It’s time we moved on

I woke up this morning and as usual took the time to tell the Lord a few words for the past night and the day ahead. It was pretty brief and simple. I prayed for strength because it seems  more and more that my days are packed with other things that draw me away from Him. As the day broke, I went on with my daily chores. Two hours in the day I had a brief conversation with a friend of mine. A very good friend indeed. As we spoke I realized that we didn’t have so much to talk about than our jobs and how busy we’ve been,… This great friend of mine used to be very close - let me say, I used to be very close to them. We shared many hours of uplifting each other through the Bible, gospel songs, testimony, etc. After our conversation I realized that something got lost along the way. Something so valuable got broken between us, and that thing is time for each other. Time for the Lord together!

You see, the Bible very clearly warns us Christians to watch so we may not be carried away by worries. In the parable of the sower in Luke 8:14, Jesus himself warns  “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection” (Luke 8:14). From this passage alone, I understand a few things, but I will discuss only two. The first is the fact of being choked, the second is the consequence of being choked.

In this parable, Jesus made it clear that those that get choked with cares, riches and pleasures of this world have heard in the first place. In other words, they hear or have heard already, but due to the worries mentioned above, they get entangled in other things that prevent them from reaching the good soil where their full potential can soar. Needless to give all examples, think about how much time spent on TV, movies, sport activities, . . .As I thought about it I realized that’s exactly me. And unfortunately, so is my friend I had the conversation with.  Don’t get me wrong though, I am not saying I don’t serve the Lord anymore, I simply want to remove the speck from my own eye before pointing at logs in others’. I had the grace to realize that I was being entangled in thorny ground though I still serve the Lord, but not to the best I could. It gave me an insight to think again and if necessary go back where I lost track and change my thinking pattern again, because the “busier” we get with things that really don’t matter, the farther we drift from reality.

Now, looking at the church today, I can’t help but wonder if this is just me and my Friend, or if the pattern is replicated throughout the  church. Is it a coincidence that nowadays people will say “I am busy the week, if I have a few moments for the Lord on the weekend (Sabbath) or  Sunday it will be fine” ? Don’t you find it a rather disturbing reality that more and more Christians are drawn on their TV sets on the Sabbath and Sunday instead of gathering with others at church? When was the last time you got a call from a brother/sister just  to check on you and make sure everything is well  with you? And we still preach  love? Funny enough though, we manage to call 5 other people and email/text/chat with  5 others or daily basis. And we are still going to heaven, because we are “good people”! wow . . . I am using “we” now because I realized that what I went through was not an isolated case. Not only is this a church issue it’s also a social nightmare. Human beings are created to be in constant communications with others, frequent gatherings, regular person to person interactions. Is it a coincidence then that you end up with a lot more mental health issues in “busy” communities? Get me right again here, I am not saying people shouldn’t work. I simply mean, we should be able to find a balance between what we do and how we live the rest of the day.

So, church, don’t  you think it’s time we moved on, and stopped adapting our lifestyle to a world that pulls us in thorny potentially unsafe grounds instead of our fertile, secure, indiscribably good  soil ?

Blessings