Suffering from Spiritual Second Night Syndrome

Suggested Reading: 1 Kings 18:36-19:10

I did a lot of theater in high school. I did everything from lead roles to being an understudy to working backstage helping with sets and props. Most of the plays that we did would run for three nights, typically a Thursday through Saturday. On the second night, we would always warn each other beforehand not to take it easy, especially if we did well on opening night. See, there was this thing we called "Second-Night-Syndrome" where, if we did really well the first night, we would let our guard down and then do horribly the second night. If opening night was bad, we typically didn't have to worry about Second-Night-Syndrome because we were already focused on not screwing up again.

A similar dynamic exists in our Christian walks. When things have been going really well, when we have been growing, and especially when we have had some major victory in our lives, those moments contain the greatest potential for disaster because we let our guard down or because we have experienced such a spiritual high that anything less than such stellar victory leads us into depression. There are two prominent examples of this in scripture.

We find the first example in 1 Kings 19. The prophet Elijah has just had a severe spiritual high.  Elijah had defeated the prophets of Baal in a duel by calling fire down from the heavens to consume a sacrifice and the people had turned back to the Lord. Then Elijah succeeded in praying a multiple-year drought to its end. Even the evil king Ahab seemed to give Elijah a break for once. But when Queen Jezebel found out what Elijah had done she threatened Elijah and he literally ran for the hills and found himself in a depression so deep that he prayed for God to end his life, saying, "I've had enough, Lord. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors" (1 Kings 19:4, HCSB).

The second example stands out as the single biggest mistake of King David's career. David had finally ascended to the throne, becoming king over the entire nation of Israel. David had succeeded in bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, subduing his enemies, and receiving a promise from God that David's dynasty would last forever. Finally, a time arrives when David feels that he can let his guard down and rest for a while. So, "In the spring, at that time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army" (2 Samuel 11:1, HCSB). Instead of leading his men in battle, like he should, David decided he deserved to loosen up and let his guard down. As soon as David let his guard down, he saw Bathsheba and got caught up in an affair that would bring trouble to his family for years to come.

Very often, the most dangerous times for us are not those times when things are going badly and we have to work for everything we get. The most dangerous times are when we have had great success in our lives and we let our guard down. The secret to righteous living is not to seek out the great victories, but to walk consistently day by day, whether in victory or in hardship. If you have had a great victory in your life, be careful not to let your guard down or to begin to believe that you have finally gotten everything together. The moment you do, you will find yourself falling very hard and very fast. Instead, whatever victory you have achieved in your life, thank God for his grace in granting you that victory and then seek to be consistent in your walk.

The greatest opportunities for us to fall lie in the shadow of our greatest victories. Seek God's grace in victory as much as in the battles of everyday life.

King David and the Last Crusade

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 19:18-24 or 1 Samuel 19:1-24 (the whole story)

One of my favorite movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Aside from the awesomeness of having Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in the same movie, the Last Crusade does a good job reminding people that Jesus was a carpenter and not some rich guy who lived in a palace surrounded by luxury. Sean Connery's character, Dr. Jones the elder, is an academic who is appalled when his son uses violence to free him from his prison and shocked when Indy has to engage in impromptu acts of "daring do" in order to save them. A turning point for Dr. Jones the elder comes when he and Indy, on the run from the Nazis, are exposed on a beach with a jet bearing down on their position. Indy is out of ideas. Suddenly, the elder Dr. Jones pulls out his umbrella and begins stirring up a flock of gulls on the beach. The birds take to the sky, blocking the jet pilot's vision and ultimately causing the jet to crash into the side of a mountain.  Indy looks at his dad in shock while the older gentleman quotes Charlemagne: "Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky."

