The Power of Being Together

 

When people talk about America, they see many things to admire. But they usually offer three criticisms. The first is that we are materialistic. The second is that we are fearful. The third is our individualism. We lack the same sense of community that other nations have.

Our individualism is something we cherish. But it is also our greatest weakness. Very little is accomplished through one person alone. We need to cooperate to build a successful life or society.            

Robert Putnam wrote about our growing social isolation in his book, Bowling Alone. The title comes from an advertisement he saw at a bowling alley in the Midwest. Bowling is a sport that people do in groups. But with the decline in bowling leagues, alleys have tried to promote individual bowling. Fewer people today want to join social organizations.   

All kinds of group activities are declining—especially churches. American churches have responded by promoting “bowling alone” Christianity. Church has become a place where people come to meet individual needs, a feeding station for the faithful instead of a family of God. It never even occurs to us to question whether we have any responsibility to other people in church.    

We’re fond in America of saying that denominations don’t matter, churches don’t matter, but all that matters is our individual relationship with Jesus. We never stop to question whether that is what the Bible is really saying.  We must be personally saved, but we are not just saved alone. We are saved to be part of a community of faith. The New Testament church was a place where individuals were not only committed to Jesus, but to each other.  

Jesus said in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Our commitment to each other is one of the marks of the true church. The community of faith is indispensable to His plan and to our witness in the world.

Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9,  “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

Peter calls us a holy nation, a chosen race, and a royal priesthood. To join a church is to join a family, a nation, and a union. This relationship to one another in the church takes precedence over all other allegiances. 

In the early church, they actually lived that way.  Look at Acts 2:42-47

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Acts 4:32-36 repeats the same idea.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

This passage is the New Testament model. We study the Word together, pray together and work together, but we also hold all things in common. The early church was so close that they did not regard what they had as their own, but shared their worldly goods with each other. They were not tithers, but went far beyond tithing in their generosity.

Why is community so important?  Three reasons:

First, because community is how we show Jesus to the world. We are a community, whether we feel it or not. Our unity is not based on our personal sense of belonging, but on God’s decree according to His grace. We are family, even if we want to disown each other. Nevertheless, our unity should be lived out on earth.  Let’s ask ourselves some questions.

·         Do we seek out one another’s company? Are we socializing with each other?

·         Do we seek out the help or advice of others in the church? Are we comfortable asking for help?

·         Do we trust each other enough to be honest?  Are we comfortable stating our opinion in church?

·         Do we believe that if we needed help, the church would give it, both emotionally, personally, and financially? Nothing drives people away from the church more than the perception that the church is disinterested in helping during some personal crisis.

·         Do we know the other people in this church and what they are struggling with?

·         Do we enjoy coming to church and meeting friends? It’s not essential that we like the people in church, but it helps.

·         Do we feel a common sense of purpose? When we come together, do we see the whole as something greater than ourselves, the manifestation of Jesus?

If someone comes into this church looking for Jesus, they don’t see Him in the music or in the preaching. We most clearly see Jesus in the behavior of the church community. We see Him most clearly in the way we treat each other.

Second, we need community to fully know what God intended us to be. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Our interaction makes us greater than the whole.

This part of community makes us the most uncomfortable. When Iron and iron clash, sparks fly, but both irons gets sharper. It’s the only way to sharpen iron. We can be good alone, but we can’t be great without someone’s help. Only through interaction do we become complete.

Third we need community to make positive changes. In these passages we read about community, we read of signs and wonders. Community brings power. Without community we are just individuals working in an uncoordinated way. With community, we become an army, a force, and a power.

Church leadership experts define five ways of influencing—coercion, persuasion, being a good example, and nurture. But the greatest is cooperation.  Cooperation multiplies power and influence. When we join others, we become greater than the sum of all the individual members.

We are not just any community, but we are a community in Christ. We come together to worship God, and to become united with Him. We are more than just the sum of our parts—more even than a group of people who cooperate. We also are unite with the source of all power, the Spirit of God almighty. If we are willing as a group to surrender our will, our pride, and individualism to His will and His purposes, then the Spirit of God will give us all power in Him.

