2. Life's too Short to Be... Negative
Life’s too short to be… Negative
Part 2 of 5 – 5 November 2006 - Jacob's Well – Greg Meyer
Message begins with video clip from “Spiderman 2.” Peter Parker, overwhelmed with the responsibility of being Spiderman is ready to quit, and in a 'dream’ has a conversation with this Uncle Ben.
Ben Parker: Of all the times we talked of honesty, fairness, justice. A lot of those times I counted on you to have the courage, to take those dreams out into the world.
Spider-Man: I can't live your dreams anymore. I want a life of my own.
Ben Parker: You've been given a gift Peter, with great power, comes great responsibility. [gives his hand to Peter]
Ben Parker: Take my hand son.
Spider-Man: [backs away] No Uncle Ben. I'm just Peter Parker. I'm Spider-Man no more. No more...
Video ends.
Welcome to Jacob's Well! Great to see you all here today. We are here to talk about the fact that Life’s too Short to be Negative. On the back of your Sunday Paper is an outline that can help you follow along with the message today. Please use that, or if you’d rather just listen, that’s fine too.
I’m not here to try to talk you all into being Spiderman, but you aren’t just who you think you are, you are a Child of God. That means believing in something that is a lot bigger than what you can see. But that’s not easy. Being negative is easy. So easy that people have been negative about things we can hardly believe. Here are a few classic examples:
- Space Travel. "Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest, Inventor of TV
- Computers. "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
- The movie Gone with the Wind. "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not me." -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the lead role
- The Beatles. "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting a contract with them in 1962.
- Airplanes. "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
So if people were negative about things that seem so obvious to us now, just think what we might be missing today! And the truth that we are missing out not only on some fabulous inventions and stars, but possibilities for ourselves that only God can see clearly, and we just dismiss them as pipedreams.
Here’s the problem. Negativity creates a box with walls made of:
- fear – I’m afraid to try.
- fatigue – I just don’t have the energy or will to try or even understand.
- failure – I tried before and it didn’t work.
- foreignness – It isn’t in my world of experience.
And we get so boxed in we can’t see the wide world of possibility anymore.
Now I don’t know how you take this. Maybe you would say this is just some people’s orientation to the world. They are negative by nature, pessimists, and they aren’t wrong, it is just their appraisal of the facts and they aren’t big risk takers, that’s it.
After all, what is the usual way we distinguish between optimists and pessimists? The proverbial glass containing half its volume of water. Is it ‘half full’ or ‘half empty’? The accurate answer is… it’s both! There isn’t a right or wrong answer. And that is pretty much true about everything in life. There is always a chance for things to work, and a chance for things to not work, and while being positive might give you a psychological edge, it doesn’t reflect anything more than looking at the same evidence and deciding it is worth the risk. Or maybe your optimism will make you work a little harder and inspire others to follow along with you. That could give you a better chance of success. But in each of those cases, the lack of negativity reflects nothing more than a positive outlook. It isn’t actually based on anything.
Before we go on, I’d like you to think about what it means to be negative. Turn to those same groups that Sara had you in earlier and share your ideas about this question.
DISCUSSION: Does it matter if someone is negative? Why?
What I want to tell you today is that there is more to our optimism than a rosy outlook. Believing in what could be – in yourself, in your friends and family, in the world – isn’t a matter of perspective. It is founded in a truth and in a future that has already been secured.
Here is what that means for you. The fact that your life is actually headed somewhere, that there is purpose and meaning in your life isn’t just a way of looking at things, it is the truth! Now that doesn’t mean that everything is going to be “okay.” This doesn’t mean that you are destined to be wealthy, good looking and live long. I’ve already given up on the first two of those and am just hoping for the third! But those things don’t provide for meaning, significance, even for happiness… do they?
Here’s what the Bible claims,
Long before God laid down earth's foundations, God had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of God’s love, to be made whole and holy by God’s love.
Ephesians 1.4 Msg
That means this question of half full or half empty isn’t even the real question, because it doesn’t express your life at all. God doesn’t fill your life half up and then say, “Let’s call it… ummm… oh heck, half full. Why not.” Nope. God looks at your life like this… [picture of overflowing glass].
