You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet

Growing up in the 70's in a rural Arkansas town was a blessing from God. Of course I didn't appreciate those simpler, less complicated times then....but oh what I would give to go back in time. Back before video games, the internet, ipods, BlackBerry's, cell phones, satellite television, and yes, I guess even blogs. No one locked their doors. Instead of watching TV we actually played outside. We rode bikes, went to the swimmin hole, went to the fishin hole (those are two different holes by the way...you can't catch fish with a bunch of splashing going on), caught June bugs and tied their legs to a string, caught lightning bugs to put in a jar (no bug was safe from being captured and thrown in bug jail), sometimes we would just lay in the field and watch the clouds float overhead and talk. (If I want to talk to my kids today I have to email them or text message them and they may only be in the next room....) When did talking in person become un-cool?

A big part of my childhood was spent in a stereotypical Southern Baptist church. My parents took us to church every time the doors where open. And if my parents couldn't take us my grandparents or aunts and uncles took us. We went to Sunday School, Training Union, Choir Practice and every summer Vacation Bible School. Which when you are a kid doesn't seem like much of a vacation.....especially in the 70's. You see back then not all the rooms had air conditioning and when it got too hot in the room they just sent us outside.....In the SUN....to see if we could do such things as carry an egg on a spoon for 50 yards or some other silly game. Oh yea I forgot RA's on Wednesday evenings. Now there is an old Baptist boys group you may have forgotten about or may never have even heard of...."Royal Ambassadors". I suppose we were ambassadors for Christ, but there never seemed to be anything too royal about it....

There was really no escape from church for me growing up. My uncle was the pastor, my grandfather was the "song leader" (another good ole southern term), my grandmother cleaned the church and my dad filled in wherever he was needed. It seemed like we were at church all the time. I took church for granted.

When I got older and moved out on my own I found myself not going to church as much. As time went on it became easier and easier to find reasons to NOT go at all. You see I didn't ever think about what God intended the church to represent. Oh I knew it was His house. And we were supposed to go there to worship Him...but for me that's my brain stopped. God intended the church to be so much more than a place to worship. The big part I missed out on were the relationships. God intended for us to build and nurture relationships with other believers. It took me way too many years to realize this. Looking back now I see how I lost relationships with those I grew up in church with and I missed out on making new ones over the years.

God not only wants us to build and nurture relationships within the walls of our church home but also with those we come in contact with outside those walls. God puts people in our lives for a reason. We may not see it in the natural but rest assured it's true. God has placed it on my heart over the past several months to reestablish and nurture relationships with people I have met over the last 15 years. God knew it would not be an easy task for me to go back and contact all of these folks and humbly ask them if they would like to reestablish a relationship be it professional or personal or both. He knew I was moving way out of my comfort zone. I was scared but I did it anyway. And you know what? God is faithful. Everyone I was able to contact was receptive. God had already prepared their hearts. All I had to do was be obedient and make that call or send that email. He took care of the rest.

I guess part of the point I am trying to make is that it is easy to fall into the trap of taking church for granted. Just go through the motions. Show up, endure some fire and brimstone and go have a big Sunday lunch. At times it all may seem a bit boring. But let me challenge you to do something I did almost two years ago. Activate you faith. ACTIVATE your faith! What does that mean? I mean live each day like it might be your last. If we knew we only had 24 hours to live I bet most of us would make each minute count. We would tell this person "I'm sorry" and that person "I love you" and the next person "Thank you" and so on. We would do our best to get our affairs in order and make things right with those we wronged and those who wronged us. We would focus on relationships in our lives. Well what if we did that everyday? What a difference we could make. If you think being a Christian is boring then you have not activated your faith. You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet!!! Activate it and hold on for some of the most exciting and rewarding times of your life.

I would like to leave you with this passage from Job22:21-30

21 "Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.
22 Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent
24 and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you.
26 Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.
28 What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways.
29 When men are brought low and you say, 'Lift them up!' then he will save the downcast.
30 He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."