Are you going through the motions as you walk with Christ? I look back on a couple generations of church-going Christians who have done a wonderful job of keeping their traditions alive. How many things have come and gone since the local church began meeting? For hundreds of years, Sunday after Sunday, people have flocked to churches. Even those who can’t seem to make it every Sunday still show up on Easter and Christmas.
While the implementation of the details has changed over the centuries, the format has remained virtually untouched: Sing a couple songs, listen to a sermon, sing another song, and go out en masse to live our lives as if nothing has changed. Such is the legacy of the modern church. There is no doubt we are going through the motions and will probably continue to do so for another couple hundred years.
What if we didn’t? What if instead of going through the motions we took action each and every week to implement what we learned? What if we took the opportunity of meeting together to form genuine relationships where we shouldered the needs and burdens of one another (Acts 4:34-35)? How might the world change if instead of going through the motions we instead got going in motion? I know the tendency will be to read this quickly and move on to the next thing without giving it much thought. Kind of like the way we do church these days. Do me a favor; go back and read the beginning of this paragraph again. Can you imagine how your life would change if you made a point of applying something you learned on Sunday morning for the next week, and do it for the rest of your life? I promise you the results would be staggering, not only for yourself, but for your community, and perhaps even the world at large.
Change won’t happen so long as you are only going through the motions. My mentor, Jim Rohn, often said, “For everything to change, you must change.” If we want our lives to change, if we want to serve God more faithfully, if we want to impact the world, then we must change. You can’t keep doing the things you’ve always done and expect your circumstances and results to change. That’s the definition of insanity. It’s not going to happen. You are going to have to change if you want things around you to change.
Be honest with yourself; are you living life going through the motions, or are you attacking each day given you like an ambassador of God’s Kingdom? Which sounds more appealing to you? The ability to live fully is within your grasp. Jesus said He came to give us life to the full (John 10:10). Why haven’t you claimed it? If Jesus would have promised a million dollars, I’ll bet you would have grabbed it years ago. Grabbing cash is easy. Making the changes required to live the life God created you to live is difficult and requires some changes on our part. You know it’s worth it. You’re just lazy like me. It’s easier to make excuses than changes. Let’s grasp all Jesus has for us. Let’s stop going through the motions and live life to the fullest.