Thriving in Babylon : why hope, humility and wisdom matter in a godless culture

154 Pages·2015·2.34 MB·English

by  Larry W

The darker it gets,
the brighter our tiny light shines.

To William, Katie, and Emma.
You are growing up in Babylon.
May you embrace it with Daniel-like
hope, humility, and wisdom.
Jeremiah 29:7
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SECTION ONE
DANIEL’S STORY
1. A MAN NAMED DANIEL
Famous but Unknown
2. CAUGHT IN THE BACKWASH
How Big Is Our God?
3. SURROUNDED BY EVIL
How Bad Can It Get?
4. TOUGH LOVE STARTS AT HOME
Why God Sometimes Lets the Bad Guys Win
SECTION TWO
PREPARED FOR BATTLE
5. WHY OUR FAITH NEEDS TO BE TESTED
The Problem with Counterfeits
6. WHY GOOD INTENTIONS, MORALITY, AND FAST STARTS CAN’T BE TRUSTED
Counterfeit Faith’s Most Convincing Traits 7. BOOT CAMP
How Trials Prepare Us for Battle
SECTION THREE
HOPE: WHERE COURAGE IS BIRTHED
8. HOPE
Beyond Wishful Thinking
9. WHY I’M AN OPTIMIST
Lessons from My DVR
10. GIGO
How Input Determines Outlook
11. HOPE KILLERS
The Curse of Conspiracy Theories and Catastrophizing 12. TWO MORE HOPE KILLERS
Myopia and Amnesia
13. FALSE HOPE
The Problem with Politics and Bandwagons SECTION FOUR
Humility: How Credibility Is Earned
14. HUMILITY
The Forgotten Path
15. RESPECT
Breaking Down Walls
16. PERSUASION
The Problem with a Spiritual Warfare Model SECTION FIVE
Wisdom: The Power of Perspective
17. WISDOM
Some Things Aren’t Worth Dying For
18. SCAREDY-CAT CHRISTIANITY
When Fear Takes Over
19. COMPROMISE ISN’T A DIRTY WORD
Mercy Trumps Sacrifice
20. WHAT GOD WANTS
Why Faithful Is More Important Than Successful Extras
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to express my deep gratitude to Alex Field, Ingrid Beck, and the entire
team at David C Cook. Your belief in this message and your incredible patience
and flexibility with the process was beyond encouraging.
To the elders, staff, and congregation of North Coast Church, thank you again
for making pastoring such a joy and for unselfishly allowing me the freedom to
also minister to the larger body of Christ. Chris, Charlie, and Paul, you make
coming to work a highlight.
A special thanks to Erica Brandt and my incredible wife, Nancy. Your careful
editing and candid feedback made the final product far better than the initial
pages you received.
Finally, I’m forever grateful to my parents, Bill and Carolyn Osborne, for
modeling much of what I have written about in this book. Far too many of my
peers have significant father wounds and unresolved childhood issues that
sabotage their attempts to walk in hope, humility, and wisdom. I am not
unmindful of how much easier it’s been for me to trust my heavenly Father,
simply because I was blessed to be raised by an earthly father and mother who
daily reflected his love, grace, and faithfulness.
Larry Osborne
Oceanside, CA
SECTION ONE
DANIEL’S STORY
CHAPTER ONE
A MAN NAMED DANIEL
Famous but Unknown
He’s one of the most famous characters in the Old Testament.
Many of us think we know his story.
We think we know it well.
But few of us really do.
His name is Daniel.
For some of us his name brings to mind a fiery furnace and a scary night in a
lions’ den. For others it elicits images of detailed prophecy charts with a lot of
small print, dotted lines, and cross-references. Yet neither Daniel’s miracles nor
his prophecies make up the main point of the book that bears his name. They’re
an important part. But focusing on them leaves us with a highly abridged version
that omits the most important parts.
IT’S NOT AN ADVENTURE STORY
Growing up in a Christian home, I always thought the book of Daniel was an
adventure story. I assumed the main point was that God would deliver me from
danger and persecution if I had enough faith and did the right thing. The fire
couldn’t harm me and the lions wouldn’t eat me.
But if that’s Daniel’s main point, he and God have some serious explaining to
do. When it comes to fiery furnaces and hungry lions, Daniel and his friends
aren’t examples. They’re exceptions.
No matter how godly we become, our odds of surviving the martyr’s fire and
the lions’ appetites are rather bleak. As far as I know, Daniel and his friends are
the only ones who ever walked out unscathed. Everyone else perished, dying a
horrible and agonizing death.
That’s why it’s such a huge mistake to turn Daniel into an adventure story. It
not only obscures the main point, but it also sends a blatantly false message: If
we do the right thing, God won’t let anything bad happen to us. He’ll rescue us
from the furnace and the lions.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth. God’s best have often suffered the
worst this world has to offer. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, evil and
injustice have had a field day. Bad things happen to good and godly people all
the time. As if to drive this point home, the first story in the Bible after the fall of
Adam and Eve is the disturbing account of a wicked brother killing his godly
sibling in a dispute over how to best worship God.1
And that’s on page four.
The rest of the Bible is filled with similar stories. Unfortunately, my Sunday
school teachers forgot to include any of them in our curriculum. These sordid
accounts never made it onto the flannelgraph or into craft time. Maybe my
teachers thought we’d stop coming if we ever found out.
I love the way the writer of Hebrews deals with this issue. He doesn’t sweep it
under the rug or attempt to dance around it. He goes right at it. After reviewing a
list of men and women who walked by faith and experienced great success and
incredible victories, he switches gears to turn our attention to another group of
heroes: those who endured torture, jeers, flogging, chains, and imprisonment;
those who were stoned, dismembered, and died by the sword; those who lived in
abject poverty; and those who were persecuted, mistreated, and forced to live on
the run, finding their shelter in caves and holes in the ground.
These, he says, were also men and women of great faith. Yet God in his
sovereign wisdom declined to rescue them from their earthly trials and