The Right Strength

 ©️2022 Dr. Timothy Byler - All Rights Reserved

“How many times have you entered a project or engaged in a mission that seems as though it simply isn’t going to occur?” That is a depth charge question. A depth charge question is an open ended one, designed to be dropped into the waters wherein you are swirling, and when you make contact with it, it explodes and randomly exposes areas of weakness.

Often when people talk about vision and purpose, they put their best foot forward. They tend to hide the vulnerabilities. Strength beckons unto strength the way that deeps calls into deep. And face it: we like everyone to see that we are strong and have it all together, so we put our best foot forward. That is not how we sharpen one another. The benefit of being relatable in leadership is that when someone has a weakness in an area, someone else who has a strength can serve to help that individual “shore up” that

area of vulnerability. That is Biblical, by the way.

One of the greatest hindrances to progress is found in operating in the wrong strength. Sometimes the tool we use is simply not strong enough. But often, the tool is way too much for the task. By example, years ago I was playing a concert when I broke a string on my guitar. The strings are held at the bridge (the base) of the guitar by a simple plastic peg shoved into the wood. For some reason, I could not get that plastic peg to budge! There is a tool designed to work the peg free but of course, in the moment that I needed it, I managed to leave it on my work table where I had restrung the guitar the day before. In desperation, I looked and found a pair of pliers. GREAT! That will do the trick. It did. The plastic pin responded immediately and released its grip on my broken string. The plastic pin also cracked under the pressure and when I went to install the new string, the pin was now useless. I used the wrong tool and applied the wrong strength. 

There is an old eastern saying: “Don’t use a cannon to kill a mosquito.” Another example is a moment from a favorite television series, “NCIS”. Special Agent Tony DiNozzo was working with his boss, Special Agent Gibbs, on a murder investigation in a Marine unit. Tony made a statement that the “the problem with the unit was a lack of discipline.” Gibbs replied, “Or too much.” Applying too much strength is often more detrimental than not applying enough. I’ve broken lug nuts off of vehicles. I’ve scorched clothing that I was ironing by applying too much heat when I didn’t get the desired results. Each effort created more and in some cases, permanent damage. I didn’t need more strength. I needed more patience. 

Things have to happen in God’s timing. 

As I write this, I am looking out over a newly planted field in central Pennsylvania. For me this is day four. On day one, it was just freshly harrowed dirt - or so it seemed. The next morning, I looked up and there were tiny sprouts with one little leaf reaching out of the dirt. Nothing seemed to change over the next two days and ai was reminded of how patient s farmer must be in waiting for his crop to strengthen. It is in a very vulnerable stage. Birds, critters (farm term), and weather can all play a devastating role in the outcome of that harvest. This morning, on day four, I looked out and there was a green hue to the landscape. I put on my glasses and looked out and the field had come alive! It was growing all along. It just needed time. And, it needed the farmer to recognize that the timing that God placed into the seed had to be fulfilled as it was designed - in God’s strength.

Recently my friend John Amato made this observation about Abraham in the Bible. Abraham had a revelation of what God had promised and even instructed. He was to raise up a nation. That is a tall order, particularly when that started with birthing a son. Abraham was an old man who was married to an old, barren woman. They both wanted to please God and to fulfill purpose, but they could not bring themselves to find the right strength. Instead they operated in the wrong strength - their own strength. Sarah sent her handmaiden to Abraham, who impregnated her. She birthed a son named Ishmael. This is not how God had defined what was to happen. They were trying to do His will but they operated in their own strength. It was the wrong strength. To see how overpowering the wrong strength can be, one only has to look at the conflict between the descendants of these two sons THOUSANDS of years later. 

God continued his plan. Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to Isaac, just as God promised. But using the wrong strength created long term damage to the outcome.

Isaac was a product of God’s grace. Ishmael was a product of self effort.

For the believer, applying the right strength is always a lesson in God’s grace. Too often, we try to “make things happen”. We try to get the field to grow, as if the seed listens to our words. We have a responsibility to plant. And we have the responsibility to nurture, water, and protect the field. The one thing we cannot do is force the seed to do what it can only do by God’s design. Anything else is operating in your own strength. 

I have seen preachers do it in a service - trying to persuade people to respond, rather than allowing God to prick their hearts. I have seen politicians and governmental leaders of nations manipulate and “spin” the minds of people into an agenda that erupts and ultimately results in their own long term destruction. I have seen spouses, parents, kids, etc. try to force their way through relationships, often leaving a path of destruction that looks as though a tornado and come through.