There are two errors we commit in community. The first error is isolation. Community makes us uncomfortable so we withdraw. Many of us are by nature people avoiders. Our culture makes this easy. God help us, though, if we don’t overcome this. We must not run from community just because of potential conflicts.   

The other error is domination. This happens when people seek their will above the group as a whole. People who do this are often unaware they are doing it. They do not listen to what others are saying.  We must be humble in all relationships, encouraging other people to criticize us and to act upon our ideas. Diversity in a group is a strength, not a weakness. A domineering person wants to sharpen others, but seeks to avoid sharpening himself. Being a part of a community is necessarily submitting our will to the whole.

 Last week Joy and I saw some wonderful sights in Ireland. One of those was the great library at Trinity College. There is a room there, as long as a football field and two and a half stories high, filled with antique, leather bound books. What a magnificent sight! Consider, though, what went into the building of that room. First, thousands of people over many ages had to write the books. Second, bookbinders with great skill had to bind the books, so they could last the ages. Third, librarians had to painstakingly categorize and collect the books.  Fourth, architects, carpenters, stonemasons, painters, electricians, and air conditioner servicemen had to build and maintain the climate controlled hall to house those books. Without any of those people, the collected knowledge of the ages in that library would be lost. Any one person or one group of people working alone would make this collection impossible, but working together all this was possible. Without the individual bricks in the stone wall, the library would be useful, but when they are all put together, and each takes its place cooperatively, then they produce a wonder.

You are an important person in the world. But you are only important when you cooperate with others. Without others, your work is incomplete. But when the church comes together and the Spirit of God blesses, there is no end to what we can accomplish together in Christ.

Life Isn't Perfect -- But God Is!

I once made an unannounced visit on a family who had just started attending our church. I interrupted a shouting, dish-throwing argument between them. The woman had charged a thousand-dollar gift to a televangelist who said that God would bless her and give her an “abundant life.”  When her husband found out, he hit the ceiling. 

She sobbed, “All I wanted was an abundant life!”

I asked “Would you settle for a pretty good life? If you do, God will give you abundant life.”

“No!” she snapped back, “I want abundant life—nothing else!”

Her problem was spiritual perfectionism. If her life wasn’t great, it was no good.

Perfectionism is the belief that life is either perfect or worthless. It is an inflexible, unachievable attitude of life that ruins our enjoyment of the blessings God gives us.

Dr. Albert Ellis, father of rational/cognitive therapy, isolated three basic irrational, perfectionist notions which account for most of the unhappiness and dissatisfaction of our lives:

1.       "I absolutely MUST under all conditions and at all times, perform well and win the complete approval of others. If I fail, that is awful and I am a bad person who probably always fails and deserves to suffer."

2.       "Other people absolutely MUST, under all conditions and at all times treat me nicely, considerately, and fairly. Otherwise, it is terrible and they are bad people who will always treat me badly, and do not deserve a good life and should be severely punished."

3.       "The conditions under which I live absolutely MUST, at all times, be favorable, safe, hassle-free, and quickly and easily enjoyable, and if they are not, then that’s awful and I can't bear it. I can't ever enjoy myself at all. My life is impossible and hardly worth living."

Not only are these notions impossible, they are also unbiblical. We should never pursue perfection or even excellence for its own sake. Seeking to be better is good, but the illusion that we should only settle for excellence or perfection is a recipe for misery.

 The word “excel” meant to pass the level of our peers. If we excel at math in school, then it means we are doing better in math than most other people. But if everyone in math class excelled at math, then we would just be average. We would just have to work harder at math and so would they. Then they would have to also work harder to keep up with me, and this would continue until we had worn ourselves out. If our measure of what is good for us is based on the performance of others, and their performance is based on ours, then we will eventually make an idol out of whatever we pursue.

 Be careful when you pursue excellence. No victory ever comes without a price. Wanting to achieve is good, but if you don’t learn to settle for less than perfection, or if you think God cannot love you unless you are perfect, then you can never experience the real joy and happiness God has planned for your life. 

Let me suggest to you five Biblical antidotes to perfectionism.

Antidote # 1: You don’t have to be perfect in everything--that’s why God gave us each other.  In 1 Corinthians 12, God tells us about how the Holy Spirit manifests Jesus in our lives. 