The Bible is full of very interesting escape situations like that scene on the beach, scenes where rescue comes in some very unexpected forms.  In 1 Samuel 19, King Saul begins his quest to kill David before the young man can ascend to his throne. David's wife, Saul's daughter Michal, helps David escape in the middle of the night, and David flees to Ramah where Samuel is living. When Saul finds out about it, Saul sends men to capture David. "But when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also began to prophesy" (1 Samuel 19: 20, NLT).  When Saul heard what had happened, Saul sent another set of troops who were also stopped by a fit of prophesying. Finally, Saul himself went to get David and Saul, too, was overcome by the Spirit of God and began prophesying, allowing David to escape.

This particular story isn't as well known as the time when David spared Saul's life in the cave or the time when David snuck into Saul's camp and took Saul's spear to demonstrate that, while he had the opportunity to kill Saul, David had no desire to kill Saul and was no threat to him. This particular story isn't as suspenseful as either of those two. David isn't the hero of the story. In fact, David appears almost helpless. Whereas the other two accounts are tense and exciting, this account is almost comical. David is saved because the Spirit of God causes Saul and his men to have an uncontrollable fit of prophesying. I mean, that's not the most exciting story I've ever heard.

But, in spite of its comedy and its less dramatic elements, I like this story more than the other two. You see, in this story, there is no moral choice for David to make. There is no false resolution where Saul pretends to change his mind in order to save his reputation. God stops Saul from killing David. Period. And he does it by causing Saul and his men to prophesy?

Sometimes, when we find ourselves in really tough situations, when we are scared more than we have ever been, when we are out of options and see no way of escape, God can use the most unexpected and extraordinary things to rescue us. God doesn't need an act of bravery or heroics.  God doesn't have to use powerful weapons or great feats of skill. God can use anything or nothing at all and still accomplish God's purposes.  God can provide a means of escape out of the weakest, most insignificant events or circumstances.

When we find ourselves in impossible situations, when it feels like there is no way out and nothing left that we can do, just remember that God can save us with absolutely nothing. Sometimes, God does exactly that just to remind us that He is God. God can rescue us whether we have any strength or not, whether we can help ourselves or not. Impossible situations are never impossible with God. 

Kindergartners and Falling Giants

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 17:20-49 or 1 Samuel 17:1-58 (the whole story)

In 1990, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a movie called Kindergarten Cop. A hardened, tough guy cop with no room for family and no sense of humor who, through a series of twists, ends up undercover, teaching a class full of kindergartners. If you've seen the movie, you can probably hear Arnold right now saying, "Eet's not a toomah!" At first, Arnold's character gets run over by the kids, he doesn't know how to handle their energy, their questions, or their unique outlook. At the end of the first day he falls onto his bed, face down, lamenting, "They're terrible!" It is only after the cop decides to handle the situation like a cop that he manages to get things under control. He turns the kindergarten class into a police academy, and structures things in a way that works for him. Soon, the kids love Arnold's tough guy character and Arnold ends up loving kindergarten, but only when he finally decides to use his own gifts and strengths and not try to teach kindergarten like everybody else.

In 1 Samuel 17, we find the story of David and Goliath, with which many of us are familiar. After David began asking around about what would happen for the person who fought Goliath (assuming that person survived), King Saul heard about David and had David brought before him. Once David convinced Saul to let him fight the Giant, Saul put David into his own battle suit (maybe he was hoping people would mistake David for himself) and gave David his own sword.  When David tried to move, he realized that going into battle dressed in Saul's armor would only get him killed and he told Saul, "I cannot go in these because I am not used to them"  (1 Samuel 17:39, NIV). David took off Saul's armor and then armed himself with the tools he knew he could use, his shepherd's staff, a sling, and five smooth stones.  Most of us know the story from there, how David went out to face Goliath, proclaiming that God would win the fight for him and then slung a stone into Goliath's forehead, knocking him out and allowing David to chop off Goliath's head with the giant's own sword.

What David and Arnold's cop/teacher have in common is that they both accomplished the task that was given to them, and they did so by using their own unique gifts and talents. We could learn a thing or two from that.

