Sloths or Spunk?

I want you to read actual comments made by Park Visitors at the Bridger Wilderness Park in Wyoming. These are the real deal taken right from the evaluation sheets filled out as the patrons were leaving the premises.
They include the following complaints. “The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying creatures.” “A small deer came into my camp last night and stole my pickles. Is there any way I can get reimbursed?”
“Escalators would sure help on the steep uphill sections.” “A McDonalds would be nice at the trailhead.” “The places where trails do not exist are not well marked.” And to top them all off is this absurd suggestion, “It would help if there were not so many rocks in the mountains.”
The ancients had a word for the over-domestication of mankind. They used the word: “Sloth.” But the term went way beyond just mere laziness.
It also defined becoming bored easily and showing an aptitude to stay overly satisfied in routines that avoided opportunities to attempt new adventures. Apathetic listlessness actually sneaks in when you choose to lose the wonder of life itself.
The original word was actually “acedia,” and it literally means to live with no purpose, to move without meaning and to endure without expectation. It chooses to buy fish at the Shop Rite rather than take your own pole to the waters.
It prefers to play video games rather than get outside and exercise the body. It picks sitting in the warm lodge over challenging the black diamond. And unfortunately, it settles to live Christianity vicariously through others rather than getting out of the pew and following Jesus for themselves.
It wants a vibrant faith at little cost, low commitment and lots of comfort.
If we were to gather suggestions from most American Believers on how to improve the Christian Walk, we might hear things like: “Give us quick, effective formulas for answered prayer.” “Entertain me so I can feel good about myself no matter what I’m doing.”
“Give me a God who isn’t so demanding and lots more accommodating.” “Remove all risk and take away my hurts and brokenness.” “Eliminate all mentions of sin, hell, and judgment.” “Give me a God who is content with my mediocrity.”
When it comes to the transformation of our hearts, when we snooze, we lose. The result of our laziness and our inability to wake up are too many blank pages of a story that we refuse to give God the freedom and authority to write.
Jesus wants his sweet soul music to be broadcast loud and clear through the airwaves of the Spirit moving within us to get out way beyond us. It is time to get up, show up, look up, and reach up for the time to live is right now.
It is not enough just to go to church and hear God if you have no intentions to report daily for devotional duty and pronounce, “Here God.” With everything you do, every action you take, every day could be your last and at any moment, it could all be over.
Will you look back on your life and see a succession of sorrows, missteps and missed moments? Will you look back on your life with a sense of satisfaction and joy? If life matters, you have to give your life to mattering. Will your life culminate in rejoicing or regret?
Will you live one of those journeys that chose to play it safe and ignored the Lord and in the end had nothing to say because you didn’t do what you were called to do? Why not go and make what God is saying about you, true? If you really want to receive it, then you must put it into practice and live like you believe it.
The greatest tragedy in today’s church is that there are many whom God has called with a mind to be involved in the mission, but they never step up and receive that mission to mind. It is time to keep your feet to the fire and your hand to the plow and make sure you understand that even when you are broken, it doesn’t mean you aren’t ready to still be God’s blessing. Just as bruised apples make the best pies, bruised and broken Believers make the best kind of fruit.
Commit today and declare boldly, “I will not run. I will rise above. I will trust God’s will above my own desires. I will let truth free my soul from ties to past hurts. I will step into today’s destiny. And in the doing of this, I see His flicker of light; and a pulse of divine hope will beat steadily in my heart.”
The Holy Spirit has a wonderful way of bringing comfort to the afflicted and afflicts those that might have become a tad too comfortable. It is time to stop cursing the darkness and become the lighted candle He called us to be. I have a core conviction that Christians should be the most passionate people on the planet. To be like Jesus is to be consumed with passion.
The word “ENTHUSIASM” comes from two Greek words: “en” and “Theos,” which together means “In God.” The more we get into God, the more enthusiastic we become. The Church is not so much a zoo where we are called to survive in cages of climate controlled comfort, but it is a heavenly invitation to go out and live our call in the wild kingdom of God.
I am inviting you to stop missing the show and go out and be the man or woman that God has called you to be.