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Do They Care That You Care

Haven taken Ranger Basics/Foundation many times I love to go back over what had been discussed and tease out truths that may be deeper than a first time through may expose.

I have hear the maxim, “they don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” many times and on the surface thought it made sense. On this episode of The Ranger Podcast, we are going to take a deeper look at this to see if it really can bear the weight, we have laid on it.

Looking back at the variety of authors and speakers that I have leaned on for wisdom and insight I asked myself the question, did I really care if they really cared about me personally. The answer probably won’t surprise you. I don’t know if they cared, and I don’t care that they care. I just needed to know what they knew and how to apply it to my situation.

If what we are doing is critically important, you might say a matter of life or death, and we have the answer, then caring aside, our Royal Ranger boys need to know what we know.

Consider this passage from Waking The Dead.

The birth of Christ was an act of war, an invasion. The Enemy knew it and tried to kill him as a babe (Matt. 2:13). No pale-faced altar boy, the whole life of Christ is marked by battle and confrontation. He kicks out demons with a stern command. He rebukes a fever, and it leaves Peter’s mother-in-law. He rebukes a storm, and it subsides. He confronts the Pharisees time and again to set God’s people free from legalism. In a loud voice he wakes Lazarus from the dead. He descends to hell, wrestles the keys of hell and death from Satan, and leads a train of captives free (Eph. 4:8–9; Rev. 1:18). And when he returns, I might point out, Jesus will come mounted on a steed of war, with his robe dipped in blood, armed for battle (Rev. 19:11–15). War is not just one among many themes in the Bible. It is the backdrop for the whole Story, the context for everything else. God is at war. He is trampling out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored. And what is he fighting for? Our freedom and restoration. The glory of God is man fully alive. In the meantime, Paul says, arm yourselves, and the first piece of equipment he urges us to don is the belt of truth (Eph. 6:10–18). We arm ourselves by getting a good, solid grip on our situation, by getting some clarity on the battle over our lives. God’s intentions toward us are life. Those intentions are opposed. Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. In Mere Christianity, in the chapter he so rightly titled “The Invasion,” C. S. Lewis tried to clarify our situation: One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe—a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees . . . this universe is at war. YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God.

Eldredge, John. Waking the Dead (pp. 16-17). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

If you are headed to war you need to know how to use your armor and how to confront the enemy.

Let me read one more passage.

There is another man, an old man, a spiritual master. Life for him has also been full of adventure and battle and trial by fire. He, too, knows something that we do not. And he, too, is trying to help us see. He writes, Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16–18) The first line grabs me by the throat. “Therefore we do not lose heart.” Somebody knows how not to lose heart? I’m all ears. For we are losing heart. All of us. Daily. It is the single most unifying quality shared by the human race on the planet at this time. We are losing—or we have already lost—heart. That glorious, resilient image of God in us is fading, fading, fading away. And this man claims to know a way out.

Eldredge, John. Waking the Dead (pp. 21-22). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Again, do we really care about the caring or de we want to know the deep truths that Paul is trying to convey?

Now, I know many of you are thinking that Commander Wayne and I are conducting an exercise in hyperbole, but we’re not. I think it’s important that we examine these statements carefully because they effect they have on Outpost culture. If you lead with caring, you might waste a great deal of time and energy diluting your impact and in turn the very value proposition you are presenting to parents. And I don’t have to remind you that they have other options.

I know we have lost some of you, but just stay with us for a few more minutes and we will tie this all together.

One of the catalysts that gave me some clarity hear was conversations I have had about trust. My people think trust is earned. But that’s no way to live your life and it is certainly not the trust of the Bible. Trust is something you give to someone.

Now, there are people that charge for trust. I am sure all of us have a few stories to tell with that antagonist. Certainly, you can betray someone’s trust and you can conduct your life in a way that makes you very trustworthy, but that doesn’t change the fact that trust is given. I look at it this way. There are two primary voices in the universe that it at war. The voice of your creator who is recklessly in love with you and never charges you for anything, and the enemy who hates you and is always extracting a price. So, it stands to reason that in God’s economy trust is a gift. These are not word games. This is an important truth that will absolutely change the way you live.

Okay, getting back to Royal Rangers. In the phrase, “they don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” if care is not the operative word that “know” must be. Notice that we are not saying that care isn’t part of the equation. As we examine this together here is how it might work. We just started the leathercraft merit, along with the Psalms Bible merit, in AR’s. Commander John, myself, and the team has been prepping for this over the last 30 days. At the outset we had leather, templates, tools, and materials to start a difficult and exciting leather wallet. The boys couldn’t be more engaged. Commander Wayne, do you think they know we care? Of course, they do. Not because we led with caring but rather knowledge and professionalism. The boys say our wallets, took in the intoxicating smell of new leather and wanted us to lead them to success and competency.