courage Archives - RandyElster.com

5 habits to better manage the storms of life

Life can be overwhelming at times, even scary. It’s a dangerous world we live in and no matter how good we are or how well we try to live our lives, storms will inevitably come. How do we make it through the storms of life?

We get some clues in Matthew 14:22-33 where Jesus walks on water to the disciples’ boat in the midst of a storm and then commands Peter to walk on water as well. In this account, we see how fear overwhelms us and how to counter that fear with five habits.

How fear overwhelms us:

ONE Through the buffeting storms of life.

Matthew says they were a considerable distance from land when a storm came up, and the boat was “buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it” (Matthew 14:24 NIV). The storms of life come against us all. They are inevitable in this fallen world. You are either just coming out of a storm, currently in a storm, or about to go into a storm. In my mind, the storm could be illness, unemployment, family problems, difficult people, etc.

TWO Through the unexpected horrors of life.

When Jesus came walking on the water, the disciples did not immediately recognize Him. They thought He was a ghost and they cried out in fear (Matthew 14:25-26). To me, these unexpected horrors could be losing a loved one, getting a terminal diagnosis, getting fired, or other even more difficult experiences. The kinds of things no one expects will happen to them. These experiences mark us for life.

THREE Through the myriad distractions of life.

After Peter walked on water a bit, he started looking around and began to sink (Matthew 14:29-30). In our 21st-century world, we have more distractions than ever before. Studies show that our constant checking of email, texts, and social media dings on our phones and other devices keep us from being productive on the things that really matter. When we get distracted, we get our eyes off of the prize, and we begin to get discouraged and fearful.

How do we counter the overwhelming fears of life? Through these five habits:

ONE Pray diligently (before and during the storm).

It’s interesting to me that it seems Jesus was the only one who went away to pray (Matthew 14:23). Consistent, daily prayer during the more mundane times prepares us for stormy weather. This is not about ignoring God when things are quiet and then suddenly crying out to Him when a squall hits. This is about praying during the quiet of an ordinary day, day in and day out. The ones who do this are stronger. They can’t avoid the storms; no one can. And they are not immune to the effects of them. But they can weather them from a place of strength and courage.

TWO Take courage (don’t be afraid).

When the disciples think they’re seeing a ghost, Jesus immediately says, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:26-27). How do we “take courage”? To take courage means we have to receive it from someone. We take courage from Christ when we store up His Word in our hearts. We take courage from the positive, godly people we surround ourselves with and run to when needed. We take courage from a loving spouse who knows just what we need to hear.

THREE Be obedient (do what God says).

When Jesus says, “Come” (Matthew 14:29), we need to come. Be obedient to what God tells you to do. If you’re not sure what that is, go back to what you know. Obey in the dark what you know to be right in the light. God will often call us to do something in faith during these dark times, and we will find courage and conquer fear as we obey Him.

FOUR Have faith (don’t doubt).

As Jesus catches Peter, He says, “You of little faith . . . why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). When we get overwhelmed by the pressures and distractions of life, it’s easy to begin doubting and losing faith. Our eyes get set on this world that we can easily see instead of the spiritual world that takes faith to see. We need to reset our eyes and reboot our faith by turning to God and His Word.

FIVE Worship God (thank Him).

At the end of this passage, the boat passengers worship God (Matthew 14:33). After having witnessed what they did, you would have too. During these fearful times, we also need to worship God. Worship Him and thank Him for all He has done. This is easy to do when He answers prayer, but also do it when things are going haywire. There are always things to be thankful for. There’s a gratitude movement going on where folks are challenged to be grateful for three things each day, writing them down in a journal. This is good and right, but as Christians we also recognize that there is a Person to direct our thanks to.

We can’t avoid the storms of life. They rain down on each person. But we can employ these five habits to better manage the storms.

What’s your most effective weapon against fear and the storms of life?

What to do when you feel weak and inadequate

I love the story of the feeding of the thousands with just a few loaves and fishes in Matthew 14:13-21. It’s one of those great Bible stories that I remember being told to me via flannel graph in Sunday School. In this story we see Jesus being concerned for His own rest as well as for the crowd’s hunger. And it’s a huge reminder of God’s strength when I am weak.

In this Scripture I see six things we need to do when we feel weak and inadequate. And, by the way, every Christian should feel somewhat weak and inadequate.

ONE Withdraw.

Feeling feeble is a reminder that you need God’s strength. Like Jesus, you need to recognize your need to get alone with God. Matthew says “he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place” (verse 13). Each of us needs communion with our Creator. We need regular time alone with our Savior. We sometimes call this quiet time—time spent with God in His Word and in prayer. But there are other forms as well—praying aloud in the car, listening to the Bible read to us, walking in nature by ourselves. Even the most outgoing, extroverted of us needs this quiet time alone. And especially when we’re feeling less than.

