Road Crew Christianity

Does it ever bother you when you are driving down the highway and there is construction going on so all the vehicles bottleneck into the one or two lanes that are left open and everyone slows down to a crawl.  As you are driving, possibly wondering if you arrive to your destination on time, you look out and see a lot of the road crew just standing there.  Some may be smoking; some may be leaning on a shovel, others just sitting on a trailer or something.  It doesn’t bother me much now, but there was a time (when I was a bit less temperamental) that is irritated me. 

Now the matter of a road construction worker not doing their job can be a bit irritating, but what if it were a police officer?  A person is getting mugged and beat up and you look across the street and there sits a policeman in his cruiser.  How would that make you feel?  What if it were a fireman?  What  if you pulled onto your street and saw a cloud of dark smoke billowing out of your house and in front of the house there is a fire truck full of fire men and they were just sitting there watching the show and doing nothing at all about it? 

You may be a little bit more enraged than with the fire man because they cost you something.  There is more importance on your house or even a friend’s house than being slowed down in traffic.  In each level there is a bit more at risk, road crew and traffic, policeman and harm to another person, fireman and harm to family and home.  So what let us think, is there a job where there is more at risk?  A profession, so to speak, that had more on the line?  I am sure we could think of a few, maybe a doctor, or something of that nature.  The point is that you would be enraged if someone had the responsibility to take care of a situation that had profound impact on an important matter and they turned up their nose at that responsibility and didn’t see it as important, vital, or at all worth their time.

Are you a Christian?

I am not here to slam anyone, that isn’t my intention, but I have recently been drawn to the importance of what it means to be a Christian.  I see statistics all around the world of the billions of people that are living without water and through that we, as believers, have an open door to minister to them by building them wells and talking about the Living Water.  I see statistics of millions of children being caught in sex trafficking in this world and the potential to rescue these children from this life of atrocity and bring them the healing that Christ provides.   I see statistics of those who are forced to live and survive by living in landfills, and we have the possibility of going there and giving them hope by doing very little but through that showing them that they are worth so much that God sent His Son for them…they aren’t trash.

We are called to bind up the broken hearted, provide for the poor, set the prisoner free, give sight to those who cannot see (physically, emotionally, and spiritually), and to give hope to those that are oppressed and without hope.  That is our calling as believers and a family of believers called a church, and as a church world-wide.  If that is our calling, why does the world look like this?  I have a longing to see these evils be fought against, I want to see the broken hearted healed and mended and reaching out to others.   I want to see the poor have the necessities that they need physically and spiritually.  I want to see those who are slaves be set free from the things that bind them.  I want to see those who cannot see jump for joy at the vision God has given them.  I want to see those who have been oppressed spring to life, a new life, which is full of hope because they have met the God of mercy, grace, and love.

I don’t want a road crew Christianity.

I want to see the church.

I want us to stop fighting about the stupid things that have become distractions because we have allowed the enemy to have a foothold.

I want to see the church.

I want to not be bogged down with issues that do not need my attention, nor should have anyone’s attention.

I want to see the church.

I don’t want to try to figure out bigger and better programs.

I want to see the church…

…because I believe if the world sees the church, the true church, it will reveal the glory of God to this broken world, and that is the hope that I have as a part of His church!

"All glory, honor, and power be unto You my King."