Fire Your Inner Lawyer!

by | Jul 9, 2014 | Growth, Warriors of the Way

There is a very cynical saying that you can get through life with just two things – a good memory and a good lawyer.  The fallacy of that saying is evident in every life made miserable by divorce, lost friendship and broken business arrangements – to name only three examples – where both a  good memory and a good lawyer were involved.

The truth is, although there is a place for right legal counsel and representation, it doesn’t always work – and a “legal” opinion can sometimes hurt you. This applies on the personal psychological level, also.  Everyone grows up with what we might call an “inner lawyer” – and it’s a defense attorney.  We all have such a lawyer – an unscrupulous one – deep within ourselves, no matter how good our overall intentions may be. You may not remember hiring the lawyer within you, or paying him or her, but that “lawyer” is certainly there and is always on call at a moment’s notice. 

Remember the last time you made a dumb mistake and when you were challenged by someone about it, you had an almost instant answer or excuse? That was your inner lawyer talking.  Remember the last time you debated whether you should do something that wasn’t really right, but you came up with some pretty good reasons why you should do it anyway? That may well have been counsel from your inner lawyer.  

Our human nature just naturally learns to defend itself in some of the ways a lawyer might defend us.  Human nature will  tell itself it’s not to blame for something, or even blame a situation on others.  It will tell us that a  thought, word or deed is not that bad – especially if it is OK in the letter of the law – because no one can keep the law perfectly, right? (You may have noticed that inner lawyers can quote scripture.)  But just as the Gospel of Luke tells us:  “… the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves …” (Luke 7:30 ESV),  although our inner lawyer’s arguments may sound good, they really are at odds with what  God is trying to accomplish in and for us.

Unfortunately, as a result, we will never grow spiritually or find real transformation as a Christian as long as we retain that inner lawyer.  Psychologists may call what we are talking about  “self-justification,” but it helps to think of the process as an inner lawyer because this makes it easier to spot the manner in which it works.   Whenever possible we need to take time to think before we let that inner lawyer speak – and what’s more, when  the inner lawyer does start to wrongfully justify us, we need to be willing to fire him or her on the spot. It’s a kind of representation we really don’t need and are better off without.  This is easier said than done, because we can fire the inner lawyer today and still have him or her show up again tomorrow – or even later today.    It may take time to make this a habit, but if  we want to really make progress in our Christian lives, to misquote Shakespeare, perhaps the first thing we need to do is fire all our inner lawyers.
Breaking and Entering (for a good purpose) and a Military Mantra

Breaking and Entering (for a good purpose) and a Military Mantra

by | Jun 12, 2014 | Service, Updates, Warriors of the Way

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The four men were clearly guilty of breaking and entering – yet God blessed their actions.   The instance of  forcibly breaking into a domestic dwelling was a fairly outrageous one which involved considerable structural damage to the dwelling place – a crime in almost every culture – yet God rewarded the temerity of the individuals concerned.

Mark tells the story: “A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people … gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:2-5).

In this case the motives of the individuals concerned were clearly good ones.  Breaking and entering usually constitutes a crime because it involves entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offence such as stealing. Here, the four men broke into a domestic dwelling not to take by force, but to ask for help and their actions certainly were rewarded.

There is also an interesting lesson in this small story that we often overlook. Mark tells us that “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” It was apparently  the faith of those helping the sick man, rather than the faith of the man himself, that Jesus rewarded.  The story prods us to ask ourselves a question in relation to these men of faith: To what extent do we go in seeking God’s help for others?   While we may have true concern for the needs of others and may regularly take those needs to God on their behalf, just how dedicated and “extreme” are our efforts?  Do they approach the dedication of the four men of Capernaum? 

Another example of this kind of dedication is the “No one left behind” mantra of military units operating on battlefields or in hostile territory which has led to many examples of heroism where individuals and groups have gone to extraordinary lengths to help those unable to help themselves.  It is a mantra that we might well apply in our Christian lives – the principle of “No brother or sister left behind on life’s battlefield.”  It is perhaps only rarely that heroism may be involved, or “breaking and entering” on behalf of others who need help, but the principle applies if the need is present.  It is, after all, a principle that God commends – we are told to strive to enter the Kingdom of God (Luke 13:24), and we must strive to help others in fulfilling their calling, too.  

In the biblical example the four men guilty of breaking and entering in the city of Capernaum acted with amazing dedication, and many examples of the “No one left behind” mantra show the same.  Such stories urge us to ask ourselves:  “Would we go to such lengths to help someone in real need?”  The answer is probably as close as the next need we see.
Battle Plans

Battle Plans

by | Jan 19, 2014 | Tactical Articles, Warriors of the Way

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In Deuteronomy 20 we find the special instructions God gave to ancient Israel as it was about to enter the Promised Land.  These instructions were the “tactical briefs” given to Israel’s fighting forces.  At first sight they may seem simple, but they are deceptively so – and  they represented vital information Israel needed for successful conquest.

Today, those same tactical instructions can be applied in our own lives and offer us simple but timeless guidelines for the spiritual battles we must fight – as we can see in each instruction and the lesson it carries. Newly uploaded to the Tactical Living page this week, “Sound and Simple Battle Plans” looks at the tactical instructions given to ancient Israel – instructions from which we can all profit.

Why the Spies?

Why the Spies?

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

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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.
Offense or Defense?

Offense or Defense?

by | Oct 13, 2013 | Discipleship, Warriors of the Way

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We all know that in football, if we want to move the ball, we have to think offense.

Sometimes I wonder if we concentrate too much on defensive tactics and strategy in our Christian walk. Defensive thinking is necessary, of course, for any campaign or goal. You don’t climb a mountain (at least I don’t want to!) without anchors and ropes.   But my point is that too often our tactical stress is only on defense. Consider just a couple of examples. 

Generally speaking, how much more time and energy do we put into praying for people (ourselves and others) to be healed than we spend in praying for work being done to wipe out severe and crippling illnesses.  How much time do we spend thinking about  proactive things we can do to help those who suffer get back aspects of their lives they might not otherwise have (see the October 2 article on “Helping the Sick”). 

The economy is bad, but do we respond only defensively, praying for friends who are out of work, or do we pray also for the national and local economic  situation?  (Read Jeremiah 29:7 if you don’t think that’s a topic for prayer).  Focusing on the broader issues as well as the specifics of which we are aware is focusing on offense as well as defense, and the principle can be applied in dozens of areas of our lives if we think it through. 

The main thing is to start to train ourselves to think offensively, or at least to constantly keep that half of the equation in mind. I was reminded of this as I read Psalm 144 recently.  Look carefully at the duality of what the psalmist is saying:  “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me” (Psalm 144:1-2).  God is likened to a Rock, Shield, Fortress and Stronghold of Refuge (all defensive). He is also said to be a God who figuratively trains us for war, for battle, to subdue enemies.  The active aspect is just as present in these verses as the static aspect. The Offense is as real as the Defense.   We need both, but to win we need to think offense.