Speaking in the Light — To Be Real!!!

In a Midwestern bar, talk began of adding topless waitresses to the staff of a local drinking establishment in order to rejuvenate what had become a failing business. When word got out to the public, the local Baptist church in the neighborhood started an all out campaign to block the bar from following through with this action by holding prayer meetings, complete with its parishioners on their knees, right outside the pub on the sidewalk.
Within a week of these outdoor intercession services, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar surprised everyone when he in turn took legal action and sued the church on the grounds that they were ultimately responsible for the demise of his building.
When the pastor of the church took the stand, many witnesses thought that this would be an awesome opportunity to showcase faith for the surrounding skeptical onlookers. But the minister vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in his reply to the court. Under oath he actually stated that he had prayed many times with no expectation of genuinely getting any answers to his petitions at all.
At the conclusion of the case, the presiding judge announced, “I still don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the testimony heard here today, we have a bar owner who fervently believes in the power of prayer, and a church leader who clearly does not.”
When it comes to your faith, is there more fluff than fact in the following up on behaving what you say you go about believing? Is there evident truth to your talked about theology and solid substance when it comes to solidifying your sacred stances? Do you do what you say you will do? Is your word a bond that is true? Do you care when it comes to expecting real answers to your prayer?
Do you expect God to show up when you throw up your hands and cry out for help? Is it any wonder that so many walk away from the church when the believers themselves display by their deeds that they don’t really adhere to the assemblage either?
What does it take to be real? What does it mean to be honest and open and live what we feel?
When somebody needs to know that belief is genuine- do we make it a big deal? Lord so much of our catechism has become cluttered with chaos and busy work and stuff that have gotten us to kneel- but not to take stand when it matters most.
I just want to look in the eyes of a man or a woman who is willing to be committed to the cause of Christ with simple and humble acts of compassion and involvement. I want to be that kind of person. Do you?
I have grown up being preached at and exhorted to shoot for the stars and soar to the sky and follow my dreams and don’t let hopes just aimlessly die. But when I have moved beyond the rhetoric and looked for a confidant to confidently share this walk with me, well, let’s just say the pickings have been few.
We need to practice what we preach and we need to want to live what we say. If we proclaim that Jesus is our Lord- then we must be willing to go all the way! Your life is a book of all that you stand for! How does it read? Is it a fictional account or non-fiction? Have you made room for God to write His Story through you?
I think we could all confess that we have wasted more than a day or two when we could and should have offered much more than we have. I don’t want to live this life thinking just what might have been.
Oh Lord, please renew and revive us to do it now and to stop making excuses and start making exceptional entries into our journals of the amazing adventures that we having because we have chosen to practice what we say we believe.
Write Pastor Rudy pastorrudytlc@comcast.net