Mediocre

Don't we all dream when we are younger that we will wake up one day when we are older and be average? Don't we all strive in our hopes and dreams to be mediocre? I mean come on, doesn't every girl get ready for a date or prom or some big event so she can look plain? Don't we guys hit the gym day after day so we can look "so-so."

If you didn't catch the sarcasm in the above paragraph and are thinking, "sure" then you should ring your call button and we'll have Tommy come back there and hit you in the head with a tack hammer because you are a retard...(Tommy Boy) Oh I love that movie.

But back to the point. Who wants to be average? Who wants to do anything half-hearted? Who wants to "just get by?" Seriously?

Yesterday at church I taught on the Sabbath. There is so much when it comes to teaching about shabbat, but I only had about 25 minutes so I had to give the condensed version and hit the main points. Marc Sikma would have been proud. After I get done teaching I am in a small group with some high school juniors and seniors. We begin to discuss this issue of the sabbath. When all at once it hits me: "What do we expect?"

What do we expect when we get up Sunday morning? What do we expect to happen? What do we expect to see? What do we expect to experience? The answer I believe for so many is "nothing." Most of us stay up late on Saturdays just to wake up early, and still tired, to put on our Sunday best to go to a building where we put on a fake smile and extend a fake right-hand of fellowship to keep people at a distance. We then tap our foot or keep a beat on the pew in front of us during a few musical numbers, pass this heavy, fairly empty, metal plate to the person next to us only to get settled to fight off sleep for the next 30 minutes while a man who has given his life to Jesus and wants desperately to see a breakthrough in the Church tries his darndest to convince us that our lives need to change.

We have no expectancy! And its a sin! Yeah. It is. Its a grave, ugly, often glossed-over sin. How can we claim to know the Creator of all the Universe? How can we claim to belong to Him, know Him, have His Spirit live in us and through us and not EXPECT anything when we worship Him? How? Because we are mediocre! We are satisfied to, week in and week out, come to the same place, do the same thing and get the same empty results! We are settled in the fact that our lives suck! We are ok with the idea that we are living joyless lives struggling with our own sin and depravity. We are prideful!

But I don't want to be! I don't want to care more about my pride and try to save face with the people around me while I fake the smile and fake the gestures. I want encounter God. I want to be changed in His presence. I want to wake up on a Sunday morning, refreshed and ready to learn God's word, experience His presence and worship with thanksgiving in my heart! I want to be expectant. I am expectant!

People...we were never meant to live mediocre lives in Jesus Christ. John 10:10 is the proof of Christ's intentions for our lives. "Life to the fullest" isn't poetic language for boring, same ol' - same ol', stale, lethargic, hum drum of an existence. So my advice...pray for revival! Pray for revival of your own heart. Repent of the sin of mediocrity and pray that He forgives you. Want it more than anything. And when you wake up each day, expect the Truth that He has already promised; that He came that you make have life to the fullest. Live there.

Jesus Died...Start Living