A battle strategy that requires laughter

We're in a new biblical month - a leap-year month linked to the battle and the party in Esther. And there's a coherent strategy to help us walk from the fight to the feast. Four landing points: The problem, the promise, the practical, and the party. Four actions we must engage along the way: Look, Lift, Leap, and Laugh.

Look sounds easy but it's not: We need break the bubble of denial that frames atmospheres in and out of the church. Oft times a fog of familiarity and comfort blurs it all - we simply don't know that we don't know.

Sometimes that thing we think is not broken, needs be broken.

So a 'Mordecai' is required to pierce our delusional cocoon. A gentle jest by the Spirit within may suffice but failing that, be braced: In His mercy He'll engage good friend or fierce foe to bring it to bear.

Lift comes when we connect the dots between the brutal facts of a problem to the specific promise and principle God sets to carry it. This is no academic exercise: Time, declaration and perseverance are required. And as to time, take a breath: We want the instant - a one and done. Yet God holds the long view. Stay the course well past your patience.

Once engaged on Look and Lift, turn to what is 'practical' and make the Leap. Hairy and scary or simply a step, always God calls us to move. With backs to the sea Moses declares, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord..." To which God replies, “Why are you crying to me? Tell them to move. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand..."

Laughter triggers the party and wraps this whole process in Him. Born of deep-heart confidence to see the good-end from the messy-middle, it breaks the heavy yoke and echoes the voice of God over a alarmed enemy. In Esther it's an established and annual party-hearty to remember victories-past in the face of battles-present. Look, Lift, Leap, and Laugh.