January 4th

Treading water is boring, dive in!

 I remember sitting through HY 102 "Western Civilization since 1648," my freshmen year of college with one constant thought going through my mind. Why in the world do I have to sit through this boring history class if I'm a pharmacy major (that was the first of several majors I chose to "pursue")? But one day I read a quote by the British write Aldoux Huxley which made me rethink my negativity towards the subject. Huxley once said "The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different." As I thought about that I had a hard time disagreeing with him. No matter how far we advance in our lives we see our world go through similar cycles. Everything from fashion to finance tends to repeat itself eventually. However, when certain things happen that we do not want to see repeated we build some sort of defense to prevent it from happening again. After the world trade centers were destroyed on 9/11, we developed new security measures to help the prevention of a reoccurrence of such a tragic event. Although the new measures make boarding an airplane about as difficult and time consuming as building a rocket, they have proven to be successful thus far.

 

I believe the reason that most things in everyday life tend to repeat themselves is because it's simply easier to allow things to reoccur than it is to fight the cycle and change the future. The question I want to ask today is this. Are we willing to fight the cycle in order to produce greater growth in the Church?

 

As it is with many things in life, it is easy to get in a "comfort zone" with our faith. We tend to put our Christianity on cruise control and coast through life, simply treading water. Children do not jump in a cold swimming pool on a hot day and simply tread water. They dive in! They swim under the water, attempt to touch the bottom, make big splashes off the diving board, race from end to end. They do so because it is more enjoyable than simply treading water.

 

This morning, I hope that each of us will look back over the past year and decide if we have simply been treading water. If so, take the measure necessary to quit simply treading water and instead dive in head first! Just as playing in the pool is much more enjoyable than keeping your head above water, so will you be much more fulfilled in your walk with Christ when you give up treading water and dive head first into Christ and begin living a purpose driven life.

 

Below I have listed a few suggestions that each of us can use to become more productive and fulfilled children of God. I hope that you will at least consider them and see what difference they can make in your life.

 

Suggestions:

1. Set aside a time each day for prayer and study

Reason: as creatures of habit, we are much more likely to be consistent in these areas if we set aside time for them.

Results: As with any relationship the more you communicate and get to know one another the closer you become. The more time we spend communicating with God the closer we will grow to him and the stronger our faith will be in him.

 

2. Choose one day a week to invite anyone you come in contact with to worship.

Reason: Luke 19:10 tells us the reason Christ came to earth was to seek and save the lost, if we are to be Christ like we have to follow his example and seek those who are lost and bring them to Christ. If you start by doing it just one day a week you can put all your energy into that day and putting forth your best effort. The longer you do it the easier and more natural it will become to talk to those around you about your faith.

Results: according to readers digest, the average salesman is rejected by 27 out of 28 customers. According to Ben Feldmon who is regarded as being the most successful life insurance salesman of his time, the key to success in sales is simply contacts. The more people you know the more doors there will be opened to you. The same rule of percentages applies to the Christian, the more people you invite to church the more you will have accept your invitation.

 

3. Be mindful of the decisions you make

Reason: When I was in school, one of my finance professors told us that the easiest way to help an over spender live within their means is to have them write out everything they spend money on and how much they spend. The reason being that when they see it written down, they are accountable for it and see the effects of their bad spending habits. The same is true with the decisions we make everyday when faced with temptations. Keep a journal of the decisions that you make everyday

Results: Just as writing it down helps an over spender see the reality of their situation, if we write it down we will be able to look back and reflect on the decisions we make everyday. It's interesting how making a bad choice doesn't seem like such a big deal at that split second but when you sit back later and look at it, you can see the negative effects of it. Not only will writing it down help make us accountable for the wrong choices we make but it can also become a reward system when we are able to look back and see moments when chose to do the right thing.