Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Paul Wilkinson over on Thinking Out Loud asked me to be a guest blogger a few days ago. This is the piece I sent him. I am now putting it on my blog in case you missed it. I would encourage you to also check out Paul's blog if you haven't done so. He has some good stuff there.

I am not a morning person. Oh, once I'm awake I am good to go, but it takes me a bit to wake up. I would much rather pull the covers back over my head and sleep for another 30 minutes. When I do finally step out of bed I head right to the coffee pot. Only after I have a stiff cup of joe in my hand do I feel ready to tackle the day. Sometimes even then I want to go back to sleep.

It's kind of like how I use to be with church. I wanted to pull the cover back over my head. I wanted to sleep, fake an illness, anything to get out of attending the Sunday service. Sometimes I did this even when I was the Pastor!

I was becoming bored to death with the routine. There just seemed to be no life. I could close my eyes at most services and walk through the exact order. Opening prayer: check; worship: check; commercial break for the offering: check; message: check and done by lunch!

Where was the excitement? Did God mean for church to be boring? I believe He did not! Of course part of this goes to our concept of church. Sadly, too many today still feel like you have church when you attend a building with 4 walls and go through the motions of a service. I believe church is different. I believe we--the people--are the church. But somewhere we exchanged hillside walks with the Savior asking questions back and forth for sitting in pews and listening to someone else tell us how to do "religion".

I am not attacking the "traditional church". I pastor a congregation myself and we have our routines as well (admittedly few), but they are there. However, I truly believe Jesus came to give us life! I want a radical faith. I want relationship with Jesus Christ. A relationship where we can express doubt, fear, concern and trust! A relationship where Jesus is our everything and our only thing. A relationship with highs and lows, good times and bad, where I know that through it all Jesus is still always there. Are you with me? Let's get radical for Christ. Let's toss aside our lethargic attempts at religion and embrace the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Let's get into the street and touch the sick, the needy and the downtrodden. Let's share a message and a life; ours and His!