Thursday, May 1, 2008

Time to Dust Off the Equipment

I'm a guy so I'm prone to like toys. I have a history of getting a hair up my butt (that's "a whim" in redneckese) to do something, like say fishing for example, then trying to buy everything I can to do it well . . . no, to do it perfectly. I will obsess over having all the right stuff before ever getting started...I tell myself that first I need all the right rods, baits, coolers, clothing, hats (a real need for bald guys), etc. I could do the same over camping, woodworking, landscaping, whatever. I have the proof in my attic and garage. My climbing tree stand...used it 3 times to go hunting and the last was 10 years ago. My fishing rods...I've spent more time changing the line on them (after letting it sit and get old) than I have wetting the line in some fish-laden body of water. My power tools (insert male grunt here)...the most expensive of which have been tables for garage clutter rather than frequent shapers of wooden masterpieces. I have a whole lot more equipment for the things I intend(ed) to do than stories and evidence of how the equipment has been used.

Sounds a lot like modern American Christians and churches doesn't it? We are obsessed with getting more and more equipped, but somewhere along the way we stopped using it and started simply collecting it. I recently heard Tim Keller say that our failure to reproduce as Christians and churches "is not because we aren't smart enough; it's because we aren't alive enough."

Have we traded our Daddy's obsession for the harvest for an obsession with farm implements? Have we traded Daddy's obsession for fishing with our obsession for rods and reels? We're like kids who'd rather gaze at our baseball card collections than join Daddy playing ball in the yard. We keep searching for a closer relationship with God inside the church walls by collecting more equipment (Check out Ephesians 4:11-12...we are equipped for a purpose). All the while, God can easily be found pursuing his one obsession--the one who is lost. He'd be glad to hang out with us in the harvest. Maybe we should take our equipment out of storage, dust it off and join Him. We were made and remade in the image of The Missionary God and filled with the Spirit of The Missionary God who obsesses over lostness. And we will only be fully alive when we find ourselves alongside our Missionary Daddy pursuing his obsession, his mission. Time to dust off the equipment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well this blogging thing is new to me too but you've got me started so this should be fun. You're right on. Can you imagine the lack of sales there would be if we only bought stuff(toys) that we actually used! Talk about an industry crash. It's easier to plan than to do though... We're (myself included) are just lazy sometimes. Think about the word blog... It comes from web log.. now is it really that hard to say web log? No, but we'd rather be lazy and say blog... Same with BEING the church. Is it really that hard to start a conversation with a stranger, and get to know new people? Of course not.. but we'd rather sit in that recliner...