(I’d like to add to this, that we also need proper rest, exercise, and nutrition. But that’s for another post.)

TWO Focus on others’ needs.

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (verse 14). We can’t stay withdrawn forever. God still calls us to have compassion and meet the needs of others. This is especially important when we’re feeling needy ourselves because it takes the focus off of us and onto others. It changes our perspective.

THREE Find strength in numbers.

We see that the disciples join Jesus in verse 15. We need our family and our brothers and sisters in Christ. For those of us more introverted and less outgoing, the temptation will be to stay in the withdrawn stage above. But you can’t stay there. We need others so desperately. Your spouse can give you insight that you lack. Your small group can come around and support you. Your friends can keep you sane in times like this. But you have to let them in.

FOUR Give thanks for what you do have.

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves” (verse 19). I believe there’s more here than just asking a blessing over the food. Giving thanks for what we have, even if what we have seems paltry, is a discipline that becomes especially important when we feel needy. In fact, it may need to become just that: a discipline that we stick too. Maybe it involves writing down three things we’re grateful for during our quiet time. Or asking everyone at the dinner table each night what they are grateful to God for about the day. Or making it a habit to write in a gratitude journal before heading to bed. There are many ways to do it, but we need to make sure we change our perspective by focusing on what we’re thankful for rather than being unhealthily fixated on what we don’t have.

FIVE Use what you have to bless others.

Another way to change our outlook is to use what we have, no matter how small, to bless others. Just as Jesus and the disciples gave away the small amount of loaves and fish (verse 19), we need to give. Sometimes this may involve money, sometimes giving away possessions. It may involve a gift of our time or our expertise. However we give, it will bless us as much or more than it blesses the recipient.

SIX Expect God to be strong where you are weak.

Just as the loaves and fishes mysteriously multiplied to feed thousands of people (verses 20-21), God multiplies our efforts when we give—even when we feel weak and inadequate. Many times we may never know how far our efforts go. Our contribution may seem small and weak, but Jesus can multiply it to make it more than sufficient. As Paul says, Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

BONUS POINT Get special help if you need it.

This may take the form of a minister, a counselor, a doctor, whatever. There are times when we need the specialized care of a professional. Please get help if you need it.

Wowsie wowsie woo woo: How attitude changes everything

I remember a short-lived cartoon from when I was about nine or ten years old called The Pebbles and Bam-Bam Show. It focused on the Flinstones’ and the Rubbles’ kids in their teenage years. Sally Struthers (Gloria on All in the Family) and Jay North (Dennis the Menace) voiced the title characters. But the character that stands out the most was Bad Luck Schleprock (voiced by Don Messick, who was also behind the similar voice of Droopy the Dog and hundreds of other cartoon characters from my youth).

Schleprock’s signature line was, “Oh wowsie wowsie woo woo. Miserable day, isn’t it?” He seemed to live under a perpetual dark cloud and brought bad luck with him wherever he went. You could say he was the death of the party due to his poor attitude.

The word “attitude” has gotten a bad rap in recent years. It’s often come to mean that someone has given us some lip or has been seen as too haughty. As in, “Don’t give me that attitude!”

Or we tend to think of attitude as something that happens to us. As if we have no control over it. It’s like a cloud that settles over us and we have no way to get out from under it. Wowsie wowsie woo woo.

But many times we have much more control over our attitude than we realize. And it’s the successful person who has figured out how to maximize a positive attitude in order to move forward.

At no time is this more important than when we fail. When we stumble, it is so easy to fall into a pit of despair and failure, wallowing in a negative attitude that colors the rest of our day. We find ourselves under a cloud. And it seems to move with us.

Even the word “fail” has such negative baggage with it, and is so close to the word “failure.” No one wants to be a failure, but it’s easy to go from “I’ve failed” to “I’m a failure.”

What if, instead, we looked at failures as opportunities to learn? What if, instead of beating ourselves up, we did some deep thinking about how we can grow from the experience and be better the next time? What if, instead of feeling defeated, we took an honest appraisal of what went well and what we can improve on, and looked with a positive attitude to how we can be even better?

We have the power to walk out from under that dark cloud and create a new reality. And it all starts with attitude.

Beautiful day, isn’t it?

If you are willing

Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”

Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.

—Matthew 8:1-3 NLT

Jesus, no doubt exhausted and spent, comes down from the mountain after preaching “the sermon on the mount” over the past few days to a crowd of people. The crowds follow Him, curious. They ponder all that He has said, and what it means.

