Spiritual A.D.D.

Hello Emmanuel,

Before I forget to type this:  March 20^th will have only one worship service:  10:00.  There will be water flying, banners waving and people committing to Jesus.  Car pool if you can.  Extra parking will be at the airport with a shuttle going back and forth.  You don’t want to miss it!

Now that the commercial is over, ponder this:  ‘how is your focus in this season of Lent?’

First, my confession:  I have felt distracted lately.  I think I know why, though I won’t go into details here.  I have come to believe that most of the energy the church spends isn’t in figuring out the message of God.  It is staying focused on living the message. 

The message is so simple that children can grasp it a very early age:  love God, love each other and try not to be a hypocrite.  And if you fail, Jesus will forgive you through his death and resurrection.

I believe the difficult part for the church is to stay focused on such a simple message.  We seem to easily attract a spiritual A.D.D.  We can start off with good intentions, but often find ourselves talking about; thinking about; pondering about; and doing things that aren’t always in tune with the simple message.

Pastors and other church leaders are not immune.  Indeed, I’m not afraid to admit that we can be even more susceptible.  We can go about helping the church live the simple message in so many intricate ways that we can forget about the message.  It is sort of like walking all the way to the kitchen and, along the way, you pet the cat, trip over a toy, turn on the light, remember to check the mail, notice the dirt on the floor and find out you need more ketchup….. and when you finally get the fridge opened, you forget why you are staring at the milk.

The church can walk the way of Jesus but, along the way, can get distracted by the much less significant details of being a church.  We humans make it messy.  We fall into habits of self-centeredness, power struggles, deceit, lying, passive aggressive behavior, …. Oh… yuck… you know the list….  Staying focused on Christ’s agenda is a long enough to-do list.  So….

…..how is your focus in this season of Lent?

Keep your eyes on the Christ and, if you don’t mind, remind your pastor to do the same.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe