Achilles and His Heel

You may have seen the movie, “Troy,” with Brad Pitt as Achilles, greatest of the Greek warriors in the Trojan War.  What the movie didn’t cover was how Achilles got to be so great.  In Greek mythology, Achilles was the son of the sea nymph Thetis and Peleus, king of the Myrmidons.  The Fates prophesied that Achilles would die in the Trojan War, but Thetis sought to secure a different destiny for her son.  She took him to the River Styx (the entrance to the underworld), held him by his ankle and dipped him into the water.  As a result, Achilles became invulnerable everywhere on his body except for the heel with which his mother held him over the river.

Years later, Paris, prince of Troy, abducted the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta.  The Greeks rallied behind the offense and set off with 1,000 ships for Troy.  Despite Thetis’ attempts to prevent Achilles from going to Troy, her son was persuaded by Odysseus to join the effort.  The Greeks lay a long siege to the city.  During the tenth and final year, Achilles was mortally wounded by a well-aimed shot from Paris’ bow.  The arrow struck him in the heel, his only vulnerable spot.

The term “Achilles Heel” has come to mean a weakness that seems small but is in fact potentially fatal.  Many leaders have an Achilles Heel.  Sometimes they know that it exists, and sometimes they are blind to it.  It can go undiscovered for years until they are given a challenge that exposes their shortcoming, but once it is revealed, it is almost always fatal to their forward motion.

Some managers have an Achilles Heel in their ability to deal with people.  Like Achilles, they are tactically superb, receive accolades from high levels, move up through the organization with dexterity and speed, but they leave dead bodies everywhere they go.  As long as they move quickly enough, no one traces the destruction back to them.  But once they reach a spot on the battlefield that will not yield (i.e. get stalled out in a position), those around them begin to make the connections.  And once their Achilles Heel has been located, it’s not long before their enemies use it for advantage.

The best managers identify their Achilles Heel by seeking frequent feedback from all levels and all directions (e.g. through a 360 degree evaluation).  In this way, their enemies become their allies, helping them to identify their weaknesses.  Once they have identified their Achilles Heel, they take steps to strengthen or eliminate their weakness through training, coaching, difficult assignments and other means.  They never allow success to be an excuse for not growing.

 

Taking a Stand

I’m an expat living in Thailand, and I believe that this requires me to change certain behaviors that are normal and comfortable to me in order to be culturally sensitive.  When the Thai national anthem or the king’s song plays, everyone is supposed to stand (including foreigners) out of respect.  If I hear either song, I stand.  It’s a sign of respect to the country that is allowing my family to live on its soil.

In the mornings when I’m in town, I walk the kids to school, and my habit has become that I sit for half an hour or so doing my quiet time in the school’s courtyard.  At 8:00a, the large Thai school across the street from our school plays the national anthem.  I always stand, but many times, I’m the only one.  The other foreigners typically continue their conversations, and even the Thais working at our school only stop what they are doing occasionally.

Standing is a simple gesture, but when you are the only one doing it, it’s easy to feel foolish.  I look around at everyone doing their own thing, and I wonder, “Am I over-doing this respect thing?”  “If no one else is doing it, maybe it’s not really expected.”  “I wonder if they are laughing at me.”  “Maybe they are thinking that I’m being pretentious.” “Does it really even matter if I stand or not?”

After all, there are plenty of excuses for not standing.  The music is a little hard to hear.  It’s not  playing at our school.  We aren’t Thai.  The Thais don’t even stand sometimes.  No one seems to care.  I’m having a conversation.  I’m tired.  My leg hurts…

I had an experience like this today, and I spent some time thinking afterward.  Being a Christian is a little like standing for the Thai national anthem.  When you take a stand for God, you will often look foolish to the world around you.  You are standing for music they may not even be able to hear and for reasons that they don’t particularly understand.  Even some of the Christians around you aren’t taking a stand for God.

It’s easy to second-guess yourself. “Am I being too strict about the movies my kids watch and the music they listen to?”  “Am I naive to think my kids could possibly make it to marriage without having sex?”  “Am I throwing my money away when I tithe to the church?”  “Am I being pretentious by claiming that there is only one Way into heaven, and His name is Jesus Christ?”

