PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION--FOR AN ELECTION YEAR

 

John 13:33-35

Text Introduction:  Addressing his disciples as “little children,” Jesus began what would be his final teaching session with them before the betrayal and crucifixion.  He reminded them he was going away and instructed them on how they were to live.

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Years ago I heard a man talk about his experiences as a teacher at a small, very conservative Christian college in the upper Midwest.  The school’s leaders felt they had a vested interest in micro-managing students’ lives.  Every aspect of their lives was subject to strict rules.  Each dorm had only one TV and it could be watched only during certain times of the day.  Radios had to be set to Christian stations and turned off at the 11:00 pm “lights out.”  This college had a rule, found on many such campuses, against what was referred to as “public displays of affection.”  According to this rule, young men and young women had to remain a respectable distance from one another.  This was sometimes interpreted to mean a couple had to have at least six-inches of daylight between them.  Holding hands was not allowed.

The former teacher tried not to be dictatorial on the matter but felt obliged to occasionally remind students of the rule, if only to spare them embarrassment by other faculty members.

On one occasion he saw a young couple walking along, holding hands.  He cleared his throat had gently said, “Young lady, the Bible says, ‘lay hands on no man suddenly.’”

To this she quickly responded—also using the King James Version—“Yes, but it also says, ‘Hold fast to that which is good.’”

The sad truth is, in the minds of many outsiders we Christians don’t need anyone patrolling to make sure we don’t engage in public displays of affection.

Many people, especially young people, believe we are more likely to engage in public displays of dislike.   While I don’t think it’s fair to tar us all with the same brush, I have to admit we occasionally give our critics ammunition.  I don’t have to remind you it’s an election year and, recently, politics seems to be bringing out the worst of Christian vitriol.  Listen to some of the talk shows or read some columns.  You’ll discover it’s not limited to one political persuasion or the other.  Christians on the left and on the right cannot simply say a candidate is wrong, they must say that candidate is evil.  We don’t allow for deviation from political orthodoxy.  Let a candidate say, “We need to make changes to our health care system but I don’t want to pay for a hair weave for some guy who doesn’t like getting older,” and suddenly she’s guilty of favoring either death panels or keeping antibiotics from feverish children. 

The uncertain economy, the unrest in the world, and even the presidential campaign seems to be making people bad-tempered.   Consider this.  A few years ago a study revealed that churches are more likely to fire pastors or force their resignations during an election year than at any other time. 

Believe me; I’m not planning on telling anyone who I’m voting for.  And I may not tell anyone what team I’m rooting for in the Olympics this summer.  Everyone is so tense and irritable, even in churches. 

But, Jesus called his disciples to maintain public displays of affection. 

Listen to his words:  “I am giving you a new command--love one another.”  Jesus made it clear that obedience to this command was important, not only because loving one another would transform the community of believers, but because loving one another would be, in itself, a witness to outsiders of Christ’s powerful work.  He put it this way, “You must have love for one another. This is how everyone will know that you are my followers.'' 

 Obeying Jesus’ command to love one another confirms we are his people.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus gave this new command the crucial place it had in his farewell message to his disciples.

But How Was It A “New” Command?

Obviously, the simple command to love wasn’t new.  Several times in the Old Testament Jewish believers were told to love their fellow Jews.  In Leviticus, the code which defined the day to day character the Jewish people were to exhibit said, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  This expectation was repeated in a variety of ways throughout the Old Testament.  Jesus must have meant something other than that the command was unprecedented.  So, how was this command new?

It was new in its standard.  Jesus told the disciples they were to love one another “as I have loved you.”  Jesus’ own love is the standard by which his followers are to love one another. 

This is not love in the abstract.  Jesus embodied this love.  That love motivated his ministry.  As one writer put it, Jesus was “the Man for others.”  The most dramatic and undeniable illustration of that love would be displayed within a few hours of his giving them the command.  He would give his life on the cross.

Love like Jesus’ love is the goal which is set before us. 

It was new in its spirit.  As the Messiah, Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God. When he promised his followers they would have eternal life, he was promising they would begin to experience the life to the age to come in the here and now. 

