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Life Lesson LearnedBy Russ Faubert I’m wearing an old pair of glasses. This after my nineteen month-old son, Ryland, head-butted me while I was carrying him, knocking a lens out of my current glasses and into a gazillion pieces onto our faux-hardwood floor. You know those optometrist ads that promise your lenses in an hour? This applies to everyone but me. My prescription takes about a week, as they must send it to a special lab for grinding. The headache that usually accompanies an old pair of glasses is just beginning, and I can’t focus beyond four feet. I’m initially writing this by hand, because my laptop won’t boot this morning. It’s been on the fritz for weeks now and hasn’t worked the same since my three year-old daughter, Taylor, knocked it off the kitchen table. It appears ready to give up the ghost any day now. This is a Saturday, and my wife is at work. She has been working nearly full-time for over three months now. I have yet to find work after seven months of unemployment, and 170 resumes and applications. As you might imagine, our financial position could best be described as equal parts “meager” and “groping.” A doctor’s appointment earlier this week confirmed what we feared-that Ryland’s heart condition had returned, after an earlier surgical procedure to correct it. We knew that such might be the case, but following a week of prayer at the church, concluding with special healing and deliverance services in which he was anointed and prayed for, our faith was high that we’d hear good news. One of the first rules of thumb you learn as a writer is to write what you know. And what I’ve known over the last several months is trouble, struggle, and disappointment. While we certainly begrudge no one’s prayers or compassion, I write this not to tug on your emotional heartstrings, not to lament or bemoan our situation for the sake of my own pity party, and not to depress you with my tales of grief and woe. I write this to give God the glory-He is so good-and to share with you how that God, with His providential foresight, and through earlier spiritual lessons, prepared me for such a time as this. Once Upon A Time…The quiz was locked up; we had lost. It wasn’t the first time we’d lost, but it would be my last. Question 20 was merely a formality. I quoted Acts 2:14-16. But as I reached verse 16, “But this is that…,” my voice cracked, as I was overwhelmed by the weight of the last eight years of my life. (You can’t appreciate how alive the Word is until you’ve lived it.) I was no longer simply answering a question in a quiz. All of a sudden, the “this” in Peter’s words represented all the Joel had prophesied-and more-as it applied to my life. “This” was the incredible influence of great men and women of God in my life; “this” was the powerful anointing that could bring me to tears at the quiz board; “this” was all the life lessons God had had for me; “this” was eight years of a Bible Quizzing ministry that had profoundly impacted my life. The pouring out of God’s Spirit entailed all of this. What happened that day in Acts chapter 2 was the beginning of what overwhelmed me that day in Indianapolis. All of that, however, didn’t change the score. You see, this was Nationals, and we’d had a pretty good team that year. After going undefeated at the Tournament of Champions in Cincinnati just a few weeks earlier, we had hoped to improve upon our fourth place finish of the year before. Instead, we finished 24th. But the next morning in prayer, face down on those orange plastic seats, I prayed the lesson that strengthens me today, “I’m still going to praise You! I’m still going to praise You!” I learned that morning, following the final, disappointing quiz of my quiz career that my praise and worship and devotion to God is not based on the circumstances I see surrounding me. Though it was important that I offered God my very best in our attempt to win-for He is worthy of nothing less-win or lose, in quizzing or in life, He is no less worthy of my praise and worship and devotion. Ephesians 3:20-21 states, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” We often read this passage as “He will do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” when it actually instructs us to glorify “him that is able.” There is no promise here that God will or won’t do exceeding abundantly, but whether He does or whether He doesn’t, He is able to do it, because He alone is God, and that is why we glorify Him. The Sum of the MatterBible Quizzing tournaments serve two purposes, 1) they provide an opportunity to testify of what God can do with a willing vessel wholly given to Him, and with the testimony of our lives, we glorify God; and 2) quiz tournaments provide God with a catalyst to teach us the lessons He’d have us learn in an environment that is secure and supportive. At every tournament, whether a district practice or the North American Bible Quiz Tournament (Nationals), God is looking to impart lessons to those willing to learn. Bible Quizzing parallels life. If we fail to transpose the lessons learned in quizzing into life itself, then we’ve failed to grasp what this great ministry is all about. Too many once-great quizzers have proven that learning the Word is not enough-you must also learn to live its lessons. I don’t know just when my glasses will be fixed. I don’t know whether my laptop will ever work properly again. I don’t know when, or if, I’ll find a job. I don’t know whether my son will be healed or not. I do know that “goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6). I know that “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25). I know, because of a life lesson learned and applied as a Bible Quizzer, that I will be still praising Him.
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Russ Faubert --------- Note: Senior Bible Quizzing is a ministry of the General Youth Division of the United Pentecostal Church International. At its heart, Bible Quizzing is the life-skills training and leadership development of young people through the memorization and application of God's Word.
Russ Faubert is praising God in Stittsville, Ontario, Canada. |
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