father.

His hope was that the new disciples would have the same vision for mission that he did and do even more.

Thomas Cahill in his book How the Irish Saved Civilization continued the story. The Irish sent missionaries to Scotland and the pagan conquerors of Britain. They also became the main preservers of the literature of the Roman world passing it on to future generations. This only stopped with the Viking invasions several centuries later, but, by then, other monasteries throughout Europe had taken up the work.

It all started with Saint Patrick’s vision. He believed that God could and would change the world through him and through anyone who would get that same vision. Cahill’s story tells us that many of the Irish did just that.

This also tells us what we should take away from Saint Patrick’s Day. Patrick wanted all those who read of his example to have a vision that would lead them to “strive for greater things and do better!” My hope is that the example of Patrick and the Irish will inspire you to do just that.

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*For another telling of his story, see Mary Cagney’s article Christianity Today’s Christian History magazine. You can read the article here. This article was helpful to me in preparing this article.

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A Bigger Vision: What the Lord’s Prayer Hasn’t Taught Us About Prayer

“Our Father who art in heaven . . .” Thus begins one of the most famous prayers in history. Ever since Jesus taught it to His disciples, Christians around the world have prayed it every day.

In spite of that, there is something very strange about the Lord’s Prayer. In our society especially, that’s not how most Christians pray.

Most prayers are about sickness, jobs, or disasters. These are legitimate prayers, and they fall under one of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The address of the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father who art in heaven” teaches us that we have a Father in heaven who is both willing and able to help us. We should never fear to bring to our Father anything that we are struggling with.

The only problem is that there are five more petitions that don’t figure so prominently in our prayer lives. The 5th and 6th petitions are about personal transformation. We pray that He will empower us to forgive others, will enable us to experience His forgiveness, and will extricate us from evil. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd petitions are about God’s kingdom, prayers for the transformation of the world into the place God intended it to be. The Lord’s Prayer contains a very big vision of worldwide transformation that brings God and man together in prosperity, joy, and communion, all to God’s glory!

But does this grand, worldwide vision characterize our prayers? No matter how many times I have asked for prayer requests that fit this character of the Lord’s Prayer, people always respond to my call for prayer requests with: “Pray for Aunt Hilda’s broken toe.” Nothing wrong with that in itself, we’re just missing most of the Lord’s intention for prayer. Why?

It seems to me that there are primarily two things that drive us to prayer: suffering and vision. Consider suffering. People pray when they experience suffering or when they fear that they will suffer. They pray when they fear for their job, health, or relationships. They pray when they get sick or experience loss. And that’s good! Prayer is a great place to go when we experience or fear suffering. It connects us to our heavenly Father and gets us in touch with the One who can help!

The other driver of prayer is vision. When we have a vision for things that is way beyond what we can do, we begin to pray. When we want to start a business, children’s ministry, or a church, we pray. When we have a vision to equip a village with clean water, raise money for a new building, or start a new family, we pray. Prayer grows out of the vision.

May I suggest that we do not pray for moral and worldwide transformation because a vision for these things has not gripped our heart? That’s what the Lord’s Prayer still hasn’t taught us: a bigger vision for what God can and will do in our lives and hearts and in our communities and churches. When we have that bigger vision, we will pray. When we pray, we will not only repeat the words of the Lord’s Prayer, we will bring the spirit of the words into all our prayers. Then, we will have learned the lesson of the Lord’s Prayer.

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Encouragement for Parents

Parenting is a scary thing. You have responsibility for a precious little life, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong. The atmosphere of parenting is anxiety, and the family is a sort of anxiety generator.

The trouble with anxiety is that it is an emotion that is not always (not often?) based on reality. Anxiety leads us away from thinking and to action that is rooted in emotion rather than reality. Sometimes, anxieties about people become self-fulfilling prophecies. We may have had parents whom we thought were too strict. This may have led us or our siblings to act in ways that led to harm. Out of fear of this, we may not set boundaries for our children. This may end up harming them. So, then our kids go overboard emphasizing boundaries. Anxiety has a way of working through the generations.

