Problems | Tactical Christianity

What the Cavemen Learned

by R. Herbert | Sep 14, 2014 | Problems, Service, Strategic Notes

I’m not talking about prehistoric Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon “cavemen” here – I’m actually thinking of two men of God who at different times in biblical history both learned important lessons at the back of a cave.

These men were both successful in their own fields – one a warrior and one a man of religion. Both were used to life around palaces and nice homes, but both men lost everything they had and fled in depression and fear for their lives – to the back of a cave.

The first man was King David. 1 Samuel 22 tells us that when the jealous Saul stepped up his campaign to kill the young shepherd-warrior, David finally fled to a mountain cave where he holed up in depression, frustration and fear. The other man was Elijah, and in 1 Kings 19 we see that when the wicked Jezebel threatened his life, Elijah also “caved” under the pressure and ran for many miles, to the back of a cave on Mount Horheb – where he stayed, apparently in fear, frustration and anger.

There are times in our lives when psychologically we find ourselves in the back of a cave, too. We understand that some depression is physically caused and must be treated as such, but sometimes we find ourselves in the dark cave of depression or despair due to discouragement and difficulties. This is because fleeing to the inner parts of our minds is a very human reaction and sometimes seems like the only way to survive. Unfortunately, it becomes easy to stay there. It’s not that we are comfortable in the cave of depression, but the longer we stay there, the harder it becomes to leave. That’s why in both biblical stories of God’s servants who fled to physical caves, the first thing we see in the way God turned these situations around was that he commanded both men to leave the cave they were in.

In David’s case, God sent a prophet to David to specifically tell him he had spent enough time in the cave and that it was time to leave. “… The prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not stay in the [cave] stronghold’” (1 Samuel 22:5), so, uncomfortable as it was to do, at God’s command David left the cave. We see exactly the same with Elijah. “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord …’” (1 Kings 19:11). God patiently listened to the reasons Elijah gave for his depression, anger and fear, but he nevertheless firmly told him to come out of the cave. It probably wasn’t psychologically easy for them, but both men obeyed in faith. They may not have seen a reason to leave the cave, yet once they realized it was God’s will they obeyed.

So, God understands when we sometimes flee to the cave, but he is just as clear in telling us we must not stay there. And God goes a step further – as the wise Physician he is, he prescribes what we need in order to stay out of the cave. In both the stories of David and of Elijah, God prescribed exactly the same spiritual medicine. When he instructed David to leave the cave, we see the next thing he did was to tell David to go help the people of Keilah who were being attacked by the Philistines: “Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah” (1 Samuel 23:1-2). And when Elijah obediently stepped out of his cave, God immediately told him to go to Damascus and instructed him: “… When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat …” (1 Kings 19:15-16).

God doesn’t just tell us to pull ourselves together and leave the cave of depression. He tells us to leave – and to go help someone who needs help. Finding ourselves in a “cave” is something that even some of the greatest of God’s servants have experienced, but the way out was the same for them as it is for us. We overcome this problem only when we realize God doesn’t want us to live in the cave and that his prescription for cave fever is often to go help someone. It’s as though God knows that the only way for us to effectively stay out of the cave is not just to get busy, but to get busy serving others.

That is how God helps us get our focus off our own problems – by getting us to focus on and help others whose problems are so often so much worse than our own.

Days We Soar … and Days We Don’t

by R. Herbert | Jul 17, 2014 | Encouragement, Problems

“… those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”
(Isaiah 40:31).

Isaiah’s wonderful lines regarding the renewing of our strength carry an even more encouraging message than we might immediately recognize.   First, Isaiah compares our strengthening to the flight of eagles. Eagles have very large wings in relation to their body size – which doesn’t make them better “flappers” for flying, it makes them able to soar on air currents that carry them long distances and to great heights. They are wonderfully designed for this soaring flight and often spend only a couple of minutes out of any given hour actually flying on their own strength. In fact, without the air currents that lift and speed the eagle, it is actually not an impressive flyer. It requires a great amount of energy to flap those great wings and lift the large body, and it is as the eagle utilizes the power available to it from air currents that it soars and its strength is literally renewed and multiplied.

The analogy for those “who hope in the Lord” is obvious. We may be able to accomplish a certain amount on our own strength, but if we choose to accept the power of “the wind” (Acts 2:2), our strength is renewed and expanded and we can rise to much greater heights. But Isaiah doesn’t stop there. After comparing God’s strengthening of us to the flight of the eagle, he speaks about the strengthening of those who run and those who walk. These are clearly descending levels of strength and apparent accomplishment. Soaring is better than running, running better than walking.

