Just Not What It Used To Be

Today, I went out with a friend and hit tennis balls. I use that phrase lightly because the reality is that we chased more than we hit. This is my feeble attempt at getting into better shape. You see, I don't like to run, and I don't have a place to work out, so tennis is a good way to do that. My problem is that I could play tennis at one time in my life and now it seems like I'm back in sixth grade learning all over again. My skills have atrophied and I seem to be lugging around a lot of excess baggage, if you know what I mean. My brain says to go somewhere and my body is about one and a half steps behind. Mentally, I think I am as good as I was twenty years ago...maybe even better, but not having played and living a lifestyle, not comparable to that of an athlete any longer has caused my game to fade a little...rather a lot.

Is it possible for this same thing to happen to us as Christ-followers? I mean, have you ever noticed that when you stop participating in the disciplines of the Christian life and start engaging in activities, attitudes and behaviors that are not like Jesus, our life with Christ begins to fade? When I was growing up, my church called this "backsliding," but to refer to it as such puts the whole situation into a fanatical category. Can't you just hear the high-haired evangelist screaming about backsliders? All of this thinking reminded me of a passage from the book of James (1:22-27). Here it is from The Message version:


Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

I don't have the time or the energy to live as a listener any longer. I don't want to just "talk a good game." I want my life to count. I want it to matter - to matter to my wife, to my kids, to my neighbors, to my friends, to my enemies, etc. I want to be a part of the Church that takes this calling seriously...don't you? Welcome to the Springs...