Going Deeper with God

July 28, 2026

Motivational speaker John Maxwell tells the story of professional football quarterback legend Ken Stabler:

One day when the Raiders were in Oakland, a reporter visited their locker room to talk to Ken Stabler.  Stabler really wasn’t known as an intellectual, but he was a good quarterback.  This newspaperman read him some English prose:

I would rather be ashes than dust. 

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than that it should be stifled by dry rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy, impermanent planet.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.

After reading this to the quarterback, the reporter asked, “What does this mean to you?”  Stabler immediately replied, “Throw deep.”[1]

I have often thought about this story since I first read it thirty years ago.  It surfaced again this past Sunday in the Bible Study time.  Ken Stabler and the Oakland Raiders had an offense that believed in scoring often and quickly.   You cannot do that three yards at a time.  Long (“deep”) passes for touchdowns were expected in Raiders’ games; that expectation was rarely disappointed!  Quarterback Ken Stabler knew how to throw deep.

The lesson on Sunday was Apostle Paul’s version of going deep with God.

But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived—God has prepared these things for those who love him.  Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  1 Corinthians 2:9-10

The writer[2] of the lesson’s commentary made the point that while we cannot know God exhaustively (particularly due to God’s inexhaustive nature), He has made Himself available for us to know Him truly.  We can know God through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, who came to us, lived with us, died for us, rose from the grave to conquer sin’s death grip on us, and lives eternally with arms stretched open to receive any of us who will come to Him.

In this simple encapsulation of the Gospel, we find the deep (or secret) things of God.  Prophet Isaiah said that God said:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.”  This is the Lord’s declaration.  “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9

So, what are these “depths of God”?  There’s no way to adequately express them, but, like many inexpressible issues, sights, and  thoughts, we know them when we see them.

I truly believe that the deep things of God (unknowable to, and undefinable by us at present, in our limited human knowledge) are at work in everything that happens.  They are active in a child being born, a murder, the stock market, earth’s plates shifting, and my stomach growling at lunchtime.  It’s what leads us to believe God is “in” everything, even though we cannot comprehend Him exhaustively!  We cannot see, but God invites us to know!

For You Today

Get to know Him…Throw Deep!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^©   

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[1] John Maxwell, Be All You Can Be (Victor, 1987), p.132

[2] Sam Crouch, Bible Studies for Life (Adult Leader Guide), Lifeway Christian Resources, Brentwood, TN, p.101

 

Out of the Darkness

 

When we leave the womb, we begin to face the possibility of isolation, being alone, abandoned.  And, not being created for aloneness, it troubles us.  There have been a number of times in my life, (and it still happens occasionally), that the aloneness of that small and vulnerable newborn child, just out of the mother’s womb, rises up in my soul and proclaims the profoundness of the deep darkness that surrounds and would swallow me up!

How does it happen, that darkness?  It generally comes (at least in my life) when I am isolated, and the memories of other aloneness or rejection haunts my thoughts.  I haven’t been hunted by a deranged king whose army has been given orders to capture or kill me like King Saul after David, the shepherd boy[1].  However, I have had people angry at me, and a few who would have rejoiced if I’d never been born.  But even simple conflict (what we would call “drama” these days), is enough to bring the darkness close and threatening.  It is at times like that I need the comfort of leaving the darkness behind and rejoining the light of God’s goodness.  When it comes to chasing the darkness away, there’s no better choice than the One who is the Author of light – Jesus!

If you recall last Friday’s three important questions in life…Where did I come from, What is my purpose here, and Where am I going…here are all three in a nutshell.  In the days leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion He taught his disciples the profound truth about where He came from, what His mission (purpose) was, and where He was going, and would take those who believe with Him.  He was (and IS) the light, and will lead us out of darkness every time!

Jesus cried out, “The one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.  And the one who sees me sees him who sent me.  I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.  John 12:44-46 ^(CSB)

Did you catch that last phrase about believing in Him and NOT remaining in darkness?  Did it roll around your mind like a healing ointment of calm joy?  That’s what truly worshipping God brings.  Jesus responds to those who worship His Father, the one true, living God, by throwing a floodlight over the gloom of darkness.  And a light soul cannot be engulfed by darkness. 

As the people of God offer genuine, heart-felt worship, darkness is dispelled, chased from our lives.  That is why whenever you don’t feel like coming to church on a given Sunday…and you go anyway…when you leave church that day there is a general sense of lightness; you feel better for having attended – glad you went!  Darkness had to leave when you emptied yourself in the presence of the ONE Who IS light!

For You Today

If there are circumstances on your horizon that threaten dark days, don’t forget where the light is found; He wants to light up your world!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^©   

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[1]Read the entire fascinating story in 1 Samuel – Chapters 18-26

Starting Over - At 80?

Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”  Exodus 1:22^(CSB)

One of the things about a tough life is the need to "start over". 

If you read the book of Exodus, you'll find Moses doing that quite significantly.  He started over before he knew it, born to a Jewish family in a very dangerous time to be a Jew...his mother chose to give her son a start-over by floating him down the river into Pharaoh's family, the same despot who ordered all the Jewish babies in the land to be slaughtered. 

Moses grew up in Pharaoh's house as a son, and heir to the throne.  But at 40 he learned the truth about where he came from and started-over (in his new start he became a murderer...not a great new career, but that's another story).  Banned from home for his bad deeds, he wandered through the desert, settling into being a sheep herder on the back side of nowhere for the next forty years, until that burning bush moment when God spoke to him about starting over...at 80.  And the rough road was just beginning.

Do you have "rocky road" kinds of experiences in your life's story?  You know...the kind of thing that takes your breath away and makes you wonder "what in the world?"

I've got more than a few of those stories, and it simply amazes me how often there is a passage in Scripture that would not have to be changed to be an accurate re-telling of Russell's rocky road.

And that's what Rocky Road Devotions is all about - how the Bible connects with us - our thoughts, our loved ones, our desires, stupid mistakes, and heartfelt longing to know the answer to three important questions which affect everything we do, say, and even think as we plod/rush/laugh/cry through this life, and try to figure out what's next. 

Here are those three questions:

1. Where did I come from (and how did I get here) in this life?

2. What is my purpose while I am here in this life?

3. Where am I going when I leave this life?

What I've found out in nearly eight decades of trying to make sense of those three questions is what the last ten years have painted in my life...broad strokes, experiences that I have loved, hated, and which have clearly separated a lot of the meaningless fluff things this life can offer from the genuinely important/vital issues that are worthy of any human being's full attention. 

Here's my beginning point for sharing my Rocky Road life with you. 

My deepest heart-felt hope is that something shared here about my fairly ordinary life, from a humble dirt road beginning in a good family, to (what now is) a late-fall season of life, might resonate with something you're either going through, or have faced, or which may be on your radar for the near future.  And that these times of sharing may lead to God's help for understanding how all three of those vital questions are alive, well, and extremely important in your life, and the human community of which you're a part.

For You Today

My story started this way:  In the beginning God created...; and so did yours! 

If you are facing starting over…either late in life or much earlier…stay tuned as we explore what the Bible says about what we’re going through, and what He shows us that will help us on this Rocky Road of life.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^©