Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

Keep moving forward

Why are we idealistic only when we're young? What happened to the revolutionary spirit that fueled our imagination for a better world? When did mediocrity creep in to smother our dreams with the opium of leisure? When did we trade our radical ideals for a better world for the status quo we once hated?

Comfort is a dream killer. We sacrifice our dreams to the gods of comfort and ease. Our defeat to comfort began when we began to tell ourselves that we deserve a break. McDonald's popularized this dream-killing poison in its advertisement: "You deserve a break today--at McDonald's." Do we need a break? Sometimes. Obviously we all need a little down time. Medical doctors and psychologists know that rest and recreation is important. The Bible tells us to have at least one day of rest. God called this the "Sabbath". The Psalmist says, "Be still and know that I am God (Psalms 46:10)."¹ Even Jesus took his disciples on a vacation so that they could rest and be rejuvenated, but I'm not talking about the obvious need for rest and relaxation. I'm talking about our mistaken impression that we deserve a comfortable, stress-free live. I'm talking about our tendency to avoid pain and discomfort at the expense of our work for the Lord.

The Bible says that we must strive. We must work hard. We must not seek leisure but we must fight the desire for ease and dedicate ourselves to the Lord's work as the Apostle Paul says, "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me (Colossians 1:28-29)."¹

Don't believe the false philosophy that we deserve a break. Rest and recreate when you need to, but don't be fooled into falling asleep at the wheel and crashing your life against the rocks of ease and comfort. As the Bible says, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14)."¹

May God wake us from mediocrity and inspire us with the fire of his Spirit so that idealism for a better world--a world which knows Jesus--revives us to the passion for Christ we once knew.

Pastor Steve
February 11, 2011

¹ Psalms 46:10, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. One of Jesus' techniques was to relate spiritual ideas to common everyday life. Pensamientos (afterthought) is an attempt to follow Jesus' method of teaching. Its title is in Spanish because we recognize the importance of multi-culturalism. We hope to translate some of these messages into Spanish soon.

Find more afterthoughts at Pensamientos (afterthoughts).

You can read recent sermons by Pastor Lorenz at Featured Sermon.