Mysterious connections
Values
I have been hounded recently by a couple of seemingly random thoughts, and have been searching for the connection between them. A few weeks ago, while attending one of my favorite online chats, we discussed values. What are values? What are core values? What do you value most? How to demonstrate them and how do you communicate them to others. And even though it was a great chat, that’s not really one of the three, but it is part of it…
Fleas
The first issue is fleas. I fondly recount stories from my youth during which time I became absolutely persuaded that my mother was the inventor of the concept of “tough love”. I still think that my family should get some kind of royalty check every time someone says those two words together. But, I will write more about my mother in the future, but not today. Anyway, one of the phrases she liked to share with us was, “If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.” You can probably guess what type of fleas she was referring to. But that too is for another day …
Fellowship
The second issue, fellowship. I have watched LOTR (Lord of the Rings) trilogy more times than I can count. I am a SciFi/ Futuristic Fantasy buff, among many other genres I enjoy. One of the things that always strikes me about the film and the story is that, even when the fellowship, the guys, have lost track of Frodo, who they are supposed to be guarding and helping, they don’t lose sight of the goal or the quest they are on.
How many of us can say that we have those kinds of people in our lives, our crew, our mastermind group, whatever you want to call it. How many of us have people who will stick with us whether we are up or down? How many of us have someone who always, always, always has our back, even when we are not around to know about it? And, for that matter, this presents an opportunity for us to ask ourselves, “Do I watch out for my friends, my best buds, my true BFFs like that? All the time?”
In church-speak it is frequently referred to as “covering” someone else. Watching over them, protecting them from harm, and helping them move in the right direction even when they don’t want to, or don’t know that you are working behind the scenes on their behalf or to their benefit.
Third, and you knew I’d get Biblical eventually…it’s part of what I do here. In the book of Judges, Gideon, like Frodo Baggins in LOTR has been given a very difficult task. He thinks the task is too big for him, or he’s too small for it.
The text: Judges 6:36- 7:22.
The cliff notes for Gideon goes something like this. God call Gideon who is not really a leader type, to lead. He doesn’t want to do it and tries to find ways to get out of it. Failing that road, he then puts God to the test, to see if it really is God and not the voices in his head. He has a several lapses along the way, and he doesn’t always seem certain that God is really with him. After testing God to be sure about this mission thing, and collecting his ginormous army, we are off to do battle with the Midianites… maybe. He has a huge army of volunteers, but they aren’t all cut out for this trip. Some have trouble paying attention to the orders. Some have trouble not being observant about their surroundings. Some are too old, and some too young. Several more testings and God whittles this down to about 300 guys to fight a huge army. So…
And here is the connection. It is in this tiny bit of scripture, is where you see how to you need to separate the big dogs from the fleas, the wheat from the chaff, _________________ (insert favorite metaphor here). Here is where you consciously and conscientiously chose the people you want with you and those you don’t. You want a crew that can stand strong when times are great. You want a crew that will stand strong when things get hard; and they will get hard. You want a crew that understands your battle, understands your battle cry and will march with you and take you into battle.
But how?
How do you discern who the right people are?
Food for thought this week:
- Who is your BFF?
- Why?
- What do they bring to your life?
- What do you contribute to theirs?
Thoughts?
Judges (1)
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