Two concerns:
The first is that eight out of ten car wrecks involve drivers who are drowsy, chatting on a cell phone, applying makeup, or otherwise distracted from the road ahead, according to a government study that videotaped people behind the wheel.
And, duh, are we surprised? No. We even know that the other two of ten crashes involve people who drive the speed limit between here and St. Louis and get run over by drivers going 120 mph.
Distraction is a problem, certainly in the Christian life. Think about the following. The Holy Spirit is God at work in our lives, “the Renewer and Perfecter of God’s people, the one who makes real in us what God has done for us.” (So says A Declaration of Faith, my favorite modern-language statement of faith.) But how can the Holy Spirit renew and perfect us if we’re distracted, if we don’t pay attention to what God has done and is doing and will be doing in our lives?
We have to be alert to the Holy Spirit in our lives. “The Spirit makes us aware of our sinfulness and need, moves us to abandon our old way of life, persuades us to trust in Christ and adopt his way.” Are we paying attention or distracted? “We believe the Holy Spirit works today whenever believes grow toward maturity in Christ.” Are we struggling toward maturity or distracted by pettiness? The Holy Spirit gives “a diversity of abilities and functions.” Are we open to receiving such gifts and using them for the common good, or are we distracted by a life of leisure and being entertained?
The Holy Spirit renews and perfects us as individuals and as a church. And one thing I think the Spirit is saying to Grace involves the need for increased Christian education opportunities in an increasingly secular world. The session has recently approved our doing two things in the fall to address this need:
1) Go to a workshop rotational model for Children’s Sunday School.
2) Add the Alpha Program for adults, members and non-members, on a yet to be determined weeknight.
More info will be coming your way about these exciting and inspirational programs as we work between now and the fall.
The second concern has to do with how we exclude areas of our life from the guidance of the Spirit. We are no different from the soldiers of a European king who converted to Christianity. Not only did he become a Christian, but he decreed that all his soldiers become Christians also. How they were to follow the lifestyle of Jesus was explained to them prior to their baptism, and so when they went down to the river to be baptized, each one of them made sure that his sword hand didn’t go beneath the water. Why? So he could swing a sword apart from any claims of the Spirit. Jesus would have no relevance to waging war so long as their sword hands didn’t go beneath the water.
Modern people exclude financial giving from the guidance of the Spirit by holding our wallets above the water of baptism. We act as though Jesus has no claim over our finances, and thus lose out on spiritual maturity. – DJ
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