In the same way, the spirit of this command to love one another was different.  The love Jesus sought was not the product of the law, with its raw demands for obedience;   it was a love which was the product of the life of the new age.

As our lives are transformed by Jesus’ love, we are enabled to love as we never would have been able to love before.  Because Jesus has given us the life of the new age his ministry initiated, our relationships will never be the mundane or common.

It was new in its scope.  Jews loving Jews was expected.  Of course, in any culture it is always easiest to love those who are most like us.  Jesus’ command looked to the day when the community of believers would escape the narrow boundaries of Judaism.  One day, there would be Jews and Greeks, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, slaves and free, within the churches founded following the spread of the Gospel.  There would be an unprecedented love among those believers.

Alexander Maclaren spoke of this love and the new thing it accomplished.

“Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant, clasped hands and sat down at one table, and felt themselves all one in Christ Jesus.  They were ready to break all other bonds, and to yield to the uniting forces that streamed out from His Cross.  There never had been anything like it.  No wonder that the world began to babble about sorcery, and conspiracies in unnamable vices.  It was only that the disciples were obeying the new commandment, and a new thing had come into the world--a community held together by love and not by geographical accidents or linguistic affinities, or the iron fetters of a conqueror….  The new commandment made a new thing….”

What did obedience to this new command mean the Christians as they moved among the non-believers?

Loving One Another Declares the Identity of the Church

The love the Christians had for one another was crucial for the survival of the church.  As the church grew, more and more of the people coming to faith in Christ faced ostracism and rejection by their own families and friends.  Some would be disowned, some would lose their livelihood, some women would be deserted, some young men and women would be treated by their families as if they were dead.  They all needed a place where they could find support, warmth, comfort, and love.  That place was the church.   But as those new believers, regardless of the social, economic, or ethnic origins, found acceptance among their fellow believers something else was happening.

Jesus said his followers loving one another would declare to the world that they were his followers.  If they loved like Jesus, they must be followers of Jesus.

Without this characteristic their identity was in question. 

There would be other identifying marks of the Christian church, but none were so important to those outsiders observing the church.

Only those within the community of faith would understand why it was important to maintain the doctrinal elements of a Christian world-view.  Those on the outside of the community would be more impressed by the love the Christians for one another.

Failure to maintain that mutual love placed the church in spiritual jeopardy. 

In the Book of Revelation, John would write of a church where orthodoxy was intact, a church where moral integrity was the order of the day, a church which patiently endured suffering; but a church which was, nevertheless, deficient because it had abandoned its “first” love.  In his message to that band of Ephesian Christians the Risen Lord of the Church said, “I have this complaint against you:  You don't love me or each other as you did at first!”  (Revelation 2:4)

Unless that situation changed the church was warned that its “candlestick” would be removed—a figure of speech which meant that its identity as a Christian community would be negated.  Without love it could not be a church.

Even though some congregations struggled to maintain the rule of love, the Christians were universally known by their love for one another.  One pagan writer actually complained that the Christians loved fellow Christians before they had even met them.

Loving One Another Determines the Impact Of The Church

Jesus’ words imply an important principle.  The effectiveness of our witness outside the community of faith is directly related to the integrity of our life within the community.

In the second chapter of Acts Luke tells of the early days of the church’s life.  He writes of their worship, their commitment to study, their generosity toward the needy among them, the depth of their faith.  This is how he put it:

“These [new believers] remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.  And everyone was filled with awe; the apostles worked many signs and miracles.  And all who shared the faith owned everything in common;  they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.  Each day, with one heart, they regularly went to the Temple but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they continually praised God…”

Then, Luke adds a final observation about the people of Jerusalem who stood by watching this phenomenal group of people who so loved one another.  Luke said, these new Christians “were looked up to by everyone.”   This reflected an occurrence which often took place in the early days of Christianity.  No matter what the authorities had to say about how bad the Christians were, the common people often observed their lives and came to their own conclusions.  Often they concluded the Christians were not to be feared but admired.  As a consequence, Luke could write, “Day by day the Lord added to their community….”

