Living life with a sharp edge: maximising your life's potential

Pastor Hans Voortman

One of the most painful memories of my childhood was when Dad decided to go on a 'money saving' drive and invested in a pair of hand clippers to save us getting haircuts. Like most things, Dad seemed to have picked it up second-hand from somewhere at a bargain price. One of his favourite Proverbs was, 'The foolishness of the world is the prosperity of the saints'. (I think it was Dad 3:16!!) I guess the migrant mentality plus surviving through the Depression meant he'd learnt to do it tough, skimping and saving, and that's the way he's got ahead. But some things are best new and I'm sure hand clippers are one of them!

This is where the pain came in. Those clippers were blunt! They'd lost their edge. As I was grabbed by Dad (as a lamb to the slaughter) each hair that was clipped needed to be yanked loose. There was no neat clipping - it was a painful extraction! The kitchen chair felt like a torture chamber and amidst blood curdling yells of pain. I escaped, a half shorn sheep took off around the block. Dad's barber career was short lived. Mum in a desperate effort to keep her family together confiscated the clippers, never to be seen again.

Many of us, as we negotiate life, similarly do so with a blunted edge. Where we're supposed to glide through life with a certain ease and with a shapely form, many of us become frayed at the edges. We have little shape or style. Our lives are given to a variety of things, all of which we do inadequately and without any real focus or effect. I'm concerned for the way so many of us minimise the potential of our lives. We only have one shot at this life. Surely it's worth making it count! So how can we maintain a sharp edge to our lives? What are the things that cause our edge to get dulled? What will help us fulfil the rich destiny God has intended each of us to live? Let me share with you four enemies that dull our edge. Anyone who wants to fulfil their dreams and aspirations will need to break free from these influences.

1. THE ENEMY OF COMPLACENCY.

It is so easy for us to live in the here and now, putting up with things the way they are. In fact many of us become addicted to mediocrity. We lack motivation to change and we procrastinate over the opportunities around us. Unfortunately many of us are gripped by the 'fear of change'. It's often said that the seven dying words of the church are, 'We don't do things that way here!' It's a paradox that the very people and agency that should be change agents in this world, namely the church and Christians, those who have this great message of 'conversion' and being 'born again', are also noted for being 'conservative, stick in the mud's, resistant to change'!

Complacency is overcome when we begin to see change not as an enemy but as a friend. God intended for His people to be people of faith. Faith takes you out on the limb where you've never been before. Faith in God causes you to break loose of what you can do in yourself and to put your hand in God's so as to become what you can only be with His strength. Suddenly you are lifted beyond what you are in yourself - you break loose of the fear of change and you become what God wants you to be. Complacency is transformed into an attitude to life that says, 'I'm never satisfied'. It was this spirit that captured the apostle Paul's heart and caused him to exclaim, 'To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me'; '(I am) being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory'; 'the old has gone, the new has come!'; 'Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal' (Col. 1:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:17; Phil. 3:13-14). He was never satisfied. He fought the enemy of complacency and the cry of his heart remained one of, 'More, more, more, Lord'.

If you struggle with complacency, allow yourself to dream. Set goals beyond where you've been before. Positive dreaming is God's greatest gift to us as humans. It's what sets us apart from the animal kingdom. We can think creatively. We're not just driven by instinct, but rather, we can make something out of an idea. As much as complacency is an enemy, visualising creatively is an ally. You will maintain a self-sharpening edge as you allow yourself to dream.

Remember, planning is bringing the future into the present where you can do something about it now. Begin with the end in mind. Start to take the long view of your life. Break loose of the here and now and determine to make your dreams a reality. You can as you take the Lord's hand! As the prophet Jeremiah wrote, ''I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'' (Jer. 29:11).

2. THE ENEMY OF COMFORT.

Comfort is seductive. After initially working hard, it's easy to begin to rest on your laurels and bask in past success. Very subtly a shift begins to occur in your whole disposition to life. The very things that hard work won for you, now begin to unravel because you're sowing in slothfulness and an easy-going attitude. The line of least resistance soon reduces itself to the lowest common denominator of minimal effort. Comfort can so easily become laziness and before we know it we're losing our edge.

In 'The Screwtape Letters', C.S. Lewis writes, 'The safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft under foot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. The long dull monotonous years of middle aged prosperity are excellent campaigning weather for the Devil'.

There is a Devil who longs to seduce us into ineffectiveness, and perhaps he has no better weapon in the western world than to surround us with comforts. The 'stuff' of this world and the pursuit of a comfortable lifestyle can so surreptitiously lead us away from God and His will for our lives. Suddenly we realise we may have all that this world says is necessary, but we've lost the plot! We've lost God's plan for our lives. Comfort has distracted us from our destiny. As Jesus said, 'What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul' (Matt. 16:26). Now, God certainly wants to bless His children. But not in a way that comfort becomes their God. The Apostle Paul said, 'I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content.... I can do everything through him who gives me strength' (Phil. 4:12-13). Remember, 'Godliness with contentment is great gain' (1 Tim. 6:6).

