Called to Be Strong (Judges)

I am dispirited by a generation whose heads are bowed downward. Wherever we go, whether walking in the street or sitting in a restaurant, waiting in line or walking in the park, we are staring down at our smartphones. We spend our time disengaged from the abundant life that surrounds us. Of course, I understand the vital importance of these devices that have transformed our lives. But what I see is a picture of introspection and self-containment. It is as if all sources of wisdom and revelation, as well as knowledge and social interaction, come from handheld devices. When I see this, a cry forms within me. It is that of Psalm 24: “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in” (v. 7).

We need to look up. To rise higher. To aspire to the One who is above it all.

It is God who leads us upward, to that which is bigger and higher and beyond our own abilities. One of the great complaints of this age is that there is no real sense of a higher purpose—that we’re just muddling through life, staring at our hands. But there are mountains to conquer and mountains to destroy, if only we would look. Mountains of corruption, poverty, and trafficking, as well as the mountains of greed and depression. Then there are the mountains of achievement and adventure—the challenges that we, both as individuals and as communities, are called to confront. We just have to lift our eyes up and away from ourselves.

While those two climbers were at the rock face, all they could see was the small area in front of their noses. But during the time of preparation and dreaming, Jorgeson and Caldwell would have spent days and weeks sitting at the bottom of the wall, staring up and taking in the spectacle. They would have held that image in their minds’ eyes, even as they were confronted with the minutiae of tiny holds and fingers that had been sliced.

God called Zechariah to lead the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, which lay in ruins. It was a call to get the people to look away from their own preoccupations and work together. The people were depressed and downcast; Zechariah was called to lift their hearts and show them God’s vision.

Zechariah knew that in this great task of rebuilding the temple there was one unchallengeable fact: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6). He needed to encourage the people to look up and to see that what seemed impossible was indeed possible only with God.

Ken Costa, Know Your Why: Finding and Fulfilling Your Calling in Life (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2016).