August 29, 2004
On
Being Able to Overcome
Allan J. Weenink
The little vignette we read from Scripture is a contemporary parable. It can apply to people, a church, a community, or our national life. The children of Israel stand on the threshold of the Promised Land. For 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, preparing for this moment. Before them lies the land of hopes and dreams. But first, they must find what awaits them in this new and unknown territory.
Moses, their leader, sends out scouts. They scoured the hills and vales of the land we now call Israel, traveling by night and hiding by day. They found a rich and fertile country compared to the dreary desert they had known so long -- streams, pasture land, and exotic fruits.
Then, as they flitted past encampments and fortifications, they caught sight of the inhabitants. And the Promised Land lost some of its allure. The tribes that wandered about the area looked vigorous and violent. More than one of the scouts began to have second thoughts about the coming campaign to conquer. The beauties of what seemed a paradise begins to diminish in proportion to the size of the inhabitants of the land.
So they returned to Moses and their countrymen with two different stories. The Bible gives a vivid picture of this reconnaissance party bringing back some of the good things of this abundant land. They reported, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit." The opinion of Caleb, one of their leaders, was briefly and boldly spoken, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."
But the others who went with him said, "We are not able to go up against this people for they are stronger than we are." And they began to paint a fearful picture of the dangers ahead. "There we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers."
The majority report on this occasion was glum and grim. Unquestionably the land was utopia, but 10 of the 12 spies were so mesmerized by the size of the giant-like inhabitants that they said, "Promised Land or not, we want no part of it. We will be annihilated."
Only Joshua and Caleb have a different view. Caleb says to the people, "Let us go up and possess it because we are able to overcome it." How is it that 12 people can see the same thing and come up with such divergent views? The one says turn and run for your life. The other says stay and overcome.
There's little difference between pre-Christian times and the 20th Century. We all face mixed strategies. Today what we hear, see, and read conditions our attitudes -- personal, corporate, community, and national. Yet, beyond the secular, the academic and even the pragmatic is a spiritual dimension that can confound realism and transcend things visible. Either our faith speaks to the issue (or issues) or it is no faith at all.
I. TO BE ABLE TO OVERCOME CALLS FOR A SOUL-SET THAT CEASES TO STUDY THE DIFFICULTIES BECAUSE IT ENVISIONS THE OPPORTUNITIES. As the poet says, "It's the set of the soul that decides the goal and not the calm or the strife." Caleb brought back a minority report: "There are giants in the land," he said realistically. "And their cities are walled and very great, but we are well able to overcome it."
The difference was a matter of perspective. Or call is soul-set if you will. The majority saw the problem in terms of their own weakness. Caleb saw the difficulties in terms of God's strength. We get a different view of life when God is in the picture. Our beliefs affect our attitudes. One's soul-set becomes the vital determining factor. In a very real way our lives become God's opportunity. Some people accept every challenge by automatically going into reverse. Others can face forward with confidence because they sense a spiritual partnership.
There's Martin Luther, standing before the Church Council, alone against the giants. "Recant," he was told, "disavow what you have said and written." He was a grasshopper compared to the powers he opposed. Yet, he changed the course of history by his unshakeable composure and his uncompromising soul-set.
"Here I stand," he said. "I can do no other. God help me. Amen." The Reformation, of which we are all heirs, came about because a man of confidence would not back off. He envisioned the opportunities without being overwhelmed by the difficulties -- and a spiritual recrudescence took place. Luther described it well in his immortal hymn: "Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing; Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing."
Our Pilgrim ancestors with souls set the possibilities of a new land and life before them. They faced unimaginable difficulties with sheer valiance. Amidst starvation and privation (cut off from their native land) they seemed like mere grasshoppers before this giant continent. Yet, with God's help they began to tame it. The voice of Joshua seemed to echo in their ears, "Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
What then gives ordinary people the courage to overcome? Surely it can only be the overpowering conviction that the spiritual world is humanity's ultimate environment; that the God-force of one person's life may count infinitely, whether it be in solving personal problems or serving a significant cause. "It's the set of the soul that decides the goal and not the calm of the strife."
II. SECONDLY, TO BE ABLE TO OVERCOME WE MUST FEEL DEEPLY IN OUR HEARTS. This is the inner assurance of a being in harmony with God -- it's called faith. The book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 1, states it, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Then follows a veritable list of the saints. Before each name we read "by faith" -- by faith Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- by faith Sara and Moses and so on. Common people, ordinary people, met the large issues of life without running. God provided them the resources with which to make their way against the odds. They earned their place in the Bible's Hall of Fame. We are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses.