What’s the key to evangelism, to reaching the unreached in our communities?  It’s not one more program, as useful as some programs can be.  It’s not a colorful leader, though some churches have temporarily grown through the ministry of charismatic leaders.  Throughout history the church has made its greatest impact when ordinary Christians have lived like Christians, like men and women determined to imitate Christ.

Ray Ortland writes about the church’s impact.

“It was as brothers and sisters that the church conquered the world.  We must keep this ever before us.  It was a glorious band of brothers and sisters that sailed the oceans and marched through the continents to both dungeon and throne with the Good News.  One of the reasons they succeeded is that mankind, severed from one another and longing to come together, witnessed real love among the followers of Christ…. Wherever the church succeeds today, it is in large measure due to the love that exists between brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Conclusion

This morning we celebrated the Lord’s Supper.  It’s known by a number of names within Christianity.  One of the best known is “Communion.”  That’s a name recalling the fellowship or communion we have with Christ and with each other.  One writer says, “In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with other Christians.” 

As a student of church history, I can’t help but notice the irony that the Lord’s Supper—this rite celebrating our fellowship—is a topic we have fought over for centuries.  We have a hard time getting right Jesus’ words about the public display of affection.

But sometimes we do.

The other day I was in a conversation with some friends when, out of the blue, one of them mentioned the Moody Memorial Church.  It seems some elderly neighbors of his used to attend there when the couple lived in Chicago.  As he talked about his neighbors I recalled a story I heard years ago.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century there was a little boy who faithfully attended the Moody church each Sunday morning.  But he was always there by himself.  Finally, one snowy morning an usher asked him where he lived.  When the little boy told him, the usher realized the boy had to walk many blocks to attend the church.

He said, “Son, you have to walk past several churches to get here.  Why do you come here?”

The youngster answered, “Because, they love a fella here.”

I could be wrong but I get the sense that Jesus is less concerned with our politics than he is our love for one another—and for the world.

Everything I Needed to Know About Prayer...

I LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL

Philippians 4:6-7

Okay, strictly speaking that title probably isn’t true, but it’s true enough and certainly truer than a lot of what the “name it and claim it” crowd might say.

Anyway, I don’t recall the Sunday school teacher’s name.  And I’m sure what she shared on that Sunday morning so many years ago wasn’t original with her but it made enough of an impression that I recently found myself thinking about it.  That, in itself, is surprising because even though I attended Sunday school throughout my childhood and teen years, I don’t recall much about the details.  My parents had a picture of me in a Sunday school class and I don’t remember the teacher or any of the other pupils.  I do have a vague memory of wondering how the flannelgraph worked.  But back to the lesson on prayer my Sunday school teacher shared.

On the chalk board—that’s right, chalk board—she put the letters: ACTS.  She then explained that they stood for what should be part of every prayer.   She put the letters on the board; I’m giving the explanation.  Any confusion in the explanation is mine, not hers.

The first component of prayer is Adoration.

Adoration is praise felt at our deepest level.  It is born out of our recognizing who God is.  The psalmist exhibits adoration when he cries out, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your Name….”  Adoration celebrates God’s nature and character.

Adoration ought to be a component of prayer for at least two reasons. 

First, because it is appropriate:  God is worthy of our adoration.  That is at the heart of worship.  The very word comes from the same root as “worthy.”  Worship says God is worthy of our praise and adoration.

As such, the more we reflect on God’s nature and character, the better we are able to worship.  Psalms—like Psalm 8, 19, 100 and many others—are the products of hearts that have thought about who God is.

There’s another reason for making adoration an element of our prayer.  Adoration inspires hope and confidence as we pray.

With our minds on who God is, we are better able to pray with the hope that he is able and willing to answer our prayers.  There’s a hint of this in the passage.

As Paul writes to the Philippians to help them banish anxiety, he refers to God as “the God of peace.”  He seems to be saying that it is the nature of God to give peace to those who trust him.  When we pray for peace, it makes sense to pray to the God of peace.

