Monday, February 9, 2009

Apathy

If there's one thing I can't stand within a community of believers it's apathy.

If only I had a dime for each time I've heard the phrase "I didn't get anything out of that [ins. worship, sermon, conference, etc.]" I'd be a very rich person.

People are lazy and expect other people to do all the work of growing spiritually for them. True - we hope to hear something uplifting or challenging when we go to a conference or to church, but in reality ministers and worship leaders are only human and can only do so much. What people fail to realize is that God can speak to us powerfully through any kind of talk - whether it was eloquent and thought provoking or disorganized and lacking depth. What matters is how open we are to hearing what He has to say, and how much effort we put into applying the lessons to our own life.

I heard a great sermon a few years ago that I won't ever forget. The minister talked about how Jesus faithfully went to the Temple as he was growing up. If ANYONE had a right to complain that he was not getting anything out of a worship service, it's the Son of God - but he went anyway, if only so he could commune with the people there and impact their lives. So I think that we have no right to complain. If people would put more energy into listening and proactively growing than they do into griping about what was missing, I think the Christian church would be in a much better state than it is now.

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