Day 83: Evaluating Our Purpose

^{Luke 11:42-44}

⁴² “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

   ⁴³ “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

   ⁴⁴ “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

I'm officially designated myself the worst "daily blogger" in the world. Between a child with croup/visit to the emergency room, a weekend retreat without internet capability, and a few sleepless nights, I have once again been weighed and been found wanting. But I've been thinking about it, and the thing is that this whole project was not intended to be a burden for me. It was intended to be enlightening... a spiritual journey. There's not one thing enlightening about forcing yourself to ramble out some incomprehensible blog-like drivel after getting in from the ER with a croupy baby at 1:30 in the a.m., and I've decided that I'm okay with that. I'm okay, too, with missing a couple days of blogging while retreating with a group of growing teenagers. It's part of the journey, and that's all right.

Now, on with the show. Our retreat this weekend focused on unity, and I can truly say that I saw God this weekend. I saw Him in the way the girls poured their hearts out to each other on Saturday night, and in the way the kids left with a renewed determination and purpose. And as I think about the weekend, and think about these verses, it occurs to me that the concept of unity and these verses have much in common.

There was much discussion about what the church was designed to be - a family. A living, active body that shares the hurts, the sorrows, and the joys of all the other members. So why do we fail so often at that? Because we are like the Pharisees in v. 42: we follow the letter of the law, tick off the boxes (Go to Bible class: check. Sit through Sunday night sermon: check. Write visitation team cards: check.), and "neglect justice and the love of God". We do that when we see someone sitting alone and yet we pass them by. When we know that someone is struggling but deem ourselves "too busy" to help, or even when we're too busy to notice that they're struggling in the first place.

And v. 43 is quite the kick in the pants. We do love to get the "most important seats", don't we? What I mean by that is this: we all want to be in the "in" crowd... even at church. It's just the way it is. We want people to stroke us and tell us how great our VBS room looks and how essential we are to the fill-in-the-blank program. It's a good idea to look at our motives from time to time, and remember why we started doing whatever-our-thing-is in the first place. If our motives are pure, awesome. If not, maybe some fixin' is in order.

Last, notice that Jesus doesn't say it's wrong to "check off the boxes". In fact, he says we should. "You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." Go to Bible class, but remember why you're going. Write the visitation cards, of course, but be prayerful of their purpose.