For me growing up, when the calendar turned to February, it meant it was time to plan for Spring Break. This annual ritual of planning for my family began in 1979, as we planned our first trip to Florida. My parents have not missed a Spring Break in Florida since then. My family and my sister’s families have joined my parents in Florida over the years. The last time we went to Florida was when our oldest, Phillip, was a senior in High School. That was 13 years ago.
You know, from a time perspective having children is the worst thing you can do ... prior to children we say things like we did that just a couple of years ago ... with children we say we did that just a couple of years ago ... no wait that was when Riley was 3 ... oh my, we did that 13 years ago ... children mark time for us.
Time flies by us and before we know it – it is gone. And that’s normal. The older we get the better we really understand what James wrote:
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes. James 4:14b CEB
One of the startling moments in each of our lives is that moment when we realize that life is fleeting. I believe until that moment of realization we are simply trying to find our way, drifting as the current of life pulls to and fro.
That is most often the story of our lives ... How did we get here? For so many of us, where we are in life is not where we planned to be. And that’s normal. I call it drifting.
Part of our problem as Christians is that drifting also happens in our faith – And we have accepted it as normal. Drifting has occurred in our churches and we aren’t even aware or worse – we are aware and don’t care.
Over the last 50 years, American Christian Churches have moved from standing out and being different from the surrounding culture to blending in and becoming part of present-day culture. And we have accepted it as normal. A recent Pew Forum Survey revealed some surprising statistics.
** Absolutely Certain Belief in God: Mainline Protestants - 73 percent.
** Many religions can lead to eternal life: Mainline Protestants - 83 percent.
** Belief in Heaven: Mainline Protestants - 77 percent.
** Belief in Hell: Mainline Protestants - 56 percent.
** The Bible is the Word of God: Mainline Protestants - 61 percent.
Something either is seriously wrong with our churches – as in, “What in the world are they teaching their members?” or, the questions were so confusing to the respondents that they erred in their responses. Simply based on the numbers these beliefs are normal.
Many theologians have speculated that we are we experiencing the Laodicean church era? In the Book of Revelation there are seven letters to seven different churches. Some of theorized that these represent seven ‘ages’ that the universal church will through leading up to the last days. The last of the seven letters is to the church of Laodicea. In this letter, Jesus admonishes the church because they are "neither Hot (spiritually alive) nor Cold" (total rejection of Jesus Christ), but were merely "Lukewarm." The "lukewarm" majority did not openly reject the Gospel, but they were not different because of their faith either.
We have taken lukewarm to be normal in our faith. As a result we go through the motions of looking and acting like like we know God without truly having been changed. Now only is it normal, but we have reached the point where it is expected.
We don’t intend to be where we are in our walk of faith. We have just drifted. We make promises at confirmation, baptism, church membership with good intentions, but here we are stagnant in our faith – Lukewarm – because it is normal.
How did we get here?
One way we got here was by buying into the world’s advice
Common advice –
Act like you know what you are doing.
Give the appearance of success.
Never let ‘em know what you don’t know.
Normal and perhaps good advice in the business world. As a result we come to church and we learn the language – “I’m so blessed. Praise God. I’ll pray for you. See you at church” - without understanding the real meaning or having the actions or faith that match with our words. We act like we belong, but let’s be honest.
For some of us faith is something we put on when it is time for church. Faith is at best a part time commitment - if that. In the life of faith, it’s easy to pretend you have faith – the Greeks had a word for it – hypocrite.
None of us wants to be a hypocrite – merely playing the part. It’s just easy – because it is normal.
I don’t think that where we are is where we want to be or where we intend to be ... we have simply drifted. We drifted when things in our lives were good. We got comfortable. [Money, Family, friends, etc.] We didn’t need God.
Conversely we also drifted when life didn’t go the way we wanted it. So we blamed God. We became unhappy with our circumstances and it was normal for us to drift away from God.
We have even blamed God for the things that other Christians do – using the excuse, “well, so and so, who’s a Christian did this to me, so I’m never going to church again!” I have to tell you, getting angry at God for the things that humans do is a great way to drift away from God.
Another way our faith drifts is when we hang around the wrong people, but you know that. Bad company corrupts good character (I Corinthians 15:33).
The problem is that hanging out with Christians can be really annoying. They do weird things like encourage you, pray for you, bless you, and hold you accountable for your actions. Maybe we spend time with the wrong people because they make us feel better about ourselves without making us better people or holding us accountable for the things we do. The thing is as you spend time with the wrong people you begin to drift – little by little away from the things you once believed.
We also drift in our faith because of our insatiable need for things. We have built our entire culture around the concept of being immediately gratified. The world makes is so easy to love everything – and not only to love the things, but to create our own identity from things –
You are what you drive
Clothes make the man.
Diamonds’ are a girl’s best friend.
Happiness is building your dream house.
All in the name of self-expression – Normal!
And it is normal to think “Hey this is just how God made me. It’s the way I am. I can’t change. I just like having what I want when I want it. IT’s normal. I am just like everybody else”
In I John 2:15-16 (NIV) the Bible is clear:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
So how do we combat drift?
The answer is simple. We change.
Change your habits. Make time to study God’s word, Make time for regular worship, Take time to Pray, and take to get involved in the life of the church – in other words live your faith!
Trust me doing those things will not be normal – it will be weird.
When we know Christ – everything should change. Our lives shouldn’t be normal – shouldn’t be like everyone else. Normal is wishing we had more faith – wanting to do more – wanting something other than what we have. We aren’t called to be normal. We are called to be followers of Christ.
If you have just enough Christ to satisfy you, but not to change you . . . then something is wrong.
But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Ephesians 4:20-24 The Message
Normal isn’t working. We cannot settle for normal anymore.
We need to change. You need change - change that comes from God.
We need a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God reproduces his character in you.
Let me repeat, If you have just enough Christ to satisfy you, but not to change you ... then something is wrong.
As we come to know Christ, we are to become like Him.
The more you become like Christ the more different you will become.
And that . . . that is weird.
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