Well, it is not hard to see that it has been quite a while since the last time that I wrote a post. There are a number of reasons for this. Partially I have been “busy”, or rather, spending my time doing things that take lots of time without realizing it. (A nice way to say I have been playing a lot of video games and have not been utilizing time in a more beneficial manner) Partially I have not known what to write about. And finally, I have just found a complete lack of motivation and will to do … well … anything. It is for this very reason that I write this post; I should have written it weeks ago in all reality.
I would be lying if I said I wrote this post in an appropriate time fashion, but the truth is, I started it a number of weeks ago and have been working on it ever since. Waiting (procrastinating) on this post has actually led to a number of things. First of all, I have oddly discovered that I am not the only one feeling this way. I can think of two others off the top of my head that have been feeling, down, or demotivated, or just plain complacent about life and God. This is interesting because some of the people feeling like this (myself included) were feeling nearly the opposite last summer. God was working in our lives and we could see it an feel it. So what happened in the course of three seasons that could cause such a change in attitude? What kinds of things would cause an attitude like this in the first place? I am not sure I can even guess at the answer, but in the following paragraphs I shall pose some speculation.
Before I start on what I think may be the problem in some of this area, I would like to mention a verse that I found while procrastinating this post, as well as a verse that I knew about that may also be related.
Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
I would be lying if I said I wrote this post in an appropriate time fashion, but the truth is, I started it a number of weeks ago and have been working on it ever since. Waiting (procrastinating) on this post has actually led to a number of things. First of all, I have oddly discovered that I am not the only one feeling this way. I can think of two others off the top of my head that have been feeling, down, or demotivated, or just plain complacent about life and God. This is interesting because some of the people feeling like this (myself included) were feeling nearly the opposite last summer. God was working in our lives and we could see it an feel it. So what happened in the course of three seasons that could cause such a change in attitude? What kinds of things would cause an attitude like this in the first place? I am not sure I can even guess at the answer, but in the following paragraphs I shall pose some speculation.
Before I start on what I think may be the problem in some of this area, I would like to mention a verse that I found while procrastinating this post, as well as a verse that I knew about that may also be related.
Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
I believe this is how God views us complacent Christians. We claim to have found the greatest joy given to mankind through Christ Jesus, yet we do nothing about it. Day after day we complain, we pity ourselves, we live a get up – do work – eat – sleep – repeat lifestyle. It quickly becomes easy to lose the flame of salvation, the vigor of forgiveness, and the passion of Jesus. This is a very serious problem, especially if you take the passage literally. God says that he would rather us be one or the other. Wait a second . . . better to be cold? God would rather us be not Christians at all than unmotivated, dead ones? Yikes! If you stop and think about it for a moment it makes sense.
When I was in high school I was on the cross country running team. I was very good at it and I didn't even have to try. The thing with cross country was that only the top 5 finishers mattered. Therefore, you could have as many people on the team as you wanted to without consequence. It didn't matter if you had the 10 worst runners at the meet, as long as you also had a solid top 5. We would accept anyone no matter how good they were. Many times we would have people that really didn't care about the sport, they just wanted to be on a team. God's team does not work like this at all. Instead God only wants the people that are good. He wants his team to look as good as it can be. Many times the kids that didn't care on my cross country team were jokers that made the rest of us look bad. This is exactly what lukewarm Christians are like. They make real impassioned Christians look bad or get a bad name.
When I was in high school I was on the cross country running team. I was very good at it and I didn't even have to try. The thing with cross country was that only the top 5 finishers mattered. Therefore, you could have as many people on the team as you wanted to without consequence. It didn't matter if you had the 10 worst runners at the meet, as long as you also had a solid top 5. We would accept anyone no matter how good they were. Many times we would have people that really didn't care about the sport, they just wanted to be on a team. God's team does not work like this at all. Instead God only wants the people that are good. He wants his team to look as good as it can be. Many times the kids that didn't care on my cross country team were jokers that made the rest of us look bad. This is exactly what lukewarm Christians are like. They make real impassioned Christians look bad or get a bad name.
Anyway, the second verse I want to share is Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This means anything. Homework, shopping, working, cleaning, cooking, playing, swimming, laughing, crying, are all parts of “whatever you do.” How is it that we are supposed to be doing everything for God no matter what that we still find time to be unmotivated and tired?
An age old cliché states “practice makes perfect.” How many of us live our daily lives without practice? This kids seem to have it down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfScu505a2o. Unlike cross country, I have to “practice God.” This is because there is a source working tirelessly against us and God. Everyday we forget to practice God's law we feed the demons in the world around us. You have heard that the Angels rejoice when a new believer accepts Christ, well I think the demons rejoice when we live a normal day. The more we forget the more we stop caring. We may never lose our salvation, we may never stop going to church, but at the same time we will never again light on fire and be useful to God. We become lukewarm water, useless for everything save a few science experiments. In this case, Satan is the evil scientist.
