Hebrews 2:1 says, "We must pay more careful attention there, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away."
I was out by the Awakening Sculpture at Haines Point praying today and I found some driftwood. That driftwood reminded me of the tendency to drift. Marriages drift. Ministries drift. People drift through life. Drift often results in lost purity or lost intensity or lost capacity.
It is so easy as a Pastor to get to a place where you preach because you have to (you're on the schedule) instead of preaching because you have to (you have a word from God). It's so easy to do what you've always done. It is easy to read the word with one thing in mind--how can this translate into a message for others. It's so easy to learn how and forget why . I need to retrace my steps and be reminded of why I'm doing what I'm doing.
I think drifting is such a natural thing because it is non-resistance or going with the current. I set a personal record preaching twenty weeks in a row without a break and I feel like I drifted. I work about thirty hours on average on each message I preach so I've spent about 600 hours working on messages and when I looked up I was way downstream. And the further downstream you go the harder it is to resist the current. You just have to dig in and work you way back upstream. Here is how I'm going to do it in the month of May.
I'm going to fast Television. I'm going to fast food on Fridays. I'm going to spend an hour in prayer everyday. And I'm going to read through the New Testament in May. I'm going to go back and do what I did at first. That prescription never changes. Revelation 2:4 says, "Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first."
We've experienced so much momentum for so long that it is hard for me to adjust to the challenge of being downstream. I lost some connections. I lost some energy. I lost some focus. And before I knew what happened I had drifted so far I didn't recognize the shoreline. I feel like I'm at a place I've never been before. But I know how to get back. There is no shortcut. Just keep your head above water and fight the current and look for things to hold on to.
I think drift is the thing that kills pastors and churches and revivals and church plants and marriages. Resist the current.
I was out by the Awakening Sculpture at Haines Point praying today and I found some driftwood. That driftwood reminded me of the tendency to drift. Marriages drift. Ministries drift. People drift through life. Drift often results in lost purity or lost intensity or lost capacity.
It is so easy as a Pastor to get to a place where you preach because you have to (you're on the schedule) instead of preaching because you have to (you have a word from God). It's so easy to do what you've always done. It is easy to read the word with one thing in mind--how can this translate into a message for others. It's so easy to learn how and forget why . I need to retrace my steps and be reminded of why I'm doing what I'm doing.
I think drifting is such a natural thing because it is non-resistance or going with the current. I set a personal record preaching twenty weeks in a row without a break and I feel like I drifted. I work about thirty hours on average on each message I preach so I've spent about 600 hours working on messages and when I looked up I was way downstream. And the further downstream you go the harder it is to resist the current. You just have to dig in and work you way back upstream. Here is how I'm going to do it in the month of May.
I'm going to fast Television. I'm going to fast food on Fridays. I'm going to spend an hour in prayer everyday. And I'm going to read through the New Testament in May. I'm going to go back and do what I did at first. That prescription never changes. Revelation 2:4 says, "Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first."
We've experienced so much momentum for so long that it is hard for me to adjust to the challenge of being downstream. I lost some connections. I lost some energy. I lost some focus. And before I knew what happened I had drifted so far I didn't recognize the shoreline. I feel like I'm at a place I've never been before. But I know how to get back. There is no shortcut. Just keep your head above water and fight the current and look for things to hold on to.
I think drift is the thing that kills pastors and churches and revivals and church plants and marriages. Resist the current.
1 Comments:
Mark,
That was an incredible post!
Don
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