Put it Gear ...

One of the first rules of learning to drive is that eventually, after you do all of the proper preparation things, you have to put the car in gear if you want to go anywhere. I realize that is might come across as something less than profound at the moment but stick with me. The reason I bring this up is because it is something the Lord has been prodding me about recently. No, not my driving, but putting things in gear spiritually and at the church.

Too often it seems that as believers, and as churches, we get in the car, check everything that needs to be checked, double check them in fact, but rarely do we drop it in gear. Which means don't really go anywhere. We look good in the seat, we have the proper equipment, we are even very busy with our preparations, we just don't go anywhere. Are you with me on this?

I had a grandpa who understood this principle very well. When he went to his car and started it you had better be ready to go, because as soon as he started the engine he dropped it in gear with his foot on the gas and away he went, ready or not. My grandmother learned to lift her feet off the ground as soon as she sat because grandpa was putting it in gear. Many a time my grandmother swung her feet into the car and closed the door as the car was moving away quickly.

We need to be more like my grandpa was, maybe not with our cars, but with our spiritual lives and with our churches. We have been sitting idling, using precious time and energy looking good and preparing but not really going anywhere for far too long.

Steve Sjogren (pronounce "show grin") wrote a book in recent years entitled "Ready, Fire, Aim". You read that correctly, ready, fire, aim, not the order in which most of us operate. His point was like mine, too often we get ready and aim, and aim, and aim, and aim and then never pull the trigger. I say too often we get in prepare, even start the car and idle, but never drop it in gear. The result is that we stay where we are and nothing of much significance takes place. We don't grow spiritually and our churches don't grow spiritually or numerically.

So how about it, ready to get going? I am trying. I say "way to go grandpa I am coming right behind you". Where will you be?