Just A Thoughts
Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying
One of the greatest movies of all times, in most people’s opinions, is Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption. One of the characters in the movie is played by Morgan Freeman. He has a very interesting line in the movie. He says “ You better get busy living or get busy dying.
In 2 Kings 7:3, there is a story of four lepers who were outside of the city as the city was being held under seige. These men were outsiders of the society, but they were facing the same fate as those on the inside. One of them begins to think and says why should we stay here and die.
The issue is that we don’t always see this that we are in dire straight, especially in the church. When I travel to perform one of my duties one of the more peculiar sights is an old church. From the looks of it, it’s been closed for a while. This church at one point in time had: wedding, baptized people and even had a few funeral and now it is a shell.
We see this in our own lives, we were once vibrant and alive but slowly and steadily we have been on a decline. You would think that we would fight it and do something about it, but we don’t because we assume that it is the job of someone else. It’s the job of the pastor to fix it. Its the job of the other church leaders, but do we take a long hard look at ourselves and say maybe I need to do something. Our church could be dying in from of us, are we going to do soemthing about it and try to will it back to life or are we going to watch it die in our arms. Just a thought.
Let it Go
One of the things that I have had to do at most of the churches, I have either been the pastor or apart of, at some point in time I have had to throw stuff out. Generally it is stuff, that has been out of use for years.One of the things that hinders our growth in the church , is continuing holding on to things in the past. The church can not be a museum to glory of the past, but it needs to be a hospital for those hurting now. Let the past go, and stop letting things hold you down. Throw it all out including the kitchen sink.
Talking to God
My youngest son has had some trouble speaking. Because of this, we have him enrolled in speech therapy. He has been going to therapy every Monday for the last few months. We have noticed that he is becoming more verbal. I was speaking with his therapist, and she was telling me that she has seen great progression in him lately. We were discussing how to help him improve even more. She was explaining to me that to help him to speak, even more, we need to deny him what he wants. She explained that even if we know what he wants that we should hold off on giving it to him so that he will into talking more.
This situation made me think of the scripture of the persistent widow. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable about a widow that continues to pester a judge that doesn’t fear the Lord nor cares what people think, but he says that the widow would not give in because she was seeking justice. She continued until the judge gave in and gave her what she wanted.
I began to think maybe sometimes the reason we don’t always get what we want is because God knows that this will forces us to talk to him. God longs for us to have a relationship with him. He longed for this so much he sent his Son into the world to be the perfect sacrifice to bring us back into relationship with him. So maybe the reason we continue to be denied all our heart desires that he longs to hear our voice and knows once he gives you want you to want you’ll stop talking to him—just a thought.
One of the life skills I wish I possessed was that of a gardener. I try my best to get things to grow, but they always turn out differently. I think I am doing everything right, but it rarely comes out how I want. Since I know this about myself, I tend to stick to plants that are very easy to grow. In my office, I have a bamboo plant. All I must do is put it in water, and it will grow. I don’t have to do much; it just does its thing. This is like a church.
The church, much like a plant, needs certain things to grow. It needs to be planted. It needs to be watered, it needs to be given the right food, and it will grow. The challenge is that we often think we must do something special. We take it upon ourselves to try to make our church the best thing we can make it and much like me, with my plants, we are killing it. We can want to be in control or worry over every little detail to the point that we kill the plant, and when it dies, we are quick to point fingers.
Generally, the problem is not that we did too much or too little it's because we failed to provide the plant and the church with the right environment. Seeing the proper environment is critical to the growth and vitality of the plant. Some plants prefer one soil over another. Some plants prefer drier climates and wetter climates, but we must create an environment for growth to see growth.
Jesus understands creating the right environment. Jesus in Luke 13 is being questioned about a calamity that happened to some Galileans. The people felt that they were being punished because of their sins. Jesus challenges them about their thinking. You think their fate was due to their great sin, but Jesus tells them that they will face a similar fate if they do not repent. Jesus tells them a parable about a landowner with a fig tree not producing fruit. He tells the gardener to cut it down because it has been taking up space in the garden. The area that could be used for something else. The gardener suggests that he dig around it, put some fertilizer on it and if it does not bear fruit next year, he will cut it down.
Jesus is using this story to drive home a point that to escape the fate of those Galileans; his listeners must repent because there will come a time when they will be cut down but notice in the story what the gardener suggests. He advocates that the environment of the tree might be the cause. That may be hindering the tree from reaching its full potential. This could be a lesson for the church.
Many of the problems in the church could be caused by a substandard environment. Maybe we are not as mature as we need to be. Perhaps we are not as friendly as we need to be. Maybe we are so caught up with keeping the environment the same that we hinder growth. To grow, we must be willing to change some things. My former Bishop said: Healthy things grow, growing things change, and change challenges us, challenges cause us to put our trust in God, trust in God calls for obedience, and obedience makes us healthy.
As our environment changes here at the church, we must ask ourselves if we are embracing the change and working to grow together and be the congregation that we need to be, or are we looking to keep things the same, risk being unfruitful, and cut down? God will not continue to allow us to take up space in his garden; he is looking for us to bear fruit, and bearing fruit requires a healthy environment—just a thought.