Out of the midst of the crowd comes an unnoticed—until now—undesirable. A leper.

People are afraid of a leper, afraid of catching the disease. Lepers are repugnant with their open sores and rotting flesh. And spiritually speaking, they are considered unclean to the Jewish people and should be kept outside the city gates. Yet, here he is. I imagine the crowd parting to get away from him.

Think of the courage it has taken him. Courage to step out of the faceless crowd, to be identified as an unwanted segment of society. Mothers shielding their eyes from even looking at him, pulling their children behind them to protect. Men contorting their countenance in disgust.

Courage not only to step out of the crowd, but also to approach this prophet of God, this mysterious man.

He approaches him and kneels and addresses Him as Lord. Note the respect and reverence. Note the humility. It reminds me of Paul’s words in Philippians 2:10-11 (NLT) when Paul says “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

It takes courage to not only step out of the crowd and humbly be identified as unclean, but to further humble himself by bowing and honoring Jesus as Lord.

After demonstrating his willingness to humble Himself before Jesus, the leper ascertains Christ’s willingness to heal him. “If you are willing.”

He finds what millions after him have found: That Christ is willing to heal (although not always in the way that we expect).

Leprosy is not a disease we deal with much in first-world, 21st-century America. But there are plenty of other plagues, both literal and figurative. And there is the disease that has infected all mankind: the sin sickness of our race.

What do you need to approach the Lord with? Whatever it might be, it will take willingness, humility, and courage on your part. But Jesus is ready, willing, and able to heal.

Epic fail: Lessons on failure

I’ve been thinking a lot about failure recently. A few months back I read John Maxwell’s book Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes, and I’ve been posting some of those thoughts on facebook as my “thought for today” ever since.

About a week ago we had an event at our church that I was in charge of. It was a “Couples Night Out” event where we partnered with Family Christian Stores to show the movie War Room. You can read more about that here.

In some ways, you could say the event was a success, but mostly I came away from it feeling like a failure. Only around 50 people showed up for it, out of a church of about 1800 on a Sunday morning and around 1,000 in small groups.

I had to really spend some time processing this and thankfully my wife is great at helping me do that. And I didn’t have to pay a therapist!

I came away from it with a few lessons learned about failure, reinforced by what I’ve been reading.

ONE Events can be failures; people are not.

This is such an important distinction to make. I think it’s probably human nature to come away from an event we feel we’ve failed at and to feel ourselves like a failure. It seems like just semantics but this is so important: I am not a failure. I may have failed at something. But I am not a failure.

When we assign failure to ourselves, to the person, there’s not much hope of recovering from that or improving. If I am a failure, I have no choice but to fail.

But if instead I assign failure to an event or an action, I can learn from it and go on.

TWO Rarely can an entire event be called a failure. Look for the positive.

Many times we can see where our failure has compounded: we see that we did this wrong, and that, and the other. And this drowns us in a vortex of failure.

But if we step back and look objectively—and this is where another viewpoint is so helpful—we’ll see that not everything about the event or project was a failure. We need to recognize the silver lining in the dark cloud.

When we impartially look back, with the help of a spouse or coworker or friend or counselor, we can see these bright spots. But it takes effort to look for them. For me and my event, yes, only 50 people came. But those were 50 people who needed to come and were inspired. Some of those 50 people I did not know, so that was a good thing.

There were other positives, and many lessons learned as well, which I might get to in another post.

It takes some work of reflection, and it’s harder for some personalities than others, but you have to take off those pessimistic glasses and put on the rose-colored ones, and hopefully get a more realistic picture of the event. Then you can more objectively see the failures and successes together.

THREE It’s only a failure if you don’t truly try.

For me, inaction—in the form of perfectionism and procrastination, and probably some other ways I’m not quite aware of yet—keeps me from trying. The faulty reasoning goes like this: If I don’t try, I can’t fail.

But the reality is that not trying really is failing. And the inverse is trying = success. As long as you are out there trying and learning from your efforts and applying those learnings to greater efforts and more trying, you are winning.

FOUR It’s not a failure; it’s just an experiment.

Remember Thomas Edison’s quote when he had gone through thousands of failed experiments in trying to come up with a commercially viable light bulb:

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Ultimately, if we can keep from looking at ourselves as failures and also not look at the events themselves as failures, but rather as experiments and experiences, we can learn and grow from them.

But we need to spend some time in reflection as well as discussion with others to learn. John Maxwell says:

Experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is.

So next time you feel like a failure, reframe yourself and the experience. You are not a failure. Look for the positive in what has happened. You are a success just because you tried and put yourself out there. And this experiment will help you learn and grow and make you better.