I have seven kids from ages 5 to 16. I have tried to be a less anxious parent without disengaging from my children. As I have tried to look at reality and not just go by my feelings, I have seen quite a few things that have encouraged me. I would like to share that with you here.

The number one thing is to relax about parenting. In spite of the challenges of our times, parents do have a big influence on their kids. Most kids figure out how to deal with life and become relatively productive members of society. The long-term trends and statistics for parenting are good. There are exceptions, but the overall picture is relatively positive. You can influence your kids in a positive direction. Continue reading “Encouragement for Parents”

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Jordan B. Peterson on How to Change Society

Over the past year, a surprising number of people have asked me, “What do you think of Jordan B. Peterson?” He’s made quite a stir.

A few weeks ago, I took some time to listen to some of his podcasts. You can get a good summary of his views (2.5 hours worth!) in his interview with Dr. Oz. If you like thinking deeply about ideas and how to implement them in the world, you will enjoy this podcast, probably irrespective of your view of Peterson.

I’m sure that I’ll have some critiques of Peterson later, but, for now, I’m trying to understand what he’s saying and learn what I can from him. Here’s what I heard.

Peterson’s greatest concern is how do we keep the world from turning into an awful, soul-crushing tyranny like the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany? He spent a lot of time thinking through this problem. He tried to analyze it from a political and economic perspective, but he did not believe that it gave an adequate explanation of why these societies became hell on earth.

His analysis led him to believe that the problem existed on an individual level. It wasn’t just a problem with the system. It was a problem with individuals taking responsibility for themselves and for doing good in their society.

Thus, in Peterson’s mind, the place to attack the problem of making society better is at the level of the individual. Each individual needs to take responsibility for him or herself and for doing good in their own area. That’s the best strategy for making society better.

At one point, Dr. Oz asked Peterson why he thought his ideas had resonated so much with the public. Peterson explained that taking responsibility is not easy. When you seek to take responsibility for yourself and to be better, it involves suffering and challenges. To confront our own demons and make ourselves better is daunting. Things will not be handed to you on a silver platter. You will have to work at them, and it will not be easy. Suffering is part of life.

Peterson observes that people know in the depths of their being that life is hard. When you tell them that it is, they can face reality more squarely. They can see that the difficulties they have faced are not some problem with them but the inherent challenge of living in this world. In an ironic way, this is an encouraging message as well as a helpful one.

If changing ourselves is important and difficult, how do we do it? Peterson suggests that we need to figure out what we want to be. We need to tell ourselves a story about what we could be and should be. Then, we need to develop a story of what life would be like if we don’t become what we could be and should be or even let our own pathology run amok. For example, if we work on developing skills, we will have a future self that can make a contribution. If we devote ourselves to drinking alcohol, we will not only not accomplish things but ruin our lives and our families and waste a bunch of money. We need the positive reinforcement of getting closer to our goals as well as the fear of what life could be like if it went the wrong way to motivate us to move beyond simply enjoying ourselves in the moment.

Once we have a clear vision of where we want to be, we must ask, what are the things I can do to help me get there? What do we need to do each day and week in order to move us toward our vision?

Here’s one way this has helped me think a bit better about about my goals. I took guitar lessons when I was in junior high. I have often wanted to pick the guitar back up, but I have often gotten discouraged at how much work or time it would take to get where I’d like to be. If I begin, however, by asking, what kind of guitarist can I be if I work on it 3-4 times a week over the course of 5 years, then the work is not so daunting. So, I’ve been doing that, and I can see that I’ve made progress since I took the guitar back up a couple of months ago. The long-term vision helps sustain us through the work that has to take place week by week, which is still far from our goals. One of my favorite quotes from Peterson is, “Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday.”

In attempting to fulfill a vision for our lives, we will find that things are stacked up against us and that many things are unfair. At one point, Peterson compares life to a poker game. The cards are dealt, and it is not fair. You just have to play your own hand because that’s the only strategy you have. You can’t manufacture another life in which things will be fairer or easier than they are for you.

