After being a youth minister for over 4 years I have become very partial to Chuck Norris Jokes. I’m not really sure who Mike Huckabee is, or what he stands for, but this could quite possibly be the funniest political endorsement of all time. See for yourself.
This past Saturday my son and I reveled in the sweet taste of victory when our Ohio State Buckeyes defeated their biggest rivals the Michigan Wolverines 14 to 3. It was a wet and nasty game, but the Buck’s defense held Michigan to only 91 yards of total offense. Beanie Wells tore up the ground with 229 yards and 2 TDs. It was classic Coach Tressel. Hard nose defense and a steady and balanced offensive attack.
I’m sure there will be some exciting times to come with my son, but for now, nothing beats watching the game and spending a Saturday afternoon together. I hope this is a tradition that continues when he actually has a choice of who he spends his time with.
Today is a bad day. Today, my son Reed had to go to the doctor for his first round of immunizations. He got a grand total of six shots and had to drink some nasty stuff on top of it all. Since I was in the office I missed out on this fun little trip, but my wife said that our normally bubbly little boy was not happy today. Normally, Reed loves going to the doctor. He gets to ride in the car (which he loves), he gets to see new things (which just which he is all about), and he gets to be naked for a while the doc checks him out (which is his favorite thing in the whole wide world). But today was different. Today the doctor became a bad memory. His days of blessed ignorance are over. Welcome to the real world son.
Thanks to a mini-vacation last week and the craziness of recovering from said vacation I have not blogged at all this week. In fact there’s a lot of things that I haven’t done this week. I missed the trash man on Monday. I haven’t mowed the yard that one last time. I haven’t thrown away the rotten pumpkins on our front porch yet, and the list could go on. Somehow, in the process of trying to relax and become comfortable I lost all sense of ambition. I just didn’t feel like doing anything after being comfortable and lazy for the last 5 days.
Now, those things that I haven’t done yet, they really don’t hold great significance in the scheme of life. I mean I’ll get the trash out next week, the yard isn’t growing wildly in this 40 degree weather, and the neighborhood dogs will probably try to eat the rotten pumpkins. But, I see this same attitude at play in many American churches today, and the consequences are more dire for becoming comfortable in that setting.
Too often we as American church goers have said, “I want to be comfortable! If church doesn’t make me feel good then I’ll just leave or find a place that will.” It sounds extreme but that is the attitude of many Christians whether they admit it or not. The thought of becoming comfortable with your church, your faith, or relationship with God is so dangerous it should be labeled like HAZ-MAT! We need to help each other wake up from the comforting daze that we are in and get to work. Because if we are comfortable for too long, then we become lazy in our efforts until they disappear completely.
You’ve heard it said that a church is either growing or it’s dying, there’s no other direction. And I feel that same principle is applicable to our personal faith and passion for the Lord. We’re either growing or dying.
Which one best describes you? What are some of the factors that contribute to our “make me comfortable” mentality?
Joel is the Lead Pastor at