Paul does much the same thing in the opening chapter of Second Corinthians.  He is addressing those who have been battered about by life.  Before he speaks to them he offers a prayer of adoration to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”—then he further describes God as “the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.”  To appreciate that description, look at the Amplified translation:  “the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement).”

If you need comfort and encouragement, wouldn’t you like to know that’s the God you’re praying to?

When we pray, let’s make time for adoration.

The second component of prayer, according to that Sunday school teacher, is Confession.

Most of us would just as soon skip this bit.  It makes us feel uncomfortable.  You can certainly understand why.  Confession calls upon us, in the words of the classic prayer, to acknowledge that “we have done those things we ought not to have done and left undone those things we ought to have done.”

But we don’t like to admit we’re guilty of either.  Maybe that’s why it’s placed just after adoration.  When we spend time looking on the glory and majesty of God, we become more aware of our own spiritual poverty.

Of course, the clearest example of this in the Bible is found in the story of Isaiah’s vision of God.   We find it in Isaiah 6.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
      Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
     And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
    And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
   And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

I like the New Living Translation rendering of “Woe is me!”   Is says, “It’s all over.  I’m doomed.”

Isaiah, who was probably someone you’d like as a neighbor, someone you’d describe as a good guy, was brought to a moment of heart-wrenching confession.

And that prepared him to receive God’s blessing.

When we truly confess, we disavow any notion that we somehow merit God’s gifts.  We reject any claim that we have the right to have our prayers answered.  We experience the humility that is open to receive what God deems best for us.

Confession clears away the clutter that stands between us and God.  It opens our eyes to the goodness of God and prepares us for the next phase of prayer.

The next component of prayer involves Thanksgiving.

We need to understand that this is not simply a call to be polite when we pray.  The wording “with thanksgiving” might suggest the note of gratitude is almost an afterthought.  Rather, I think   the idea is that we should thankfully pray, thankfully supplicate, thankfully request.

If adoration is inspired by who God is, thanksgiving is inspired by what God does.  It involves thinking beyond our immediate need.  It calls upon us to think about something else for a moment.  The old admonition, “count your blessings,” may seem simplistic.  But counting anything demands you pay attention, focus on the task.  It means setting what’s happening to you right now in the larger context.  It isn’t always easy but we can do it.  Finding cause to be thankful may keep despair and panic at bay.

It’s easy to forget to be thankful.  The word “supplication” implies intensity.  It can imply someone who is crying out, pleading, even begging.  That kind of feeling can cause us to forget to pause and say thank you.

Practicing gratitude is important because it reminds us that God is still watching out for us.  He is still on our side.  Thanksgiving fills us with hope as we enter the next phase of prayer.

Finally, we get to what some seem to think of as the defining component of prayer, Supplication.

Paul defines it for us by saying that supplication is simply “making your requests known to God.”

The language Paul uses is encouraging.  It implies definite requests.  We’re not limited to vague generalities when we pray.

Knowing we may bring every concern to God can calm the anxious heart.  As a consequence we know the “peace of God.”  Such peace may puzzle those who observe the Christian who is facing a situation that ought to inspire panic.  It is truly a peace that defies understanding or explanation.

Knowing God cares and hears allows us to calm our minds.  We can begin to discipline our thinking in a way that forestalls anxiety and helps us clarify our real needs.

Which List is Longer?

I’m going to spend the remainder of my time talking about these final two components of prayer:  Thanksgiving and Supplication.

If the first part of my sermon was inspired by something a Sunday school teacher said decades ago, this part of the sermon is suggested by two more recent conversations.

In a recent Friday night Bible study, where a group of twenty-somethings met at our house, we discussed how to face financial crisis.  Naturally, the issue of praying about our needs came up.  The matter of balancing giving thanks to God and asking about our needs was raised.  Only a few days later, Pat was in a conversation with our daughter-in-law Kelly and the topic turned to the same subject.

In each case, it was suggested that we have two lists.  One list enumerates those things for which we are thankful.  The other list enumerates our needs and wants—the concerns we bring to God.  In each case (the Bible study and the phone call), the question was raised “Which list is longer?”