I think that the opposite can also be a cause for becoming unmotivated. Some people spend all their time filling themselves up. It sounds a little weird to think that you can grow fat on God. It is not that we should spend less time with God; it is that we should spend more time doing God's will. Sometimes we think we have a better idea of what God wants us to do that what He actually wants us to do. For example, we have all heard someone say “That's it, I am staying in my room forever, all I am going to do is read the Bible and pray.” This is not only foolish, it is selfish and a sin. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). I once read a story of a man, possibly a monk, possibly a saint, I cannot remember and I tried looking it up without success. The man decided that he was going to dedicate his life to God. So he lived on a mountain all alone, he had people bring him food. He did nothing but pray and meditate on scripture. At some point he realized what he was doing was wrong and began to serve the Lord appropriately. I think that there comes a point when we have the best intentions by filling ourselves up. We consume, consume, consume, God in every way. We go to camps, meetings, groups, events, and whatever else we can find, but we forget that once we are full we are full. All those things are good and should be done, however, eventually we need to serve. We need to go out and do Christ's Great Commission. A common trait associated with fat people is laziness. When we are fat on God we become selfish, always trying to find out how we can get more God. Ironically, our desire to consume more God can actually prevent us from getting there. We need to share what God is doing for us. (I realize some of those things I mentioned provide for sharing God's work, and that is good, but I don't think people always have it work like that.) It is good to fellowship and be surrounded by Christians, but only for a time. If we stay in the safe area too long never risking ourselves for God we become stagnant – lukewarm.
Believe it or not there is another opposite side. I don't really know how that is possible, but work with me. Some people are servants, slaves even, to God. This is GREAT! The world needs more people like you. These people are known as people pleasers, I am one as well I think, though not as much as some. Christians like this become empty and tired. They have the right heart for sure, and most the time the right attitude, they love serving and they love putting themselves out. The problem is, they often forget about themselves. This can eventually lead to a crash, and then being tired. It can also lead to being bogged down and too busy. We often forget ourselves when trying to serve others and God. This even happens to God's shepherds, Pastors. It is for this reason that pastors are given sabbaticals in order to rest and fill themselves back up. We are only human, and while God can give miracles that can allow us to go days without sleep, food, and water constantly serving, we need to remember these are miracles. Sometimes we need to stop, maybe not even for a whole day and just takes some time to be with God. It is kind of like a marriage (hey look, we are the Bride of Christ?). A married couple often gets so tied up with life and work and responsibilities they start to grow absent in their marriage. This is why it is often recommended that you never stop going on dates with your spouse. Time alone to stop and focus on one another and renew your good ol' puppy love days. We need to never stop dating God either. While he never leaves us, it is sometimes good to just stop and spend a time with Him where we are quiet, listening and feeding ourselves.
So I now look at myself. What is my problem? I think perhaps a little bit of everything, however, the practicing daily one is regrettably my biggest issue. Last summer I was writing a blog entry every day for a while. I can remember that being one of my biggest times of growth with God. It's because I would take time to reflect on Him and just let my thoughts come out. Interestingly enough, some of my favorite times this summer have been serving at my church. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with my old youth group in what seems like any capacity I want. The biggest part of course leading the devotionals. It seems that I am having a lot of support from both my church family and the teens. I cannot afford to be an unmotivated Christian with such an opportunity at stake. This valley that I am in is seemingly a hard one to shake. I need to get back into practice, I need to feed myself, and I need to serve and follow God's plan.
I recently got some praise for my blogging, and that is a really cool thing to receive. Nothing is more filling than hearing someone say they have gotten something, or learned something from my mostly self reflections and thoughts. I am writing to myself (and God I suppose) just as much if not more than I am to other people. One of the things someone commented on in particular was the fact that I have ended a number of blog posts with a challenge. I started it thinking no one is going to really pay a whole lot of attention to it but I was pleasantly surprised. So here is one for this one. How are you feeling right now? Are you feeling bogged down, tired, or unmotivated with either life or God? Try to find the source and fix it. If you cannot pray about it, or talk to someone, and definitely stay practicing. Perhaps you are not feeling down and instead are feeling more on fire, then what is it that is making you feel that way? Are you doing things right? How can you keep the fire burning?
Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
I recently got some praise for my blogging, and that is a really cool thing to receive. Nothing is more filling than hearing someone say they have gotten something, or learned something from my mostly self reflections and thoughts. I am writing to myself (and God I suppose) just as much if not more than I am to other people. One of the things someone commented on in particular was the fact that I have ended a number of blog posts with a challenge. I started it thinking no one is going to really pay a whole lot of attention to it but I was pleasantly surprised. So here is one for this one. How are you feeling right now? Are you feeling bogged down, tired, or unmotivated with either life or God? Try to find the source and fix it. If you cannot pray about it, or talk to someone, and definitely stay practicing. Perhaps you are not feeling down and instead are feeling more on fire, then what is it that is making you feel that way? Are you doing things right? How can you keep the fire burning?
Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas
PS: Here's to hoping for some more frequent updates . . . its good practice.
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