So then, a key to a life that doesn't lose its edge is to continually expect and anticipate change. Watch for the danger signals. The seductiveness of the things of this world can tempt you to resist change; to keep your life comfortable; to not take the step of faith into the unknown; to play it safe. A sharp edge to your life is maintained primarily by the comfort of knowing your life is in God's hands. 'For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose' (Phil. 2:13).

So don't let yourself be seduced by a life of comfort. Don't equate comfort with blessing. As Paul and Silas found, you can be more blest sitting in a prison praising God (Acts 16:25) than resting in affluence and self made success (Matt. 27:3-5).

3. THE ENEMY OF SUPERFICIALITY.

There's a tendency in our 'instant' microwave generation to just try and rush things too much. When it comes to matters of character and our service for God, He seems to move intolerably slowly! We want everything NOW whilst God moves at a different pace. Moses spent forty years in the desert preparing for his leadership role. The Apostle Paul had his preparation time in Arabia. Even Jesus was put on hold for thirty years before He began His ministry as the Son of God for those three short years.

Paul challenges us, 'to keep in step with the Spirit' (Gal. 5:25). We invariably rush ahead or lag behind God and as a consequence don't receive the full impact of His guidance into our lives. We attempt things superficially. Impatient, we never realise our full potential and we lose the sharp edge with which God intended us to go through life. Quickly we rush onto the streets with our half baked ideas and wonder why they don't impact our world as anticipated. Simply put, we've tried to be God! We do it in our own strength as, with a rush of blood, we try to get out there and do something great for God. John the Baptist said it well, 'He must become greater; I must become less' (John 3:30). Paul said, 'For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain' (Phil. 1:21).

Dying to self is never easy, but it is the way to live deeper.! As we keep in step with God, superficiality is transformed into a few things done well, rather than a myriad of ideas not completed or never realising their potential. 'You are looking only on the surface of things' (2 Cor 10:7). Skimming across the top of life, living in the froth and bubble of momentary excitement rather than the depth of things done well, is the curse of our age. It's the product of a society that lives at the superficial level - ultimately it dulls our edge! Remember, 'deep channels rarely dry up, swamps do'. A focussed life that hears deep calling to deep (Ps. 42:7), will amount to much. Purpose to go beyond the surface of things and to live deeper. Defeat the enemy of superficiality. Live deep in a shallow world. Purpose to do even one thing well. 'To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me' (Col. 1:29). That's the stuff a life with a sharp edge is made of!

4. THE ENEMY OF SUCCESS

Lurking in the wings of success are the twin enemies of Ego and Self-sufficiency. When you start to get a few runs on the board, it's easy to think that you've done it! Quickly our ego rises up to congratulate ourselves on our abilities and giftedness. How quickly we forget Jesus' words, 'apart from me you can do nothing' (Jn. 15:5). A life with a sharp edge strives to glorify God in all it does. Its focus is not on pleasing self, but on pleasing Him. It's a life that knows where its inspiration comes from. 'Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men' Col. 3:23;. 'I can do everything through him who gives me strength' (Phil. 4:13).

According to C.S. Lewis in 'Mere Christianity', the greatest sin man commits is the sin of conceit. Since the garden of Eden, we have convinced ourselves that we can do it alone. Ego has risen up and propelled us forward headlong into self sufficiency. Yet the praises of men and the headiness of success all lose their lustre after a while. The only lasting motivation is 'whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God' (1 Cor. 10:31). When conceit gives way to dependency on God, our success begins to be measured by heaven's standards rather than the praises of men. Ultimately the accolade of, 'Well done, good and faithful servant' (Matt. 25:23) is what will truly testify to a life with an undulled edge. You can gain the whole world and still lose yourself (Matt. 16:26). Let's not get seduced by the success measures of this world. A sharpened edge is maintained by a lifestyle that flows from a servant's heart which looks to glorify God in all that it does. 'Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ' (Gal.1:10).

CONCLUSION.

Imagine if $86,400 was deposited into your bank account every day. The only proviso was you had to spend it all each day, as the balance was cleared every night. I'm sure we'd all find something to do with the money! Yet, every day 86,400 seconds is deposited into the bank account of our lives. What we don't use is lost forever. God has given us this one life to live. He intended it to be a life lived in abundance (Jn. 10:10). Don't allow these enemies of life to rob you of your God given destiny. Let God deftly cut and fashion your life as He moulds it into what He intends it to be. Thank God His clippers aren't blunt! Sharpen your edge by living life in His power.

'I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being' (Eph. 3:16).