The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life. John 4.14 Msg
When you know, in your heart, that this is what life is like, being positive isn’t a big leap.
Now if there isn’t such a thing as a God, then this is all just talk. It is a way of convincing people of being optimistic. That’s it. But if there is a God, then looking positively into the future isn’t optimism at all.
You see, God doesn’t want us to be optimistic, but to believe GOD’S POSSIBILITIES.
So, why should we be positive, why should we believe in God’s possibilities? What makes us think that we can believe those possibilities?
Well, first of all, because, God keeps PROMISES.
I shared a few of them already, and we talked about them last week too. We all hear lots of promises, and like negativity, they are a mainstay of political campaigns. God is singular in not breaking them. But most of us don’t know that because we have never been daring enough to risk relying on them.
Maybe you haven’t trusted God’s promises because you’ve confused them with the deal making that some people have brought into the church. You know, God wants to do this for you, but before God will do it, you have to quit smoking, dancing, drinking and you have to accept our particular social/political agenda. Maybe you haven’t trusted God’s promises because you have seen some horrible things in this world. The holocaust of WWII, the death of someone you love, maybe your own experience of abuse or prejudice or illness.
God’s promises are deeper than those things, and while they may not take them all away, they do bridge them for us.
In the book of Joshua after 40 years of wandering through the wilderness, one whole generation coming and going before they ever got there, those people were able to say this,
Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. Joshua 21.45 NRSV
Now, because I tell you that it is not true. It will be true when you actually depend on the promises that God has for you, and you are able to say along with Joshua and millions of others that ‘not one of all the good promises that the Lord has made have failed.’ We’ll come back to that.
Second, God turns walls of negativity into DOORS of possibility.
Remember I mentioned how fear, fatigue, failure and foreignness make us negative. Well, being connected with God is our key to getting past them. On our own it is merely a battle, but for God these things aren’t solid walls, but open windows, in fact some of our obstacles are God’s tools!
Fear? What did the angels or any messenger say 9 out of 10 times when they appeared to someone in the Bible? “Do not be afraid.” Why do they always have to say that? Well, first of all because they knew that there was a pretty good reason to be afraid, but also because they new that fear was only a first reaction and that something better awaited us. God needs us to accomplish things, being afraid doesn’t help. When Israel was afraid of the Philistines a boy named David took a slingshot and faced Goliath. When Jesus died the disciples all hid away in fear, Jesus came back to send them out into the streets where they were to receive power. 2 Timothy 1.7 NCV says,
God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid but a spirit of power and love and self-control.
Fatigue? Jesus is the Immanuel which means, “God with us.” Yes, we’ll get tired, but we aren’t alone. At the top of your outline you will see a Bible verse from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Read that with me,
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4.13
Over and over again, God reminds us that, yes, we’ll be tired. We will want to give up, but we don’t have to because it isn’t our strength that makes things happen. It is Christ working through me.
In fact the message is that often times it takes our own exhaustion to make us turn to God and quit trying to take care of life alone. Fatigue is our friend if it reminds us to use God’s help. Paul, the hero of the early years of the church said,
“It is when I am weak that I am strong.”
Only when Paul realized how unable to do everything he was, how fatigued he had gotten, did he finally let Christ take over.
Failure? You bet. I have failed and you have failed. But I would say this. While being negative isn’t merely a matter of perspective, failure is.
· If you failed at something you weren’t meant to be or have, then it was a success, not a failure.
· If you failed because you gave up, then try again. You have never failed until you have quit trying. I like what Benjamin Franklin said, “I haven’t failed, I’ve just discovered 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
· If you failed because you don’t have the ability, then someone else does have the ability. Find that person. God made us to be community with each other, not competition against each other.
· If you failed because it is so hard, remember God didn’t call you to be perfect, only to follow.
· If you failed because you tried to do it on your own, then let God be part of it.
