To Do Or To Be...That is The Question...

Revelation 2:2-7

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for my name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place-unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolations, which I also hate. He, who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life; which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”

Life gets busy; from Monday morning to Sunday night the list of things to do and places to go seem to be never ending. And all of them are good things. Meet with girls for discipleship, study for Life Group, leadership meeting, volunteer in the youth admin office, youth church…etc. All are good, but what is the toll taken on my personal time with Jesus? There seems to always be so much to do for Him that the person of Jesus Christ becomes neglected and pushed to the side in an effort to do it all.

There are a few main goals in my life that flavor everything I do (or at least I would hope they do) and one of them is to build the local church. Why? What is the driving force of this goal? This passion that consumes the majority of my weekly free time, vacation time is taken for camp and youth events, money is saved to help kids go to camp … what drives this in my life?

The cliché response would be along the lines of “because I love Jesus so much”. But I have to take a step back and honestly look at my life in light of Revelations 2. Jesus is having this conversation with the Apostle John about the church of Ephesus of all the great things that they are doing and accomplishing…yet as they got so caught up in doing everything for Jesus they forgot Jesus.

Do I spend more time doing then being? On average I would have to say that I get so consumed with the task that I forget to sit at His feet and have a real relationship. It would be time to pay attention to that.