"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." – Helen Keller
Wretch, wrath, hell, grave.
Q: What do those four words have in common?
A: They’re all words from popular Christian songs that have been removed or replaced with an entirely different word or concept.
Here’s a quick rundown of each:
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What’s more comfortable than getting up before dawn on a cold winter morning?
Staying in bed, that’s what.
But for the past couple of years (including cold winter mornings), I’ve been getting up early and going to the gym. Not every day, of course—just a few times a week. And before you jump to conclusions about the kind of person I am based on what I just wrote …
If you took into account every single year of my life up until I was in my 50s, “going to the gym” was a completely foreign and detestable concept to me. It could not have been more out of character or less expected in my life. But somehow I’ve developed this new habit, and sure enough, it’s paying off in terms of my health and fitness. Not only that, I’ve grown to really enjoy it and I miss it when I can’t go.
This article isn’t to encourage you to go to the gym, though. It’s also not about those Bible verses on the benefits of rising early (unless you want to read them—which is entirely optional: Mark 1:35, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 5:3, Psalm 119:147).
What I really want to talk about is that no-filter picture above, of a gorgeous sunrise. The sunrise that I never would have seen if I hadn’t made a difficult decision, months before, to move past my inertia and my fear of change and my feelings of intimidation.
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Out of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, it’s entirely possible that you don’t necessarily like every single one of them. That some of them might actually get under your skin.
There may be a particular verse that causes a reflexive bristling or even an eye-roll—if not outwardly, then in your heart. Something that annoys you or angers you. A phrase that scares you a bit, or causes you to question the goodness of God. A verse that you choose to ignore rather than confront.
What are some Bible verses that a reader, even a Christian reader, might not like? Here are some examples I came up with off the top of my head:
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Have you ever been through a church dissolution? Either a church you helped start from the beginning or you were simply present at the end?
I have.
Twenty years ago this month, my family was part of a core group that planted a church. Forty-seven people were bound together by shared dreams, exciting plans, multigenerational camaraderie, a love for the gospel, and high hopes for what we envisioned years down the road: a strong, healthy congregation, a building of our own, and God’s Word being preached, taught, and shared with others. God was doing a good work, and we had the incredible opportunity to be his hands and feet, establishing a new church in a new place for his glory.
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Once upon a time, I was an actor. Before I was a Christian, before I was a wife and mom, before I was a teacher, before I was a writer … this goes way back—high school and early college.
During those formative and tumultuous years, theatre was just about my whole life. It got me through high school in one piece, and it gave my life purpose and meaning. The stage was home to me.
After auditions, we actors would wait breathlessly for the cast list to be posted. We all had an idea of the role we really wanted. Sometimes we wanted the lead role, but not always. Sometimes we yearned for the smaller but more interesting role, or the role that would be more “fun” to play.
The “fun” roles were, as you might suspect, quite often the role of the villain, the antagonist, the person who causes friction or trouble of some kind. The person who has deep troubles or desires or motivations that are not … nice. Those roles are interesting, and if I were a psychologist I could probably write an article on why those roles are so interesting, but instead I’m just going to tell one story about one role in one play.
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“Believe in yourself.”
If you want to hang this inspirational phrase on your wall, wear it on your body, use it for your lock screen, or stick it on your water bottle, you’re in luck:
“Believe in yourself—you are enough”
“Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself”
“If you believe in yourself, anything is possible”
“Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable”
“She believed she could, so she did”
These are five immediate results I found on a recent image search for “believe in yourself.” They’re nice ideas, aren’t they? It’s good to believe in ourselves, to have self-confidence and stay focused, to have self-esteem and a “growth mindset.” Surely that kind of positive determination will serve us well in life, setting us on the path to achieving our dreams. It’s likely you’ve even seen evidence of this in your own life or in the lives of others.
Why, then, is “believe in yourself” an idea you won’t find, in any form, in the Bible? Why does Jesus, in all his words of wisdom, never once even remotely hint at anything like the ideas above?
Instead of believing in ourselves, Jesus tells us to believe in him. Instead of trusting our own hearts, he says to trust in God. Instead of believing that we are enough for the world, he says that he is enough for us.
“But,” you may say, “when you say, ‘believe in yourself or trust in God’—isn’t that a false dilemma? I think I can do both. In fact, I think I ought to do both—believe in myself and trust in God!”
Okay, yes. You can do both. For a while.
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“Get out of your comfort zone.” We hear it all the time, from friends, family, business leaders, church leaders, and actually, the whole rest of the world, it seems. But I’m going to encourage you here to do just the opposite: to find your comfort zone and stay in it.
Not all the time, of course. Sometimes, in order to grow and really see what you’re capable of, you do need to get out of your comfort zone. You sometimes need to try new things and stretch yourself, even if it’s difficult or feels awkward at first.
But there are reasons why you have a “sweet spot” of abilities or endeavors where you feel competent, confident, and thoroughly content with whatever it is that you’re doing. You’re comfortable there, and you’re in the zone. It’s your comfort zone.
Your comfort zone might be:
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When I was present at the first death, I was 17.
At the second, I was 32.
At the third, I was 44.
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A long time ago, I made a choice.
I chose to follow Jesus. I chose to ask God into my heart. I chose Christianity over all of the other religions out there.
Or did I?
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Why adding one word changes everything—and not in a good way.
I first heard it in a Disney movie a few years ago, in a song from Frozen 2: “Do the next right thing.” More recently I’ve seen this phrase on posters, t-shirts, and used by addiction recovery groups.
In Frozen 2, “Do the next right thing” is sung by a character in despair over her bleak future: she is trapped in a cave and has just lost a good friend. I was empathetic to her plight … but when she sang that line, my mind instantly rebelled.
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Great and Noble Tasks 