A few moments ago, I came across a tweet from Chris LoCurto, who among other things is a VP for financial guru Dave Ramsey. He quotes an incredibly profound Italian proverb, which prompted me to comment: "There's a sermon in there somewhere." Not being in a position to write sermons, I thought to myself; The 70 blog would suffice. So are you ready for the profound insight?

""Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box." — Italian Proverb

What captured my mind about this quote goes back to the unexpected conversation I had earlier today, with a man I never met who turns out is a Pastor; and as we started to talk about pastors leaving the ministry, I mentioned how so often we literally hold pastors "up to the pulpit"; a play on words for the concept of raising the standards for one who stands on the pedestal as a symbol of something people should strive to or work towards; and God forbid, they fall off.

So in light of the purpose of Bring Me 70, leaders and followers or those in authority and those under authority, at the end of the day, serve the same God, worship the same God, pray to the same God and will one day, stand before the same God and give an account to the same God.

In the game of chess, not much thought is given to the pawns. They are "easy to sacrifice". Unfortunately, in the church world, people have gotten severely burned my ministry in this manner. When you think about it, they move in the same direction as the King...at least to the extent of "one space at a time". The difference is, the strategy required to utilize the pawn to the point of success...winning the game; or at least playing a significant and often over-looked and under-estimated role.

From the King's perspective, at the end of the game, he goes in the same box as the pawn. The perspective here, again, from a church standpoint, is that pastors deal with the same issues you and I face every day. They are not immune to the same health struggles and sicknesses. They are not free of financial obligations and the worry that sometimes accompanies them. They are not unhindered with personal battles and habits that they are working to overcome. They are not void of ill-timed arguments and interruptions and arguments about the interruptions.

The point? The Message has a pretty cool take on 1 Corinthians 12: 4-31


4-11 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

wise counsel
clear understanding
simple trust
healing the sick
miraculous acts
proclamation
distinguishing between spirits
tongues
interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:

apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.

But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, uni-dimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.

If you aren't utilizing the gifts you have in the position you are in, how will you be able to acquire the gifts you need for the position you wish you were in? Grow where you are planted and your growth will naturally spread into other arenas!!!

I had one of these moments earlier this evening. If I continue to think about it, I keep feeling this way. And if I think it about it to long, the picture would have been one of a man standing with his head to the wall...or a woman sitting on the floor with her head on her arms.

So much of what we think is the end of the world, isn't. Sure it feels like; sure, we know better...but the frustration, however minor it may be, will gain ground and consume more time and energy than it should if you allow it.  Let your frustration be minor. Don't give opportunity for it to take residence, gain footing and ultimately strength. Break the stronghold by not allowing it arrive there.

... is your past.

If Life, is handled and managed and discarded as it happens, (guard what is important; let go of what doesn't matter and advance forward) then you give the past opportunity to tag along until it is kicked the curb. The longer you wait, the bigger the monster becomes. It eats away at your future every day that it wakes up with you, as long as it is called today. It survives on the "in" box labeled "file later".

Once you realize what you have on your hands, it time. You can start today, by refusing to feed the monster. The situation won't change over night, but by refusing to allow current situations to carry over, you can begin to reverse the trend and eventually work towards breaking free.