Tucker Project

After finishing Giglio’s book earlier this week, I need to write down some of the highlights before they slip from my mind.

The chapter “the little leader” which talked about John the Baptist was the chapter I think I liked the most. It helped me think of John’s position. Here was this guy who had this incredible and popular ministry and along comes Jesus who steals his thunder in a sense. What is so incredible is how that didn’t seem to bother John. He knew who he was and what his mission was about and who he was to point to…..HIM. Just from my own experience and observation I have seen how it is so incredibly easy to lose that perspective on what we are really about. Way to often it’s more about our “program” or campaign or whatever is cool and exciting to us at the moment! But we have to remember that we are really just “voices crying in the wilderness”.

I think the following quote is good to think about and ingrain in my head, especially the more I get involved in “ministry”.

“John never thought his ministry outfit was number one because the very one his ministry was about had already far surpassed anything he would ever do.” (p.90)

I think John summed it up best for all of us in John 3:30:

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (NASB)

Giglio:

“John didn’t politely say, ‘He should increase.’ Or, ‘I want Him to increase.’ Or even, ‘It would be nice if He did increase.’ John’s confession was not about tipping his hat to the Son of God. Rather it was an expression of focused determination, a calculated purpose statement for life and ministry. It’s as if John was saying:

‘No matter what else happens there’s one thing that has to take place–one thing that must happen–and the one thing that must happen is that Jesus must emerge and expand in the hearts and affections of the people. He must be elevated, honored, exalted, focused on, cherished, enjoyed, amplified, and adored by all people everywhere.’

John’s mission was simple and clear: Jesus must increase, and I must decrease. Convinced and aware that Jesus was center stage in the story, John found great joy and compelling purpose in pointing others to Him. His is the voice of the ‘little leader,’ a man so blown away by the privilege of knowing God personally that he couldn’t be distracted by petty clashes and glory wars.” (p.94-5)

In the chapter “be still” Giglio talks about living in the Sabbath. And although knowing the Jews start their days in the evening, I’ve never given much thought as to the reason behind it. Yet, there it is (as it always has been) in the beginning, in the book of Genesis.

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness ‘night.’ And there was evening and morning-the first day.” (Genesis 1:3 NASB)

He goes on:

“I needed a little help from my friend John David Walt to notice that a day doesn’t begin in the morning, but at night…In other words, night comes first, where darkness reigns, morning in the middle, and then daytime, which fades into night where a new day begins again. That seems a little odd to us, and maybe even backward, but it makes perfect sense in the economy of God. John David says it like this: ‘We go to sleep and God goes to work. And we wake up to see what God has done.’…In a way, that’s the story of our lives. Everywhere we go we walk into a story in motion. Before we ever arrive, God is on the scene carrying out His plan and causing all things to work for His fame. We arrive to join the regularly scheduled program already in progress.

So often we think that everything begins when we step through the door…But things don’t start when we have a ‘vision,’ or we think of a new way of doing things, choose to act, have a burst of creative inspiration, give, or pray. God’s Story is the already-in-motion story, a story that was happening just fine before we arrived and is going to go on just fine with or without you and me.

That’s why we should wake up each day on the lookout for the Story of God, constantly thinking to ourselves, ‘God is already here. What is He up to?’” (p.106-108)

That whole idea about the day beginning in the evening just had a profound effect on me, especially given the fact that I work third shift. And honestly, I am still not sure what to think about that at the moment. All I know is that somehow that resonates deep inside me and at the moment I can’t find the words to explain the implications I know that it will have on how I view…well…everything. Like Giglio said, that seems so backward in our culture. The evening signals the end of the day not the beginning. And yet, there it is. Weird. Like I said, this idea definitely needs more thought.

The part that was really hard to swallow was actually at the very beginning of the book. Giglio retells the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. God tells Moses that His name is I AM. He then goes on to say that if God’s name is I AM then Moses’ name (and ours as well) is i am not.

God was telling Moses:

I AM the center of everything.

I AM running the show.

I AM the same every day, forever.

I AM the owner of everything.

I AM the Lord.

I AM the Creator and Sustainer of life.

I AM the Savior.

I AM more than enough.

I AM in exhaustible and immeasurable.

I AM God.

and if our name is I am not, then:

I am not the center of everything.

I am not in control.

I am not the solution.

I am not all-powerful.

I am not calling the shots.

I am not the owner of anything.

I am not the Lord…

I am not runnning anything.

I am not the head of anything.

I am not in charge of anything.

I am not the maker.

I am not the savior.

I am not holding it all together.

I am not all-knowing.

I am not God. (p38-39)

That one item “I am not holding it all together” really hurts. I have become so adept at putting on my “I’m a happy Christian” face especially when I go to church. I’m a pro at hiding; pretending that everything is fine. And what’s worse is that I’m starting to realize that I’ve actually started to believe that lie, that I AM holding it all together. I guess what’s even worse is that I know I’m not the only one who is faking….

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2006 at 7:14 am and is filed under Louie Giglio, Reading commentary, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.