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

 Jesus is perfect. His wisdom, knowledge, power, teaching ability, love, compassion, and caring are far beyond those of any of us. The Holy Spirit shows Jesus to the world through us by remaking us into His image, so that the world can see Him in us. 

We are imperfect reflections, however. Though it is our purpose to individually reflect the image of Christ, this is never going to happen perfectly in the flesh. So the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to the world through all of us together, and not just through us alone, but through all the different parts of the Body of Christ, the church.

You may not be a great preacher like Jesus, but you don’t have to be. Someone else may do the preaching. You may not be a great thinker, but you don’t have to be. That is the job of theologians and professors. You may not fix cars or wire houses, but God gave mechanics and electricians to do that. No job is without honor in God’s kingdom, and no one has to be able to do every job. Jesus is manifested in His fullness when we all work together.

Antidote #2: You don’t have to be perfect all at once--that’s why God gives us time. When she was young my granddaughter saw me playing the guitar.  She asked if she could play it. She strummed it a few times, but knew no chords or rhythm. Then she put it down in disgust saying, “I’ll never be any good at this!”  When we are children, we all think this way.  If we can’t be perfect at something the first time, then we give up in frustration. But all good things take time. 

The next time you get discourage because you can’t be perfect at something, or because life isn’t perfect for you, remember that the apostles or saints weren’t perfect, either. Paul admits this in Philippians 3: 12-16

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

If Paul wasn’t perfect, then what chance do you have? Over time we continually get better, growing into the stature of Christ. Excellence is achieved in Christlikeness by holding on to what we have already achieved, celebrating it, and seeing if we can go just a little bit farther. Time is a necessary part in achieving all things.

Antidote #3: You don’t have to be right or successful all the time--that’s why God gives us grace. I really feel sorry for people who must win all the time. They aren’t trying hard enough. If you aren’t losing on a regular basis, then you are choosing to only compete in things where you have a guaranteed win, and you will not get any better. We gain confidence from winning, but we gain much more—wisdom, knowledge, growth, motivation, courage, and perseverance—from losing. This is true in our moral, spiritual lives as well as in our physical and social lives. 

If there’s an upside to sin, then it’s that we fall into it, and we know that we are forgiven. John tells us in 1 John 2: 1-2 

 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

God does not want us to sin, but when we sin Jesus has already forgiven. Our mistakes are hidden in Christ, so that they may be forgotten and so that we may press on. God’s grace enables our lives to progress only upward. When our sins and our mistakes take us backwards, then God’s forgiveness in Christ covers it.

The process of becoming more Christ-like works like a ratchet wrench. Grace allows us to go forward only. The only movement that matters is our progress towards the image of Christ. We may press on, because God is continuing to grant us grace for all our failures. We do not have to be perfect, because God’s grace is perfect in our lives.

Antidote #4: You don’t have to be happy all the time, that’s why God gives us heaven. Being imperfect makes us unhappy—there’s no question of that.  If we all obeyed God’s commands all the time, then we would not be unhappy. Our emotions would be under control, and our actions would be effective. When we failed we would not beat ourselves up about it, but would be able to set it aside in the same way Jesus did, and go on doing God’s work. But we live in an imperfect world, where things happen that are often vary unfair. 

 1 Corinthians 13: 8-13 reminds us

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

The reason you aren’t living a perfect life is because you live in an imperfect world. Death happens, disease happens, stupidity happens, and evil happens to us all the time. When you are living in a sewer, you have to learn to tolerate the smell, and our world is a sewer of sin and suffering. But God has promised to deliver us from this world in the end. 

There’s good news for perfectionists. You will be perfect one day in heaven, where there is no suffering, death, or sin. But until then, we hold on to the promises of God, and do the best we can to be happy in the midst of imperfections.

Happiness is always temporary. We are like prisoners who stop o admire the sunrise on the way to the gallows. But one day we will be in a place of eternal sunshine, where there will be no suffering, and death itself will be conquered once and for all. 

You can be blessed at all times, because God gives us His Word and Spirit.

You don’t have to have a perfect life. Jesus was perfect on your behalf. Because of His perfection, though, you can have a good life. You can experience His love and presence in the midst of the troubles you endure. “I am with you always,” Jesus says, “Even till the end of this age.”  When we experience failure, we should also experience God’s grace in Jesus. He forgives, forgets, and comforts us in the midst of pain. 