We all have days when we feel that we spiritually soar with God’s help, others when we feel we are not that high, but are moving along steadily – running, as it were; and yet other days when we feel we are just plodding pilgrims slowly putting one foot in front of another. Some days, pain, worry, fatigue and failure take their toll on us, and we just don’t seem as spiritually energized.   But that’s doubtless Isaiah’s point in the descending order of soaring, running and walking – God promises to strengthen us however our day is going.

In his excellent book If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, John Ortberg makes the point that it is natural and not wrong that we have such widely different days. Jesus knew what it was to receive God’s strength to do His work on soaring days – days of healings and other miracles. He also must have experienced slower days when he had to cope with doubting and unbelieving friends as well as dealing with the hostility of enemies. And finally, Christ knew what it was like to need the strength even to walk – as he carried the heavy stake on which he was to be crucified.   The truth is, if we seek God and stay close to Him, we can often soar – but we can’t always soar. Some days we soar and some days we just feel sore. As Ortberg perceptively concludes, sometimes it is just important that we keep going despite our weakness. In the last analysis sometimes it takes more character to walk than it does to soar. In those situations, Ortberg reminds us, maybe God prizes our walking even more than our running or soaring.

Hot-Button Issues

by R. Herbert | Feb 16, 2014 | Family, Problems, Relationships

All societies have their hot-button issues. Here in the US it might be immigration, minimum wage, health care or a number of other things. Whatever the topic, however, these hot-button issues share the commonality that they are not usually topics brought up in casual conversation with people we do not know well. People learn that society functions more smoothly when we don’t discuss one of these issues in the process of going for a dental checkup or picking up our dry cleaning.

Nevertheless, because these issues are often not discussed openly and widely and do not affect everyone, they often fester under the surface – breeding resentment and frustration for many. Nationally, it often seems as though there is little we can do to change this situation. One encouraging fact, however, is that since the economy has worsened to the degree it has and affected so many people, we now find it a widespread enough problem that we can easily discuss this topic with relative strangers – with individuals voicing what they feel might help without offense or anger.

All marriages have their hot button issues. They might be finances, children, in-laws or several other topics, but married people all too often learn that things go more smoothly when we don’t discuss finances over the breakfast table or the in-laws as we drive off on vacation. But because these issues are so often argued about, then swept under the rug as acknowledged hot-button issues, they may linger at the back of our minds and bring resentment and frustration.

The answer, however, is always to talk these things through. The time and place need to be chosen carefully, and ground rules should always be agreed upon before the discussion begins. We especially need to be able to agree that mutual respect trumps any individual issue and we need to be able to agree to disagree, to find compromise, to work together as much as possible. Unlike national hot-button issues which may only affect certain groups or be championed by them, family hot-buttons affect everyone in the family and need bilateral, husband and wife cooperation.

The good news is that even though our national economic problems are far from solved, we have learned to talk about them and in many cases to focus on what can be done about those problems in areas where improvement might be possible. For marriages, this principle is even better news. By acknowledging the problems and talking about them, we have hope of improvement. The essential point is that we need to learn to talk about – and work to defuse our family hot-buttons rather than ignoring them or pressing them. That’s not only how bomb disposal works, but also how marriages grow.

On Not Rushing to Anger

by R. Herbert | Feb 7, 2014 | Problems, The Life of Jesus

All the Gospels tell the story of Jesus casting the money changers and animal sellers from the temple. It’s a powerful story. As you remember, when He found people keeping animals in the temple and making profit in various ways He reacted dramatically. He overturned the tables of those who changed the common Greek and Roman money for Jewish coins (which were acceptable for Temple offerings) and used a whip to drive out the animals and birds being sold there (for sacrifices), saying: “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:16).

The picture painted in the Gospels is clearly one of Jesus displaying righteous anger at the way in which the temple was being polluted and commercially used, and at least one modern portrayal of the story depicts Jesus as seeing the situation and flying into a sudden and furious anger. It may be easy to imagine it that way, but the Gospels actually show that nothing could be further from the truth. Mark’s account is particularly interesting in that it gives us extra information which shows that Jesus did not just act with natural impulsive anger, but with a controlled anger based on prior thought.

