Do Something

I'm reading James right now. It's challenging because it's very much about faith in action. It puts it pretty simply: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). I prefer to just think about God and blog about faith. But actually helping the orphans and widows? That takes a lot more effort.

I've also been thinking about a missions trip I went on in high school. I went with my youth group, and one of the nice things was that I needed community service hours for a class I was taking in school, so I got to use those hours. But I needed photos of me there.

During the day we dug ditches and painted houses and such. And in the evenings we helped run a VBS for the kids on the Apache reservation we were staying at. I remember the first night of VBS, I was awkwardly talking to a kid here and there, but mostly just watching what was going on, taking some pictures of my own, and worrying because the youth pastor wasn't taking any pictures of me, even though he knew I needed them for school. I was pretty pre-occupied with the fact that I needed photo evidence, so I was watching and waiting for him to take some pictures.

Finally I said to him, "Rick, why aren't you taking pictures of me?"

He responded, "You gotta get out there and do something worth taking pictures of!"

That's when I realized I was so focused on getting credit for serving that I wasn't actually serving. So I jumped in and helped with the crafts. And I chased some kids around. And you know what? Rick took some pictures once I started actually serving. And I didn't even notice him taking them.

I think this is a great picture of the way humans tend to behave. We want credit. We want glory. So we talk a good game about our faith, or about our efforts, but what we're really doing is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the credit. Real faith happens when we get out there and do something worth taking pictures of - credit or not.

God's Will

This is kind of a follow-up to my post yesterday about Christians I admire vs. those who make me embarrassed to call myself a Christian.

I remember reading this article in college from larknews.com, which is kind of like The Onion but specifically satirizing Christian topics. If you didn't click the link, I'll summarize: a man dies at the age of 91 without having done anything substantial with his life, because he was waiting for the voice of God to direct him.

Which brings me to an item I didn't list on my blog yesterday: Christians I admire take action. Christians that embarrass me sit around waiting for a tangible sign from God.

It's not that God can't speak to us in miraculous ways today. I believe he can. But he doesn't always. And I think sometimes faith means taking that first step and seeing how it goes. Sometimes, we just need to take action.

There's an old joke about a guy who was sitting on his roof as floodwaters rose, and he prayed for God to rescue him. Someone on a raft came by, and he said, "No thanks, I'm waiting for God." Then someone in a row boat came by, and again he said, "No thanks, I'm waiting for God." A motor boat came by and he gave the same response. Eventually he drowned in the floodwaters, and when he got to heaven he asked God, "Why didn't you rescue me?" And God responded, "I sent you three boats!!"

Sometimes we're so bent on having to see God speak or act in miraculous ways, we miss what he's telling us in everyday life. Like if we're not at a burning bush, God can't be directing us. And so we sit back passively, waiting for that booming voice that will probably never come. God's much more into subtle whispers than booming proclamations, it seems.