These doubts and questions are part of the cost of taking a stand for God.  If it were easy, everyone would do it, right?  Of course, God could strike down anyone who didn’t take a stand, but He doesn’t.  He doesn’t, because then EVERYONE would stand.  They wouldn’t be standing because they loved the Lord; they would be standing out of fear and compliance.  Those aren’t the types of followers God is looking for.  He loves us too much to force us to “love” Him back.

When you take a stand for something, you have to be willing to pay the price.  Without cost, there is no sacrifice.  As King David said when Araunah offered him his threshing floor, oxen, wood and wheat for free in order to make an offering, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.” (1 Chronicles 21:24)  The value of the sacrifice is tied to how much it costs you.

The foolishness you sometimes feel when taking a stand for God is part of your sacrifice.  But you can take comfort in this Scripture:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

(1 Corinthians 1:25)

One day, every stand you took for the Lord will be seen for what it was –  wisdom, love, honor, respect, readiness, strength, adoration, devotion, courage, faith…  Insist on paying the full price.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.

(1 Corinthians 16:13-14)

 

Handicapped

hand*i*cap [han*dee*kap] n. any disadvantage that makes success more difficult

All of us are handicapped in some way. Some are fortunate enough to wear their handicap on the outside. (That sounds callous. I don’t mean it to. I know that there can be deep physical, emotional an mental pain connected to a handicap.)

I’m using the word “fortunate” in a relative sense. Those with a visible handicap are potentially more fortunate than those with invisible handicaps, because having a visible handicap forces you to deal with it. People know about it. They make comments about it or joke about it or tease you about it. Kids on playgrounds get picked on about it. Most get treated differently because of it.

But as counter intuitive as this sounds, public reaction/response to a handicap can be a gift, because it elicits a response from us. We either become bitter, or we become better.  Think of some of the inspirational people you know of who achieved great things despite their handicap.

• Theodore Roosevelt, Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle and Michelangelo all suffered from epilepsy.

• Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman, Claude Monet and Louis Braille were all visually impaired.

• Tiger Woods, Jimmy Stewart, Moses and Aesop all had or have speech impediments.

• Joni Eareckson Tada, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Itzhak Perlman are/were all in wheelchairs.

• Howie Mandel, David Beckham and Donald Trump all struggle with OCD.

I propose that the success these people enjoy(ed) in their chosen line of work/ministry is connected to their disability. In dealing with their handicap, they developed strength, resolve, patience, faith, compassion, trust, perseverance, confidence, maturity, wisdom or any number of other positive coping mechanisms. Their handicap was the grain of sand in they oyster that produced the pearl.

Granted, many deal with their disability poorly. They become resentful or insecure.  Angry or depressed.  Discouraged or defeated.  Some retreat into the shadows to avoid the pain of public disdain. Some lash out and try to inflict as much damage as possible. Hurt people hurt people.

These are tragic stories, but we should recognize that there was choice involved.  No one forced these people to choose bitter instead of better.  Many have suffered with the same limitations and chosen to “prove the world wrong” or to “show what I can do despite this challenge.”  In life, it’s less import what hand we are dealt and more important what we do with the hand we are dealt.

For everyone with a visible handicap, there must be dozens of us with handicaps that no one can see. They are wounds on the inside or detrimental ways of thinking. They are experiences and pains that we’ve hidden far away from view. Because they are not visible, we aren’t forced to deal with them. And because we aren’t forced to deal with them, we usually don’t. But they continue to eat away at us. They continue to influence our decision making. They continue to hold us hostage.

There’s not a single person on this earth who isn’t hurting in some way. It’s a result of the sin condition, and it affects us all.   Often, the pains on the inside hurt us the most, because pretending that the handicap isn’t there lets it continue to have power over us.  Our coping mechanism doesn’t produce a pearl; it produces the neuroses of depression, stress, anxiety, obsessive behaviors, paranoia or fear.

The best thing we can do to help ourselves with an invisible handicap is to bring it out into the open. We should quit denying its existence, and expose it to the light of day with a trusted friend or counselor.  That begins the healing process.  Before long, we will find that God will bring someone else into our life who is struggling with the same disability, and helping that person to heal helps us to heal even faster.

Hidden in every handicap, both the visible and the invisible kind, is an invitation and a gift.  The handicap invites us to trust God more, to lean on Him, to depend upon Him.  If we accept the invitation, we receive the gift.  The gift is a tool to shape us more in God’s likeness, to cut away the parts of our heart that are our true disability – our pride and our selfishness.

