By Invitation Only

I would like to share with you an excerpt from a recent email I received from a Rabbi. I hope you enjoy.

“Guests constantly visit my study and though I talk to them, sometimes quite loudly, they are strangely invisible to everyone else. One frequent visitor is my father. His presence helps me prepare speeches. When the ideas flow too slowly or I find myself struggling to memorize a difficult paragraph, I invite him in. He knows how hard it is but he nods encouragingly and tells me that he often used to encounter similar challenges.

Sometimes Orville and Wilbur Wright join me. They’re an interesting pair. I invite them whenever I find myself falling into the trap of envying others. I eavesdrop as they mutter to one another about Samuel Langley who was given $50,000 by the United States War Department to build a flying machine. In 1903, $50,000 was a lot of money! When Langley’s contraption crashed into the Potomac, he gave up. Orville and Wilbur remind me that they persevered year after year, crash after crash, while others got the press and the awards. In December 1903, the Wright Brothers succeeded.

Another favorite companion is Ernest Shackleton. Though he usually glowers at me, whenever I feel weak his visits strengthen me. When his ship, Endurance was crushed by ice on his Antarctic expedition, he and his men suffered unimaginable hardship and deprivation. With considerable self-sacrifice, Shackleton brought every one of his men to safety.

Imagination is a wonderfully useful tool and developing it allows you to entertain your own visitors, as I am sure you do. Bringing them into your life allows you to draw inspiration and courage from them…” *

As I ponder on the words of Rabbi Lapin, I ask myself “Who is it I have invited into my house, my life, my day-to-day? Whose lives, past accomplishments, and hardships that have been won successfully am I reflecting on?” How thankful we are to have the opportunity to learn from men and women who, up-to-date, have made tremendous discoveries because they wouldn’t give up, wouldn’t quit, and were determined to see themselves as a winner, ultimately leading them to win and overcome seemingly impossible situations. I sometimes look to others’ achievements and say to myself, “Wow!  If they were able to do it, I know I can”. It’s encouraging to think that all these men and women who have had these amazing, world-renown discoveries and triumphs also probably had even seemingly greater “fails” (at first) than I can imagine…yet they went on to reach such greatness.

Do you ever think to yourself, “I wish I could just sit for 5 minutes and listen to these great men and women? I would learn so much. It’s one thing to read about them in the history books, but I can just imagine what sitting face-to-face with one of them would be like. My life would be forever changed.” I’m sure at one point in life, even as a kid, each of us have had that thought about wanting to meet one person or another, either from past or present, thinking there’s just so much we could glean from them. Yes, I have my “that would be so cool” list of people, and I think it’s important too to learn from the accomplishments and achievements of others, including what it took them along the way to get there. 

YET there is one thing in all this that just isn’t quite satisfying for me. Why is that? Well, it’s because all these people are just that…they are people. I can learn from them but they aren’t living my life with me. I don’t really know them, or at least most of them, and they don’t have an invested interest in my life. I’ve only learned about them. BUT I do know of ONE who has invested everything in me and you. He cares for us more than His own life and He knows everything we need to do and how to get us there. He loves us more than anyone else does and He has the most valued investment in us than we even have in ourselves. I’m telling you, that’s the kind of person I want to come and learn from, someone who has done it all and been successful in EVERY-thing I could imagine; someone that wants to come sit with me and couldn’t imagine doing anything else than be with me and share great secrets and truths I need to know; someone that wants to show me how much they love on me and as much as He wants to sit with me and listen to me. And that’s exactly who God, your Father is, and He wants to be all that and more to YOU! He invested His best into us…Jesus! He’s provided every answer we need in His Word. He’s given us the greatest Encourager and Helper enabling us to be and accomplish greatness through His Spirit. Wow!That’s the kind of person I want to invite in. He’s waiting to be invited in. Not just at the point of salvation or when we need something but in every detail, in every area of your life. He wants to help if we will allow Him to. Revelation 3:20-21 says:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne. He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Spirit says.

So, who do you want to invite into your house? If you are like me and couldn’t imagine anyone you’d rather invite in to fellowship with than your Heavenly Father, then all you have to do is ask. Once He comes in, really let Him in. Listen to Him and allow Him to redecorate things, if you will. He has the best ideas and will help you with anything you need. He wants to be there and He wants to show you everything that concerns you. Remember, though, to invite Him in every day. Then listen and do what He says. He’s already done every hard thing for you and He wants to show you each step of how you can live the most amazing, victorious, blessed life possible with success, joy and peace all along the way.

Every day, it’s up to you who you invite in…it’s by invitation only.

* (To read the remainder of the article above, go to http://www.rabbidaniellapin.com/blog/2011/a-passover-song/ or I highly encourage you to sign up to receive Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s weekly Tool Thoughts at www.rabbidaniellapin.com).