Complacency

Do you feel satisfied? Truly satisfied? It's the feeling that you're doing okay. There might not be any real calamities in your life right now or perhaps your relationships haven't had a hiccup in recent memory. But should we ever feel like that with God?

In Revelations 3, Laodicea is called a church of "lukewarm" people. Neither hot nor cold, Christ says that he is inclined to spit them out of his mouth. Sometimes, I feel as if my life with Christ is doing just fine, as if without Him my life would be no different. God seems to consider complacency as one of the greatest mistakes we can make. Often, I think that we believe that not being close to God or not pursuing Him is the idea of "cold" that is talked about, yet I don't consider that to be an accurate interpretation. Those that are cold are the broken people, or at least those that are living in brokenness (as we're all broken, we just aren't always willing to realize it sometimes). Living in constant brokenness is painful and perhaps a bit self-pitying but in many ways we're called to a life of pain and difficulty with Christ. In Romans 5, we're told that the full measure of such strivings is hope, and Paul later says in chapter 7 that this hope isn't found in the law of men but that this hope is found in Christ.

If we want to use the idea of the law to enunciate the concept of "lukewarm" in the American church, the Jewish traditions and mandates promoted by the leaders of the synagogue has been replaced by our politically correctedness, Sunday morning chic, and tithing 10%. I'm not saying we'd say that this is our salvation, but what is shown to be the basis of your faith? My faith for so long has been my ability to articulate my relationship with Christ and what it means to believe; all with little or no faith-centered lifestyle to back it up. This doesn't save you. Your attendance doesn't get you closer to God, that's just one of the many gifts you receive by calling yourself part of the body of Christ. Going to church won't save you, nor does missing you condemn you. Christ's blood stained onto the wood of the cross did.

And yet how do we repay Him? Maybe he gets a half an hour a day in the morning when I'm not really awake or at night when I'm not much more so. If He gets any time at all. Sometimes perhaps I'm a bit too uptight towards my own sins (as Lecrae says, "Man I really wanna come to Christ/But I gotta clean my life up first, get my sins together") to let God do the very thing he wants, receive me as a broken son in need of a father. But that's not the problem I'm concerned about because we don't really get to this point. If you do, then great, you're working through what separates you from God and you need to go to Him just as much as the lukewarm. The problem with a lukewarm Christian is that they really won't pursue either, a life on fire for Christ or a period of humility as God makes clear their sins and where they need to let Him work on their hearts.

"Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but, what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men."

How will you be remembered? I'm not talking about your friends, family, or even your eugoogolizer, but about a God who loves, and constantly knocks at the door. Why not let Him in? It's scary and it's not fun when your heavenly Father sees your crap and what makes you tick, but if anyone's going to be your greatest advocate, your Lord and Savior might by a pretty good choice. Praise God that Christ constantly sits at His right hand, interceding for us. We are not worthy.