Optimisfits Page 7

  And sometimes that is the best kind of praying.

  18

  NARNIAN ROYALTY

  Here’s a bit of useful trivia: Do you know which verse resides in the exact middle of the Bible?

  Here it is: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:9 KJV).

  I think that helps explain the attitude of Optimisfits toward politics. We know that governments will always ultimately fail us. After all, they are composed of fallible human beings. And politicians are usually more about image than substance. That “image” is about as real as the one you craft for yourself on social media.

  Can I get another like?

  If you are waiting for the donkeys and elephants to solve all the world’s problems and usher in a new time of peace and prosperity, you are going to have a very long wait.

  Some people are all about the right wing, and others are all about the left wing, but I think that God is all about the whole bird! What’s more, He is the bird. He has lifted us up on eagle’s wings according to Exodus 19:4.

  God’s Kingdom is not from this world, but it is for this world, just as we are in the world, but not of the world. It is a Kingdom that comes down from heaven to make a difference on the earth below. His goal is not just to get us into heaven, but to get heaven into us.

  The Bible uses political terms to describe God’s reign among us. When Jesus calls Himself the Son of God, He is using a term that was often ascribed to Caesar Augustus. This term, Divi Filius, was even inscribed on some Roman coins right next to his picture.

  In fact, it was widely believed among Romans that Emperor Caesar ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the gods. So, you can see why it was so dangerous for Luke to write that Jesus had ascended to the right hand of God. Caesar Domitian had a choir who often followed him around chanting, “You are worthy our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.” Which is exactly what John records is spoken around the throne of God in the book of Revelation. These New Testament writers were rebels. They were the resistance movement. It is no wonder that the Empire tried to kill them off.

  So, when people said that Jesus was the Son of God, they were proclaiming that He was the King rather than Caesar. Dangerous, dangerous. Today, when we talk about the “gospel” we are actually hijacking a political propaganda term used by the Romans to proclaim the reign of the emperor. It proclaimed that they had brought about peace through their military triumphs. Their common phrase for this accomplishment was “Peace Through Victory.” The Roman peace (Pax Romana) was sustained through the shedding of the blood of every challenger.

  Jesus proclaimed a different kind of Kingdom.

  His message was the opposite of the Roman motto. His motto was “Victory Through Peace.”

  He didn’t conquer the earth by bathing the world in the blood of His enemies; He overcame the world by bathing His enemies with His own blood.

  We have a special place in that Kingdom.

  We’re not seated in the cheap seats or the nosebleed section. We are seated in the heavenly places!

  We are the Kings and Queens of Narnia. Paul calls us “God’s elect” and John refers to us as “kings.” We are also spoken of as “ambassadors,” the emissaries and representatives of the Great High King, the God of Hope. And one day, the Bible tells us, we will be given thrones. We are destined to rule and reign with Him. Now that is what I call upward mobility.

  And this perspective changes the way we should think about the political struggles of our own day. It doesn’t mean that we ignore the important issues or refuse to get involved when we need to, but it provides a perspective that reminds us that politics is not the ultimate answer to every problem.

  We understand that there is a higher authority than monarchy, oligarchy, autocracy, or even democracy. We are participating in a theocracy, where God rules.

  Our job is to find whatever doesn’t represent heaven on earth, and, well, vanquish it!

  So, if there are problems in life that you cannot solve, remember that it is kind of like your old math textbooks in school—the answers are in the back of the book. The book of Revelation reminds us that as the future unfolds, we can trust in the One who holds that future in His hands. God is on the throne, and He is the King of kings. In 17 of the 22 chapters of Revelation we get a glimpse of God on the throne; there are roughly 45 occasions where John gives us a glimpse of God perched in the place of ultimate power.

  The elders around that throne fall to their knees and proclaim His judgments to be “righteous.” We join them. Like the surfing turtle in Finding Nemo, we ride the currents and hoot, “Righteous!”

  And when we look back at our lives someday, we’ll see how God has been at work. We’ll say, “Righteous! It all makes sense now! Everything You did in my life was perfect. Righteous and true are Your judgments, O King!”

  God isn’t messing around when it comes to His rule. As my friend Levi likes to say, “There’s no game when it comes to His throne.”

  19

  WALT DISNEY HAS NO GOOD IDEAS

  Early in his struggling career as a newspaper cartoonist, Walt Disney was fired because the editor-in-chief said, “Disney lacks imagination and has no good ideas.”

  Once he decided to start making animated films, most of his early ones failed to find much of an audience. He could barely survive on the pittance he earned with these cartoons. Long after most people would have just given up, he finally broke through with a little cartoon called Steamboat Willie which starred a mouse name Mickey. This changed everything.

