Life is busy. Distractions abound. Things either move too fast or too slowly. The squirrel problem is constant. Priorities get blurred.
I’ve learned the hard way how important it is to keep my eye on the ball. What is Jesus really asking of me this day, each day, every day?
Simplify. Clarify. Sharpen. Identify the main thing and keep it the main thing.
With 25 years to go before I reach the century mark, I’m in a fourth-quarter frame of mind. Leave it all on the field.
So I’ve boiled everything down to 3 triads. Three A’s to sum up my calling from the Lord. Three N’s to remind me where to channel that calling. And three P’s to guide me as a citizen with one foot in America and the other in His kingdom. Here they are:
3A: Calling
Breathe God’s air (inhale Scripture, exhale prayer)
Build God’s ark (institutions)
Be God’s ambassador (witness)
3N: Channel
The world urgently needs the church (salvation nowhere else)
I urgently need the church (in fellowship I stand, alone I fall)
The church urgently needs me (step up, take action)
3P: Citizen
Politics isn’t war (commanded to love)
Politics isn’t optional (lives are at stake)
Politics isn’t ultimate (only His kingdom is)
The Bible in no way sanctions the individualism would distance a Christian from the Body of Christ—or the quietism that would cause churches to shun civic engagement. Just the opposite.
There’s a reason we are asked to cooperate with government laws and authorities in Romans 13:1-10. It’s for love of neighbor, as Paul makes clear.
There’s a reason we are asked to pray for political leaders in I Timothy 2:1-8. As Paul again makes clear, it’s so the gospel can be lived and proclaimed, so souls can be saved.
Such is the biblical grounding of my Big 9 precepts for keeping the main thing the main thing.Such is the holistic theology that knits together, for me, the roles of convert and churchman and citizen.
We read in Ecclesiastes 9:14 and 15: "There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.”
As Jesus’ disciples in a fallen world, we’re under siege. It beats upon us, heart and mind, body and soul. It batters our precious heritage, Western civilization. It fragments our attention and saps our resolve.
Will you and I meet the moment? Let’s be among those whose godly wisdom wins the day. Remembered or not, no matter. What matters is standing against the siege, doing our part—and never breaking faith.
Adapted from a talk I gave to the Front Range Barnabas Group on February 25, 2020. They are the Colorado chapter of a national organization that networks church and ministry leaders with business and professional communities for mutual benefit, seeking to make 1+1=3.
