Once upon a time… there lived a Hammer named Hero.  Hero lived in the land of Toolville and was a spectacular hammer.  All the townspeople in Toolville marveled at Hero’s abilities.  Hero would hammer away at everyone’s problems.  He could hammer nails of any size, handle any repair, and build enormous structures with ease.  He was the strongest, fastest, and most efficient hammer anyone had ever seen and was the most famous hammer in all of Toolville.  Hero the Hammer could do anything.

Everyone wanted to be like Hero, including a Handsaw named Hopeful.  Hopeful wanted to hammer nails just like Hero and worked long hours and stayed up late at night practicing.  He studied videos of Hero, read books about all that Hero had accomplished, and studied magazine articles on how to be just like Hero.

Hopeful was baffled by how effortlessly Hero performed his work.  Hopeful chopped at the nails with his blade, which really hurt, and no matter how hard he worked, he could never hammer nails with the same ease or efficiency as Hero.  The day finally came when Hopeful realized that he could never be as good of a hammer as Hero.  After all, he was just a handsaw.

In the moment of giving up, something very unusual happened.  Hopeful chopped at the nail in the board one final time when his blade slipped and his teeth sank deep into the piece of wood.  Cutting into the wood suddenly felt more natural to him.  As he began to sink his teeth deeper into the wood he felt more alive, as if he was meant to do it all along.  Faster and faster, he effortlessly cut through one board and then another and another.  Hopeful stopped and looked at his work… astonished.  At that moment he realized he could become the greatest wood cutter in all of Toolville…

I cannot afford to waste time trying to be someone I’m not.  I can only be best at being one person: me.  As Hopeful the handsaw discovered, we must free ourselves from who we are not, often before we can discover who we truly are.  Contrary to the slogan, we were not all created to “be like Mike” (Jordan), nor were we created to fit the mold of our favorite business expert, role model, or superstar; we were created to play the unique role that only each of us can play.

May we discover our true identity.  May we allow ourselves to be used in the manner in which we were intended, and may we place ourselves in the hands of the One who can use us to the fullest measure.

“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Paul of Tarsus (Ephesians 2:10)

“Life is short” – Nike

Today in Iraq is the excavation of the ancient city of Babylon.  Recently at the excavation site, scientists discovered an ancient carving etched in stone that bares these words: “I am King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, king from sea to far sea.” What happened to this king and his powerful empire?

In 612 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire and most powerful city in the world.  The Babylonian army defeated the Assyrians and quickly became the most powerful empire in the history of the world.  The Babylonian Empire stretched from one side of the known world to the other.  The Babylonians would rule the world forever… it would seem.

Then in 539 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia, came up from the area of modern day Iran and attacked the Babylonian empire.  The Persians eventually defeated Babylon and the Persian Empire quickly became the most powerful empire in the history of the world, stretching from one side of the known world to the other.  For almost 300 years the Persian Empire sustained itself.  The Persians would rule the world forever… it would seem.

Then in 350 B.C., in a disorganized corner of the world known as Greece, the city-states of Athens, Sparta, and Macedonia joined forces under Alexander the Great and attacked the Persian Empire and defeated the Persians, becoming the most powerful empire in the history of the world.  The Greek Empire quickly stretched from one side of the known world to the other.  The Greeks would rule the world forever… it would seem.

Then in 264 B.C. the Roman army crossed over the line of Italy and attacked and defeated the Greek empire.  The Roman Empire quickly stretched from one side of the known world to the other and became the most powerful empire in the history of the world.  The Romans would rule the world forever… it would seem.

Then in 1783 A.D. America defeated the British armies and eventually became the most powerful empire in the history of the world.  The Americans would dominate the world forever… it would seem…

We are part of the on-going pattern of history.  Babylon perished.  Persia, Greece, and Rome all followed suit.  One day so will we.  I often forget that we are not permanent; we will not last forever.  I am a “mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

As Nike says, “Life is short”… but it’s the next one that lasts forever.  May we remember that we are passing through this perishable world and will one day enter a kingdom that will, in fact, last forever.

