Well, here it is the first day of the new year. 2009 has arrived and I can’t stop from thinking about what it will bring. I can only count my many blessings as I look back over the last year or so. God has truly delivered us from some pretty rough stuff. But as Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I’m not sure I’ve quite figured out the whole “forgetting what lies behind” stuff, but I am praying that God will continually help me there. There’s a lot of stuff that’s happened over the last few years that I wish I could change, situations that I wish I could have avoided altogether, things I wish I could go back and do over, words that I wish I could take back, words I should have spoken… but that’s in the past. That’s gone. I believe with all my heart that what lies ahead of me is greater than what’s behind.
I’ve always been a critical person. Not sure where I picked that up from. I believe that discernment is one of my biggest spiritual gifts. I’m the person that looks at things and wonders why? Why do we still do things that way? Why do we treat people like this? Why do we neglect the glaring needs of the people in this community? Where is the Gospel? Where’s God in all of this? I’ve asked these questions pretty much every where I’ve been in life. I’ve had many conversations with my mom where I’ve shared these thoughts, and she’s always told me that God wouldn’t allow me to see the things I do without a purpose. As I sit here tonight, I can’t seem to shake the dream and the calling God has given me. I ask God “why me? I’m so undeserving of Your Grace and Love?” I continually pray that if what I keep thinking and dreaming is not from Him, that He would take it away… and it still remains. The dream has only increased. My passion seems to grow with each passing day.
One of the things I struggle with is this: how do I keep my critical eyes from turning into a hypocritical lifestyle? Meaning, I don’t ever want to become so critical of things that I neglect to do what God has called all of us to do. The things that frustrate me most in other people, do I do those things? The specs that I’m staring at in people and situations, have I missed the log planted in my own eye? That’s some serious food for thought tonight…
Everywhere I’ve been, every church I’ve served in, I’ve always found some incredible people – God fearing, people loving, kind, humble, gracious, passionate people. But one thing I’ve noticed in all of my travels is that we all seem to be missing the most important things.
We want our churches to be “relevant” in our culture…
so we build the slickest buildings
we fill them with the latest technology
we have the giant video screens
we use all the flashy lights
we’ll put in bookstores and cafes
we program the last detail our of our worship services
we turn up the volume
we sing our new songs
we shake hands
we might even lift a hand when we sing
we fill the quiet spaces in worship with a hip, flashy video – instead of the quiet we all need to hear the voice of God.
we smile as though our lives are perfect
we might put a check or a few bucks in the offering plate
we show up and sit in the same place every time
we put on our religious masks and use our religious words
we will have the “big events”
we will declare our stance on the gospel
we will tell our congregations how much we love people
we tell our people that they can live a life of purpose
we come, week after week after week
(and don’t get me wrong, it’s all great stuff)
but something still seems to be missing…
Where’s the Gospel?
Where’s Jesus?
Where’s the abundant life we sing about?
Where’s the life change?
Where’s the passion?
What about the people in our cities who are hurting?
What about the neighborhoods our churches sit in? Do they have a clue who Jesus is?
How can we tell people that God loves them but we aren’t willing show them? We won’t lift a finger or move a foot.
We’ve created a consumer minded approach to worship, it’s about what I can get when I come to church (instead of coming and pouring out my life in worship as a small way of saying thanks for what God has done)
We’ve reduced salvation to a simple transaction. Walk an isle, say a prayer, get wet… now life is good.
We’ve reduced the Gospel to “come and watch” instead of “go and tell”
Do I have it all figured out? by all means no. Do I have all the answers? no way. I serve on staff at a wonderful church. Is it perfect? no. If it was then it stopped being perfect the day I joined. There’s a lot of good stuff going on in our church, and I’m certainly blessed to be a part of what God is doing here.
But I think about the american church today.
Do we really require anything of people who want to be Christ followers? We really don’t. (although Jesus sure did. See Luke 9:23) We’ve gotten things all backwards along the way. The Gospel message is a radical, yet simple message – God sent Jesus to die in my place. He paid the penalty for my sins. He made it possible to restore our relationship with our Creator. But we’ve muddied the Message with our cute sermonettes, stories, and philosophical commentaries. And we’ve simplified the Christian life. We’ve made it about saying a prayer, walking an isle, getting baptized, behaving, attending, conforming… Does it really cost us anything to be christians here in America? Truth be told, the Christian life isn’t just difficult, it’s IMPOSSIBLE! The only human whose ever successfully lived it out was Jesus. We have made church a place where you can come and get 10 more points to add to the other 738 that will help you live your life better. Do we challenge our people to have a radical, childlike faith? Do we challenge them to do great things? Do we blow any air into the fires of their passion? Or do we just blow religious hot air as we speak and tell people to be quiet, behave, and conform? We’ve taught our people self-reliance, self-esteem, etc and we’ve neglected to speak about dying to self, taking up our crosses, and FOLLOWING Jesus. We pray, “God lead guide and protect us this day…” We try to get God into our everyday actions, but we’ve forgotten that it’s about God setting the agenda. He’s the one we follow. Where’s God working? What would He have me do today?
I love what Paul said in Colossians 1:27 “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Paul hit the nail on the head. It’s not about me living life on my own strength, it’s about me dying to “trying harder”, it’s realizing that I can make it through anything I face because Christ lives in me. When I realize that He’s the powersource I need to tap into, He’s the one I need to listen to, He’s the one I need to follow. Maybe I’m all wrong, maybe I’m missing it. But something inside of me keeps asking “is this really what Jesus died for?” who knows…
I’m praying that I spend more time listening to that still, small voice of God this year. I’m praying that this would be a year that God would do something great with my life. I pray that I learn more about dying to self. I simply want to know God and make Him known… but I pray that these things would be actions and not just words. I’ll close tonight with one of my favorite quotes.
“You see things as they are and ask ‘why?’ I dream things as they never were and ask, ‘why not?’”
~George Bernard Shaw
(taken from Back to Methuselah, 1921)
May we never forget what it’s really all about…