Alone of the Gospels, Mark adds this fascinating detail to the temple cleansing narrative. After his humble but triumphant entry into Jerusalem, as recorded by the other Gospel writers, Mark tells us that “Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve” (Mark 11:11). Then Mark continues, “The next day … On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there” (Mark 11:12-15). It is clear from Mark’s addition that Jesus must have already seen the sellers and money changers in the Temple courts, but He chose to return to Bethany for the night – doubtless thinking and praying about what He had seen – before returning the following day to cleanse the temple.

Jesus’ driving out of the animals and the money changers and salesmen was clearly the opposite of hasty, impulsive anger, and John’s Gospel adds yet a further detail that also shows this. “In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts…” (John 2:14-15). The Greek indicates that the “whip” used by Jesus was made from the rushes used as the bedding for the animals and also indicates that he “plaited” the whip – combining multiple rushes into a serviceable whip – something that would have taken some time. Once again we see that unlike the common picture of Jesus seeing the money changers and instantly driving them out in great anger, when He did return to the temple He actually took time to plait or weave the whip he used.

So Christ’s behavior in this circumstance was the opposite of rushing to anger and provides a clear lesson for us. Even in the most justifiable instances of provocation, we need to think and pray about how we should respond (James 1:19-20). Rather than rushing to anger, we too need to take the time to figuratively plait the rushes.

Why the Spies?

by R. Herbert | Jan 12, 2014 | Problems, Strategic Notes, Warriors of the Way

What do your problems and the spies that we are told God sent into the Promised Land have in common? For that matter, what does a book written fifty years ago by Allen Dulles, the first civilian director of the CIA, tell us about God’s spies and the reason they were sent into the Promised Land? The answer, in both cases, is quite a bit.

If you are going through trials at this time, or if you are just somewhat intrigued by these questions regarding the story in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers, check out the new short article “Why the Spies? Your Trials and God’s Tests” uploaded to our Strategic Understanding page today. It may give you something to think about, and perhaps some encouragement, too.

A “Perfect” Storm?

by R. Herbert | Nov 10, 2013 | Problems

[Coincidentally, this blog post was written just before Typhoon Haiyan devastated large parts of the Philippines. Hopefully, our prayers and any other support we can provide will be with the thousands whose lives have been affected by this huge storm.]

Sometimes it’s not the storm we are expecting that hits us; but whatever the storm, we can learn from it.

It was the weekend he said the tropical storm was supposed to hit his Gulf Coast hometown. His email said they were preparing for a big storm. A dangerous storm. That storm never hit, but a couple of days later his young son was hit by a car while riding his bicycle to school. With his son hospitalized in serious condition, another storm – my friend’s own personal storm – had arrived.

It seems that life is often like that. Sometimes the storm doesn’t hit when it’s expected, sometimes it’s not the expected storm that hits. Sometimes it’s not that which we fear that comes upon us, it’s that which comes out of left field, seemingly out of nowhere. It’s not the disease we fear because of family history, but a different one that we contract. It’s not the illness we are checked for, but another one that shows up in the testing. Whatever the case, no storm feels “perfect” when it hits. Yet we learn things in storms we do not learn otherwise.

The Book of Job is always instructive in this area. Job’s ultimate life storm was certainly unexpected and terrible, but “the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm” (Job 38:1, 40:6). It’s a truth that we learn through our storms, the things we suffer, as even Christ Himself did (Hebrews 5:8), and that surely is the message of Romans 8:28 – that all things work together to good. This doesn’t mean that the destruction caused by storms is good, or that suffering is ever trivial, or easily discounted; but that good can come out of the storm and faith is formed and deepened in these times.

It’s hard to think about storms without remembering the story recorded in the Gospels of how a great storm came up while Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:23-30). Despite the storm, Jesus was sleeping peacefully on the boat until he was wakened by his fearful disciples asking Him to save them. “He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’” (vs. 26-27). The disciples learned something from this experience about the Son of God and how God can control the outcome of storms in our lives.

No storm that causes injury, loss of life, or physical damage is “perfect” to those affected by it. Katrina, Hugo, Sandy and many others brought great suffering, as future storms will also. Other types of storms in our lives are no different. But for the Christian, every life storm is an opportunity for God to work something within us that might not have been there otherwise. Believing good can be brought out of the storm does not mean the storm is good, but that the One who allows the storms of life to touch us and teach us has the power, when he is asked, to calm the storms around and within us.

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