Senior Pastor's Blog
Sermon Note | Re-evaluating the shape of your life
Posted 01.03.2012
We spend our lives doing so many things. I dare say that most of us try to do way too many things. We Americans are often portrayed as a nation of couch-loving, beer-swilling Homer Simpsons, but that’s not what I see as a pastor. I see people burning the candle at both ends almost constantly. The endless cycle of demands from work, parenting, home ownership, church and community involvement, caring for elderly and infirm family members, and more all create a life of chaos and exhaustion for far too many.
And perhaps most sadly, an awful lot of what we spend our time doing is an attempt to find in activities and accomplishments what we already have in God through Christ.
This was one of the principal problems facing the New Testament church in the ancient city of Galatia. A group of nosey, high-pressure charlatans wormed their way into the church and convinced its members that trusting in Christ for salvation and a life of true contentment wasn’t enough. According to these bullies, the Galatian Christians also needed to find peace, joy, and acceptance through feverish efforts to “keep up” with the manmade rules of those around them.*
Sound familiar?
Why do you do the many things that you do? Is it because those around you pressure you to keep pace with their imaginative and ultimately intrusive expectations? Is it to keep up appearances? Is it to create for yourself a life with a sense of meaning and significance? Is it to fund a life of more and more possessions as a means to a sense of superiority and security? Is it to “best” your family members and friends, showing yourself superior by doing more, working harder, and being comparatively “better” than them?
If so, stop! These efforts don’t flow from the Lord’s love of you and his call in your life. Frankly, they flow from idolatry. You’re trying to find in things and others what you already have more fully in Christ – maybe approval and acceptance, security, joy, peace, and so on.
As the New Year starts, remember to take some time to look at your life and its obligations. Do your priorities flow from a heavenly or an earthly perspective? For instance, are you peacefully and joyfully contented in the reassurance of God’s love or always coveting more, more, and more? Are you trying to fill the “God-shaped hole” in your life with more stuff, more accomplishments, more power, more prestige, and so on? Are you contented in the knowledge that God loves and accepts you by grace through Christ or endlessly coveting the approval of those around you?
To whatever degree your priorities do not flow from a heavenly perspective of your gospel identity, it’s time to see and do things differently in this New Year! But more on that tomorrow!
For now, why not drink a cup of tea or coffee while prayerfully reflecting on the shape of your life? What in your life flows from your identity as a child of God? What in your life is incompatible with that identity? What things should have primacy in your schedule? What things should fade to the background or be removed altogether?
More soon,
PK
* For the context of this post, consider listening to the message preached on 1/1/2012, "Are you revolving or resolving?"
Sermon Note | The Promise of a Fresh Start
Posted 01.03.2012
I dare say that we all like fresh starts. We like a clean slate, a limitless horizon of possibilities.
It starts early, too. I see it in my kids. We have crayons scattered all over our house. They’re old, sometimes broken, and scattered. I find them in the couch, under the carpet, behind the bookcase, and sometimes even in the shower! By the way, who “colors” in the shower?
Needless to say, we have plenty of crayons. However, while they “color” just as well as new ones, they never occasion the excitement of a brand new box. The new box is symbolic of new possibilities in a way that old, scattered, and broken crayons could never be.
Maybe you were like me as a child, looking forward to the start of a new school year. I was a B student for the most part, far too social to get the elusive 4.0. However, every summer, I thought that the new school year looming ahead would be “the” year; in September, I would finally break into the upper-stratosphere of academic excellence, a bewildering sky populated by luminescent freaks and geeks. It never happened, but that never tarnished the gleaming hope of my fresh start every fall. Delusion springs eternal!
Our love of fresh starts carries over from youth into adulthood. We see it in the workplace, where a new project, a new boss, maybe even a new job signals new and exciting possibilities. We see it in our families where a renewal of wedding vows after a period of turmoil offers hope for a future better than the past. We see it in paying off a debtor and moving forward in financial freedom.
However, like a broken crayon or an October midterm, we all inevitably see our fresh starts go stale. We fall short of our lofty expectations. Others on whom we depend fail us. Circumstances and challenges beyond our control undermine our progress. Dreadful tragedies eclipse our hopes and fill our lives with darkness.
On the one hand, at this time of year, we sense the possibility of a fresh start. After all, it’s a New Year, full of new opportunities to finally get things right in our lives. On the other, we know from experience that these fresh starts all to often turn stale. Instead of moving forward in a clear direction, we often end up feeling like we’re spinning in circles. Is there any hope?
Of course, there is hope! We are in Christ! The old is gone for us; the new has come! We have the ultimate fresh start, a new and unending life in God that will never turn stale! So, how should we live in the light of that great perspective? Over the next several days, I will pass along some suggestions built around the acrostic R.E.S.O.L.V.E.
NOTE: For their full biblical basis, consider listening to my sermon from January 1, 2012 – "Are you revolving or resolving?"