What Do You Sound Like? (Friday Devotional)

 

Do everything without grumbling or arguing…So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

- Philippians 2:14, 18

Buzz. Click. Clang. Fizz. Groan. Hiccup. Hiss. Rattle. Rip. Sputter.

All these words have something in common: they are onomatopoeias, words whose names sound like the noises they describe. English has more than 100 such words—from argh to ugh, boom to zoom. Some make us smile just to see them in print—think achoo or belch—while others have a more unpleasant feel in our mouths, like blurt or snarl.

To this latter category you can add the word ‘grumble.’ One of its definitions, “to make a low rumbling sound,” the way thunder does when a storm is gathering, fits the word’s sound perfectly. But so too does its primary definition, “to complain about something in a bad-tempered way.” While complaining can sometimes be louder and higher-pitched—think of that other onomatopoeia, ‘whine’—often it’s more like an undercurrent, something soft and in the background, inescapable and unpleasant.

There should always be a place for constructive criticism in our lives—if we don’t want to stagnate, then we need to be seeking ways to do better. But while we ought to welcome helpful suggestions offered in the pursuit of sanctification, the Bible tells us we need not tolerate and should not engage in the kind of complaining that tears down without building back up, that finds nothing but problems and doesn’t bother to seek solutions. That’s just grumbling—and far from helping, it’s just downright unpleasant.

One of the characteristics that set the early Christians apart from the world was the joy they constantly exhibited, even in the face of tremendous difficulty. Their hope was not found in worldly figures—not in financial statements or attendance figures or election results—but in the good news that Christ is risen, the knowledge that by grace and through faith their eternal future was assured. Whatever this world threw at them, their attitude was always the same: Jesus is Lord, so what do I have to complain about?

The world isn’t any simpler today than it was then—some aspects of life are easier, others far harder. So if you’re looking to the world for your hope, you’ll find plenty to worry and stress and complain about. But if Jesus is your Lord, you can rejoice and be glad, for you have a hope that will endure far longer than any of life’s cares and concerns. With every word you speak, whether an expression of joy or a grumble, you are bearing witness to what you believe—so what do you sound like?

All-Around Players (Friday Devotional)

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

- 1 Corinthians 12:7-10

In 1974, Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley signed Herb Washington to his first major league contract. The signing raised eyebrows around the league for a simple reason: Washington hadn’t played baseball since his junior year of high school.

You see, Finley had a hunch that it might be worth a roster spot to invent a new position, a “designated runner.” Such a player would rarely take at-bats or play defense, but would replace slower runners on the basepaths in key spots. Washington, a world-class sprinter who’d narrowly missed the 1972 Olympic track and field team, was the perfect fit—even if he wasn’t, strictly speaking, a baseball player.

Upon signing his designated runner, Finley predicted he would be “personally responsible for winning ten games this year.” But while Washington—whose Topps baseball card simply listed his position as “pinch runner,” the only player in the company’s history with that distinction—stole 31 bases and scored 33 times, the experiment was widely considered a dud by 1975. “Finley’s Folly,” as it was labelled, came down to one central issue: to be successful, you have to do more than one thing well.

Churches operate under the same principle—while every congregation is going to be better at some things than others, they can’t give 100% of their energy and focus to one area of ministry to the exclusion of all others. A healthy church can’t exist solely to worship but willfully neglect service to the community, any more than it can have a vibrant teaching ministry for adults but ignore children’s discipleship.

That’s because God gifts his children differently, empowering each of us for different works of the Spirit. The idea is not for all of us to be uniform in our giftings, but instead united in our diversity. Put us all together and you have a whole mess of strengths and weaknesses, bound together not by shared methodology but by shared love for the Lord.

Ask yourself, what gifts has the Spirit given you? How are you using them to glorify God and serve others? Don’t let your spiritual gifts go to waste—the church needs to do more than one thing at a time, and it needs you to make that happen!