It’s a good question.  Of course, not everyone who prays comes before God with two lists.  Many people come with only the one list—the list of what they want from God.  So recalling that we ought to have two lists is important.

At the same time, I don’t want to be misunderstood.  I would never judge a person’s spiritual condition by the relative lengths of their thank-you and their request lists.  Neither should you.  That broken-hearted person whose life is in shambles just may not be able to produce a lengthy gratitude list at a moment’s notice.  Because of this maybe we would all be wise to always begin our thanksgiving list with “Thank you, Lord, for the many anonymous and secret ways you bless me every day.”

Spending time on our thanksgiving list is good discipline.  We need to be like detectives looking for clues pointing to God’s activity in our lives.  Jesus once told a crowd that both sunshine and rain are God’s blessing.  We sometimes forget that.  Years ago, I heard an Amarillo DJ complain that the rain predicted for the upcoming weekend would spoil plans he had made for an outing.  The region that depends so much on agriculture was in the midst of a long-standing drought.  The DJ failed to see there would be other picnics and that his temporary disappointment would lead to greater prosperity for his neighbors and job security for him.  May we have the wisdom to put together a good thanksgiving list.

If we spend time on our thanksgiving list, maybe we need to spend time on our request list.  That would be good discipline too.  We need to understand why we need what we believe we need.

It will help us to pray more intelligently.  It may help us to see when God is beginning to answer our prayers through the back door, rather than answer them in a way that is obvious to everyone watching—including us.

Whether these two lists ever exist anywhere outside your mind, they will help you keep a balance to your praying.  They will sharpen your insight into what God is doing in your life.  And you will be encouraged as a matter that was once on your request list finds its way to your thank-you list.

Conclusion

Of course, as I said, my title is not entirely true.  My Sunday school teacher’s effort to simplify prayer didn’t cover everything.  Her teaching device was helpful but didn’t cover those aspects of prayer that remain mysterious.

Still, if we practice adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication we may come to that place where we can trust God for what can’t be easily put on the chalkboard or in an Elmo presentation.

Sailing through the Doldrums

A sermon preached because we've all been there.

Joshua 14:6-14

            You’ve probably heard reference to the doldrums, either as a term related to the sailing ships or related to the emotions.  Like me, you may have assumed the mental and emotional condition took its name from the weather condition.  Listen to this from a dictionary on the history of English.

The Doldrums is the region of calm winds, centered slightly north of the equator and between the two belts of trade winds, which meet there and neutralize each other. It is widely assumed that the phrase 'in the doldrums' is derived from the name of this region. Actually, it's the other way about. In the 19th century, 'doldrum' was a word meaning 'dullard; a dull or sluggish fellow'…  The term was used to mean 'a general state of low spirits' in the early 19th century.

So, “doldrum” came refer to region of the ocean where ships were unable to continue their journeys.  Coleridge describes the effect in The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner:

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

It’s a good picture of what happens when you and I experience the doldrums. 

I certainly have been there.  Nothing seems worth the effort.  The future seems without promise.  You can’t muster the energy to do what needs to be done to get back on track.  You’re in the doldrums.  In the children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster describes a place called The Doldrums “…inhabited by the Lethargarians who do nothing all day, a place where ‘nothing ever happens and nothing ever changes.’" [1]

How can we break out of them?   Can we do anything to avoid them?   How can we keep sailing through the doldrums? We can find some answers in the life of Caleb.

Caleb's life was defined by two events.  One took place when he was about forty; the other took place forty-five years later.

Minority Report

The first event took place at Kedesh Barnea and helped determine the future for both Caleb and the recently-liberated nation of Israel.  Kedesh Barnea is in the northeast part of the Sinai Peninsula, due south of Gaza.

The people had escaped from Egypt only a few months before.  Now they stood poised to enter the land that had been promised to Abraham four centuries before. 

Twelve spies were sent into Canaan to scout the territory.  When they returned all twelve reported the abundant wealth of the land.  All agreed that it was a land of plenty.  But ten of the spies said, "We could never conquer the people there.  They were like giants; we were like grasshoppers." 