Be Satisfied!

Today we are talking about envy. Let’s start with some definitions. Jealousy and envy are not the same. Jealousy is fearing losing what we have; envy is wanting what someone else has. 

Jealousy is an emotion, and like all emotions it is given by God for a specific purpose. Jealousy is helpful in in two different ways.  First in defending what is rightfully ours. God has this kind of jealousy in Exodus 20: 5

“For I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”  Paul has this kind in 2 Corinthians 11:2 “I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray.”

 Paul loved the Corinthians and did not want them to fall away, so he fought and prayed to defend them against the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is not wrong to defend our own against attack, nor should I tolerate those who would steal what is mine.  

Second, we should be jealous in seeking God’s blessings. The word “jealousy” comes from the Greek zeelos which means “excited” or stimulated.”  A person with zeal is highly motivated.  Parazelos means to be stimulated by others, as in healthy competition. If I see what another person has accomplished, then I am motivated to seek the same.  If I see what others achieve, then maybe I can achieve it, too. 

But while jealousy has some good uses.  Envy has no good uses. Envy is entirely bad.

Let’s imagine that you and I both were farmers, and had tomato patches next to each other.  Now let’s imagine that your tomatoes look better than my tomatoes. They are fatter, juicier and tastier.  I would probably feel jealous of your tomatoes. That jealousy could provoke me to do something good. I might go to you and say, “How come your tomatoes are doing better than mine?” Then next year, I would do the same, so that my tomatoes would be as good as yours. Or I might decide to grow beets instead, which I would then trade for your tomatoes.

But suppose I was envious of your tomatoes.  That would be getting mad because your tomatoes were better than mine. I could sneak out at night and poison your tomatoes! Then neither of us would have good tomatoes. In the first reaction, we both win. In the second, we both lose.  Envy tears down, while competition and cooperation builds up. 

 The New Testament makes this distinction in two ways. One way is combining the word “jealousy” with a word for “strife” or “war.”  We see this in James 3: 16

“For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

The word selfish ambition is the word eris,--meaning a quarrel or an argument. It comes from Ares or Mars, the Greek god of war. The feeling of jealousy combined with war makes it evil.

The same words are used in Romans 1: 29

“They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.”   Again it is used in 1 Corinthians 3: 3 “for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?”

The New Testament uses a different word for envy—phtheiro, meaning “to waste, ruin, or shrivel.”  Zeal builds up; envy tears down. It is wholly destructive. It’s one thing to want good for ourselves; it is quite another to deny good to others, or to envy their prosperity.

The Bible has a lot to say about envy.  For example,

”A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot..”  Proverbs 14:30

"What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness."  Mark 7: 20-22

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. 1 Corinthians 13:4

 
“Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”  Proverbs 24: 19-20

Zeal builds up; Envy tears down.

What is the root of envy? It comes from a sense of want. James says this in James 4: 1-4,

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this--that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

When we are young, we believe we compete with our brothers and sisters for the attention of our parents. Our parents have a finite amount of attention to give. When we grow older, we transfer that idea over to God. We assume that God also has only a small amount of blessings to give, and that if someone else receives, we won’t.

That was the first mistake of Cain. He assumed that if Abel his brother was blessed by God, then he could not be blessed. So Cain killed his brother, because he thought Abel stole his blessing from God. What he did not know was that God could give all His love to both of them.

If God has given one person more than another in looks, talents, or material prosperity, then what business is that of ours?  If God gives one man a million dollars and another a thousand, He still has plenty to give. His million has nothing to do with my thousand. God could give each one a hundred million, a billion, or a hundred billion dollars each, and it would make no difference to Him. Whatever God has given or not given to us, it is because of His knowledge and purpose for our lives. He is not stingy, He is just loving in different ways.

The Bible gives us many examples of jealousy like Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Saul and David--But one of the best examples of envy is the parables of the Prodigal son in Luke 15.

In this parable we meet a man who has two sons. The younger son demands his portion of the father’s estate. Jesus does not give the younger son’s reason for doing this, but it doesn’t take much to guess. As the younger son, his portion of the inheritance is smaller than the older son—probably no more than forty percent. If he stayed at home, then his big brother would be over him forever.  Envy is the likely reason for him running away. Who wants to live under his big brother?

