When I was 40, Bruce Larson was one of my favorite authors. His book, The Emerging Church, affirmed for me the necessity of small groups for growing churches. In Dare to Live Now,
he challenged lukewarm Christians to embrace God’s power to change lives and energize churches. Through those books and others he wrote, Bruce became one of my mentors.
Lloyd Ogilvie, former chaplain of the U.S. Senate, called Larson “a visionary for the church in his time.” In the heyday of Robert Schuller’s ministry at Crystal Cathedral, Bruce became co-pastor with Schuller of the popular Hour of Power television program.
You can imagine my surprise when I was invited to speak at a conference in Los Angeles in which Bruce was the featured speaker. I was eager to hear Bruce speak, but rather intimidated by the thought of sharing the platform with this well-known author and speaker.
I hate to admit it but as the time approached for me to go, I tried to get sick. When I faked being ill, my wife Dean knew what was happening. So I admitted to her my fear of having one of my heroes, and everyone else at the conference, discover how little I had to offer.
Her words blew me away. She said, “You are not sick. You get on that plane and go out there and do the best you can. That will be good enough for God, and good enough for me. Just trust God; he can use you just like he can use Bruce Larson.” That settled it; I was had.
Three days later I was on a Delta Jet flying to Los Angeles. On the way I prayed a lot. I had learned that I was the first speaker so I prayed that Bruce would not arrive until later when he would speak. As I made my way to the podium that afternoon, guess who was sitting on the front row, big as life. None other than captivating Bruce Larson, note pad in hand, as if he expected to take notes from the message of an Alabama farm boy God called to preach.
Somehow I forgot about Bruce and began trusting God, as Dean had advised me to do. I gave it my best shot and the crowd applauded as I finished. As I walked off the platform I could hardly believe what I saw as I glanced at Bruce Larson. He was grinning from ear to ear, with both hands extended toward me, his thumbs turned up. His message was obvious – “Well done, great message!”
Why did that happen? I think I know why. Bruce was listening to God and God said to Bruce, “That man needs your encouragement so give it to him!” Though Bruce did not know it,
God used his enthusiastic encouragement in a pivotal way in my life. From that day forward, I began to have confidence that God could use me, and my preaching, to inspire people to trust God and become strong and courageous servants of Jesus. For Bruce his thumbs up was a gracious affirmation of a fellow preacher. For me it was a work of grace that caused me to believe that God could use me, even me, to motivate people to surrender to Jesus.
In another book, Living Beyond Our Fears, Bruce wrote about “Facing the Unpredictable.” He described the common fear of occurrences that are out of sync with the routine of life. We all feel comfortable with the routine. But Bruce reminds us that we need spice in life, some departure from the expected, to save us from getting bogged down in ruts. Even success becomes boring if we settle into dull routine.
Our desire for what is comfortable springs partly from our desire to be in control. Bruce declares this is sin in its purest form, to control things, to control other people. We want to know what is coming next. Take worship for example. Bruce says, “Worship is the last place where we would welcome the unpredictable, even if it is a spontaneous movement of the Holy Spirit.”
Bruce calls Christians SOUL sisters and brothers. We are Servants of an Unpredictable Lord, thus S-O-U-L. As SOUL sisters and brothers, we cannot “chart out how God will intervene in our lives or what joy and misadventures lie ahead. That’s why we need to give up our expectations of what life is going to be like, and expect God to surprise us. God loves us too much to let us suffer from boredom.”
The unexpected forces us to depend on God and to find the strength that he gives during the journey, not before we begin it. We are all, after all, on a long march to eternity which, in a way, is a parade. When it comes to the unpredictable, consider this unusual description of God and our journey, taken from The Way of the Wolf, by Martin Bell:
“I think God must be very old and very tired. Maybe He used to look splendid and fine in His general’s uniform, but no more. He’s been on the march a long time, you know. And look at his rag tag little army. All He has for soldiers are you and me – dumb little army. Listen! The drumbeat isn’t even regular. Everyone is out of step.
“He may be old, and He may be tired, but He knows where He’s going and He means to take every last one of His tiny soldiers with Him, only there aren’t going to be any forced marches.
“Most of us are afraid and lonely and would like to hold hands or cry or run away, and we don’t know where we are going, and we can’t seem to trust God, especially when it’s dark out and we can’t see Him. But He won’t go on without us. And maybe that’s why it’s taking so long.”
No matter how difficult the unpredictable you are facing right now, choose to trust God and thank Him for situations that cause you to turn to God for help. And, as Bruce says, “Look for God’s gift to you in the unpredictable.”
It is after all the new, unexpected challenges that push us toward God and thus find in Him the help we need to become better people that we could ever be if we stayed in the comfortable ruts.
Bruce Larson died in 2008 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Today I recall with gratitude the difference he made in my life, and especially for teaching me to face the unpredictable with confidence that God will be in it with me, and hold my hand until the journey’s end.