Stop Talking

I was talking with a friend the other day about someone we both know who’s had some struggles in their past but was working hard on becoming a better parent. I was impressed that she was doing that by seeking community and discipleship from other moms. I mused to my friend that when I found out I was pregnant with Solveig I read a lot of books and listened to a lot of presentations from experts. But looking back over my parenting career, pretty much everything I know about being a mom has come from actually observing others do it. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a practicing Christian. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, His answer was to start praying. (Luke 11:1-4). He didn’t give them a parchment on the theory of prayer, or launch into a sermon on techniques. He didn’t talk about it, He did it.

Some of you know we’ve started a new monthly event for our guests and visitors called the After Party. One of the things I’ve observed -that I just love- is that there have been a few guests at the party accompanied by the sweet Oak Haveners who invited them to church. Jesus tells us to go out and make disciples, but sadly I realized it still comes as a bit unexpected when I see someone actually doing that. How many times have we prioritized memorizing a Bible verse more than obeying it? When did we in the Church start thinking that when Jesus says something we don’t have to do it, we just have to study it and talk about it a lot?

I wonder if those of us immersed in Christian culture might be at a disadvantage because it’s so easy in the church to fall into the habit of talking a lot about being a Christian but not doing the things we talk about.

That’s certainly the example I saw in my Christian upbringing: being a Christian meant far more that you memorized verses and attended a lot of church activities like Bible studies or Sunday School, rather than actual actions like praying about everything, volunteering outside the church, showing others extravagant love, and being generous.

I want to be changed. Mold me, transform my heart, make me new. I want a relationship with God that actually changes the way I live. As Francis Chan says in his book Crazy Love, “If life is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream.” I think it’s still possible to be swept downstream and be a church member. The more practice we get at brushing aside the Holy Spirit the better we get at it and the number we are to His voice.

So as I’ve been mulling all of this over, I think that part of the answer is to stop talking. Both to stop talking about what the Bible says and start being proactive about doing, and to stop talking so much when I pray and spend more time listening and asking God what He wants for me.

So I decided to ask myself these challenging questions during my quiet time this week:

• Has my relationship with God actually changed the way I live? 

Do I see evidence of God’s kingdom in my life? 

Or am I choking it out slowly by prioritizing my wants, my preferences, and my comfort?

If you’re brave, I invite you to have that same hard conversation with yourself, and lean on the hope we have that God does not leave us in our complacency but interrupts our comfortable life because He wants to make us more like Him.