It does him no good, of course. The younger boy doesn’t know how to handle money. Not only that, but he missed out on a bigger inheritance that would have been his if he had waited for the Old Man to die. Envy probably drove him to jeopardize his future.

In time, the younger son returns, and there is rejoicing and happiness. His father gives him a hero’s welcome, complete with a party, new clothes, jewelry, and a fatted calf.  

Now, it’s the older brother’s turn to be jealous. He refuses to come to the party, but stays in the field. So his father leaves the party and seeks him. The older son tells the father in Luke 15: 29-30,

“Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' 

 Now here’s the strange thing! The younger son runs away, envying what the older son gets. The younger son returns, and the older son envies what the younger son gets. If you were one of these two sons, would you be like the younger son and envy the other’s money and position, or would you, like the older son, envy the attention of the Father?  We all envy different things. It came as a shock to discover that some of those I envied were envying me! God provides for in different ways, gives different opportunities, and callings, but He doesn’t neglect any of His kids! 

Envy comes from focusing on how we measure up to others, rather than our standing before God. If our self-worth is based on others, then we are living in envy. But if we look to God for our happiness, then we will find it. Looking at others first steals our happiness; looking to God first gives it back.

The father answers his older son in 31-32. “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." The father says, “Everything you have is mine!  Do you think I only have one fatted calf? Ask and you can have one for your friends? Do I only have one robe? Ask, and it’s yours! What you see me give to him I can give to you!” 

The biggest mistake is thinking God is finite in his love or His blessings. This is not the case. We think our poverty or lack of natural abilities is favoritism to others, when it’s really just a case of God knowing what we need and can handle. We all must struggle in life—God just makes sure we are all struggling over different things.

Do not assume that fame, money, talent, or power makes us better or happier people. When I visited Africa, the people I stayed with only had electricity for two hours a day. They had little in education or material comforts. They lived in a place where the temperature was more than a hundred degrees much of the year. Yet they were far happier than we are!  It was not in spite of their poverty, but because of it. Where no one has anything, there’s nothing to envy. No one felt cheated when they did not have the latest clothes or appliances. Yet we ruin our happiness by sulking over things others have, which can make neither they nor us happy. 

Jesus tells us, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Happiness comes from Jesus. It does not come from envy. It comes from knowing that what God gives us is sufficient for all. 

God is not stingy with His love. He gives it to all. He lays upon us the glory of His grace and gives it in abundance. 

Are You Lazy? Proverbs 6: 6-11

In this series we are examining the disparity between the life that Christians ought to be living and the life we actually live. Jesus promises us abundant life in John 10:10,  

“The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.”

 What are the “thieves” that destroy our lives? In this series, we look at what the Bible says about seven of them—the “seven sinister sisters”-- fear, anxiety, hopelessness, laziness, jealousy, perfectionism, and individualism.

Today’s topic is laziness.

www

“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,’ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” Prov. 6:6-11

Are you lazy? Some days, I think I am.  Other days, I think I’m not. Which is the truth?

One thing I know, whether or not we are lazy has nothing to do with how I feel about it.

Some of the most active people I know think they are lazy. On the other hand, some of the laziest people I know think they are overworked. We cannot go by how we feel. What makes a person lazy or industrious is not how we feel about it, but whether or not we are doing our job. 

Suppose you need to pay your bills, but instead you go out and jog two miles. Are you lazy or not lazy? Or suppose you go out and mow your lawn when you feel like sitting and watching television.  Are you lazy, because you feel like resting?  Laziness is what we do or not do, and it is not what we feel or not feel. 

Laziness is a complicated issue. There is no one cause for it, but many. Some of the most common reasons for laziness are listed below:

Fear. One of the most common reasons we procrastinate is because we are afraid that we will not perform our job correctly, or that we can’t do it. Anxiety builds up inside, until it becomes a barrier to starting. Or our fear so weighs us down that we might not be doing well, and we want to stop. 
Fear is not just of doing poorly. We often fear doing something well. To do something right means that more will be expected of us. This fear of accomplishment stops many of us in our tracks.