Without the handicap, our self-sufficiency would carry us far from God.  When He allows us to be hurt (because even though God is not the author of evil, there is nothing that happens that He is unaware of or powerless to prevent), it is an act of love.  God’s purpose in allowing the disability is that we will come to the end of ourselves sooner and return to Him.

Give God thanks for your handicap, whatever it might be.  Then, let Him use it to bring you closer to Him and to bless the world around you.

He Equips the Called

You might have heard the statement, “God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.” It’s true. What use has God for someone who already knows all the answers? What use has He for someone who doesn’t need His help? What glory does He get when we do it in our own power?

God wants us in our weakness, not our strength. He wants to do something through us that we can’t do on our own. When He does, He gets the glory.

“But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him.”

(1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). If you’re in a spot where you never need to rely on God, it might be time for a move. You’re playing it safe, doing things inside your comfort zone. God wants you a little nervous. He wants you to feel ill-equipped. When you do, you know that He’ll have to show up if the job is going to get done. Perfect!

Think about Moses arguing about his public speaking ability with a burning bush or Isaiah worrying about his lips. Think about Mary, who had not yet been with a man, or Gideon needing reassurance about the battle before him. In their weakness, God showed His strength. The most powerful examples of God working through men and women come from the ill-equipped.

Peter’s life provides a good contrast. In the years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Peter always had all the answers. He was proud and impulsive. I think God loved Peter’s impulsiveness, but He had to mold it so that it could be used. Peter’s ministry began only after he had been broken. When all his boasting came to naught, Peter had to admit that he wasn’t the Lord’s reliable defender. Ironically, out of Peter’s brokenness, God made him what he so wanted to be but couldn’t achieve in his own power.

If you want the Potter to use your clay, don’t take Him a finished product. What’s He going to do with that? It’s not moldable. It is rigid. Instead, take Him your misshapen lump. Let the Potter make of the lump what He wants to make. It may be what you’ve always hoped for, but it may be something entirely better.

The Amazing Chinese Bamboo Plant

The Chinese Bamboo plant starts from a tiny seed. You plant the seed in the dirt, and you water the seed. Very little seems to happen the first year. Despite your efforts, only a tiny shoot pokes out of the ground.

So…..the second year you water and fertilize and protect the seed…..Nothing happens.

So…..the third year you water and fertilize and protect the seed…..Nothing happens.

So…..the fourth year you water and fertilize and protect the seed…..Nothing happens.

So…..the fifth year you water and fertilize and protect the seed.….Finally, during the fifth year, the Chinese Bamboo plant begins to grow. In fact, it grows 90 feet tall in just 6 weeks!

The question is, did it grow 90 feet in six weeks or in five years? The answer, of course, is that it grew 90 feet in five years. It took five years to grow the root system that would one day support a 90-foot plant.

People are often like the Chinese Bamboo plant. We invest hours and hours trying to develop ourselves or others, and nothing happens.  We spend years discipling our children to follow the Lord, but…..nothing happens.   We hold countless meetings with our staff members to coach them in the development of their strengths and developmental areas, but…….nothing happens. We redouble our efforts to help a friend make better decisions, but…….nothing happens.

If you’re like most people, you will be tempted to give up. Don’t do it! If you give up, the seeds you planted will die. But if you continue to care for the seeds, one day (when you least expect it) the results of your labor will seem to magically appear overnight!

If the Chinese Bamboo plant immediately shot up 90 feet in the first year, one strong wind would blow it down. By growing deep before it grows tall, it gains the strength it needs to withstand the force of heavy winds. Similarly, lasting growth starts on the inside of people. It’s difficult to see that change is taking place, but this is a necessary process. The growing they do on the inside creates strength of character and conviction.

Don’t give up hope! Your efforts will be rewarded!  Once the root system is established, your growth or the growth of those you are coaching will spring up seemingly overnight!

Learned Helplessness

Researchers once did a study in Florida in which they divided a large, fish tank in half by putting a glass wall in the middle.  A barracuda was put on one side of the tank and a mackerel on the other.  The hungry barracuda tried to get the mackerel but smacked into the glass barrier.  Again and again, the barracuda smacked the glass in its attempt to reach its dinner.  Finally, realizing how futile its attempts were, the barracuda gave up.

