When the Time Comes for Heroes

Here’s the thing.

There are a lot of encouraging blogs out there. It’s not usually this one. I mean, I want to be encouraging but usually the message God’s designed me to deliver is about how hard the times are, how much worse they’re likely to get, and about how much we need to rise to our calling.

When people share my blog, they usually include a warning.

That’s okay. God’s idea of me is something I embrace even if it takes me out of my comfort zone to invite others out of theirs.

But today, I feel as though we need a collective pep talk. You know what I’m talking about. You’re discouraged. Overwhelmed. Headline fatigued. Aware of your own limitations. Frankly, so am I.

We want to join the great adventure but we’re so tired at the end of our day, so brain dea d, so soul weary, we can barely climb the stairs to bed.

And we wonder . . . if I can’t make it through a normal day, if I can’t achieve my potential with what I have now, how will I survive if things get tougher? We want to bring glory to God and we aim for that, pray for that, seek God’s Word for direction for that, but then, stuff comes at us and we avoid learning any more lessons because, frankly, we’re not employing even a quarter of what we already do know.

Plus, the Duggar scandal got under our skin. Not because we care so much about the Duggars but because of the feeding frenzy that resulted when they were exposed as imperfect. Sharks in the water, baby, and some of those sharks were brothers and sisters in Christ. Wow. So, that’s what it was like in the Coliseum when the Christians were served up to entertain the crowd.

Do you see that was the purpose – the darker purpose – in what occured? It wasn’t so much about that one family as it was a message from the dark side – a threat to all believers. Don’t put yourself out there. You know you’re a sinner, too. Watch what happens to people who get too public with Jesus. We’ll find your secret. We’ll expose your soft underbelly. You know it’s there. We’ll toss you like chum over the side of the boat. Don’t get too risky in the name of Jesus or you’ll pay.

Here’s the thing. I don’t say it enough but I do believe it. We’re going to make it through even the hardest times.

This isn’t my faith in humanity talking. I work with humanity. We have our glory moments but I’ve seen the inglorious ones in spades. Humanity is a mess. No, we’ll make it through even the hardest times, even the weakest one among us, because Jesus will see to it that we do.

Sheep don’t make it through treacherous terrain because they’re talented, nimble sheep. They make it through because they have a loving, wise shepherd.

Jesus knows all about our weakness, our dark side, our secrets, our limitations, our failure, and our fear. He isn’t repulsed by our humanity – He climbed inside it to show us He gets it. The world doesn’t need our perfection – it needs our Jesus.

In fact, if one of us managed to be perfect, we’d mess up the deal for everyone else. Jesus died because none of us can escape this planet without sinning. That’s not a secret we should hide. Yes, I sin. That was my starting place. That was the schoolyard that made me aware of my need for Jesus. Happy day, it led me into a relationship with Him.

No one in the Bible who became anyone for God did it because they were so amazing. Most of them failed and stumbled their way to God. God is the amazing factor. Jesus is the power behind every heroic act. And He is the One who will empower us in the moment we need it if we trust ourselves over to Him.

We’re going to make it, loved ones. Keep moving forward in Christ. Rest when you can. Encourage the weary. Corral the straggler. Abscond with joy when you find it. But don’t give up and don’t listen to the dark whisperer lisping lies into your woundedness.

Jesus knows all your secrets and He chose you, still, to travel with Him in this adventure. He’ll see you through to the end. He spoke the world into being – brought light into darkness and created every good thing.

He will say the word and we will be heroes when the time comes for heroes. He will say the word and dry bone soldiers will rise from sofas, dust off potato chip crumbs, and become warriors of faith. He will say the word and He will be glorified through the least of us.

We make it, loved ones, because He is the One who writes our story. He gave us an appetite for happy endings because it’s His plan for us, for all of us who follow Him, even if we crawl and gasp our way across the finish line to glory.

So, hear this from the blogger whose job it seems to be to make you uncomfortable – be comforted. We’re going to make it. The smartest sheep amongst us is still –well – a sheep but our Shepherd won’t leave a one of us behind.

We will be heroes when the time comes for heroes so keep walking.

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When the Time Comes for Heroes http://t.co/jbOq6ZzCoh an unusual post for the disturber of hobbits – find out why! #amwriting #Jesus #Christ

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) June 10, 2015