Humility Prepares LifePointers for July Servant Emphasis

Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog?” True enough, sometimes smaller is better, but I was still reluctant to pick up C.J. Mahaney‘s book Humility: True Greatness, June’s book of the month. Maybe I have an aversion to the pint-sized Michael W. Smith books I read when I was a teenager. Maybe I have a superiority complex about the size of the books I read. Who knows.

In his book, Mahaney discusses what it means to be truly great. In our world, greatness is often defined by business savvy and athletic skills, but when God looks for greatness, he looks for humble hearts. In the first two sections, Mahaney defines pride and explains God’s opposition to it, and he redefines humility using Christ’s example. Much of what he said was old hat to me, but one thing resonated: Pride is our greatest enemy. Humility is our greatest friend.

Mahaney uses the third section to encourage us to practice humility in our lives by identifying evidences of grace, encouraging others, inviting and pursuing correction, and responding humbly to trials. He also stocks one chapter full of ways he strives to practice humility every day. This one caught me by surprise: Before going to sleep, receive the gift of sleep from God and acknowledge his purpose for sleep. Sleep is a reminder to us that we need to be refreshed every day, that we are not the independent, autonomous creatures we like to think we are, and that for our lives to be sustained we must rely on God.

Chris Bryant’s sermon this Sunday and LifePoint’s July servant emphasis bookend Humility perfectly. CB spoke of getting to know God, and many of the love languages we can use to know God can also be used to practice humility. Acts of service is one of those love languages, and that’s our focus as a church next month. If you haven’t picked up a copy of Humility yet, it’s not too late. Good things come in small packages indeed.

Something’s Got To Give

by Sarah Austin

I never thought I’d be the girl who slacked on her quiet times, but ever since I married Chris and started grad school, I’ve struggled with consistency in that area. In the last month or so, the Lord’s been convicting me, prodding me to get back in the saddle. For a few weeks, I tried reading my Bible before I went to sleep, which proved problematic because by the time I crawl into bed at 11 o’clock, I’m exhausted, and the last thing I want to do is read.

This week, I made a pact with myself and my community group that I would get up every morning at 5 to pray and study my Bible. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings were awesome, and the time I spent with the Lord was wonderful. Today, however, was a different story. Five o’clock rolled around, and I could not drag myself out of bed. Here’s why:

• I can’t go to bed much earlier than 11 o’clock any given night because Chris and I spend time together in the evenings.
• I’m training for a half marathon (about five hours a week)and will be training for a full marathon this winter (about ten hours a week). I run in the mornings before work, so I have to be up by 6 o’clock.
• Endurance sports require sleep. That’s when the body recovers and repairs itself. I’ve studied myself, and I function best with 8–9 hours of sleep, especially when my weekly mileage increases.
• I also work eight hours a day and do the normal house-wifely things.

Something has to give, people. Now I know that being a Christ-follower requires sacrifice and discipline, and I want desperately to have the discipline of daily time with the Lord, and I’m ready to sacrifice to do that, but I don’t know what to do with these other roles and responsibilities. I mean, it’s good to spend time with my husband. That’s pretty important. And it’s good to sleep and exercise. When I don’t sleep, I’m too tired to exercise. When I don’t exercise, I don’t manage stress well. When I’m not managing my stress, I overeat and gain weight, which is what happened to me in grad school and is why I got into running in the first place.

I know I’m not the only one who struggles with this. Everyone I know is busy. More than likely, I’m placing too much importance on the running and the sleep. It’s just that the running is the one thing I have that is in no way related to LifePoint, and the people who I run with need Jesus. That certainly doesn’t make the measuring of priorities any easier because we should all be both pouring our lives into people who don’t know Jesus and spending daily time with him in addition to our other roles and responsibilities.

I’m curious to know how you, other LifePointers, handle this struggle. If I figure anything out, I’ll let you know.

90 Minutes in Heaven

by Sarah Austin

I must admit that when my mother recommended Don Piper’s 90 Minutes in Heaven, I was skeptical. A guy dies, goes to heaven, and comes back to life to tell about it? Right.

In fact, I really had no intention of reading the book until 1) I found a copy to borrow (or rather, it found me) and 2) I found myself without anything to read. I had no excuse to not read it. Funny how that works sometimes.

The title sums up the book’s plot, but there’s a bit more to it than a dead guy spending 90 minutes in heaven. The author—Piper—dies in a car accident. The paramedics announce him dead at the scene and simply have to wait for a judge to come and make it official. While the accident clean up continues, a pastor who is stuck in the traffic behind the accident, walks to the scene and starts a conversation with a cop. He feels the Holy Spirit prompting him to pray for the dead guy (at the time, the pastor didn’t know the dead guy was also a pastor and that they had both been traveling home from the same pastors conference). The pastor crawls into the back hatch of the dead guy’s car, puts his hand on his shoulder, and starts praying for him.

Meanwhile, the dead guy is in heaven. He’s welcomed by all the Christians in his life that had gone before him. He sees the pearly gates, he sees the streets paved with gold, and he sees the city of heaven. In heaven, there is music we’ve never heard and colors we’ve never seen on earth. Just as he is getting used to the idea of heaven, Piper finds himself back in his car. He had been dead 90 minutes.

The pastor who had prayed Piper back to life had prayed specifically that Piper would have no head or internal injuries, and he didn’t. In spite of that miracle, the injuries to Piper’s leg and arms were horrific. Piper spends the rest of the book detailing his recovery with the Ilizarov device and how that device and his experience in heaven have allowed him to minister to others in similar situations.

I was a skeptic when I picked up this book, but somehow I know Piper’s experience in heaven is true. His description of that place is just how I would’ve imagined it, and beyond my own imagination, his description makes sense to me. While some have been changed from hearing how Piper recovered, his heavenly experience has changed how I come to worship. Heaven is a real place to me now—almost something tangible. And as I imagine singing with other saints before the Lord’s throne, I am excited for that day.