Far too often, we fall into the mindset that tasks can only be accomplished a particular way. We allow other people to tell us how to do what God has called us to do or, worse yet, we try to tell other people how to do what God has called them to do. The problem is, when God calls a person, he calls that person, with all of their strengths and weaknesses,  flaws and gifts. If God has called you to something, God has called you. God wants you to use the gifts and abilities that have been given to you.

When you feel like you're being pushed into a corner because people are putting their own armor on you, have the guts to say, "I can't go in these because I am not used to them." God may have called you because your own unique way of doing things is exactly what the situation requires. A normal soldier with a sword and shield would never have gotten close enough to Goliath to take him down. David wasn't a normal soldier, but he knew what he was good at.

Are you trying to wear someone else's armor? Try accomplishing the task you've been given as if it was designed specifically for you. It probably was. 

Stopping the Choir for One Wrong Note

Suggested Reading: Psalm 101

In college I had the chance to study under one of the most respected choir directors in the state. Quite often, he would drive those of us in the choir crazy because of his common practice of stopping the choir the moment he heard a mistake. Sometimes, we wouldn’t sing two notes before he would stop us and start us again. You see, as far as our director was concerned, we were striving for perfection. We never really achieved perfection as a choir and I don’t think our director was under any illusions that we could ever be perfect. But he believed that if he pushed us toward perfection and we strove for it ourselves, we might get very close.

I have always enjoyed reading the Psalms, especially those attributed to David. But the other day something occurred to me that had never occurred to me before. I was reading Psalm 101, a psalm of David, where the psalmist writes, No one who acts deceitfully will live in my palace; no one who tells lies will remain in my presence. Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, eliminating all evildoers from the Lord’s city (Psalm 101:7-8, HCSB). Those verses sound great, but David didn’t seem to live up to them. His children raped and murdered each other but David never seemed to remove them from the palace.  He allowed Joab to stick around even though the military commander had killed his rivals in peace time and in cold blood. He himself plotted and schemed to kill Uriah to hide his own adultery with Bathsheba. David himself did not live up to the standard he set here. Shouldn’t that invalidate the whole thing?

No.

All of us fail and fall far short of perfection, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to hold the standard of perfection in front of us as something to strive for. Sometimes, our weakness and failures serve as a reminder of how important it is to hold up a standard of perfection. The idea that we should stop striving for perfection because we have fallen short is like telling a baseball player to stop swinging the bat because he doesn’t hit every ball or a musician to stop playing because she plays a wrong note from time to time. We don’t strive for perfection because we can ever reach it on our own, but because striving for perfection points us in the right direction, even when we fail and act like hypocrites. We must maintain a realistic outlook that remembers we will sometimes fail but that keeps us pointed in the direction of perfection as we move forward.

Don’t give up the standard because you fall short of it. Allow it to point you in the right direction. 

The Time I Tried to Steal a Car

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 25

I was never what you would call a "trouble-maker" growing up. Most people would have called me a "goody-two-shoes" and I took more than a little grief for how "good" I was. But looking back on my childhood, I was very fortunate that I did not get in more trouble. I remember this one time, when I was 14 or 15 when I was extremely angry with my parents. At that point, we had this key hanger where my parents tried to put their keys when they came in. For a couple of weeks, my mother had dutifully hung her keys there. On this particular day, while I was very angry with my parents (for what I don't remember) and while they were gone I decided I was angry enough to do something about it. My parents had gone out together, so I figured they only needed one set of keys, and I decided that I would take the car that was still home for a spin. I worked my anger into a hardened resolve and I marched over to the key hanger. There were no keys. My parents had taken all the keys with them. My anger quickly dissipated into frustration and, by the time my parents got home, I was fine again. Looking back on that incident, I've often thought about how the Lord protected me, both from danger and from doing wrong, by having my parents take both sets of keys with them.