In moving toward purpose, the biggest thing to remember is that God’s strength is greater - not just stronger - but better proportioned for the task. He always has the right tool for the right job! If you can remember that - and remember how much He loves you and believe in you, you can rest in the knowledge that He who started a work in you will be faithful to complete it in you. And you can know that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and He will quicken (sharpen, stimulate, brighten, and burn more brightly - hone for the task) you!

Be patient. Apply the right amount of strength - God’s strength. At let your field grow and produce a harvest! In due season you will reap if you do not let yourself grow weary!

FORWARD!

Think Different

 ©️2022 Dr. Timothy Byler - All Rights Reserved

“Think Different.” This phrase became the advertisement slogan of Apple Computer Inc. in 1997. It was interesting that instead of considering what could happen if a person would expand their mind with a broader path of thought, some people attacked this major corporation’s new slogan as a grammatical error.

Thirty second grammar lesson: “Think differently would be correct if it follows the typical grammatical path of an adverb (think) being followed by an adjective (differently). However, the word different can be used as an adverb or an adjective. By example, consider this quote that was attributed to  Aman Jassal - “Read different to think differently; [the] world is already into [a] rat race.” 

(Dr. Albert P. Rayan - New Indian Express, ©️2016)

The argument caused me to think (see what I did there?). How often, when presented with something that challenges your current way of thinking, do you default to what you know, rather than allowing it for the moment to expand what you know. I am an “ol’ skool” guy. I like percolated coffee, 60’s cars, 70’s sitcoms, 80’s music, and movies from all of those eras. It is hard for me to think that the things I loved in the 90’s are now thirty years old! It is also hard for me to think that things I have always known have changed as technology, 

knowledge, and…well the world has changed. 

I will offer this by example. In the 80’s and 90’s, I worked in the automotive and transportation industry. One constant that we knew then was that if a person was replacing two tires on their car, we would instruct them to put the new tires on the front of the car - the wheels that would steer the car. It made sense. You wanted the car to be able to turn, and while you want traction from the drive wheels, you do not want the drive wheels to over-control the steering wheels. With the advent of front-wheel-drive, the rule stayed the same through the 90’s. Now, the drive tires and steering tires are on the same front wheels. 

The back tires just go along for the ride. 

One day the rules changed. The new recommendation was to put the new tires on the BACK of the car, leaving the older, more worn tires on the front of the car. That made NO sense to me. In fact, it flew in the face of everything I have been taught in the field! Upon further reflection, it did NOT oppose what I had learned on the race track, or in snowy and icy conditions. In those conditions, if you start to break traction, your natural tendency is to let off the accelerator. This was actually taught as practice in rear wheel drive cars. The back wheels decelerate, drawing the front of the car back into a modicum of control. Feather the throttle. Turn into the skid. Survive, recover and drive through it. However, in a front-wheel-drive car, if you let off of the accelerator, the FRONT wheels slow down. The back of the car does NOT! When that happens, the back of the car slides around and you go into a spin. In a front-wheel-drive car, instead of letting off, you continue to accelerate a little. The front tires keep traction and pull the rest of the car back into submission. During those years, people avoided buying front wheel drive cars because of this issue. In fact, I spent time on a skid pad with purchasers for law enforcement vehicles, trying to recover the sales contract we were about to lose because their department wrecked about a half dozen of their new Ford Taurus Interceptors in a couple of weeks. (I won BTW!)

All of this knowledge did not stop me from arguing with the person who wanted to put the two new tires I was purchasing for a friend’s vehicle on the BACK of his front-wheel-drive car. Regardless of my experience, my train of thought was stuck in what I had previously been taught and even personally recommended. Then, she (Great! some young girl is gonna educate ME about cars!) began to explain that in a skid, the back of the car will come around and spin you but if the tires with the best traction are on the trailing wheels, you have a far better chance of controlling the skid! I let my real life experiences catch up with what I was hearing and 

when I did - when I thought “different”, she was RIGHT!!! (AARRRGGHH!!!)

Steve Jobs thought different. There are certain foundational business truths. There are also certain scientific and technological truths. Both simply are what they are. Yet, Apple suffered calamity when its leaders reach beyond those bare foundational business truths to attach other “adopted” foundational truths. It led to Jobs being fired from his own company… and the systemic failure of that company. To survive, they had to bring the “different”. They had to bring back Steve Jobs. To be a leading company, not only in technology but an entity that has created a culture and a lifestyle required everyone to think different. If you can learn to do that, you can have a distinct advantage over those who are around you. And, you can shape not only what you are doing, but also impact everything that is touched by that which you are doing.

