A Thought

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”  Matthew 16:24-25

A priest once said, “Imagine what the Church would look like if every Christian took this passage to heart!”  He was speaking, of course, to the many (like me) for whom “church” was only something we did on Sunday.  He had tried to plan a couple of events outside of worship to help build up the faith community, but there were few takers because everyone was just too busy.  He had spoken about tithing and giving but found the collection plate with very little beyond what people seemed to have in their pockets at the time or checks written for an amount that would not likely interfere with bigger plans.  Even in worship he could clearly see that most were just going through the motions, crossing themselves while looking around to see what everyone else was doing.  During the sermon he could see a sanctuary filled with folks who were already overwhelmed with their own problems and not really engaged with the lesson, not open to learning something new, certainly not willing to make any changes in their lives.  He saw a people who “did” all the right stuff and called it “good”.

It is no better in Protestant churches.  Christians show up for church most of the time but still are not engaged in the Scripture readings, the sermon, or even the Lord’s Supper.  While worship is ongoing, too many are planning the noon meal or wondering if church will end soon enough so that the buffet lines at the local restaurant are not too picked over. 

Even when we think we are “giving” the Lord our total self in that one hour out of an entire week merely by our presence, we seem incapable of or unwilling to disengage from the world around us.  And it may be even worse today than when I was a child because the electronic media has completely overtaken our lives, including the cell phones we refuse to leave in the car, so fearful are we that we might “miss something really important”.

So blinded and so distracted are we by all this, we fail to see we are missing something “really important”.  It is the Word being brought to us not for our pleasure nor for our entertainment, but for our edification.  We are being given an opportunity to put our petty nonsense aside for something much greater, much more enduring.  We are being given an opportunity to “lose our lives” in that moment to be filled with more than the best buffet can offer for a price that has already been paid!  We are being given an opportunity to give so that we can truly receive that which is everlasting.

None of this seems to matter, however, until we are reminded of how short a time we really have on this earth.  As the saying goes, we never really know what we had until we no longer have it.  Life is short, but the Word is Eternal.  The Lord does not want our “moments” or our empty religious practices; He wants us to give Him our lives so that He may give us Life.  We are not “incidental” to Him – why has He become “incidental” to us?

Blessings,

Michael