Years ago I attended a golf tournament with another minister who brought a new Christian friend. We parked and started to walk in when his friend exclaimed that he needed to return to the car for his forgotten cigarettes. He felt self-conscious about smoking in front of two ministers and apologized for the delay.
Trying to put him at ease I joked, “That’s OK, get your cigarettes, just leave your cocaine in the car.” He gave me a strange look.
That night the minister called to tell me that just before they arrived at the tournament, his friend had confided that he had spent two months in a cocaine recovery hospital.
Oops. Do you ever open your mouth and insert your foot?
Walk the Talk
Several members of my family have Attention Deficit Disorder—ADD. Comedian Mark Lowery observed, “When I was a kid, they didn’t know about ADD. They just spelled it B-R-A-T!” ADD presents simple, frequent distractions to take one off task.
Do you suffer from spiritual ADD? It’s easy to get distracted by concerns about life, health, or family and drift off task from our purpose of serving Christ. Usually we know what we need to do, but are easily sidetracked. James 1:23, 24 offers the forgetful picture of one who looks at his assignment from God, then promptly gets distracted. The ADD Christian hears messages from the Word, sits through small group studies and nods, but remains unmoved to change or action.
Soren Kierkegaard told a parable about a flock of ducks that attended a church each week. Their minister stood and shouted, “We ducks should fly. We must not waddle. We were made to fly. We should fly like eagles.”
The ducks quacked, “That’s right. Amen. Preach it, brother!” Then, Kierkegaard observed, when the service was over, they all waddled home.
It’s not good enough simply to hear what the Bible says. We must do what it says. Otherwise we reduce the church to a polite club that holds weekend meetings having forgotten its purpose to change lives for eternity. So now we’ve heard enough . . . let’s fly!
