Both my sons play baseball, and each team has signals for bunting, stealing, taking a pitch, hitting away, etc. Normally, the third base coach gives the signals to each player before he steps to the plate. Also, after each pitch, our batters are supposed to step out of the batter’s box, look down the third base line, and check with the coach for the signals. Needless to say, they missed many of the signals because they weren’t paying attention at the beginning of the game when the signals were given or they simply did not bother to look down the line to get the signals from the third base coach. As a result, we were far from having a wining record. 

Each day, I believe, the Holy Spirit gives me signals to: steal away to a quiet place, pray, stop, pause, breathe, go, talk, be silent, take a risk, listen, move, repent, confess, laugh, love harder, dig deeper, live and lead more courageously, share the gospel, put down my blackberry, turn off the computer, buy my wife a gift or simply hold her, play catch or sit with my children, call someone I haven’t seen in a while, and so many more.

I wonder how many times I have miss the signals in my day because I wasn’t paying attention or because I wasn’t looking down the line to check with the Third Base Coach before I started my day. Sometimes I see the signal to bunt (humility), but because I don’t see myself as a “small ball” kind of player, but a power hitter (Ego, Pride), who wants to be the hero and win the game (selfishness), I ignore the signals and carry out my own agenda at the plate. In the end, I lose out on advancing the Kingdom and bringing glory to our heavenly Father.

Each day, before I start my busy day, I need to look down the line and check the signals from the Third Base Coach, through prayer and meditating on Jesus’ words. This way, I can better understand what he wants me to do, thereby doing my part in advancing his kingdom in the world. What signals is the Third Base Coach giving you? How closely do you pay attention and follow them? 

“Since we live in the Spirit, we should also walk in the Spirit.” Gal. 5:25

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In addressing the students of Oxford University, John Wesley said, “How few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer.” As I read this, this statement sent waves of conviction through the corridors of my own soul. It reminded me of how I have failed, in many ways, to make private prayer more of a priority in my life. Why do I fail more often than I succeed at having a vibrant personal prayer life?  I believe, during those times when I become intoxicated with the elixir of complacency and self-sufficiency, I tend to pray less.

This was true of Peter, James and John. On one of the most painful nights of Jesus’ life, Jesus takes his closest followers to a place called Gethsemane. There, he longs for and invites them to watch and pray with him. They handle this privilege and responsibility with faithfulness, right? Not! On three separate occasions, instead of finding them watching and praying with him, Jesus finds them sleeping. Just couldn’t their eyes open. Jesus was disappointed that they had become victims of the condition I call “Gethsemane Sleep” – when his followers become complacent in their prayer privilege and responsibility (Matthew 26:33, 35-41).

Not only had they become complacent, but they also had sipped, imbibed, and become drunk off the wine of self-sufficiency. Peter said, “I will never deny you. And all the other disciples vowed the same.” (Matthew 26:35) As we used to say on the block, “Never is a long time.”  You should never say never because  we are too frail and too prone to failure to say what we will never do. Sounds too much like pride, overconfidence, self sufficiency or cockiness to me. I recognize it because I have been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and am making the video version of it. And, the next time we see them, they are sleeping instead of praying. I believe prayerlessness had infiltrated their lives long before they were found to be prayer-less in Gethsemane; it was just revealed when Jesus found them sleeping. 

Isaiah said that prayerlessness is a sure sign that we have grown tired of God: “But my dear people, you refuse to ask for my help. You have grown tired of me! (Isaiah 43:22) When we are more concerned about our social networks than our Spiritual Network, then we have grown tired of God. When we depend more on our own strength to get things done rather than his power to accomplish the impossible, then we have grown tired of God. When we manipulate and maneuver circumstances and people to get our way rather than trusting him to change hearts and navigate circumstances, then we have grown tired of God. When we trust our own resources more than the Source of our resources, then we have become victims of prayerlessness and thus have grown tired of God. 

Let’s demonstrate to our heavenly Father that we have not grown tired of him by spending quality time with him in prayer and depending on his wisdom and his power for our lives. 

How much time do you spend in prayer from one week to another? What do you need to do to make prayer more of a priority in your life?      

Tired of God? Wake up your prayer life.  

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Humility is recognizing, admitting, and embracing my limits. Moreover, it is understanding what I don’t know and knowing who to go to and where to go to increase my knowledge base and capacity. But, we often pretend we are more exceptional and more skilled than we really are, and that we really don’t have limits or need anybody else to help us. We want to appear smarter, more well-read and well-informed than everybody else. We spend time posing, managing an image for people we think are important, wealthy, or well connected. We attempt to impress people with our capacity to know and do. This is far from embracing our limits. When we fail to recognize and embrace our limits, we run the risk of delusional living, thinking more highly of ourselves than we should, and we limit God’s promotion. I am learning to recognize, admit and embrace that:

I am not a messiah

I can’t and won’t save everybody

I can’t and won’t be at every meeting

I can’t and won’t meet everybody’s needs

I can’t and won’t please everybody

I can’t and won’t accept every speaking engagement

I won’t have all the right answers

I can’t and won’t fix every relational/marital problem  

I can’t and won’t say yes to everybody and everything

I fail often and make many mistakes   

I overcommit myself way too much  

There is not enough space to list the rest of my limitations, but trust me, there are many more.

