SCANNING THE SPACE AT COFFEE CAT I NOTICE PEOPLE with laptops open, ear buds from their iPods hanging in their ears, cell phones at the ready, latte in hand and all the while carrying on a conversation with the person next to them. We truly are a multi-tasking culture. It is amazing what we can accomplish at the same time. Or can we?
In the March 27, 2006, issue of Time magazine, the cover story deals with the plug-in generation of the youth of our culture. One of the important realizations derived from the article is that multi-tasking may not be all that it is cracked up to be. The truth of the matter is that our brains can really only handle one project at a time. We may be plugged into all kinds of sources, but what we are really doing is constantly switching between one activity and the other, albeit this switching happens incredibly fast.
The results of this constant switching is that it often takes more time to accomplish any task than if we were to focus singly upon that task. The other result is that we use up more “battery power.” Much like the drain we put upon our laptop battery when we ask our computer to do numerous things at once.
This multi-tasking can affect the spiritual aspects of our lives as well. We feel that we can “slip God in” while we are doing a multitude of other things. However, what we really need to do is follow the example of our Lord. We read that He would wake up early, and draw away often, in order to spend concentrated time with God. The ironic thing is we believe we somehow need to do that less than Jesus Himself. In this regard, “if it was good enough for Jesus” then it “better” for us.
So, in this Lenten season, let us remember that little saying, “Let’s come apart with Him alone, so we don’t fall apart all alone.”
IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT, “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH.” But, I have found there are some lunches that are free, though they often carry a responsibility attached to them. Some might call that “responsibility” a “cost,” but I would rather understand it as a proper re-sponse to a delicious free lunch.
Some of these “free lunches” that I have enjoyed came with the re-sponsibility of spending an extended time with people that I enjoy, hardly a cost to pay. Sometimes the responsibility came in the form of helping with the clean-up after the meal. That only seems fair. There have been times that I needed to provide the transportation to the meal that would be later paid for by the one I was transporting. Seems reasonable, I was going to have to drive somewhere anyway. Again, no real extra cost to me. And of course, there is the responsibility of saying, “Thank you!” af-ter the meal is over. Yes, I do believe I have enjoyed some free lunches, and considering the gift, I can’t consider my responsibility to the giver any real cost to me.
In some ways this “free lunch” idea is like God’s grace. We are told that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) And that this “gift” is a gift of grace, without cost, and without the ability to be earned. God has given us this grace-gift in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, as expressed in His death upon the cross for us and His glorious resurrection.
As with the free lunches which I enjoyed carried a certain response ability, so does God’s free gift of life through Jesus. That response means getting to spend time with the Lord, as if over a leisurely meal. It means helping with the clean-up from time to time. It may even involve helping others attend the meal, and certainly it always involves an eternal and heart-felt, “Thank you!”
Free? Yes! But, with a proper response from us. Come on, lunch is served.
LONG STORY, SHORT. My neighbor has a sinkhole in his backyard caused by the failure of a culvert buried nine feet down, the culvert that carries water from the drains in our street. Needless to say, there was a lot of water in our street during Sunday night’s storm!
Monday a group of us tackled the task of digging a nine-foot deep hole. We accomplished the digging and there found a concrete culvert (placed circa 1947) separated from the rest and filled with dirt. With the culprit culvert below us we set to work to make things right, and by late afternoon it was repaired, just in time for Monday night’s rain!
Besides the soreness which comes from hours of digging and slopping around in cold mud, there was another lesson I learned, and it is this: Once you find the broken pipe it does very little good to talk about all the reasons this “could have happened.” None of us would ever know, the blasted pipe had been nine feet down for almost 60 years! What we could do was get to the task of fixing the break and making it functional again. And with the crew I was honored to work with, I would say it’s better than new.
Our spiritual life can sometimes be like that sinkhole. We can see a problem, and then endeavor to uncover the cause and once we do we stand there talking about all the things, from the past, that could caused the problem, instead of just getting down to fixing the brokenness.
I am reminded of the encounter Jesus had with the woman caught in adultery. He did focus upon all the things that brought her to that point, but rather He spoke non-condemning truth and told her to sin no more.(John 8 )
So, are you facing some sinkhole or culvert catastrophe in your life? Maybe it’s time to grab some help and dig in and with God’s gracious help, be restored to use. Why wait until the next storm?
WHILE OUT RUNNING THIS PAST WEEK, I realized that I had started this process of regular running once again. How many times have I started again? I have seriously lost count; there have been so many re-starts. But once again, here I am plodding along the roadside and traips-ing down the trails with the goal of getting myself ready to run a half-marathon this coming September.
How many times have you started over again? The plan was to lose weight or to stop smoking or to keep the shed clean and organized. Or maybe, it’s starting over with God. You’re going to read your Bible, take regular time to converse with God, or share your faith with others on a more regular basis. Whatever it is you were going to start over again for the umpteenth time- good for you!
Here’s some great news. Starting again is a good thing. For me it’s better than just sitting on the couch watching the Food Channel. At least I am getting out there one more time! And starting over with God is also a good thing; it is what God desires for you.
God was so excited when you started with Him the first time, and even though you may have wandered away, or stopped your forward progress, God is excited when His children start again. Starting again is better than not!
So, lace up those shoes for the journey, and if need be, start again, and again! It sure beats sitting still!
ONE OF THE MEMORIES I HAVE OF THE LENTEN SEASON, (those forty days leading up to Easter) when I was a young boy, was being en-couraged to give up something we enjoyed for those forty days. It was a way of supposedly entering into the sufferings the Lord Jesus experi-enced as He moved toward His crucifixion. I can remember desiring to give up things like cleaning my room, or washing the dishes, but my mom insisted in had to be something I really enjoyed. She always saw through my deceptions.
I remember giving up things like candy and ice cream, and later, as an adult, I did give up watching television, and one year endeavored to do a true fast of no food for the full forty days. Sadly, I didn’t quite make the full forty days.
The idea of fasting for the forty days of Lent is not a bad idea, if we do it for the right reasons, that is to in some small way enter into the suffer-ings of our Lord. The purpose is to draw closer to Him through the proc-ess of denying ourselves that which we need or enjoy.
As we enter this year’s season of Lent I am calling us to enter into a little different kind of fasting. Not a fasting of giving up, but of adding to. I am encouraging the church to enter into a deeper time of drawing closer to God though concerted prayer.
In order to help you with this “fast” we are making available to you a prayer guide entitled, “Seek God for the City.” This daily prayer guide will help us, as a church, pray together prayers of hope for our community. I know you will want to take up this challenge and join with me in this spe-cial time of joining our hearts together as we draw closer to the heart of God, so be sure to pick up your guide this morning, and let us open our hearts to prayer.
