Category: Boundaries

6/24/2025 1 Comment

As Good as Dead

October 7, 2023 Survivor

In Genesis 18:11, it states that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, had passed the age of childbearing. Yet the Lord told them that she would give birth to a son. Sarah laughed at the absurdity, but the Lord said to her, “Is anything impossible for the LORD?” (vs. 14). Years before, God promised Abraham “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them. Your offspring will be that numerous” (15:5). Despite his age, Abraham believed God and it was “credited to him as righteousness” (15:6). He was 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born (17:7, 21:5). Through Isaac and his descendants came the nation of Israel, the very country whose survival is threatened by those who would annihilate them.

Frivolous

My West Point classmate Larry Turrentine recently shared this wisdom with our weekly prayer team:
A week ago, I passed through Detroit's Metro Airport after attending a funeral and a repass. As I walked through, I spotted a curious name for a shop. It was called "Frivolous," with a subtitle "wonderfully necessary." Clearly, it was designed for those with extra time and extra money. It fit the former. So, with my extra time, I went in and looked around.
Nothing really caught my interest, and moments later, I was gone. It occurred to me that my experience was a microcosm of a Christian Pilgrim's progress through life. Why do many of us spend significant amounts of time in the shops of our lives called "Frivolous"? If it is true that only what we do for Christ will last, why do trivial pursuits (frivolity) fritter away our lives? If the airport were on fire, would we patronize the shop called "Frivolous"?
We are the ecclesia, the called-out ones, and our call is to be Ambassadors to a lost and dying world, to a world on fire. Our call is purity and holiness. But as long as the shop called "Frivolous" exists, so must our mandate to pray.

Protecting Boundaries

Jed, Samantha, and Rob work for a nonprofit organization that helps military veterans. They mostly love what they do, but they struggle immensely with the poor manner in which their organization is run. Their leader flips from one project to the next, often pulling them to work on a new requirement with no advance notice. They feel jerked around by the tyranny of what is most urgent—a reoccurring pattern that is not well thought through. Decisions are sometimes made for them in areas where they are subject matter experts without seeking their input or advice. They feel unheard and underappreciated. They are emotionally and physically exhausted because there are no work boundaries or protected times for them to rest and relax.

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Photo from Rachel Maxey Miles

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As Good as Dead

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