(posted : Monday Aug 22, 2011)
This past weekend I was a part of the Identity315 conference in Largo, FL. I was privileged to be one of the seminar speakers, and spent two days talking about Leadership from the book of Nehemiah. There were about 215 amazing students there from about 10 churches in the area, plus great speakers like Ed Newton, Jason McLeod and Sarah Howard. One of the coolest things that happened (even for a Phillies fan like me) was when Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist came and spoke to the crowd. He was dead on talking about the Gospel, and talking about living for Jesus. One great thing that he said was this: "If I mess up on the field, that doesn't change my identity. My identity is in Jesus Christ!" That was an incredibly powerful thing to hear coming from someone who is a Major League Baseball player! And the students (not to mention every single adult) were hanging on his every word.
This past weekend I was a part of the Identity315 conference in Largo, FL. I was privileged to be one of the seminar speakers, and spent two days talking about Leadership from the book of Nehemiah. There were about 215 amazing students there from about 10 churches in the area, plus great speakers like Ed Newton, Jason McLeod and Sarah Howard. One of the coolest things that happened (even for a Phillies fan like me) was when Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist came and spoke to the crowd. He was dead on talking about the Gospel, and talking about living for Jesus. One great thing that he said was this: "If I mess up on the field, that doesn't change my identity. My identity is in Jesus Christ!" That was an incredibly powerful thing to hear coming from someone who is a Major League Baseball player! And the students (not to mention every single adult) were hanging on his every word.
But it was something else that he said that I have not been able to shake. He opened it up for questions, and one teen asked him about what kind of boundaries he sets in his life to keep from living like the world. Ben had already talked about how living for Jesus as a MLB player was like swimming upstream. I thought it was a great question. And I was expecting him to tell us about rules he had set up in his life. Instead, he totally caught me off guard. He told us that when he sets boundaries or rules in his life, he (and each one of us) always tries to see how close he can get to the boundary without going over. And then, inevitably, he goes over that boundary. This led to a yo-yo Christian life going back and forth over the boundaries. He also mentioned that sometimes he would stay within the boundaries, but then pride would come in, and his heart would be wrong. Because even though his actions were right, his heart was wrong.
He told us that instead of creating big walls, he is asking for God to change his heart.
Wow. It was so simple, yet so profound. Now, to be clear, he was not saying he does not have rules in his life that he follows, but rather that he is more concerned about his heart being right with God that simply "coloring inside the lines." Coloring inside the lines can many times lead to legalism. And Ben told us that he simply wanted God to have control of his heart and life. Because sometimes even if our outward actions are right, our inward thoughts, desires and intents can be really wrong.
That is why Jesus told us that if we are angry with someone in our heart, it is the same as murdering them; and that if you lust after someone in your heart, it is the same as committing adultery with them (Matthew 5:28). The actions may have been right, but the heart intent was wrong.
So I walked away from the conference thinking about heart change. Asking myself and God if I was really interested in my heart changing, not so that I would just stay inside the lines, but rather so that I would be pleasing to God.
So what about you? Do you need heart change?
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