The Big Idea

The Big Idea is Like a Glass of Cool Water The Big Idea is like a glass of cool water offered by a lowly peasant to a weary warrior traveling on a long road during the most epic of journeys. A Too Tall Tackle For almost as long as I can remember, I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan. Growing up in the Big D suburb of Plano made this convenient, and the time I grew up, the early 90s, made it enjoyable. What was not enjoyable was when in my nine-year-old laziness, I chose to wait until the last minute to write a paper on Goliad and the Texas Revolution. My well-meaning mother forced me to write it during a Cowboys game, a game that happened to result in a 52-17 victory over the Buffalo Bills. It was the Super Bowl, and when I sloppily rushed through the second page, Mom made me rewrite it. Thanks, Mom. I wrote it, and while I do not recall what I made, that day made me a lifelong Cowboys fan. A few years later, I went to a sports card show where many old and great names from the Cowboys’ glory days were present. Mom and I serendipitously found where the legends were exiting the event. This young football enthusiast had struck autograph gold. Of the 4-5 heroes of the gridiron I received autographs from that day, one stands out in more ways than one. While waiting by the door, a towering man sauntered through the curtains toward the exit, and my mom whispered to me who he was. The next moment, I was staring into the belt buckle of the tallest man I had ever seen. Mom still wishes she had her camera handy to catch my eyes slowly crawl up to land on the smiling face of Ed “Too Tall” Jones. His nickname fits him. He graciously gave me his autograph and contributed to a memory that would easily be in the top 10 days of my life. Around the same time, I chose to have an experience of an even greater personal significance—my baptism. While I came to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life and Savior of my sins, I would soon allow the world with its temptations to grasp me. And just as the Cowboys would drift from their Super Bowl glory days—not bitter—I would drift from the wise counsel and intimate presence of my Lord until I nearly wrecked my life. That is until a Big God, who I’m sure could be described as “too tall” Himself, rescued me from the pit of addiction and sin. Looking back, my 12-year-old, fanny-pack-wearing self hadn’t the foggiest clue of the goodness of God as I do now or the Too Tall Truth, the “Big Idea” He would one day impress upon my heart. And what an idea! A big idea. The biggest of ideas. It is an idea as big as Ed “Too Tall” Jones, and I’ve been staring at this big idea’s belt buckle for almost as long as I’ve been walking with Christ. It is as big as it is simple, as simple as it is profound, as profound as it is scripturally founded, as scripturally founded as it is jaw-droppingly obvious, and as jaw-droppingly obvious as it is seemingly unrealized and unembraced in practice by us, the Body of Christ. That is the endeavor of this message—to make the Body of Christ aware of this Big Idea, embrace it, and spark a worldwide movement within the Church. What is the Big Idea? Really, it’s God’s Big Idea, not mine, and the goal of this work is to make it ours, the Church’s. So what is God’s Big Idea that is so big it requires becoming a proper noun? The Big Idea, my brother or sister in Christ, is simply this: Once the Church (Christians) unite and fulfill the Great Commission, Jesus returns. You can rephrase this in a few ways, but that is about as cleanly and simply as you can say it. This entire book exists to prove this assertion and motivate you, Christian, to play your role in accomplishing this task. Is the Big Idea a New Idea? I have heard it warned that any idea had in isolation can sound like a great one. So, is the Big Idea an original idea? Is the previously mentioned assertion that Jesus returns once the Church unites and fulfills the Great Commission merely a product of intellectual imagination? If it is, that is a red flag, and you should burn this book. Yet we’ll quickly find that this is not a new idea. Starting with the Holy Scriptures and continuing with the words, works, and worship of the Church throughout two millennia, we will show that the Spirit has much to say on the Big Idea’s three central themes: the Great Promise, the Great Commission, and the Church’s Great Unity. These subjects, especially the Great Commission and the Church’s unity, are so broad and heavily spoken on that one could write exhaustive works on each exclusively. But—and I will say this frequently—this is not an exhaustive work. Comparatively, the Great Promise has not been discussed the same frequency within the Church historically, yet it is the predominant impetus for me personally in writing this due to its profound potential. It is our light at the end of the tunnel and our gift under the tree at Christmas. To continue with my affinity for metaphors, if this work were a camera, then the following three propositions are the legs of the tripod upon which the Big Idea sits, beginning with the one with the most potential.