It wasn’t long before Caleb had had enough of this and spoke up.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."  (Numbers 13:30)

In the end, only two, Joshua and Caleb, said, "With God's help, the land can be ours."  No one listened.  The people began to complain that they would have been better off back in Egypt.  They said that they would die in the wilderness.  Some of them even suggested killing these blatant optimists.  They weren’t ready to move on, if anything, they were ready to start a back to Egypt movement.

In response, God decreed that no adults, except Joshua and Caleb, would enter the Promised Land.  What followed was forty years of wandering, one year for each day the spies had spent in Canaan.

Down By the Riverside

The next scene takes place several decades later near the end of the conquest of Canaan.  It is my text for this morning:  Joshua 14:6-14.

Canaan was almost conquered.  Caleb had long fought beside his younger countrymen and, now, when many would have opted for a small place down by the river, a place already secured by the military forces, Caleb approached Joshua and said, “Give me my mountain.”

I can imagine Caleb, his beard growing grayer every passing year, but his strength never seeming to diminish.  There were no doldrums for him.  I can imagine younger Israelites marveling at him.  I can imagine him telling all who would listen, “One of these days God’s going to give us a home, a land of our own.  And in that land there’s a mountain with some tough people living on it.  They don’t know it yet but I own that mountain!”

When Caleb chose his inheritance it’s obvious he’d never heard the real-estate mantra:  “Location, location, location.”  The land he chose for himself was the home of the Anakim—the people who had so intimidated the ten spies some forty years before.  They were a rough group; biker gangs would have walked softly around them.  Clearly, Caleb had no intention to start taking the easy route.

Most of us look at Caleb and see someone we admire.  Why?  He didn’t let circumstances stop him.  He kept a goal in sight and kept moving toward it.

I

IF YOU WANT TO SAIL THROUGH THE DOLDRUMS STRIVE TO MAINTAIN A VITAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

1.  Not long after we meet Caleb God gives him a very powerful commendation.  " my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, " (Numbers 14:24)

1:1 Caleb’s “different spirit” was seen in his refusal to follow the crowd.  While the crowd was saying “We can’t,” Caleb was saying “We can.” 

The phrase “follows me wholeheartedly” is interesting.  Literally it means Caleb was "fulfilled to walk behind Jehovah."  The Hebrew words carry the notion of "being satisfied."

1:2  Caleb found satisfaction in a vital, dynamic relationship with God.  Many of us go through life looking for satisfaction.  Caleb found it in God.

2.  Some forty years later Caleb summed up his testimony in almost the same words.  He said, “I have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.”  :

2:1  This was an ongoing commitment.  It did not change with the seasons of life.  Neither prosperity nor hardship had shaken it.

2:2  This was a humble commitment.  Caleb was willing to "walk behind" God, allowing him to lead the way. 

2:3  Caleb was an outsider, a foreigner, one not born into one of the clans of Israel.  This Kenizzite recognized himself as a recipient of God's grace. 

--On the one hand, that knowledge meant he would be content to live with God's plan and God's timing.

--On the other hand, knowing that he had been accepted by God gave him a boldness which made him willing to stand alone, to stand against the crowd.  That day at Kedesh Barnea Caleb didn’t say to Joshua, “You know, the polls show that 80% of the experts are against this plan to conquer the promised land;  maybe you and I should reevaluate our position.” 

No, when he was younger, he had the faith to say, “With God’s help we can win.”  Then in old age he said, “I’ve lived my life with God’s help; now, with God’s help, I can take that mountain.”

II

IF YOU WANT TO SAIL THROUTH THE DOLDRUMS, WE SHOULD MAINTAIN SOME KEY PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE.

Caleb’s positive attitude changed his outlook on those things which sometimes rob our life of joy, it will change ours too.

1.  To sail through the doldrums, remember the presence, the power, and the promises of God.

Caleb knew God was with them on the threshold of the promised land.  When it came time to cross the Jordan, God wouldn’t be standing on the bank waving to them as they invaded the land alone.  He would be with them.

Caleb knew God had the might to bring them into the land.  The very existence of Israel, free from the slavery of Egypt, testified to that power.

