August 5

Day 144: Past Performance

It's been said by someone, "The best indicator of future performance is past performance." Not the only indicator, but the best indicator.

In my past corporate management life, if a new hire of mine ended up failing, it was usually because I had ignored the candidate's past performance, even ignored any negative references. Especially when the same candidate would say "Sorry," or "I'll be more committed in this new job." I was more hopeful than realistic.

Ezra was a scribe, well versed in the Law of God. He helped lead a group of freed exiles from Persia back to Jerusalem, to participate in rebuilding the Temple. They delivered a pile of money from the king of Persia, for building materials, and even for purchasing animals for sacrifice. (The Persian king was just covering his bases.)

When Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, he came to an inactive worksite. Not the people hadn't been busy. They'd been busy building their own houses (duly noted in a prior blog post.) And, contrary to the Law of God, they'd been busy marrying foreign wives, birthing children, and incorporating their wives' gods into their own life and practice.

What Ezra saw broke his heart. He expressed his grief in full-scale middle-eastern mourning. He fasted and prayed. This took days.

Ezra 9:6 expressed his sorrow by saying, "O my God, I am ashamed and blush even to lift my face to you...for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads."

Ezra himself wasn't even guilty of the sin he was confessing!

He then demanded the people "put away" their foreign wives and children, and get rid of the idols in their homes.

They did as told. They felt "sorry." They said they'd "be more committed" this time around. End of story.

Or not. About 15 years later, a guy named Nehemiah led yet another group of freed exiles from Persia to Jerusalem. While the story of Nehemiah is used to teach good leadership, or a prayerful heart, it ends poorly.

Nehemiah also found the people, the same people, to have again done the same thing. They'd once again married foreign wives, birthed children, and incorporated their wives' gods into their own life and practice.

"The best indicator of future performance is past performance." The Israelites proved it. We prove it too.

When left to our own devices, we will continue to do what we do. We're all capable of being boomerangs. Sinners continue to sin. Always returning to the scene of the crime, as it were.

Until another comes along to question us.

The gospel of Jesus, the good news of God's grace, is the only intervention strong enough to change any of us.

The gospel exposes our sin, and calls us out. The gospel demands change, a reorienting of our life's passions and pursuits to focus on Jesus. No more space available for false gods

And the gospel gives us hope. Hope that we can in fact be changed. Our willingness, combined with God's power.

The gospel tells us we are no longer resigned to our past performance being the sole indicator of future performance.

But we have to make changes for that to become true. And allow the Spirit to make those changes stick.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau