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Ben Palpant

Please Take My 2014 Reader Survey

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I want my blog posts to serve you better, but that means I need to know more about YOU. Would you please take a couple of minutes to fill out my 2014 Reader Survey? By filling it out, you will help me make my content even more interesting and relevant to your needs. Many of you have already taken it, so thanks! If you haven’t had a chance yet, then here’s the link: My 2014 Survey Reader.

If it helps, pretend we’re seated across from each other at coffee and I’m asking you these ten questions. Of course, this survey will take just a couple of minutes, so I suppose that’s a rather quick cup of coffee. That’s no reason to bolt down your warm drink. When you’re done with the survey, come back to the website and explore some of my blog posts. I’ve linked those below for your convenience.

You are important to me and your feedback is invaluable. Again, the survey has only ten easy questions and the results are completely anonymous. I won’t be able to tell who gave what feedback. Thanks so much for sharing about yourself. I can’t wait to get to know you and serve you better.

Here are some of my popular blog posts:

Failure Is Not The Final Word

Breeched And Waiting For Birth

Unbind The Feet

He Makes Me Lie Down

The Big Question Nobody Is Asking: What Will You Do With Your Suffering?

The Secret Ingredient For Gladness

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I asked my students to close their eyes and imagine a room full of people who loved God with deep affection. Then I asked them to imagine that those same people also loved others with deep affection.

Go ahead, you can do the same thing and I’ll ask you what I asked my students.

Now, with your eyes still closed, tell me what you hear. Got it?

Now, while you mill around the room, tell me what you feel.

In other words, what does a room filled with people who love God and love their neighbor (the two greatest commandments) sound like? And how does it make you feel?

Most of my students said that the room was filled with happy and sincere chatter. They said it was like a singing conversation that made them feel glad, contented, joyful. One student said that it made her feel at home. Another said that it made him feel wanted.

I find that answer, “wanted,” fascinating. It really cuts through all the other descriptors, down to one of our most fundamental desires. We desire to be wanted and when we know we are wanted, then we feel content, joy-filled, glad, at home, and motivated. Isn’t that what our closest friends give us? They make us feel wanted.

It doesn’t take much thought exploration to realize that being wanted holds great power across life’s spectrum.

What would our marriages feel like if we practiced wanting each other? Or how strong and radiant would our children be if they knew, deep down in their bones, that they are wanted? Would our employees work better and more effectively? Good grief, even our pets perk up and live longer when they know they’re wanted.

Think of it this way: we might convince ourselves that we love someone (a child, a student, a spouse) without actually liking that person. We can keep saying, “I love you” until we’re blue in the face, but it will just be an exercise in self-deception unless we like the person too.

[Tweet “”You can like someone without loving them, but you can’t truly love someone without liking them.””]

We want to be loved, yes, but we really want to be liked, wanted, treasured.

If we all want to be wanted in our earthly relationships, how much more so in our relationship with God? We long to be wanted by the divine. We want that assurance at such a deep level that some verses bring tears to the eyes because they remind us that we are, indeed, wanted.

Consider Zephaniah 3:17, which says, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

Or 1 John 3:1, which asks us to open our eyes and “see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”

We know how unworthy we are; in fact, sometimes we’re guilty of fixating on just how unworthy we are to be wanted by friends, or a spouse, and especially by God. But the Gospel assures us that we are wanted by him and that message is powerful to move us. When we truly believe that God wants us, that he has great affection for us, then our affection for him grows and we are motivated to serve him wherever we can.

So here’s one quick takeaway for life:

  1. If you want to marshal people to action, then you must demonstrate that you want them.

[Tweet “”People will move mountains for those who demonstrate affection.””]

And here’s one last thing: God wants you.

 

He MAKES Me Lie Down.

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My friend lost power to her attached garage the other day. The house had electricity, but everything powered through the garage was dead. The garage door wouldn’t open. The sprinklers didn’t work. I traced the problem backwards and spent a good thirty minutes sleuthing the cause, but to no avail. I was on the verge of giving up when I discovered the tiny (and I really mean “tiny”) source of this mini blackout.

Everything in her garage was plugged into one outlet and that outlet featured a small circuit-breaker inside. It’s commonly called a GFCI outlet. Most of the time, this outlet acts like any other outlet and we forget it’s there. But when the difference in electrical current changes, the GFCI shuts off the electrical flow in .025 seconds. Electricity is useful, but dangerous and a GFCI helps save lives. In this case, it also prevents one from opening the garage and running the sprinklers.

What was my tip? I noticed a small yellow light on the outlet that indicated it had been tripped. I pushed the button, which reset the outlet, and everything worked again. How remarkable that something so small, so overlooked, so easily taken for granted, could so dramatically shut everything down.

I don’t know what caused the circuit to break, but something did. And while the sprinklers and garage door not working are an inconvenience, who knows what trouble was avoided. The garage could have burned down. Who knows? Whatever the case, that small circuit-breaker forced everything to stop.

What are the small circuit-breakers in your life? A sprained ankle? A cold? A migraine headache? What if God is using those small (Okay, none of those feel small. I know.) inconveniences to force your hand. What if these are his reminders to stop and rest?

We all want to get on the other side of suffering, but what if some of our suffering is God’s way of forcing us to lie down? Remember Psalm 23? “He MAKES me lie down in green pastures.” A good shepherd may not coax his sheep to lie down. He might have to make the sheep lie down. I know that God has had to force me to lie down. I don’t lie down easily. There’s too much to do.

The next time you get hit with a headache, remind yourself to be thankful for the opportunity to slow down. These griefs are sobering reminders of our limitations. They press us into our Maker’s arms.

Lean in.

Stay.

Breaking News! J.I. Packer and A Small Cup of Light

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I just received a typed letter (yes, with a type writer!) from J.I. Packer.

Here’s part of what he had to say:
JI Packer Endorsement

 

He read A Small Cup of Light twice!

He’s one of the most important theologians in the last century and I’m excited to share his praise with you.

Endorsements from men like J.I. Packer are great, no doubt, but your endorsement is really important to me as well. Have you read the book? I’d love it if you wrote a review on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be long.

Thanks for doing that! And thanks for sharing this book with those you love.