Nebuchadnezzar was king only for a season.  His kingdom did not last.  Today, etched in stone at an Iraqi excavation site is a reminder that kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall, but there is a kingdom to come that will last forever.

“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” – Daniel of Babylon (circa 620 B.C.)

I saw him on my last trip to the beach.  In an old pair of worn out loafers, mid-calf socks, a v-neck t-shirt, clip on shades, and a bucket hat, this modern-day gold digger shuffles through the sand searching for his buried treasure.  Armed with his metal detector, hoping to hear the high-pitched sound of the nearing metal treasure over his fading eardrums, he takes one step, another step, another step… and he listens.

I never see him standing still; moving is part of the game.  He has to take steps to know if he’s moving in the right direction toward his treasure.  I wonder how many steps he has made in the wrong direction.  How many times has he had to turn around and try a new path?  How much easier would it be if he had a map where X marks the spot?

I probably spend more time waiting for a map than actually taking steps.  I want to be sure of each step before I take it.  I hate wasting time.  Before I start a new project at work, before a new relationship, I want to know it will work out well.  But I am never given the map, only traces of clarity as I take each step.

I have rarely made decisions with 100% assurance.  I can pray for direction, but I have gained most clarity not as I wait, but as I walk– as I take steps forward, listening.  My tendency is to play it safe, but ‘safe’ is not how God called us to live.  He called us to live an adventure, paved with risk, marked by steps of faith.

“God has rigged the world so that it only works when we embrace risk as the theme of our lives, when we live by faith.  All attempts to find a safer life, to live by the expectations of others, just kill the soul in the end.” – John Eldredge

I’ve learned there’s really no such thing as a ‘safe life’.  There are no guarantees.  What seems to be a safe life is only a slow death.

One day when my hearing is faded and I’m wearing old loafers and bucket hats, I want to know I have reached the bounds of all I am meant to experience in this life.  I want to look back on this path and see how divinely lit it was.  It is a call to dream only God-sized dreams, to carry with us the faith that our risks will one day meet reward.  God is honored in our steps of faith.  He waits to show up in our steps.  So we pray for the day when our steps of faith will intersect with his faithfulness… and there the treasure will be.

“By faith the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea as on dry land.” – Author of Hebrews (Hebrews 11:29)

There was a Jewish boy who grew up in Germany many years ago.  This boy deeply admired his father.  His father led the family to their Jewish Synagogue faithfully and the boy grew up with strong Jewish values and beliefs.

In his teen years his family was forced to move to another town in Germany where there was no Synagogue; only a Lutheran church- the life of the community.  The Lutheran church was the gathering place for all of the town’s important businessmen.  Wanting to be well-connected in business, his father made the family abandon their Jewish traditions and join the Lutheran church.  The boy was deeply wounded and confused by his Father.

The boy’s broken heart distorted his view of reality and drove him away from God and religion and later led him to the British Museum in England where he compiled his new beliefs into a book.  In that book he laid the foundation for a movement that would forever change the world.  He described religion as the “opiate for the masses” and developed a world system of life without God.  His ideas became the norm for governments of almost half the world’s people.  His name was Karl Marx, founder of the Communist Movement.

The history of the world was forever darkened because of one Jewish boy’s broken heart.

Brokenness can distort reality.  I doubt I am fully aware of how much my past experiences control my worldview today.  I know there must be lies about myself I am unaware I am believing.  What is it inside me that wants to hide my true self around certain people?  Why do I feel I have to impress, perform, exaggerate stories, make people think I’m important?  Have I believed the lie that I need their acceptance for validation?

I don’t want to live like that.  I don’t want to be caged by a distorted reality built by bricks of wounds and lies I collect to where “these walls are all I know.”  Christ said he came to heal and set us free (Luke 4:18).  So I pray for healing and freedom.  I pray God would restore those broken places in our lives and lead us to become who he created us to be.

There was another Jewish boy who grew up with strong Jewish values and beliefs who would also forever change the world.  His name was Isaiah (meaning “The Lord Saves”).  He penned the words that Christ would later quote at the outset of his public ministry:

“God has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free.”