Subs and servants
This AM as I drove into work I was already thinking about lunch. It was not that I was really hungry it was I was missing a little sandwich shop near my work that closed a few years back.
This little sandwich shop made some of the best sandwiches I have ever had, they made a good calzone too but you had to come after 5 for those as the owner (and only employee) did not turn on the “pizza oven” until 4PM due to the cost of running it. The sentence above really tells you most of the reasons that the shop is gone - one employee (the owner) and a bare bone budget with no room for advertising. Adding to the last issue was the fact that the owner was a quiet guy who you almost had to drag more then a “Hello” out of. Not exactly a self promoter you might say.
Well bottom line as I thought about those sandwiches, the business situation of the shop, and the owner himself an additional thought came to me - how most Christians have similar habits to that little shop and it’s owner when it comes to sharing their faith and their relationship with God.
You ask why I say that? Well think about it a bit. Christians have the best thing in the world going for them - a one to one relationship with the creator of the Universe, the savior of the world, and the perfect patient and persistent teacher of true wisdom - yet many never talk about how great their life is or the perfect peace that comes from the Father. They allow their natural habits and tendencies to confound their walk, which eventually results in them just giving up and moving on. Many Christians go quietly through life, concerned more about not being noticed or being different, then actually worrying about showing / telling other about the very thing that makes them different, special and unique.
Understand I am not talking about,or saying that, Christians having to run into a room hand out tracs and share their testimony 15 times a day. No, I am simply talking about Christians taking the time to share with others (friends, co-workers, etc) the love of God. I am talking about relating too / investing in people close to you. That means talking to people about more then sports, weather, kids, and cars. That means carrying about the person enough to want to get to know the REAL person and allowing them to know the REAL you.
Back to my core point, this pattern of silence and camouflage by many Christians goes on month after month, year after year. They then wonder why their faith is stale, why they are unexcited about the things of God, why they seem so unfulfilled, and why no one really id’s them as a child of God. In time they begin to drift away even more and they begin to languish in their own disillusionment. After that they just stop thinking about the things of God entirely. They are resigned to being saved and to being silent about it. Unfortunately by doing this, they are missing the fact that they are not living up to the potential that God has for them. They are sliding silently through life while carrying a incredible (and free) gift with them and that is not God’s call to His people.
Just something to ponder as you move through your day and your walk with the Lord. Also something to ponder if you are ready to hang up your walk with God and just accept a quiet life of sliding along.