A divided mind. Sometimes we don’t begin our task for a reason we don’t admit, because we just don’t want to do it. If we are constantly putting something off we need to do, then it may be a signal to us that maybe we don’t need to do it at all. We should reexamine our motives to see if our heart is really in what we are putting off.

Disorganization. This is really laziness of the mind. When we are disorganized, it is because we have put off organization. The first part of every task is to decide when and how we are going to do it. We must first put a job in its proper place before we do it. Many people are hard workers with the bodies, but poor workers with their heads. They only work well if someone else is telling them what to do.

Fatigue. Let’s face it, we sometimes are lazy just because we haven’t had enough rest. We don’t know how to pace our work and our rest, so we “burn out.”  Not taking our time off may seem like being busy, but it’s really asking for trouble. The time can come when we need to be active, and we have no energy left.

Fantasy. Our modern culture has found a way of making us feel better about laziness. It’s called fantasy. I don’t mean simply people who like fantasy books or video games, but a mass media culture which gives us a steady diet of television, books, movies, and video games. These devices create in us the feeling of accomplishment or success, while guaranteeing our failure.

Let me illustrate what fantasy is. When men are young they play sports. Then, when they get older they start watching sports, and when they see someone on a field hitting home runs or running touchdowns, then they get the same feeling of accomplishment they got when they used to exercise regularly. Yet they get no physical or mental benefit from it. We have imagined ourselves as athletes, but get no benefit from it.

People get lost in television, video games, books, or movies with equal enthusiasm. Yet when we are caught up in the fantasy, we are actually doing no good. We are being lazy, and we are caught in the illusion of activity without any accomplishment whatsoever.

The result of laziness is always that we fail to accomplish anything. In doing so we let down God, others, and ourselves.

We let down God, because we do not use the gifts God gave us. God has a plan for our lives. He also has a great plan for the church. When we do not participate in that plan, then we are letting God down.

We let down others, because they depend upon us. James writes of Christians who say to people in need, “Be warm and be fed,” yet do nothing to help them. No one cares about our good intentions unless we are ready to back our good intentions with action. Laziness robs us of action.

We let down ourselves, because we do not accomplish what we might. We wind up following an easy path that leads to nowhere.

How do we stop being lazy? Here are some suggestions that can help.

Stop regretting. Do not waste one moment in regret or remorse. Regret and remorse adds to our anxiety, and worsens our laziness. Jesus died on the cross to pay for all our transgressions, and to give us a new start in life. To look back on our sins, and wallow in regret is to deny the gift of God’s forgiveness. God’s love is a free gift. In Christ’s eyes, your life begins today, not yesterday. The only thing that matters is not what you did yesterday, but what you do today.

Practice Sabbath. God established a pattern of life in Genesis--six days you shall labor, and the seventh you rest. Don’t work all the time. Work six days and be off one day. Keeping the Sabbath refreshes our lives, and helps keep us diligent.  

Seek an active life. Avoid the kind of recreation that does not involve doing something with our minds, bodies, or spirits. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing better in life than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in work. Work is not something we do for pay, but a way of life. It gives our lives meaning.

Do something active in your off hours. Plant a garden, decorate a room, take up jogging, learn a musical instrument, a new language, or go back to school. There are no limitations on any of these just because we are older. We all need to live more vigorous, productive lives. 

Know your goals and your limitations. This involves the hardest kind of work you will ever do, which is thinking. What are you trying to accomplish? Do you have a purpose statement for your life?  Does it involve your life today?  Are you working for that purpose?

Know your limitations as well. What can you realistically do where you are at? Give yourself permission to work within your limitations. You may have to adjust our expectations, but mostly upward. As you seek to accomplish what you feel you can now discover that there is more you can accomplish. 

Eliminate fantasy and distractions. Not being lazy really isn’t about doing more, but doing less. It is substituting what is good for what isn’t.  When we engage in fantasy, and spend hours in front of a TV, video game console, or with a book in our hands in mindless entertainment, then we may find it hard to stop. If you can’t think of anything to do instead of watching television, you should turn off the TV.  It mean you have become addicted. 