If humility is recognizing, admitting and embracing my limits, then pride is the reluctance and refusal to recognize, admit and embrace my limits. This type of pride is never good and always precedes painful and sometimes public failure. I have had my share of these moments. Every day I am asking our heavenly Father to teach me what it means to recognize, accept and embrace my limitations.  

What about you? What are some limits you have refused to recognize, admit and embrace? Which ones will you begin admitting to God and others?

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Written and read by Marvin L. Williams

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The other day as we were eating breakfast, my oldest son complained about his sister “always” copying him. Tonia and I tried to explain to him that it was a compliment and an honor for his sister to want to copy him. I know it can be annoying to have a younger sister or brother doing everything you do; I had a younger to sister who copied me all the time, and it was annoying and frustrating. However, it wasn’t until I became older did realize that it was a compliment and an honor. Then the sheer responsibility of giving and leaving an example worth copying frightened me. Was I supplying her with a healthy or unhealthy example? Did she see something in me and copy something from me that would negatively affect her later? If so, then I would be responsible for giving her a poor example to copy. I began to feel the weight of my example and pattern? 

Whether we know it or not, people, especially our children, watch us very closely and want to be like us. They imitate the way we walk, the way we talk, the way laugh, the way we sit, the way we eat, the way we write, the way we spend money, the way we treat people, and especially the way we treat God. Can’t you feel the weight of your pattern?  But, we should not shy away from the responsibility of people wanting to copy us, but lean into it. We should say like Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Copy me as I copy Christ.”  The question that I ask myself is, am I giving people a Christlike pattern to copy? Does my life, love, and attitude remind people of Jesus? If not, then maybe I am not doing a good job of copying his radical and perfect pattern. I tell you, some days I simply don’t leave a good pattern for people to follow, not because it’s hard, but because I am selfish and filled with unhealthy pride. Each day, by his grace, I desire to strive to leave an example worth copying and say to others with confidence, Copy me!.  

What about you? Are you giving people around you a good pattern to copy? Are you setting healthy or unhealthy examples for people to imitate? Can you say to someone with confidence, “Copy me!”

How do you feel about telling someone: “Copy me!”

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In the Broadway play My Fair Lady, Eliza is courted by a man named Freddy. Freddy writes her love letters every day. But Eliza’s response to all these written promises is to cry out in frustration: “Words! Words! I’m so sick of words! Don’t talk of stars burning above! If you’re in love, show me! Don’t talk of love lasting through time. Make no undying vow. If you love me, show me now!”

In the same way, we need to show our love and gratitude to our heavenly Father with actions, not just words. Sometimes I wonder if God sighs with deep frustration: “Words! Words! I am so sick of words!  Marvin, don’t tell me how much you love me, worship me, and adore my name. If you love me, show me now!“  Here are a few ways we can show our heavenly Father how much we love him: resourcing the poor in all kinds of ways (not just with money), caring for widows and orphans, walking with those whose lives are ravaged by HIV/AIDS, being advocates for literacy in urban schools, helping the marginalized find a place at the table, visiting the sick, visiting those who are in prison, living on “enough” and giving to brothers and sisters who are in need. I have to keep reminding myself, “talk is cheap.” Actions are costly, but they reveal how much I really love God. 

What other ways can we show God how much we love? How will you show Him today that you love him?

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As I ponder the quest to my rest, I am guilty of delaying my yes, at the behest of my flesh. Most days, my first reflex is to acquiesce to the request of my flesh, but I detest my flesh and through the power of the Spirit, I contest my flesh, wrest my flesh, desire to best my flesh, in hopes to arrest my flesh.  I keep reminding him that he’s an unwelcomed guest in my flesh and that he’s too underdressed to play chess with a King who can checkmate him in one move or less. Ah, but as I move toward my spiritual rest, I delay my yes at the behest of my flesh. Every day, in my own power, I am hard-pressed to check my flesh. Ya’ll, it’s complex. So, I must live and move in Him who was made manifest in the flesh in order to divest my flesh, undress my flesh, depress my flesh and give me recess from my flesh. Lest I forget the One who said come to me and I will give you rest and the One whose passion and death removed my sin as far as the East is from the West, I will daily return to Calvary, the place of the Ultimate Love fest.  But, sometimes I am guilty of delaying my yes at the behest of my flesh. Through the Spirit’s power, I will pass the test and my flesh won’t best me today, misdirect me today, negatively affect me today. Ya’ll, I’m walking in the Spirit. I can hear it, that is, His voice, leading me, guiding me, prodding me, prompting me, pushing me, convicting me, changing me, transforming me. I don’t desire to delay my yes at the behest of my flesh. But, why do I say yes to the request of my flesh? Here in lies my stress. So, I must ingest and digest the life and words of the One who gave me this new nature living inside my chest. But, I must confess, I am guilty of delaying my yes at the behest of my flesh. Who will deliver me from the mess of my flesh? Ah, yes! Jesus, the One who bested sin and death. 

How has your flesh/sinful nature delayed your “yes” to our heavenly Father? How will you use your mind and body as instruments of righteousness under the Spirit’s control today?

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