I stole that title from a good study by Chuck Colson. We used to give his book to students coming out of high school and entering the real world. It seemed appropriate for a post on this blog because it’s a question I found myself asking once we left our own familiar church surroundings.
With no Sunday school class to teach, no Sunday morning or evening services to attend, no mid-week prayer meetings, no Vacation Bible School, no Children’s program to help with, or no committees to serve on, our family was suddenly left with a wide open schedule, and I began to panic . . . just a little.
If I couldn’t check off my church duties, my “Good Christian To-Do List”, how would I measure if I was being a good Christian? When someone looked at my life and saw me in yoga pants at the grocery store at noon on Sunday, how would they know that I’m a good Christian?
It was a scary time. It reminds me of this scene in A Bug’s Life.
I will explain the scene for those in our listening audience. The ants are following one another without question until a leaf falls across the path and then they panic and scream, “I’m lost! I’m lost!” That’s what it was like to let go of my “Good Christian To-do list”.
I’m not mocking all of those tasks, because when done right, they are great and effective things to fill your time with, but for me they were a checklist. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t have much of a passion for the duties I had signed up for at church. It was a feeling of responsibility that got my feet going at 7am on Sunday. Wait, who am I kidding. The Joneses were notoriously late, more like 8:30, and it was hard to get excited about dragging others along with me. How could I convince them this was the way to fulfillment when I was still somewhat unfulfilled?
On a quiet Sunday morning at home a few months back, I asked God the above question, “Well, how now shall we live?”
In John 21:15-17 Jesus asked Simon Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Three times he replied with a hearty, “Yes, of course.” And Three times Jesus answered him with, “Then tend my sheep.”
I knew Jesus wanted me to tend his sheep. Being a sheep myself, it was still unclear to me how, but Randy and I decided that we would actively look for ways to join in anywhere God was working. Suddenly the word ‘service’ and term ‘helping others’ took on a whole new meaning. It didn’t have to be a program, class, or organized activity. It was simply reaching out, listening, babysitting, cooking for a family, helping a friend paint, or opening our home for twenty boys to invade every other Friday just so they had a positive God-centered place to feel loved and accepted. Service became effortless and I was genuinely excited to get to work.
You don’t have to leave your church to follow a calling. That’s the path God had in mind for us, and I see now how it was integral to the work he is doing in our lives and our community, but if your church is mission minded and has a heart to reach those who aren’t being reached, and willing to do whatever it takes, short of sin, to reach them . . . then the world is your opportunity and heaven is the limit. Responsibility is necessary, but without a passion and a love for his “sheep” . . . it’s a checklist.
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