Laziness isn’t a feeling, but a disordered life. It is not living the life in its fullness that God has for us to live. Thoreau once said that he wanted to live his life to such a degree that when he died, he would not discover he had never lived. Laziness is the thief of life. When we yield to it, a part of us dies, even while we live. When we resist it, then we find that life has more to offer us than we can possibly imagine.    

Transforming Despair to Hope

Charles Durhig’s book, The Power of Habit, tells of a woman named Lisa Allen who is a thirty-four year old graphic designer who doesn’t smoke or drink. She is a runner, debt free, and has recently finished her master’s degree.

A few years before, her life was a mess. She was sixty pounds overweight, a chain smoker, and a heavy drinker. She could not hold down a job or finish school. She was a failure in every area of life. Now she stands before researchers at the National Institute of Health, who are desperate to learn how this woman changed from a failure to a success.

It started when her husband left her.  Without a job and hopeless, she made a rash decision to visit Egypt on her charge card for one last holiday.

She had no goals, no hopes, and no motivation. She was desperate to do something, but did not know what to do. While riding a bus to the pyramids a thought struck her. Could she walk this trip, instead of taking a bus? There was no particular thought behind it—it just came to her, and she resolved to do it. She realized that if she tried now, it would probably kill her. She decided to come back in a year’s time and make the walk. 

First, she gave up cigarettes. It was hard, but she did it. Then she decided to take up walking around town, and eventually jogging, then running. Her life changed, one habit at a time. Every time she changed one habit, she got the courage to change another. With each victory, she gave herself a precious gift—hope. 

Hope transforms us. With it, we can do anything, sustain any action and endure any suffering. Without it, all we do is an exercise in futility. If our hope returns, then our life begins anew.

Paul says in Thessalonians, “I do not want you to suffer as those who have no hope.” Many of us suffer without hope. We may have hope for heaven, but we have no hope for today or tomorrow. We’ve been handed a fortune cookie that says, “This is as good as it’s going to get,” and we believe it.  We are miserable because we have no hope.

Christianity is all about hope. In fact, it is about three hopes. Our first hope is for heaven –we will be with Jesus when we die and live forever. Our second hope is in a better world--Christ’s eventual victory in the end times over darkness, a new heaven and new earth. Our third hope is to become more like Christ here while we live. Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” In this life we are becoming like Jesus in His love, passion, and joy.

The first two hopes are important, but in our daily lives it is this third hope that gets us through this life. If we are dying, or facing terrible persecutions, then we really need those first two hopes. But while all Christians have hope for heaven, many have no personal hope.  

Can we blame them?  If our faith is just an insurance policy against hell, then why should we pay attention to it? Do you read your life insurance or fire insurance policies, and rejoice in your deliverance from future disasters? Does it bring you daily joy to know you’re covered against collision, or do you take it for granted? If all Jesus does is give us a future in heaven, then why should we come here week after week and remember it?  If that’s all the hope we have, then our faith provides nothing in this life, but freedom from worry about the next life. Hope doesn’t help us daily unless it is personal, practical, and daily. 

Jesus came to give us hope not just for heaven, but for this life as well. Many Christians believe that they are stuck in their sins, problems, depression and fear. But if we believe in the transformative power of Christ, then there is nothing in our lives that cannot change. 

Let’s look at a passage about hope in this world. Mark 9: 31-40.

This story happened after Jesus, Peter, James, and John had been on the Mount of Transfiguration. When they returned, they found the other nine disciples losing an arguing with the local scribes. It started when a local man took his son to them to be delivered from a demon who got hold of him, and threw him into fire and water. The disciples couldn’t cast it out. The Pharisees used it as proof that Jesus was a fraud. The townspeople were coming to their side. 

Isn’t this happening today? We say that Jesus is a savior, healer, and deliverer. But where’s the evidence? When we show them our own lives, do they see victory? Why should an unbeliever look at the average churchman and think there is anything special about our message?

Jesus immediately recognizes the problem as unbelief. There was not enough belief in this town, or in the disciples. Because there was not healing the first time, they assumed they never would be, and turned on the disciples and the message. They prayed for the boy, and nothing happened, so they assumed that nothing would happen. 

Jesus says the whole generation refuses to believe!

Is our generation any better?  Listen to how we talk about prayer. We talk about holiness, but never get any better. Many Christians are filled with unbelief and don’t even know it. When our lives are filled with anxiety and worry, what do we do but doubt?  When we show courage and hopefulness in hard times we are demonstrating hopefulness. 