  But Disney wouldn’t settle for making successful cartoons. He wanted to stretch himself to do something new and unique. He decided to create a place where families could come and share in imaginative adventures together. It would be a magical theme park called Disneyland. Few thought it a viable idea. Most thought he was just an unrealistic dreamer.

  When he tried to get funding for this idea, he was turned down by over a hundred banks.

  Eventually he was able to build the park, which was an unmitigated disaster on its opening day. But he persevered with his vision. Today, “The Happiest Place on Earth” is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world.

  Disney had plenty of opportunities to give up. But he didn’t.

  He had no fear of failure.

  Colonel Sanders, the country gentleman with a white suit that matched his white hair, founded Kentucky Fried Chicken, but only after being turned down by over a thousand restaurants to which he tried to sell his secret recipe of “11 herbs and spices.”

  When it came to facing failure, he wasn’t a chicken.

  Charlie Chaplin’s initial screen tests were not encouraging. The film company concluded that his act “was too obscure for people to understand.” It didn’t happen overnight, but eventually he became America’s first bona fide movie star.

  Thomas Edison’s schoolteachers thought him too stupid to learn anything.

  Beethoven’s music teachers told him he was hopeless when it came to composition.

  Dr. Seuss had the manuscript for his first book rejected by 27 publishers.

  Harrison Ford was told by a movie executive that he didn’t have what it takes to make it in the movie business.

  Vincent Van Gogh was a prolific painter, but he sold a grand total of one painting in his entire life.

  Abraham Lincoln had an almost impossible time getting into law school, failed twice at business ventures, lost eight elections, and had a nervous breakdown. All before he became our sixteenth president.

  Winston Churchill lost nearly every election he participated in and was considered a failure and a has-been before he finally and unexpectedly became the Prime Minister of Britain in his sixties.

  He had failed sixth grade.

  He famously defined success as having the ability to go from one failure to the next without losing enthusiasm. That was the story of his life. Failure was his jam.

  Someone
once asked him about the qualifications for being a politician. His answer:

  A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.3

  Failing is an inescapable part of living life in legendary mode.

  In her bestselling book, The 5 Second Rule, Mel Robbins hit it on the head:

  Do you know the game Angry Birds? Rovio, the brand that created the game launched fifty-one unsuccessful games before they developed Angry Birds. How about the Avengers star Mark Ruffalo? Do you know how many auditions he did before he landed his first role? Almost 600! Even Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times. My favorite vacuum cleaner is Dyson…James Dyson created 5,127 prototypes. What? And this last one will blow your mind. Picasso created nearly 100 masterpieces in his lifetime. But what most people don’t know is that he created a total of more than 50,000 works of art. 50,000. That’s two pieces of art a day.4

  This ratio of masterpieces to artistic failures doesn’t sound very promising. But Picasso failed his way into greatness.

  When we look at the heroes of the Bible we see the same pattern: success only comes after major failure.

  Moses originally had no confidence in himself as a leader and speaker. And he had serious issues with his temper. But he led his people out of Egyptian slavery.

  Elijah could become almost suicidal when depression descended upon him, but he was the greatest of the prophets.

  Paul had made a career out of killing Christians before he became the most prolific writer of the New Testament.

  Peter had a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Then he denied Jesus at the most critical moment. But he became the Rock upon which Jesus built His church.

  David’s lustful desires for the wife of one of his soldiers led him to orchestrate that man’s death, yet he came to be called “a man after God’s own heart.”

  Rahab practiced the oldest profession, but she still makes the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith.”

  These were no white knights or shiny superheroes. They were failures all.

  But they failed forward.

  Their failures were not the end of their stories.

  These stories of heroic failure give me hope that it is worth it to keep picking myself up after I mess up, and keep taking new risks so that I am always moving forward. Patton said, “It ain’t about how high you climb, it’s about how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.”

  If you are afraid of failure you’ll never realize your dreams.

  Failing makes your story interesting. I’m just bored when I hear a guy talk about how every shot he put up went in. Yawwwwn.

  The best stories are about perseverance in the face of challenge, about how someone rises like a phoenix from the ashes of defeat, about how people respond to rock bottom.

  I always love a comeback.

  I’m counting on experiencing them.

  In the meantime, God loves you right where you are. He loves you just as much when you’re at your lowest moment as He is at your peak performance.

  Look no further than Jesus. When He was baptized in the Jordan River, near the Dead Sea, which was the lowest elevation on planet Earth, God proclaimed Him to be His Beloved Son. Then, when He was transfigured on the top of Mount Hermon (the highest mountain in all of Israel), God once again repeated that statement—that He was the Beloved Son.

