Steve's Letter: Now Go and Tell Someone!

Last month I told you about my lousy job-thinking God commissioned me to keep people from sinning. It was a lousy job because I wasn't very successful at it and people, no matter what I said or did, kept on sinning. Then I realized that the teacher wasn't doing that great either.

Now let me tell you something else. I not only had a lousy job, I had (and still have) a job I really ought not to be doing. If I were God choosing someone to do what I do, I wouldn't even be on the list of prospects.

I've just returned from a week of teaching at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. In Presbyterian and Reformed circles, Westminster is a very old and quite prestigious graduate school of theology.

Why did they invite you?

Very funny.

But in answer to your question, I don't have the foggiest idea. Maybe it's my good looks, my thoughtful scholarship or my incredible teaching gifts. Then, again, it was probably because they couldn't find anybody else.

For the past 15 years, I've taught at Reformed Seminary in Orlando with colleagues holding doctorates from Harvard, Duke, Oxford and Cambridge...and then there is me. I ran away from kindergarten. I used to sit in faculty meetings and pinch myself just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming or maybe having a nightmare.

I've been thinking of late why I do anything I do. I'm not the most qualified person I know to do any of it. In fact, it's insane. Frankly, I'm not good enough and I don't know enough.

A number of years ago, I spent an afternoon with the retired chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He had moved to Miami and invited me to lunch at his home on the ocean. It was a really nice afternoon and I was quite flattered to be invited. During that time, he got out scrapbooks and showed me pictures of his years serving the rich, the powerful and the famous. I was quite impressed and even more so when he said, "Steve, I have to work at remembering that none of this had anything to do with me. It was about Jesus and I represented him."

You think?

Paul wrote, "we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).

They say that behind every good man, there is a surprised mother-in-law. There may be some truth to that. But I do know that behind every opportunity for me to be in over my head, there is an equal opportunity for everybody I know to be surprised...and me more than anybody else.

My schedule doesn't allow for it now, but for a number of years I was often teaching and speaking at the chapels of professional sports teams. If it's insane for me to be at a seminary, it's even more insane for me to be speaking at sports chapels. (I once asked Monica Seles if she played tennis!) One time, as I was getting ready to speak for a professional football team, the chaplain and a friend who knew I didn't know anything about football, said, "Steve, whatever you do, don't say, 'Go out there and hit a homerun!' Okay?"

Almost every preacher or speaker at those chapels has a talk titled, "God's Game Plan"-or something like that-and sports figures grow quite weary of hearing it. I started my talk by saying, "I want to talk to you about God's game plan." Every guy there winced and rolled his eyes.

"Just kidding," I said. "I don't know anything about sports or about God's game plan, but I do know Jesus. Let me tell you about him."

I suspect that's the reason I was invited back and, in fact, why I'm invited to a lot of places.

Paul wrote to his friends at Corinth, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

People always say to me that they would talk about their faith but don't because they aren't good enough and don't know enough. I get that, but listen: If you wait until you're good enough and know enough, it won't ever happen.

Do you remember in John 9 when Jesus heals the man born blind? You will remember that he was called before the religious authorities who grilled him theologically, pointing out that what happened to him couldn't really have happened because Jesus was just a man and a sinner.

He responded, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see" (vs. 25).

Do you know the most dangerous thing in our lives? It is self-righteousness and its ugly twin sister, self-aggrandizement. For instance, it is quite sinful to be prideful, but even worse to act like you aren't.

Aren't you doing that now?

Of course not. I'm doing just the opposite.

Now people will say how authentic and humble you are, right?

No. Well...uh...maybe.

Then you can be proud of your humility?

It's my best quality. And, frankly, how many famous scholars have taught at Westminster?

One less than you think.

Okay, okay. I repent.

I confess that I wanted to tell you guys that I had been to Westminster. Nevertheless, the point is still valid.

It's valid for you too.

Are you forgiven?

Are you loved?

Are you going to live forever?

Now go out and tell someone.

He asked me to ask you.

In His Grip,