This does not mean that Peterson does not believe that there are structural inequities in what he calls the “hierarchies” of society. There are. Hierarchies dispossess people. It’s just that changing hierarchies is not the most significant aspect of societal change. The individual is.

Peterson also does not reject efforts to make the hierarchies more equitable. However, he suggests that in regard to systems, when you change them, you should be aware that changing them will result in unintended consequences. So, it takes tremendous wisdom and patience to change the structures of society. That’s why Peterson proposes that if you want to change the structures of society, have at it, but you might want to devote your life to careful thought about it and recognize that the progress will be very slow.

In contrast, working on yourself is relatively easy and much more effective. That’s why the individual is the focus for changing society.

It’s easy to see why Peterson’s ideas are compelling to so many. Peterson has a forceful and clear presentation that challenges the irresponsibility of our age and speaks truth about the difficulties of life. He also presents hope for society because each person can work on that over which they have the most control, their selves.

Obviously, an evangelical Christian will have issues with Peterson, but there is much to learn from him. There is also much more to explore in his thought. I have not even touched on his approach to literature or the Bible, which is something I want to explore and think about. In thinking about society, however, his emphasis on individual transformation is an encouraging one that is worth considering. Even if it is more necessary to change societal structures than Peterson suggests, the course of action he suggests for an individual would still have many positive benefits for the individual and those in contact with that individual.

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To Serve Learn to Be Served

When it comes to serving, it’s easy to put too much weight on it or too little.

The Christian faith strongly advocates doing a lot of good works, but it has a very specific way in which these works are to be done. They are not to be done as if our relationship with God depended on them, and they are not to be done in our own power and strength.

One day, Jesus went to a village and stayed with his friends Mary and Martha. Mary was listening to Jesus talk. Martha was doing housework in service of the guests.

Eventually, Martha got tired of doing all the work and spoke to Jesus, “Tell Mary to come help me with this work.” Can you imagine sisters doing something like that?

Jesus did not tell Mary to help Martha. Instead, he said: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.”

In Jesus’ view, fellowship with Him was more important than the service Martha was doing. It was not that what Martha was doing was wrong or unimportant. It was that what Jesus could do for Martha was far more important than what Martha could do for Him.

This is a crucial teaching of our biblical faith. Our service to Jesus always needs to flow out of Jesus’ service to us. To serve properly, learn to be served by Jesus.

One way of thinking about this in our modern world is balance.. The wisest thinkers of our day recognize that working well for the long haul requires balance between work and the other aspects of our lives. Jesus tells us that fellowship with God is the most important source of human refreshment and strengthening.

Yet I, like you, often forget, and I can hear Jesus coming to me and saying, “Wes, Wes, you are worried and upset about many things . . .”

Another time Jesus taught about service was at the Last Supper. Everyone was sitting around the table, and no one had taken the initiative to provide the common courtesy of foot washing for the people who were present. So, Jesus did it Himself.

To put this in modern terms, think of Jesus coming to your house. Then, He goes to your bathrooms and starts cleaning your toilets. It would almost be weird, scandalous even. That’s probably the reaction the disciples had when they saw Jesus washing their feet. This was servants’ work!

When He was through, He told His disciples, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:12–15).

It could hardly be clearer. We should take up service, whether it means washing feet or cleaning toilets or helping those in need. This is the Master’s example, and we are to follow it.

We must not think we can serve Christ until we have been served by Christ, but we should not think Christ’s power is unavailable for service. If we see what needs to be done, we should go in Christ’s power. That’s what He said: “If you know these things, blessed are you, if you do them” (John 13:17).

To sum up, we think too much of works when they become a greater priority than our relationships, especially our relationship with Jesus. This not only neglects what is most important, it also deprives us of the refreshment and strengthening we need in order to serve.

We value them too little, when, having Christ’s presence and power, we just sit around the table when feet need to be washed.

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