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?
# Mike on November 8th, 2007
Dang! Awesome post, man. The old saying is true: “Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”