One day the disciples were with Jesus when this amazing young man came up to them all. He wasn’t like them. A bunch of unsophisticated, bungling fisherman and tax collectors, but a guy with means and learning and manners. And he didn’t just look good, he was good. He had followed the law his whole life – umm... they hadn’t – he really sincerely wanted to follow Jesus, but after a short conversation with Jesus it turned out that he just wasn’t ready, and with his head hung low he turned and walked away. Well, this really got the disciples attention. They got nervous, and finally one of them screws up the courage to ask Jesus, “If a guy like that couldn’t do it? Who can?” And Jesus looked them straight in the eye and said,
"This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible." Matthew 19.26 TEV
If you’ve failed despite your best effort, maybe you need to not try so hard and let God get involved.
Foreign to you? Back in the 60’s my grandpa who used to say that if people were meant to fly, God would have given us wings. Flying was a foreign idea to him, so he was against it. We are negative about people who are foreign to us because of their culture, their language or the color of their skin. But in Christ nothing is foreign to us. Sure it may take time to wrap our minds around them, but with the mind of Christ we can know that everything has its place in God’s kingdom.
The 150th Psalm says that everything that has breath praises God. Psalm 148 expands that to the sun, moon and stars, the mountains and even the weather. If you are down on something or someone just because you don’t understand, ask God to let you see it the way Jesus does.
This is important stuff. God is telling us that things could really be different – in our lives and in our world. Turn to your same friends again and try on this question.
DISCUSSION: What would happen if people believed the possibilities God sees in the world?
I don’t know all that you came up with in your discussions, but my guess is that you acknowledged that the world could be quite a bit different. But how do we do more than just wish it could be that way? How can we really believe that it is true?
Believing in God’s possibilities happens when we TAKE HOLD OF GOD’S HAND.
Last week we were talking about Selfishness, and I said that one of the things we had to do was let go of things. I encouraged you to think of your hand. When it is in a fist, holding on to what is its own it expresses your selfishness. My closed hand is a symbol of doing it on my own, of believing in what I can control, of staying inside my box built of fear, failure, fatigue and foreignness, because in there, at least, I know what is what.
An open hand is waiting for something. It is ready to receive something it can’t know, can’t believe, can’t be sure of. That is where you have to go. The fact is that no matter what most of us would like to think of ourselves, we’ve got our fists closed tightly. We might know about God and all these promises, but we are living off our own promises. And God is there with an open hand saying, “trust me.”
You may remember the clip from Spiderman 2 that I started with today. In his dream Peter Parker was with his uncle who was calling him to believe in his possibilities. Peter couldn’t do it. He was overwhelmed with negativity. He was scared, tired of it all, he'd been defeated and the life of Spiderman was just too bizarre for him to keep living. He let his inability to believe in what was promised him keep him from reaching for his uncle’s hand when it was extended. You were probably like me saying, “Take his hand. Come on, take his hand and you’ll see that it is true. That’s all you have to do and you’ll see.”
Well I am here today telling you, “Take God’s hand, take God’s hand. It’s all you have to do, everything you can’t see now will begin to come clear. The strength you don’t have you will find.”
You see, the real issue of belief isn’t believing in God. That, frankly, is an intellectual abstraction. What is really hard is believing that if you let go of control, if you took God’s hand, it would be okay.
Jesus was God’s open hand to us. God had tried all sorts of things to reach us, and finally, God just plain came to us. He isn’t with us as a person walking the streets with us. But his open hand is still there. The deal he offered is still extended. The best deal you can ever be offered. It is just that God loves you and wants to help you. That’s it!
You may have been holding God’s hand all your whole life, well, God has new adventures in mind for you and wants you to take a tighter grip. You maybe have never even considered it, or have no idea how to do it. There is nothing more than to tell God you are doing so. God will take care of the rest.
You know, we get to these parts of our lives and sometimes we feel like we want to make a change in direction, we don’t want to live quite like we always did. Maybe you feel something a little differently today than you usually do. That’s normal. It doesn’t mean you have just become a holy roller, it might just be a little step, a glimmer of hope that things could be different. That is the Spirit of God at work in you. We expect that to happen here, it is as normal as the day as all the other ways God put this world together to work. But if that is true for you today, even in a small way, put a little ‘step’ symbol on the back of your Communication Card. That way we can support you. Don’t worry, no one is going to come to your house, we won’t even call you unless you ask us to. But we will pray for you, and in that way support you in making that touch of inspiration last.
Would you pray with me…
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