How do you positively approach failure so you can learn from it?

It takes courage

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12 NIV) are all about living life differently. And it takes courage to live life differently from the rest of the world.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It takes courage to live a life poor in spirit, to live a life of humility and dependence instead of proudly and independently.

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

It takes courage to take responsibility for your own sin, to ask forgiveness, to mourn over your sin instead of ignoring it and pursuing pleasure at any cost.

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.

It takes courage to live a life of meekness, to realize you have great power but not misuse it, to be patient.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

It takes courage to seek to hunger and thirst for righteousness instead of for the things of this world, to deny self and seek to be filled with God’s Word.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

It takes courage to show mercy to others instead of bringing the gavel of judgment down and making people pay, giving them what you think they deserve.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

It takes courage to stay pure in heart in a fallen world when all around us impurity is encouraged and normalized.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

It takes courage to be a peacemaker, to seek to smooth out instead of fanning the flames, It takes courage to not just turn a deaf ear and to be concerned with more than just our own inner peace.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And it takes courage to stand up under persecution and not deny and flee.

I’m grateful that God gives us His Spirit and that He empowers us as Christians to live this way. But it still takes courage to go against the flow of our sinful nature and the way of the world.

What do you need courage for today?

Punch Fear in the Face and Escape Average! [Reading Challenge 2016]

Do you have a dream? Do you want to do work that matters? Do you want to escape average and live in the world of awesome?

To do it, you need to do one thing: just START!

Last night my Reading Challenge group met to discuss the March book: Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff (Brentwood, Tennessee: Lampo Press, 2013).

This book fit perfectly into our group’s theme for the year: Courage.

It’s easy to think about a dream, to plan it, to talk it to death. But it takes great courage to just start.

And many times starting is not about doing something incredible, like performing on stage for the first time at a huge concert venue. But it’s something small and mundane, like scheduling 30 minutes a day to practice guitar.

Want to be paid for speaking in front of thousands? Maybe it starts with speaking in front of ten, or joining a speech club. Want to get ripped? Maybe it starts by joining a gym and getting up earlier. Want to be an expert on Guatemalan tree frogs? Maybe it starts by checking some books out of the library.

Do not despise the day of small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10).

Maybe your first step is to read Start. Practically everyone in the group said that this was not the type of book they would have picked up on their own. But they all got a lot out of this book and were encouraged to not let their dreams be dreams.

I highly recommend this book, whether you are looking to start something new, or just want to be better at what you do. You will be encouraged and challenged by it.

By the way, our group’s next book for the month of April is Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown. We will meet on April 27 at NorthStar Church to discuss the book. Let me know if you want to join us! Email me at randy dot elster at northstarchurch dot org.

March 2016 Reading Challenge book: START by Jon Acuff

Our new group the 2016 Reading Challenge is off to a great start! Last week we met to discuss our February book, Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear by Max Lucado. And this week we’re starting our March book, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff.

This book ties into our theme for the year, Courage, as a guide to not just settle for average in life but to have the courage to go for awesome.

In Start, Acuff talks about the five stages of a successful life, which used to be tied to your age during a time when people tended to stick with one career their entire working life:

Learning (20s)
Editing (30s)
Mastering (40s)
Harvesting (50s)
Guiding (60s)

But now, according to Acuff, the stages are no longer tied to when you were born, but to when you decide to live. You just have to Start!

This week we’re reading chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1, “You Are Here,” introduces the concept of the five stages of life and shows how things are different now. In chapter 2, “The Start,” he talks about the importance of not only being wildly enthusiastic about your future, but also being extremely realistic about your present—where you are now. He also says that the Start is the only part you truly control and you can’t really predict the finish.

We’ll meet at the end of the month—on Wednesday, March 30, at 7:00pm at NorthStar Church—to discuss the book together. Email me at randy dot elster at northstarchurch dot org for more information.

2016 READING CHALLENGE: The Year of Courage

I’ve always loved to read. I have a memory from my childhood of Mom bringing home boxes of books that she saved from being destroyed. She worked for the county school resource office at the time (mainly caring for and sending out films and filmstrips–remember those?), and they were getting rid of old books from school libraries to make room for new ones. To someone else, those boxes may have seemed like trash. But to me it was a treasure chest.

Later, in early adulthood, I went through a time where I said I loved to read but finally realized I wasn’t really reading. I think schooling does that to you. You have to read so much that you really don’t want to read that you don’t have time for what you do want to read, and you just get out of the habit.

That’s when I started making reading goals and began to really read. And over the years, I keep learning how to get more out of what I read.