Think Different! It will not stop you from holding onto your foundational beliefs. In fact, we call them foundational beliefs for a reason. The things that are truly foundational remain so. It is only the things that are counted as foundational that really aren’t that are subject to revision. Thinking different will challenge you to reassess what you call foundational until you pare it back to what is truly foundational in God. THAT is when you truly become empowered by what He has afforded you. It is often the things that we attach to those foundational truths that hinder us the most! Jesus kept that message in front of everyone - 

especially disciples and Pharisees. 

The next time you are afforded the opportunity to have your opinion challenged, consider the challenge. You probably are not wrong in certain aspects. But, you may have missed something pertinent that would greatly alter the equation. The ability to look more broadly at something will likely reveal things that you already know, yet have never considered. It may even reveal something you simply never knew!

Remember, when God wants to help you grow, He will likely put someone in your path who will challenge you to THINK DIFFERENT!

The Heart Wins

 The Heart Wins - Dr. Timothy Byler

(c) 2022 - Timothy Byler - All Rights Reserved

The measure of success is hidden in one’s daily routine. This is a powerful truth. I recently attended my nephew’s college graduation ceremony. John Maxwell was the keynote speaker. In his challenge to the graduating students, he talked about “the do” and “the did”. He often encounters people who say to him, “I want to do what you do.” His response to them is always, “Are you willing to do what I did? In order to do what I do, you will most likely have to do what I did.” He drove the point home and it went something like this:

“If you want the “DO”, you have to do the “DID”. If you won’t do the “DID”, you will never get to do the “DO”. 

If you try to do the “DO” without doing the “DID”, you won’t be able to do the “DO”. 

And, you will wind up in deep DOO-DOO!

The daily routine - it will make or break you. Investing one dedicated hour per day will offer a compound interest on what you are wanting to accomplish. But in reality, it will offer you compound interest on who you are. Maxwell drove home his main point. (It’s cool when your batter can hit two grand slam home-runs in the same ball game.)

“Work on the inside more than you work on the outside. Who you are inside 

is what brings the real value to who you are on the outside.”

You are comprised of three elements - spirit, soul, and body. Your spirit is the “pneuma” - the breath of God that gives you life and your direct connection with Him. Your body is the physical form that functions here on the Earth. Your soul is the connector. It is our mind, our will, our intellect, and our emotions. It is the part that makes you, you. It is the inside. And, it is the place where victory really happens.

All of the training in the world cannot make up for what drives you from the inside.

A confluence of events: 

In the recent Kentucky Derby, there was a bit of an upset. With 80-1 odds, long shot horse, Rich Strike won with an astounding victory.

As I said, the odds were 80-1 against any hope of this champion becoming, well a champion.  He did not have the best starting position. He was not the biggest horse. He was not the “best” horse. (He was a $30,000 horse competing against multi-million dollar horses.) 

There was a confluence of events that led to Rich Strike’s victorious run. First, Rich Strike was trained by Eric Reed, a horse trainer who has before this moment, never trained a derby winner. In fact, before this horse, Eric Reed never even had a horse in the Kentucky Derby! Second, The owners walked through a devastating personal recovery. A few years ago, they suffered a terrible barn fire and lost 23 of their prize horses. Sonny Leon rode Rich Strike to victory. This was the first time he ever rode in a derby. Prior to the Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike had seven career starts. He had three shows and one win that happened at Churchill Downs.

Rich Strike, Reed, and Leon were up against,seemingly insurmountable odds. In fact, the only reason they got to race is that another horse, Ethereal Road, scratched from the race.

The confluence? Tragedy, recovery, a fresh approach, diligent training, and a break merged into one created opportunity. Each of those events fed into the heart of those who were involved. That confluence of events led each of the players in this story to a place that created in their hearts a champion. 

And the race goes to: THE ONE WITH THE MOST HEART!

The Book of Proverbs instructs us about the heart. 

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

Proverbs 4:23 NLT

Another translation adds clarity. “From your heart flows ALL of the issues of life.”

Training is important. Diligence and discipline is important. Gaining wisdom and knowledge is important. But hidden within the daily routine that builds strength, muscle, knowledge, and wisdom, there also has to be a diligence toward guarding your heart. It protects you when adversity tries to dismantle your dream. It protects you when well meaning voices try to dissuade you from reaching for your dream. And, in the moments when it looks as though all odds are against you, that bigger, better horses, with bigger financial backers and better training are standing at the gate with you, it helps you remember what is inside - what God has placed inside of you. The heart wins!