New Direction?

How awesome it must be to blame God for not doing the job you’re being paid to do!

One of the part-time staffers at the church was called in last week for a chat with her supervisor. It seems that she’s been dropping the ball a lot lately. Her excuse? “God has been calling me to go in another direction.”

I worked at a church once as the Director of Drama Ministries. It was a ministry I was passionate about, and even though I served as an unpaid worker, I was faithful and put in a lot of time each week. I logged hundreds of volunteer hours especially around Christmas and Easter.

There were several people on our little drama team—each one with his or her unique strengths and talents. I loved those people.

One of the members of our troupe started dropping the ball. She’d promise to write, then wouldn't complete a draft, or she’d commit to rehearsing a Sunday morning skit then never get around to it. Her excuse? “It must not have been God’s plan since I never got it done.”

That has seriously got to be one of my biggest pet peeves among believers—we blame God for our laziness. Worse—we get away with it! I mean, who’s going to call us on the carpet and challenge our procrastinating ways, especially when it means we’re questioning God?

The church employee who met with her boss last week was able to quit her job AND get a good recommendation. She even got a pat on the back for listening to God’s voice in leading her life! Out in the real world, she’d get fired for not doing her job, and her permanent file would be filled with notes like, “hears voices”, and “thinks God talks to her”. Future employers would be hard-pressed to hire the crazy girl.

Look, of course I believe that God leads us in many and varied ways. I also believe He calls us to be people of the highest character, and He doesn’t want to be used as an excuse for our slothfulness.

Yep, it must be nice to be able to blame one’s bad behavior on “God’s leading”. I believe that when we do that, more often than not, we are slandering the divine and perfect character of the Lord.

Don’t be lazy and self-serving. Get off the pew!

How could you?

“How could you turn your back on your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who gave you such a wonderful family?” Boy, mothers sure know how to pour on the guilt.

Whether it’s the family we were born into, or the family we inherited when we gave our heart to the Lord—sometimes we butt heads with the people we love and care about. The mere fact that I disagree with my loved ones now and then does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that I’ve turned my back on my Lord.

I can understand, however, the temptation to judge a person’s heart. We tend to hold to certain traditions and expectations and if others don’t look the part, we judge them. It’s a part of the human condition.

The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b (NIV)

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a co-worker a year or so ago. One of the church’s former pastors was forced to resign after it came to light that he was having an affair. There was so much sadness and brokenness.

Because of the affair, two homes were destroyed, and a church family was shattered. When pastors fall (and they sometimes do), parishioners choose sides, faith is shaken, and heartbreak spreads like a virus through the body.

The former pastor’s name came up when my co-worker was recounting to me some of the biggest challenges the church has faced in her 30 years of membership. “That pastor is still unrepentant.” She seemed sure of the condition of the man’s heart.

“How do you know that?” I asked. She answered with authority. “It’s obvious.”

I didn’t press her for an explanation, as I really didn’t want to get caught in a gossip-fest with my cubicle mate. But I wondered what criteria she might be using to judge the man.

A few days later I was visiting with my sister-in-law when she told me that the disgraced former pastor had been the guest speaker at her church. She beamed as she recounted his story of sin, restoration, healing, and forgiveness.

I went on-line so I could download the podcast of his message. It was encouraging, powerful, and so inspirational. There is life after death and destruction, and the pastor was living in victory over sin. Amazing.

Whatever criteria my friend was using to judge the former sinner’s heart, her conclusion was wrong. In the same way, it is wrong to assume a person has turned away from God just because they disagree with a fellow believer now and again.

Are you sitting on the pew of finger pointing and name-calling? Well, get off the pew! God sees what the human eye cannot see. Sometimes we just have to trust the fact that He’s at work. Now get off the pew!

God told me...

Several years ago my cousin told us that God told her to stop cutting her hair and only wear shades of white.

Don’t ya love it when God gives fashion advice? I wish God would tell me how to wear my hair and what clothes to put on each day. That would seriously make my mornings less stressful, and—since I’m pretty sure God has great taste—I would most assuredly always look fabulous.

Over the years God has “told” my cousin many things, and she has passed these bits of truth on to as many people as will listen. Last year she told me I was “in the belly of the whale”. She said my “words” were ugly. When I asked her what specifically she was talking about she said, “When you are ready to hear the truth, my dear cousin, I’ll be here”. Um…?

About the time she went “all white” is when I distanced myself from her. I love her, but she’s terribly judgmental and critical of my relationship with God. It doesn’t “look” like she thinks it ought to look, so therefore, it must be wrong.

A few months ago, my zealot cousin took me to task for separating myself from her. She believes it’s my fear of being intimate with God that keeps me at arm’s length from her.

I’m amazed at how often I hear this kind of “it’s you and not me” finger pointing in the church. When asked about broken relationships I’ve heard the following explanations—just to name a few.

“She’s intimidated by my gifts.” “She’s jealous of me.” “He just didn’t want to share the drum throne with me, so I quit the band.”

Are there people in your life with whom you were once very close, but have pulled away from you? Try something really daring…ask them why. Then, really listen with an open heart and hearing ears. Maybe, just maybe, it’s you. Maybe, just maybe, it’s me.

Get off the pew of self-absorbed spiritual arrogance and really listen—to God and to friends who might be missing in action. If it’s me, I want to know. Get off the pew!

Ramming Roadblocks

“God must not have wanted it to happen this week, because He allowed one obstacle after another to get in the way.”

I used to be the Director of Drama Ministries at a mega-church. Only in church ministry are volunteers and employees allowed to use the above-mentioned excuse to not get their work done!

After all, who are we to second-guess what God’s plan for the week is? What kind of a Christian would we be if we forced our agenda when God clearly had something else in mind? Please! I can see God rolling His eyes and saying, “don’t blame your laziness on me!”

One of the women I worked with used the “God…obstacles” excuse all the time. Our job was to come up with creative elements for the Sunday morning services—like dramas and videos.

The pastor would provide us with a month’s worth of sermon topics. Then the worship pastor would choose songs that supported the message. Finally, our team would look for short drama sketches that added another funny, thoughtful, or poignant layer to the whole Sunday morning picture. Often, we’d write our own scripts.

I loved our team of talented actors, writers, directors, and tech crew. Most of them poured their gifts and heart into creating God-inspired, high quality art.

My personal code of ethics drives me to follow through on my commitments and promises. As a believer, I’m inclined to believe that the more obstacles mark my path, the more Satan wants to put the kibosh on the project…which makes me pray up and work that much harder to get it done.

But, how do you know for sure that God isn’t the one slowing the project down? How do we rightly distinguish between God closing a door, and a simple Satan snag?

I believe we ought to keep plowing forward. We need to use prayer and old-fashioned stick-to-itiveness to break barriers, ram roadblocks, and hack hurdles. I’d rather know that I was faithful to what God called me to do then to be guilty of blaming Him for my slothfulness. If I don’t do what He’s asked of me, He’ll call someone else.

So, get off the pew of laziness and run the race all the way to the finish line. Let’s commit to stop using God as an excuse for putting our selfish pursuits ahead of Him. Get off the pew!