{"id":15,"date":"2008-05-05T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T14:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25551729.post-7057295386052459014"},"modified":"2009-07-07T07:36:21","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T14:36:21","slug":"got-potential-2008-05-05-141400","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/faith\/got-potential-2008-05-05-141400","title":{"rendered":"Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Purpose<\/span><\/strong>
\nVol. 2 Issue 16<\/span><\/strong>
\nApril 17, 2008<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing<\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\nCourage<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Fear is a part of life. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe people who say they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not afraid of anything. Everybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s afraid of something.<\/p>\n

I used to be afraid of eighth graders. They terrified me, bullied me, threatened me and laughed at me. Of course, I was a seventh grader at the time. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten over that particular fear.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like roller coasters. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m afraid of them. I can walk up to any roller coaster on the planet and look it right in the eye. No fear.<\/p>\n

Riding on them? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another matter. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like riding on<\/em> roller coasters. I could probably lose my distaste (did I say fear?) of riding roller coasters if I put my mind to it, but what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point? Is my life really missing roller coaster rides?<\/p>\n

I guess fear is either dealt with or it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not. I dealt with my fear of eighth graders; I grew up, I moved on. I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really dealt with the riding roller coasters thing, but why bother? My not getting over that particular fear isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to change my life much unless I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m considering the lucrative theme park ride tester<\/em> profession.<\/p>\n

This is the point in the letter, when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to say, “Okay Steve, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your point?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Here it is. Ready?<\/p>\n

Courage isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the lack of fear. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing what you know you have to do in spite of your fear.<\/p>\n

*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

I read about Gideon this morning (Judges 6 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 8). Gideon was a Judge. Not a black robe, sit on the bench, listen to court cases judge. A Judge<\/em> back in old Israel was a natural leader\/hero that rose up to rule the people of Israel, kind of by default. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really by default; God picked them to be judges, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that not everybody knew about God picking them at the time, including the judges themselves.<\/p>\n

Gideon was like that. He certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see himself as any kind of epic hero. When God went to talk to him, Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. What that really means is that Gideon was doing his chores in a place he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t normally being doing his chores because he was hiding from the bad guys.<\/p>\n

The bad guys were the Midianites. They would sweep into Israeli territory, trample the crops, eat the sheep, steal the donkeys and do all the other things bad guys do.<\/p>\n

This had been going on for seven years and Gideon was just trying to stay out of the way. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when the angel of the Lord sat down under an oak tree next to the winepress to have a talk with him. The angel said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mighty warrior? Not Gideon. Mighty warriors don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do their chores in a winepress because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid of bad guys.<\/p>\n

The story gets a little sketchy here. The angel, it turns out, either spoke for God to the extent he felt free to use first person pronouns or God Himself was doing the talking. Any way you shake it, God was having a personal powwow with Gideon. “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand. Am I not sending you?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Gideon knew who was talking to him. Gideon answered, “Look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the scrawniest kid of the scrawniest family of the scrawniest tribe in Israel. You must be looking for someone else.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Lord wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easily put off and He knew that it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be Gideon doing the heavy lifting on this job. “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”<\/em><\/p>\n

At this point Gideon suspected that he may not be talking to an ordinary stranger and it just might be You-Know-Who<\/em> or one of His representatives. Oh boy. “Look<\/em>,” he said, “If it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really You, wait right here and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll go get an offering and bring it back.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Lord waited.<\/p>\n

Gideon came back with a basket full of goat meat, a pot of broth and some bread. The angel, or the Lord, or Whoever, instructed Gideon to put the meat and the bread on a rock. Then he touched the meat and bread with the tip of his staff and WHOOFF! The whole thing went up in a ball of fire (what happened to the pot of broth is one of those Bible mysteries we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably find out on the other side) and Whoever disappeared.<\/p>\n

Gideon figured out Who he was dealing with. “Oh man.” “Oh man<\/em>.” “I saw an angel of the Lord face to face and now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna die.” “Oh man. Oh man. Oh man.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Not quite the response of an epic hero.<\/p>\n

The Lord had to reassure him (I know, the story said He disappeared, but He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still talking. I hope it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in an audible voice; otherwise folks would Gideon was nuts). “Relax<\/em>,” The Lord tells him. “Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to die.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So now Gideon knows God spoke to him and he isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to die as a result. His brave-o-meter goes up one point.<\/p>\n

Later that night God tells Gideon to take bull number two from his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s herd, tear down his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Baal altar and cut down his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Asherah pole. Then he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to build a real<\/em> altar and use the wood from the Asherah pole to burn up the bull as a sacrifice to God.<\/p>\n