He knew God had said He would bring them into the land.  One writer has said, “Caleb was brave among cowards, assured among skeptics.”  God’s promise was enough to fill him with confidence.

For the Christian, a positive attitude is not simply a matter of wishful thinking;  it is rooted in what we know about God and his faithfulness.

When we think of the promises of God, we can approach the future with “a different spirit.”  Think about this.  Those who have a secular worldview, who reject the Christian worldview say one of two things about the future:  Things are going to get better or things are going to get worse.  (The apocalyptic stories of a lot of modern science fiction seem to take the second position.)  At the same time, those who hold the Christian worldview, depending upon their approach to the End Times, say one of two things about the future:  Things are going to get better or things are going to get worse—before they get better.

Knowing the God who has our good in mind is with us, can keep us sailing.

2.  To sail through the doldrums, reject the hyper-negativity of those with no vision. 

Four decades after the tragic rejection of Caleb and Joshua’s minority report the wiry old general would recall:  “…my brethren [the ten spies] who went up with me made the heart of the people melt….” 

Few things are as contagious as negativism.  Someone paraphrased Kipling’s famous observation:  “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs,  you obviously don’t know what’s going on.”

Caleb's attitude was not born out of denial.  He knew there were giants in the land.  He knew the cities were well fortified.  He knew the enemy would have the "home field advantage."  But he was so positive about the promises of God that he didn't mind standing in the minority.

By the way, notice this.  After all those years, he refers to the ten spies as “my brethren.”  He may not have agreed with them.  Their attitudes may have cost him a lot of shoe leather as he wandered around the wilderness.  But he never forgot they had a fundamental relationship; even more so do you have a relationship with your fellow believers, even if they lack vision.  Only by keeping that relationship in mind can you hope to help them see what you see.

Historically, a ship caught in the doldrums could very soon have serious trouble as supplies of food and fresh water began to run low.  Getting out of the doldrums sometimes meant the crew had to lower their rowing boats and tow the ship to wherever there was sufficient wind.  No single sailor could do this.  It required the effort of the whole crew.  While we admire Caleb and Joshua for being willing to stand against the majority, we should remember going it alone isn’t the ideal.  Don’t recklessly disregard the strength and support you may find in the community of faith.

3.  To sail through the doldrums, reject unproductive comparisons.

Both Caleb and Joshua gave positive reports about the land.  Yet it was Joshua who became Moses’ lieutenant, Joshua who became the leader of the people after the death of Moses.  Caleb could have become bitter.  He did not.

Some of the most miserable people I know are those who are always comparing themselves to others, especially if others receive recognition for some effort.  They envy the spotlight falling on others.  These people easily get bogged down in bitterness.

4.  To sail through the doldrums, be willing to let others shine..  (Judges 1:11-15)

In an arid land water was crucial.  It showed great trust to give the springs to his daughter and her husband.

Some family patriarchs just can't let go.  Of business.  Of the kitchen.  They fail to see how affirming trust and responsibility can be.

5.  To sail through the doldrums, take delight in helping other win.

Caleb had helped others win their land.  He didn’t say, “First, I’ll get my mountain then I’ll help others.”   He gave himself to others before going out to win his piece of the promised land.

Caleb’s generosity was further demonstrated when he gave Hebron to be one of the Levitical cities.

Self-centeredness is one of the ugliest traits and it can leave us stuck in the doldrums.

CONCLUSION

Allow me to make a couple final points.  Depression can sometimes masquerade as a stint in the doldrums.  There may be times when nothing you do helps you set sail again.  At times like that you may need some professional help.  Be glad it’s available.

Caleb’s story is sometimes held up as an example for senior adults.  Certainly it is, but it’s more.  His story is a story of how to finish your life but it’s also a story of how to begin your life. 

Caleb’s life is an example of how young and old should live for God:  Live all out. But keep in mind, the Bible assures us that a gracious God allows us to make mid-course corrections, to enter into a relationship with him even if we ignored his claims for years. 

Then, with God’s help our lives will be transformed, we can sail out of the doldrums.

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[1] See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doldrums