  When we are at the peak, we are beloved, just like Jesus.

  When we are in the lowest valley, we are beloved, just like Jesus.

  When Elijah was strong in faith the Bible says that the ravens fed him and a widow sustained him. But later, when he was at his lowest point, wracked with doubts and feeling like a failure, it says that angels waited upon him and God Himself fed him.

  Sometimes God works through our doubts more than through our faith. When we reach the end of ourselves we find a new beginning with God. What starts out as an air ball that completely misses the hoop becomes something that God can use as an alley-oop to throw down on our enemy.

  It is said that the average person makes 35,000 choices every day.

  I make a lot of dumb ones.

  But God adores me and forgives me, which means that even my worst failures—and yours—can’t separate us from His love. He loves you so, so, so, so much. And He gleefully forgives you. Therefore, none of your failures can keep you from your destiny.

  Irving Stone spent his life studying great men and women, and turning the results of his research into novelized biographies. Two of the most popular featured Michelangelo and Van Gogh. When he was asked if he’d found any sort of thread that runs through the lives of the great people he’d written about, he replied:

  I write about people who sometime in their life…have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished…and they go to work. They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified and for years they get nowhere. But every time they are knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they have accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do.5

  I vibe with that.

  Hebrews 11 gives us the “Hall of Faith.”

  Maybe we need an Optimisfit’s “Hall of Faith and Failure.” It would include a lot of the people we’ve talked about in this chapter. People who kept failing until they found their way to their dreams.

  It would include me.

  And you.

  20

  10,000 HOURS

  A few years ago, a report was released which revealed that the average young person spends a lot of time with entertainment devices. Shocking information, huh? Between video games, television, and surfing the internet, the average came to more than seven-and-a-half hours per day. That’s 53 hours per week. Older people clocked only a slightly smaller number of hours.

  Let’s be honest about what that means. We are killing an awful lot of time consuming entertainment, battling virtual adversaries, or stewing about the latest news being delivered on the 24-hour cable networks.

  Neurologists tell us that bad news sticks to the brain like Velcro, whereas good news slips out of our noggins like water through a sieve. Nine people say something nice on your Instagram feed, and one person says something mean. What do you spend your time thinking about? The bad news sticks, which is why it is not a good idea to accumulate a whole lot of bad news.

  Since bad news sells, the networks run the negative stories over and over. Their feed repeats every 30 minutes. The threats. The conspiracies. The accusations. The fearmongering. No wonder we get depressed by watching too much of it.

  But we are hooked.

  Another study found that most people check their cell phone every six minutes…or 150 times per day, searching for the rush of dopamine that social media produces. I have a lot of people who like me, we tell ourselves. Just check my Facebook feed.

  We are all in grave danger of iDolatry.

  And there are billions of websites out there in the ether, offering us endless information and cat videos. People used to read books by knowledgeable specialists, looking for a depth of understanding that comes from studying the printed page. Now we can skim a series of posts by random bloggers and think we understand. It just seems like a more fun way to learn, right? It takes less effort, even though we must burn a whole lot of time trying to sort the dependable truths from the fraudulent half-truths.

  We spend over 50 hours a week watching TV, playing games, surfing the net, or checking our social media. This doesn’t leave a lot of time for actual living.

  Optimisfits don’t want to waste our time on things that don’t really matter.

  You might be tired of hearing about how much I dislike rules, so here is a good rule, one that I totally believe every Optimisfit will find is worth following…

  It is the 10,000-hour rule.

  The concept comes from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. He argues that the only way to find
success at anything is to invest time in it. A lot of time. At least 10,000 hours.

  Gladwell makes the case that whether it be Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, Wolfgang Mozart or Bobby Fischer, Arnold Palmer or Michael Jordan—you only get really good at something by focusing on your goals and working hard to achieve them. He found that the real successes were the people who were willing to invest 10,000 hours on their “thing,” whatever that thing might be.

  For some it is the latest version of Halo. By the age of 21, the average American has put over 10,000 hours of practice in computer gaming.

  Consider the Beatles. If you have heard their earliest recordings, you’ll know that they weren’t very good when they first started making music. In fact, they were pretty much terrible. But they took a gig at a rundown club in Hamburg, Germany, where they played eight hours a day for seven days a week. They did this for months on end. (It probably felt like “Eight Days a Week”!) They played more shows before the famous British invasion than most bands do in their entire career. They put in countless hours perfecting their performances and enhancing their musicianship and when they finally started recording, it seemed like a miracle. Their records became instant chart toppers. Their live show took Britain and America by storm.