Courage is a funny thing. Sometimes you do something you fear because you fear the consequences of not doing it even more.<\/p>\n

Gideon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dad and the men of the town are going to be royally ticked off if he kills the bull, cuts down the pole, busts up the altar and sets fire to the whole kit and caboodle. On the other hand, this is God talking. Do you really not<\/em> want to do what He commands?<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see what the brave-o-meter does on this one.<\/p>\n

Captain courageous waits until nightfall to do the deed; figuring nobody will catch him. The next morning comes. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right about one thing; the men of the town are ticked. Gideon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lying low; no sense taking credit for this one.<\/p>\n

The men of the town find out who did it and come for Gideon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hide. Gideon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dad, Joash (it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t upset over the bull), comes out the house and says to the men of the town, “Are you fighting Baal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s battles now?” “Anyone touches my son and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be dead by morning” “Go away and let Baal fight his own battles.”<\/em><\/p>\n

That backed the townsfolk down and Gideon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brave-o-meter goes up another two points.<\/p>\n

After all this happens the bad guys, the Midianites, join forces and invade Israel again. Gideon, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had some pretty good courage boosters lately, is filled with the Spirit and calls his tribe and the neighboring Israeli tribes together to go attack the bad guys.<\/p>\n

Not being ridiculously brave, he double checks with God. Gideon puts out a sheep\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fleece one night and asks that if God really wants him to go after the bad guys, to make the fleece wet with dew but everything around it bone dry. That happens.<\/p>\n

Attacking bad guys is serious business and Gideon want to be sure he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got his signals straight. He pushes his luck with God by throwing the fleece out one more night. This time he asks for the fleece to be dry and everything else sopping wet. That happens.<\/p>\n

Okie Dokie. Time to go after the bad guys.<\/p>\n

But wait! There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more!<\/p>\n

The Lord wants to teach Gideon one last lesson about courage. It seems that 32,000 Israelis is really way too many for an attack on a valley full of Midianites too numerous to count. Gideon say\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to the troops, “Look if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so scared about this operation that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shaking, go on home; we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be needing you.”<\/em> The announcement didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go over well. 22,000 men left that day.<\/p>\n

Apparently 10,000 Israelis is way too many to attack countless Midianites. God has Gideon dismiss 9,700 more.<\/p>\n

Great. Now he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got 300 men to attack a sea of bad guys. God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right on one point, He is going to have to do the heavy lifting on this one.<\/p>\n

You know the rest of the story. Each man gets a horn and a torch and a clay jar. They surround the Midianites in the middle of the night, break their jars, blow their horns and raised their torches \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 all at the same time.<\/p>\n

The Midianites were completely freaked out by the noise and the torches. They had no clue if they were being attacked by 300 men or 300,000 men. Those who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turn on each other in the confusion ran out into the desert in terror. All the bad guys were caught and killed.<\/p>\n

Gideon was a hero.<\/p>\n

*****<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

The moral of the story?<\/p>\n

Courage isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fearlessness. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing what you know you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to do, even if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re afraid.<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the good part: God knows what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to do and He makes sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not more than you can handle. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind showing Himself, just so you know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really Him that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talking. And most times He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give you something to do that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scary, but not overly scary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like cutting down an Asherah pole. He knows that overcoming a little scary thing helps to prepare you for the big scary thing.<\/p>\n

And when the big scary thing comes?<\/p>\n

Hey. He told you to do it. He said He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be right there doing the heavy lifting. And you know it was Him because He showed Himself to you. Also, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a track record; He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given you some little scary things to conquer so you know the system works.<\/p>\n

And after the battle? When you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the hero and the thing that terrified you is lying at your feet? What have you learned?<\/p>\n

The same thing Gideon learned. The battle is the Lord\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. You just showed up for the fight.<\/p>\n

*****<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stay on Courage for another week. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more to be said.<\/p>\n

Until then, let Him fight your battles; but remember to show up.<\/p>\n

In Him,<\/p>\n

Steve Spillman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Purpose Vol. 2 Issue 16 April 17, 2008 The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing Courage Fear is a part of life. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe people who say they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not afraid of anything. Everybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s afraid of something. I used to be afraid of eighth graders. They terrified me, bullied me, threatened me and laughed at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[585,134,586,277,334,459,276,540],"tags":[587,589,880,881,588,592,590,591],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courage","category-faith","category-fear","category-gods-voice","category-obedience","category-possessions","category-prayer","category-trust","tag-afraid","tag-bullies","tag-courage","tag-fear","tag-fearlessness","tag-judges-6-8","tag-roller-coasters","tag-theme-park-ride-tester"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}