• Home
  • About This Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Subscribe
  • Comment Policy

Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
Home Bible Reflection No retreat baby and no surrender – Inspired by Bruce Springsteen

No retreat baby and no surrender – Inspired by Bruce Springsteen

Posted on January 4, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment


Springsteen
Image via wikipedia

I woke up this morning with the Bruce Springsteen song “No Surrender” bouncing down the corridors of my brain. The line “we made a promise we swore we’d always remember, no retreat baby and no surrender” grabs my attention. This line reveals the heart of someone who is all in, someone who will not settle for half-way measures. Having a goal in mind, nothing will deter him from pursuit of that goal.

While the chorus is catchy and the no surrender attitude seems praiseworthy, the song does not articulate a goal worthy of such dogged pursuit. Yet, there is in the heart of man the desire for such a pursuit. The question comes in, what is worthy of such focus and energy?

One of my favorite C. S. Lewis quotes comes from his essay entitled, “The Weight of Glory.”

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

The Apostle Paul demonstrates this attitude when he writes “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” in Philippians 3:12. In his first letter to the Corinthians beginning in Chapter 12, Paul tells us that each believer has been given a gift or gifts from God for the purpose of building up the Church. Putting these two thoughts together it seems that the goal toward which Paul presses is the development and use of his gifts to build up the Church.

The responsibility of church leaders is to equip those in the local body to pursue what God has called them to do (see Ephesians 4:11). The responsibility of church members is to find out how God has gifted them and then find opportunities to use those gifts.

If we are pursuing depth in our relationship with God, if we are seeking to develop our gifts and put them into practice, then we are right in taking the no retreat, no surrender attitude. The goal must be worthy of the focused energy.

What goal do you think is worthy of a “no retreat” attitude?


Filed Under: Bible Reflection, Christianity and Culture, Quotation Tagged With: Apostle Paul, C. S. Lewis, Christ Jesus, God, Gospel, Weight of Glory

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Follow Attempts at Honesty

Honesty in your Inbox

Center Church

Timothy Keller on Renewal

Gospel renewal is a life-changing recovery of the gospel. Personal gospel renewal means the gospel doctrines of sin and grace are actually experienced, not just known intellectually.

Leadership

What church leaders should look like

Some on the outside look at church people as smug moralists who look down on the sinners outside. One does not need to search very hard on the internet to find some preacher, of the hellfire and brimstone variety, screaming out condemnation on the sinners outside. When we practice behavior like this, we deserve the […]

O Come, All Ye Faithful

This Christmas, may we look beyond the normal holiday stuff to see how the baby in a manger has caused the light of eternity to break into the darkness to give us hope in the midst of our current struggle.

Surprised by Hope

N. T. Wright on Intellectual Totalitarianism

“The intellectual coup d’état by which the Enlightenment convinced so many that ‘we now know that dead people don’t rise,’ as though this was a modern discovery rather than simply the reaffirmation of what Homer and Aeschylus had taken for granted, goes hand in hand with the Enlightenment’s other proposals, not least that we have […]

Hollow Easter Bunny

Easter Bunny Churches

The shiny wrapping will not keep people coming in for the same reason that I am unlikely to ever buy a chocolate Easter bunny ever again. As always, what is on the inside is what counts.

Post Series

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
September 2023
SMTWTFS
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« Jun    

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama

Copyright © 2023 · Focus Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in