Confidence

Mike Rowe is, I think, one of the most fascinating people in America. He hosted “Dirty Jobs” and produced a podcast called “The Way I Heard It.”

I was recently listening to an episode of his podcast where he referenced his role as a narrator on a television series called “How the Universe Works.”

The script said that there were 100 billion galaxies in the known universe. So, that’s what Rowe said in his recording.

The next week, scientists established that there are more than 2 trillion galaxies.

To be fair, Rowe was communicating the best information he had at the time.

But he made and interesting statement after the fact.

“I sound no less certain when I’m right than I do when I’m wrong.”

I am so guilty of sounding certain when I’m wrong. It’s usually an honest mistake.

But I don’t like to admit that I don’t know something – especially when I feel like I should.

I want to be the expert. I want to have the answers.

The truth, though, is that I sound no less certain when I’m right than I do when I’m wrong.

I’m usually not the smartest person in the room. I’m not being self-degrading – just honest. I’m smart on a couple of subjects. But I’m a novice at best on just about everything else.

So are you.

You’re knowledgeable on certain subjects but you’re a novice on just about everything else. That’s not a slight. It’s just what it is. We can’t know everything about everything.

Here’s the point.

We get things wrong. We just do. Let’s be slow to take a stand when we don’t have all of the information and quick to retract when our stand turns out to be wrong.

Let’s also be discerning in which stands are worth taking. Not every hill is worth dying on.

All In

Willie is a cab driver in Chicago. He’s in his mid-fifties now and has been transporting people all over the city for upwards of twenty years.

I met Willie when he drove me from downtown to the O’Hare International Airport.

We made small talk for a bit. He asked where I was from and what I was doing in Chicago. I asked how long he’d live in the city and how he liked it.

He told me that prior to becoming a cab driver he’d been a professional boxer.

He told me all about his training, his travels, and his career. He talked about the discipline required to stay in peak condition and the drive to be constantly learning and improving.

Then he said something that has stayed with me.

“Boxing takes total commitment. You can’t be lax. If you slack off in training, you’ll get knocked out in the ring. No man can live two lives. Either you’re in or you’re out.”

I’m not boxer, but I still think about that all the time.

I think about what it means to be all in.

I think about whether I’m trying to live two lives – trying to spread my attention and energy in too many directions, trying to do and be more than God has called me to do and be.

I can’t say I’m at risk of getting knocked out on a daily basis – the way Willie was during his boxing career.

But I am at risk of making less of a difference in the world. I am at risk of being less of the person God has created me to be. I am at risk of doing less for the Kingdom of God than God intends.

I want to finish this life with cramping muscles and with lungs gasping for air because I ran so hard after what God called me to. 

I don’t want to live two lives.

I want to be all in.

Amen

I’ve always finished every prayer with “Amen.”

It’s just what I learned to say. It didn’t mean anything to me. It was just a way of letting God know that I was signing off.

I started digging into it, though.

Why do we always end our prayers with this odd word?

A cursory study reveals that it simply means, “let it be.”

But if you dive deeper, it means so much more.

“Amen” is more than a statement of hope.

It is a declaration of commitment.

Every line of the prayer Jesus taught us is both a petition to God and a declaration of our allegiance to Him.

Rather than go back through the whole prayer, I want to challenge you.

Go back through it yourself.

Pay close attention to each line.

Consider what you’re asking God and consider what you’re promising God.

As historian and theologian Justo Gonzalez put it, “As we close our prayer saying ‘amen,’ we are expressing an unshakable hope based on our knowledge that this Father to whom we address our prayers is the same to whom forever belongs the kingdom, the power, and the glory. And we are also saying that we are so certain that it is so that we are committing ourselves to it.” (Teach Us to Pray)

So often we think of prayer as a list of petitions. But Jesus’ prayer pushes us to think of prayer also as a commitment.

So, let’s pray it together again.

Our Father in heaven,
   may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)

And let me include our doxology.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
   forever. Amen.

Resolutions

There is an old Jewish story about a rabbi named Zusia.

One day Zusia came to his disciples. His eyes were red and swollen from crying and his face was pale.

“Rabbi,” one of his disciples exclaimed. “What is the matter?”

“I was thinking about death,” said Zusia. “I was thinking about what it would be like to stand before Almighty God. I realized that if God asks me, ‘Zusia, why weren’t you a leader like Moses?’ I would say, ‘Lord, you did not give me the leadership of Moses.’ If God asks me, ‘Zusia, why weren’t you a poet like David?’ I would say, ‘Lord, you did not give me the eloquence of David.’ But, if God asks me, ‘Zusia, why weren’t you Zusia? Why weren’t you all that I created you to be?’ I will have no answer for Him.”

Resolutions are so often about creating ourselves. They're about creating a stronger body or a slimmer waist, a larger bank account or a smaller debt to pay, to stop smoking or to start reading.

There's nothing wrong with those sort of resolutions.

But, what if, this year, instead of resolving to create ourselves we resolved to discover what God created us to be?

What if you took, perhaps, the first step towards Him and began considering what a relationship with Him could mean for your life?

What if you asked Him to show you where your character needs developing that you might better represent and reflect Him?

What if you began exploring how He could use your unique personality and gifts and passions to impact the world?

Let's resolve that a year from now we will be more of what God created us to be.

I can think of no better resolution.