I can truly say that reading is one of my favorite things to do. It’s a place of comfort for me, but also of challenge.

I’ve known so many people over the years that were like me years ago: a desire to read more, but they just need a little push. A little accountability.

That’s one of the reasons I’m starting a new group this semester that will be different from any other group we’ve done at NorthStar. It’s called the 2016 Reading Challenge.

Here’s the lowdown:

Day: The last WEDNESDAY of each month
Time: 7:00-8:30pm
Leader: Randy Elster
Location: NorthStar campus

We will read one book a month.
We’ll meet once a month, at the end of the month, to discuss the book.
During the month we’ll stay in touch via email, this blog, and possibly other means to encourage each other and make sure we’re on track.
This will be a year-long group focused on a theme, so that each book that year will be tied to the one-word theme. The 2016 theme will be “courage.”
Even though it’s a year-long group, the commitment is month to month. So you can drop out and back in when needed, or if you don’t like the book that month.
The books will not all be Christian books. They will include Christian and secular, fiction and nonfiction, and include many genres: history, biography, business, leadership, self-help, and more.
Though not all the books will be Christian, we will approach each book and discuss them from a biblical perspective.
The group will support a habit of lifelong learning and part of the discussions will be around how we grow personally and apply what we learn.
The group, as the name implies, is a challenge both to read more and to read more thoughtfully, taking every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).

This group is for:

Readers who want to have a little more structure to their reading and want to discuss what they are reading with others to gain new insights and to see how what they are reading compares to a biblical worldview.
Nonreaders who want to read more but would like the discipline and accountability that a group like this would give.

And here is the tentative book list:

02/16 Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear by Max Lucado
03/16 Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff
04/16 Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
05/16 Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
06/16 Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
07/16 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
08/16 Brave: 50 Everyday Acts of Courage to Thrive in Work, Love and Life by Margie Warrell
09/16 The Courage Quotient: How Science Can Make You Braver by Robert Biswas-Diener
10/16 The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
11/16 Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Henry Cloud
12/16 Brave Companions: Portraits in History by David McCullough

Interested? Join us!

Register: northstarchurch.org/group
More info: randy dot elster at northstarchurch dot org

It takes courage to obey Christ

Following Christ takes courage. It’s not easy to obey sometimes because of the world around us. And sometimes what Jesus calls us to do doesn’t quite make sense.

We see this in Matthew 3:13-17 (NIV), when Jesus makes a request of John the Baptist to baptize him like he has all his other converts.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

We see here three situations where it takes courage to obey Christ.

ONE: It takes courage to obey Christ when it doesn’t make sense.
John understands who Jesus is, that He’s the Messiah, the One he is preparing the way for. And because John understands who Jesus is, he doesn’t understand His request for John to baptize Him. In fact, he sees it the other way around: that Christ should baptize him!

Christ will never ask us to do anything contrary to the wisdom in His Word, the Bible. But there will be times when He asks us to do things that don’t make sense. Many times they don’t make sense to the world. Sometimes they won’t make sense to our family. And sometimes they won’t make sense to ourselves. But there are times where understanding will come on the other side of obedience.

TWO: It takes courage to obey Christ when there’s no concrete outcome to predict.
The response that Jesus gives to John, His reason for the request, is, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

I don’t know about you, but when I read that, my response is, “Say what?!” Maybe there is some hidden meaning there I am not getting, but it seems to me Jesus is saying, “Just do it, John. It’s the right thing to do. That’s all I can tell you.”

My takeaway here is that many times we will need to obey what we know we should do without any concrete reason other than it’s the right thing to do. We may not be able to predict a good outcome to our obedience. We may not understand how this accomplishes anything for our lives or for God’s mission. All we understand is that obedience is required.

THREE: It takes courage to obey Christ when no one gives us a pat on the back.
Finally, we see in the Scripture that there is a tangible evidence, reassurance, and validation directly from God after the obedience. The heavens open, the Spirit of God comes down like a dove and alights on Christ, and God’s voice says He is well pleased with His Son.

I’m a words of affirmation guy in the five love languages terminology; I crave the affirmation of those I love. But let’s face it: in most work environments affirmation, pats on the back, and attaboys are few and far between. And sometimes—OK, many times—our obedience doesn’t come with an approving message from the heavens or even a pat on the back from a friend. In fact, it very well may go totally unnoticed by everyone except God.

This can be the hardest part of obedience—when no one seems to notice. As C.S. Lewis said, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” It takes courage to have that kind of obedience and integrity.

Are you willing to do what God asks of you …
… even when it makes no sense?
… even when there is seemingly no positive outcome or no reason other than it’s the right thing to do?
… even when no one sees or pats you on the back?