We all face hard decisions, difficult duties, and demanding chores. We face changes -- some unexpected and others as part of the process of time. Often the odds can seem overwhelming and insurmountable. Christianity has never overlooked these experiences. They come inevitably. Like the rhythmic alternation in the natural order -- days of unutterable joy are sometimes succeeded by seasons of overwhelming concerns. Life brings its high moments and low moods.
Admitting even the weighty problems, staggering disappointments, and stunning sorrows, Christianity affirms that God is able to give us the power to meet and possess them as well. This strength of stability which belongs to the person of faith is Christ's chief legacy to his disciples. He does not offer them a magic formula which exempts them from struggle. But he does say this, "In the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." His meaning is obvious -- spiritual forces have a strange way of changing the insurmountable.
At the vital center of the Christian life is this divine human encounter, this unique relationship of heartfelt faith from which inward reinforcement comes. And with it confidence that whether in our personal living, corporate relationships, or social tasks, when one deeply believes that person in the words of Paul "never loses heart".
So Ezekiel (exiled in Babylon) cried, "The Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet." So Isaiah (confronting national disaster) said, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." So Paul (facing situations which would have defeated a lesser person) found his dependable reliance "strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man".
For such people religion was not simply a creed about God, but an intimate relationship with God; not simply theistic theory but personal experience of an environing Presence whence the heart draws courage and strength. Such faith recognizes the less than lovely aspects of life and people. It is founded on the inward awareness of adequate resources to face all circumstances -- hold steady course and eventually withstand the difficulties or overcome the tribulation.
III. ONE MORE THING -- WE MUST HAVE A SOUL SET THAT SEES OPPORTUNITY WITHIN DIFFICULTY AND THUS AN ATTITUDE OF MIND THAT WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED. God said to Moses while the people were crying out in fear about entering the land of Promise which was also the land of Giants. "But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went and his descendants shall possess it." (Numbers 14: 24)
Caleb had an attitude of mind that would not be intimidated because it was reinforced by a soul set and a faith deeply held. He had a different spirit than the others and urged them on in the face of significant odds. This is the mark of the overcomer. It is part of our Christian optimism. Or as Paul says, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
It may appear at times that we are but little grasshoppers in the presence of overwhelming giants. Our fears, frustrations, failures, fragmented plans, and fractured purposes -- they look to be insurmountable and we begin to wonder -- to complain -- to become paralyzed by fear. Instead of going forward to possess opportunity, we run away in retreat, surrendering to despair.
It is then that we take courage in the example of our Lord. He too knew what it meant to feel the enveloping power of giant forces. In the wilderness temptation he wrestled it out and won a glorious victory. Yet after three years of ministry it appeared as if the whole undertaking was nothing but a consummate failure. The cross loomed as a conquering giant -- the cross symbolizing the colossus Rome. And the cross consumed the solitary man. But NO! The man consumed the cross and colossus.
There is a parable here. In God's sight the giants lose their stature and their power. After all, the children of Israel did enter the Promised Land and nothing more is said of the sons of Anak, the giants. Who would know the name of Pontius Pilate, once the Roman giant of Jerusalem, except that it occurs in the creed of those who worship the One he put to death.
Giant-after-giant has disappeared when Christians have followed the advice of the Apostle who said, "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
Tomorrow will come and after that the next day. Whatever it is you need to overcome, you know that God uses our puny efforts and makes them noble ventures when we take into the fray a courage and discerning soul-set, a heartfelt faith in the Almighty, and an attitude of mind that will not be intimidated. That's a formidable force.
The Christian way of life is a way of life with a depth at the center. In vital personal religion every person is commissioned with a purpose and destiny -- called to do something, big or little, for God's sake and humanity's. The reality of God in our today is PURPOSE -- hard at work, getting something done on earth to further God's redemptive influence, calling committed persons to some task, which in the place where that person is put, no one else can do in that person's stead.
So, if you really believe the Christian Gospel and its power to overcome -- God behind us, God's causes committed to us, God's power available for us -- then live convincingly before the challenge of change. Live courageously in the cause of the right; live creatively in the midst of inertia; live with character in the midst of adversity; live with commitment in the midst of nonchalance; and live with conviction in uncertain times, holding high principles even when unpopular.
Our Christianity calls us to be part of God's redeeming purposes in our time -- personal, social, and national. That same theme is sounded in the New Testament as Paul writes to his young friend in the faith, Timothy. "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. (II Timothy 1: 7) It is in his strength we find both vision and fulfillment."
Amen.