Stop to Start

If there isn’t a God, we better fret and worry and expend all our energy figuring out what to do. But if there is a God, perhaps the most important thing we can do is to stop and listen.

In the “Upside Down Training” we do at Graffiti, we sometimes share this important community service principle:

Don’t just do something–stand there.

In times of stress, developing the habit of stopping and being attentive may actually be the most practical, and, well, active thing we can do.

In Isaiah, God makes a remarkable promise. “And when you turn, whether to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it'” (Isaiah 30:21). We are flooded with potential information to our cell phones, televisions, radios, and we have to make some choices.

In the same way, perhaps it isn’t that God hasn’t sent out a signal. Maybe we just haven’t stopped to tune in properly.

Walk Up Not Out

“Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” Ephesians 5:2

To this day I still remember my biggest regret from my days at Oak Grove elementary school. This isn’t regret that I realize now, that I didn’t know then. Instead, I knew then what I didn’t do that I should have done.

Here it is: I should have been a friend.

I had a lot of friends and for the most part I think I was a good friend. But, there was a girl that I intentionally kept at a distance, simply because she smelled.

Her odor made her an outcast.

This girl from my childhood came to mind recently when our children in our afterschool program were encouraged by our children’s director to “Walk Up, Not Out.” Here is the poster from our program that explains the idea:

At a time when activism is encouraging people to speak up and walk out, I doubt either of those things would have made a difference to that little girl sitting alone in the lunch room. Then again, writing and reflecting now does nothing for her either. But maybe, I will see a person this week, walk up to them, take them to lunch, and treat them like a friend. Whether it does anything to change their life doesn’t really matter. The point is to change mine.

Well Done Not Well Said

According to many scholars, the last letter Paul wrote was Second Timothy. In it, he gives some hard-nosed instructions to a young man. Among other things, the letter talks about how a person should live. I once heard someone say,

“When I come before the Lord, I don’t want him to say, ‘Well said, good and faithful servant.’ I want Him to say ‘Well done.’”

The Bible says that the Word became flesh. The Bible doesn’t say that the Word became more words. As Christians we are to be the body of Christ, not just one big talking mouth.

Five hundred years ago, a group of people rediscovered the Bible and the idea of faith alone. They described faith as a fire. They described works as the heat from the fire. You can’t create the heat without the fire. But if there is no heat, you can’t help but wonder if there is really a fire. The two things, fire and heat (or faith and works) go together. We will be remembered not just for what we believe, but for what we do.