With all due respect, there is a huge difference between standing in line at the grocery store and standing in line for a ride at the fair.
At the grocery store, the wait is boring. At the fair, you stare at the ride and anticipate what it is going to be like when you get to go on. At the store, the goal is to get through the line as quickly as possible, so you choose your line based on the number of people in it and how many items they are purchasing. At the fair, the length of the line is often irrelevant, because you choose your line based what is at the end (the ride).
When you finally do get to the head of the line at the grocery store, there is no fanfare and it is not that interesting. You pay for your stuff and move on. At the fair, the head of the line means all kinds of things such as: excitement, fear, ups and downs, laugher, screams, having your stomach in your throat and "hanging on for the ride".
Unfortunately, for too many people, faith is more like the grocery store than the fair. It is more hum-drum than exciting. However, as I read the about the early church, their experience was anything but boring. Think, for example, about the women who went to Christ’s tomb that first resurrection Sunday. Getting up at dawn, they did not expect anything miraculous to happen that day. They were simply going to pay their last respects to someone they loved. Soon, though, they found an unguarded tomb, an open entrance and an angel who said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen” (Matthew 28:5-6). That event, that message, changed everything. Suddenly, they were no longer simply dragging themselves to the tomb to do their duty. Instead, they found themselves “hanging on for the ride” that God had planned from the beginning of time.
Those involved with the resurrection and the early church were not “asleep in the pew”. They were excited, anticipating and engaged in what God was doing in, through and around them.
Maybe it is time to rethink our faith. Maybe we need to read the “old story” with new eyes. Maybe then we would catch some of the same joy and enthusiasm that those earlier followers experienced. Maybe we would even find something worth sharing with others.
Faith is too important for it to be boring.
At the grocery store, the wait is boring. At the fair, you stare at the ride and anticipate what it is going to be like when you get to go on. At the store, the goal is to get through the line as quickly as possible, so you choose your line based on the number of people in it and how many items they are purchasing. At the fair, the length of the line is often irrelevant, because you choose your line based what is at the end (the ride).
When you finally do get to the head of the line at the grocery store, there is no fanfare and it is not that interesting. You pay for your stuff and move on. At the fair, the head of the line means all kinds of things such as: excitement, fear, ups and downs, laugher, screams, having your stomach in your throat and "hanging on for the ride".
Unfortunately, for too many people, faith is more like the grocery store than the fair. It is more hum-drum than exciting. However, as I read the about the early church, their experience was anything but boring. Think, for example, about the women who went to Christ’s tomb that first resurrection Sunday. Getting up at dawn, they did not expect anything miraculous to happen that day. They were simply going to pay their last respects to someone they loved. Soon, though, they found an unguarded tomb, an open entrance and an angel who said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen” (Matthew 28:5-6). That event, that message, changed everything. Suddenly, they were no longer simply dragging themselves to the tomb to do their duty. Instead, they found themselves “hanging on for the ride” that God had planned from the beginning of time.
Those involved with the resurrection and the early church were not “asleep in the pew”. They were excited, anticipating and engaged in what God was doing in, through and around them.
Maybe it is time to rethink our faith. Maybe we need to read the “old story” with new eyes. Maybe then we would catch some of the same joy and enthusiasm that those earlier followers experienced. Maybe we would even find something worth sharing with others.
Faith is too important for it to be boring.
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