This father of the boy expressed his sense of helplessness in verses 21-22.

Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

The father implies that the boy’s whole life was a failure from childhood. We are all born with flaws and handicaps. But none of us are so broken that we cannot be better. God can help us overcome even our flaws from birth. 

He also indicates that they could do nothing about it. “It often casts him into fire and water, to destroy him.” If this were your child, would you let him near fire or water? They had all but given up on helping him. Unbelief does not just rob us of a cure—it robs us from trying to find a cure. What’s the point of wasting time and money trying to solve an unsolvable problem? Fortunately, they were still looking for help from Jesus. 

Finally he says to Jesus, “If you can do anything.”  The doctors and religious leaders could do nothing. Now he had come to Jesus’ disciples and they could do nothing. He must have thought he had been abandoned by God Himself.

Jesus’ responded. “If you can! All things are possible for he who believes.”  Not only is something possible—everything is possible! 

Here we must stop and ask an important question. Does Jesus mean all things are possible for those who believe in general, or for those who believe in God?  Is it belief itself or belief in God that makes all things possible? Belief in anything has great power, as we often hear in our culture. Positive thinking works, up to a point. But it has two serious flaws.

First, positive thinking is often pushed too far, making it into a kind of magic. Whenever I hear someone say, “You can achieve anything if you just believe hard enough,” I want to scream, “Okay then--fly!” We all have limitations.

The second problem with positive thinking is that it does work, but for the wrong goals. It is only by God’s mercy that we do not achieve our dreams.  People can succeed, but at the cost of their souls. Legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson is said to have literally sold his soul to the Devil for the power to play the blues. Entertainers such as James Dean, Tupac Shakur, Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger, and many others gained their dreams and destroyed their lives. Be careful what you hope for, because it can destroy you. But when we believe in God, and we hope in His glory He grants us the desires of our heart. 

At this point, the father cried, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”

Belief is not the total absence of doubt, nor is doubt the total absence of belief. We do both all the time. Our brains are like congress—there’s always a vocal minority. But we choose to act upon faith rather than doubt.

Hope is choosing to act upon belief, not doubt. If we don’t think we can lose weight we won’t seriously diet. If we don’t think prayer will work we won’t pray. If we never try, we won’t succeed. But if we trust God and keep trusting, He will come through.

Jesus healed the boy, but the disciples were still perplexed. How come Jesus could do it, but they could not?  Jesus answered that this kind of demon comes out only with much prayer.

Why does it make a difference how long you pray?  I confess I do not always know the answer, but there are some things that must be true before we can realize our hopes.

First, we must know what we want.

 

What we really want is not always obvious. Sometimes the things we think we want are the very things that stand in the way of our ultimate happiness. 

Second, we give up what we don’t need.  

 

We’re double-minded—wanting too many things at once. When people asked to be His disciples, Jesus told them to leave their families, sell everything, and neglect everything else. They were not willing to take Jesus over other good things. We need to consider the implications of what we want before Jesus gives it.

Third, we must do whatever it takes. 

 

Jesus gave specific instructions to those He healed. If they did not do it, they did not get the healing. God doesn’t heal us all the same way. Sometimes it takes surgery. Other times, we just have to ask for help. It usually begins with admitting that you have a problem. If we aren’t willing to do what it takes, we won’t be healed.

All this requires much prayer time. Prayer is simply a conversation with God, where we sort out our real reasons and motivations, what healing will require, and whether we are willing to pay the price.  Real prayer is a battle, not a cake walk.  In this battle, the most dangerous opponent is our own unwillingness to believe.

Hope is patience.  The two Hebrew words that are translated “hope” in the Bible. One--yachal--literally means “to wait.” The other—tiqvah--literally means a rope--something we hold while we are waiting for God to pull us up. It’s easy to have hope if wait just a moment, but it’s hard to hold on when the day grows long and our hands get tired. That’s when hope is all important. God’s blessings require holding on. He will give us what we ask, but we must keep holding on. There are greater blessings for you than you can possibly imagine, but you must have hope. Don’t give up. Hope for something greater, and you can have it.