In a recent trip to Haiti, I heard a Haitian pastor illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ. A man wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man wanted to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn’t afford the full price.
After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.
After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So, the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.
The Haitian pastor’s conclusion: “If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.”
In Paul’s letter to Timothy, we see the same scenario still being played out. In unreliable times, God had a man who was called to be a fully Committed person.
Paul, writing from prison as he anticipated his death, encouraged Timothy, a young pastor, to persevere in his ministry, uphold sound doctrine, and train others to do the same. The letter emphasizes the importance of faithfulness, suffering for the sake of Christ, and the generational passing on of the faith.
Paul shows several characteristics of the Committed. First, they are always looking to help the cause. Paul chose men who had a reputation for being committed. He compared their service to signing up for the Army.
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote. Good soldiers are willing to go into battle together. Even there, the Committed remain constant in the chaos.
Committed people are reliable. And they can be counted on to pass along the gospel. They entrust their teachings to those they’re training.
Paul told Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable (Committed) people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
Some years ago, when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen.
After a brief time, the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It appeared the instructor was not going to help me at all.
After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation.
Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him.
He very calmly said to me, “There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. But if you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.”
At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, “Remember this. As you serve me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right.”
This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another—to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast.
Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh, and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstance. Not by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology. But by exposing us to all these things, God overwhelms us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and drives us to cling to him more closely.
When we do, we are the Committed. We’re prepared to go wherever he sends us.
A missionary society wrote to David Livingstone in Africa and asked, “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.”
Livingstone wrote back, “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”
Maurice Gaiter is pastor of Empowerment Community Church of Chicago.