There is a similar story in the life of David. David and his men had been standing guard for a group of shepherds for a season and, as was the custom, expected that he and his men would receive a token of tribute for their service when it came time to shear the sheep. David sent a few of his men to collect this token and Nabal, the owner of the sheep they had protected, turned them away with insults. When the messengers returned to David and told David of Nabal's response, David was furious and roused his men for war. Back at Nabal's home, Nabal's wife Abigail heard how foolish her husband had been and loaded up a wagon full of provisions to take to David and head off the danger her husband's foolishness had caused. She met David before he reached Nabal's home, presented him with the customary reward for guarding the sheep (and probably a little more) and spoke to David. Abigail said, "Now my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, it is the LORD who kept you from participating in bloodshed by avenging yourself by your own hand" (1 Samuel 25:26, HCSB). David agreed with her sentiment and they both returned to their respective homes. Two weeks later, Nabal was dead from a stroke and David asked Abigail to be his wife.

In this particular instance, David was going to make a big mess of things because he felt he had been wronged, much like the mess I would have made if I'd had access to the car keys and had acted out my anger by taking an underage joy-ride. In those instances, neither David nor I could take credit for not doing something stupid. We were both saved from our own stupidity and anger because of circumstances or people God had placed in our lives.

I often meet Christians who don't feel like they have a story to tell because they were never drug dealers or gang members whose lives were turned around by the power of the Gospel. But sometimes, the fact that God prevented us from doing stupid things is just as powerful a story. None of us, even the "best" of us, are all that good on our own. At times, only the loving intervention of our Heavenly Father keeps us from completely ruining things.

If you want a story to tell other people about God's power, don't think that you have to pull out an example of horrible sin and how God turned you around. Point out times where God, in grace, saved you from doing something stupid, protected you from your own penchant for sin, and saved you before you realized you needed saving. God's power can be demonstrated by the times God keeps us from going over the brink, not just by the times God pulls us back from it.

How often has God saved you from doing something stupid and kept you from ruining things? Thank God for the protection you've been given and then be willing to share that story. Never underestimate the power of God's preventive care.

Facing Heights and Focusing on Giants

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 17:32-47

In the movies, it is quite common to see people who fear heights put into positions where they must face those fears. Inevitably, they are scooting across the ledge outside of a 40-story building, or climbing the rope on the side of the Cliffs of Insanity, or talking someone out of jumping as they stare down a 300-foot drop. Putting people with a fear of heights into a position where they must confront that fear is more entertaining than someone who is completely confident with heights. We've seen those scenes so many times that we know the advice someone is going to give them: "Don't look down!" Why that advice? Because once they start looking down at the height they fear, the person in question is much more likely to fixate on the height, to focus on the height, rather than actually deal with it.

In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath had been coming out each day for forty days to taunt the Israelite army when David finally appeared on the scene. Goliath sauntered out and bellowed his challenge and David watched in dismay as his fellow Israelites literally ran for the hills and hid in their tents. David listened to the taunts and the insults Goliath hurled at his countrymen and their God, and he choose to respond.  Rejecting the king's armor for the weapons he was accustomed to using, David went out and faced the giant alone.

But though David was facing the giant, David seems to be the only one who was not focused on the giant. Each day when Goliath appeared, the mighty warriors of Israel – whose God had helped them conquer the land and had drowned Pharaoh's chariots in the Red Sea – saw only a nine foot giant and ran for the hills. Even King Saul who had defeated the Philistines on several occasions hid in his tent, frightened by Goliath's enormous size. But David, walking onto the field of battle and standing in the giant's shadow, began trash talking.

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel" (1 Samuel 17:43-46, NIV).

Instead of focusing on the problem – the giant – David focused on the One capable of solving that problem. But how often do we get tripped up because we can't take our eyes off of the problem long enough to look toward God? When we focus on the problem, we tend to paralyze ourselves with doubts, fears, and worries. But when we keep our focus on God, on the One capable of solving any problem, no problem seems all that difficult.

Where is your focus today? Are you focused on the giant? Redirect your gaze. Focusing on God always changes the equation.