Researchers then removed the wall to see what would happen.  Surprisingly, the barracuda made no new attempts to reach the mackerel.  It eventually starved to death even though food was within easy reach.

The technical term for what happened is “learned helplessness.”  The barracuda had learned to be helpless from its many failed attempts to reach the other fish.  When the barrier was removed, the barracuda continued to operate as if the glass wall was still there. (S – Seligman, Martin.  Learned Optimism.)

Many of us also suffer from learned helplessness.  We learn from early experience that we aren’t good at resisting temptation. All our failures are irrefutable evidence that we have no control. The slightest temptation causes us to give in. Why fight it? It’s inevitable. Our beliefs create our results. Because we have programmed our brains with self-defeating self-talk, our half-hearted attempts meet with failure.

The Enemy loves this type of thinking. It makes his job incredibly easy. What our learned helplessness fails to take into account is that we are growing in our walk with the Lord. We’ve gotten stronger since the last temptation (or should have). If you are in the Word, praying and obeying what the Lord leads you to do, then you are constantly growing stronger spiritually.

Apply a little bit of that muscle to resisting the Enemy’s temptations. You’ll be surprised how little effort it actually takes to defeat the Enemy on this battlefield. He suffers from learned helplessness, too, but his is real. He has learned that he is powerless against the righteous person who applies the power of Jesus Christ to his temptations.

Cracked Pots

There is a story about a farmer who had to make a long walk each day down to the stream, where the clear water flowed.  To carry the water back, he used two, large, clay pots that he had fashioned with his own hands.  These he hung on either end of a long pole that he carried across his neck and shoulders.

Though both pots had seen some years, one was still in perfect condition.  The other, however, had a large crack in it, so that when the farmer arrived back home after his long walk, he often had only half the water with which he had started.

The perfect pot was proud of its daily accomplishement, a full pot of water delivered to the farmer’s hut, and it disdained the cracked pot for its inefficiency.  It thought to itself, “I am glad that I am not like this worthless pot beside me.  I faithfully bring all that I’m given back to the hut of my master.”

And to be sure, the cracked pot was ashamed of the way it wasted water on the way back to the hut each day.  If only the crack were not so large or the distance from the stream not so far….  It thought to itself, “My master has been so good to me, and I continue to fail him day after day.  I’ll speak to my master and ask his forgiveness.”

So, the next morning, as the farmer was tying each of the pots to the long pole he used to carry them, the cracked pot spoke up.  “Master, forgive me; I’m a cracked pot.”

Amused by this sudden revelation, the farmer responded, “I’ve always known that you were cracked.  I was there when it happened.”

“Yes, but I’m ashamed that I’m only able to bring half a pot of water back to the hut each day.  If I were whole like the other pot, I could bring back all that you trust me with each day.”

“If I had wanted two full pots of water,” the farmer replied, “I would have replaced you a long time ago.  Have you not noticed the many flowers on your side of the path as we make our way back to the hut each morning?  I planted them on your side, because your crack makes it possible for me to water them each day as I walk.  The other pot doesn’t share its water with the path, so nothing grows on its side.”

The Moral of the Story

God is the farmer, and we are the pots.  He takes our cracks and uses them for His Kingdom and His glory.  Through them, He pours Living Water on a dry and thirsty world.  No matter what mistakes we have made, no matter what our imperfections… God will use them if we let Him.  Romans 8:28 tells us that:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  (emphasis mine)

ALL things.  that includes your prodigal years, your physical “imperfections,” your disabilities, your sickness and disease, your insecurities, your failed marriage, your broken relationships, your demotion, your bankruptcy, your lack of intelligence or good looks or charisma or whatever.  God uses everything – if we let Him.

And don’t kid yourself.  We are all cracked pots.  Not one of us is perfect.  The “perfect pots” may look perfect on the outside, but they are cracked on the inside because of their pride or because of something else they are doing their best to hide.

The difference between most of us and the “perfect pots” is that we are giving God opportunities to use our cracks.  He can’t use “perfect,” because “perfect” won’t admit that it needs God.  Remember, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  If we pretend that we can do it ourselves, we rob Him of an opportunity to work through us.  If we do it in our own power, we get the glory.

The “perfect pot” was proud of what it accomplished in its own power.  But what it missed was the chance to be part of something greater than itself.  God never asked us to store His blesssings.  He asked us to pour them out as we walk with Him.