Posts by: Brian Dolleman

Most things don’t start big.

Nope. They tend to start small.

Here’s what the Bible says about small beginnings:

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” (Zechariah 4.10 NLT)

God doesn’t want us to have a bad attitude about small beginnings.

I can think of two reasons why we might be tempted to despise small beginnings…

First—We don’t want to be small because we are addicted to big. We equate big with success. We don’t want to “waste” time with small. We want big results—you know, to match our big egos. We prefer others being small (which usually makes us feel bigger).

Second—We don’t don’t want to do the work of starting something, and then growing it. We equate small with more glamor-less work. We don’t like dirty work. And we don’t like waiting.

Here’s the truth: most big things started small.

In fact, most big things started with someone who was willing to be small—at least for a while.

Speaking of big, God (who is huge), rejoices at small beginnings.

He likes to see things start. Also—He likes to see US start things.

So… let’s make Him smile. Let’s start something new!

Small beginnings are the starting point of big things.

Got big ideas? Huge dreams? Lofty ambitions?

Good. Now get yourself ready for small…

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” (Zechariah 4.10 NLT)

This is about to go down

(in 1 week)

I’m sure you’ve heard this verse before…

“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” (Habakkuk 2.2 NKJV)

Write the vision down.

Make the vision plain (clear, easy to understand)—so we can read it and run with it.

Sounds good, huh?

Inspirational.

Clear vision, something to run with. Ya gotta love it.

But I’d like to point something out: this verse follows some serious agitation.

In the previous chapter of Habakkuk, verses 1-4 are titled “Habakkuk’s Complaint.”

Another large chunk of that chapter gets the creative title “Habakkuk’s Second Complaint.”

Habakkuk was agitated.

He knew everything was not as it should be.

He lived in the tension of the kingdom that is and the kingdom that is yet to come.

He had a sense for what could be and what shouldn’t be…

And God gave him a vision, an answer, a strategy—something to run with.

My point: agitation is a gift.

The world will not be changed by the content or the complacent.

Agitation is the prelude to action.

We need more agitated leaders!

Blessed are the agitated.

I’ve been quoting this guy Bob Goff quite a bit lately.

That’s because I just read his book, Love Does. It’s the best book I’ve read in the past 18 months (out of 70+).

It’s one of those “I like it so much, I bought a big stack of ‘em to give to people” kind of books (I did).

A quick story about Bob…

Years ago, when Donald Miller was a young camper at a Seattle-area Young Life camp, his canoe landed on the shore of a large cabin along the river, which turned out to be Bob Goff’s house.

A friendship was born.

Several months ago, a young Ugandan boy fell into the hands of a witch doctor who emasculated him. Bob’s law firm went after the witch doctor and successfully prosecuted him.

Not long after, a small airplane was circling over the same river where Donald was canoeing as a boy—and the pilot inquired about the house. The passenger told him it was Bob Goff’s house and shared the story of the witch doctor.

The pilot turned out to be one of the top male reconstructive surgeons in the country… and redemption was born.

Here is a parade outside of Bob’s San Diego house, featuring that Ugandan boy—as grand marshal.

I’ve never thought of Samson as a hero.

He wasn’t a good guy. His story is tragic. While Samson wasn’t a heartless psychopath, he certainly wasn’t a saint.

Throughout history, Christian writers have called Samson plenty of things (not exactly glowing praises)…

Judge & Fool.

Reckless Practical Joker.

Full of High Spirits & Low Ethics.

Noble Savage.

Bandit.

Judge Who Chased Women Instead of Enemies.

Anti-hero.

Oversexed Muscleman.

Obstreperous Lout.

I had to look those last two words up…

Obstreperous: unruly, aggressive noisiness; stubbornly resistant to control.

Lout: awkward, brutish person

It seems like we all agree: Samson is not role model material.

This fact makes his name in the list of “Heroes of the Faith” catch your attention…

“Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets—by faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God promised them. All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith…” (Hebrews 11.32-33, 39)

Quoting Jeff Lucas, from his book: There Are No Strong People…

“Some scoff at the mention of his name. But as we read the list of faith luminaries in Hebrews, we realize that it was the God who works on rubbish dumps, who works in the midst of our mess, this was the God who decided to put His servant Samson’s name in there.

And, by grace, our names are in his book too.

Remember this grace truth: Jesus works on rubbish heaps. On the mixed bags that are us.

He works out His purposes through us with a grace so epic, it’s a mystery.

Strength made perfect in weakness.

There are people with strengths.

But there are no strong people,

Except One.”

NOTE: Image is by designer Jim LePage. You can check out more of his Word Bible Designs here: http://jimlepage.com/word-designs/

Does God laugh?

Did Jesus?

Should we?

Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century church leader, believed laughter to be an enemy of humanity.

Quoting Gregory on the subject…

“It is equivalent in meaning to ‘frenzy’ or ‘madness’; for what else would anyone properly call laughter. It is neither speech or activity directed to any end, but an unseemly loss of bodily control—convulsions in the breath, paroxysms of the whole body, distention of the cheeks, exposure of the teeth, gums and palate, bending of the neck, unpredictable weakness in the voice, punctuated by gasps of breath; what else could this be, but madness? That is why, to laughter I said, You are mad, you are beside yourself, you have gone beyond the limits of sanity, deliberately behaving in an unseemly way, and distorting your appearance with passion, without accomplishing anything useful by the distortion.”

Wow. Fun guy to hang out with.

Another early church leader, John Chrysostom, declared that Jesus never laughed.

Hmmm.

The Council of Constance in the 1400’s declared there would be a special place reserved in hell for ministers who spoke “words such as to provoke laughter.”

Yikes!

Basil the Great said, “Raucous laughter and uncontrollable shaking of the body are not indicative of a well regulated soul, or of personal dignity, or self-mastery.”

I’m guessing Basil the Great wasn’t great to be around.

Just recently, I read a perspective that would have caused Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom to start twitching…

“There really isn’t anything frivolous about having fun. Without fun, marriages don’t work. When jobs aren’t fun, they become intolerable and dehumanizing. When children aren’t fun, they’re heartbreaking. When a church is not fun, religion becomes a drag.”

So, what do you think?

Does God laugh?

Should we?

How about in church?