Now I don't want to get off on a rant here...

Symphony - in the key of Christ

Stemming from my recent epiphany that God is not going to change our 24 hour days to 36 hours to suit my needs and the realization of a shift in my priorities this editorial has struck a chord with me.

Selections from "In a Different Time Signature"
An Editorial by Joel Kiekintveld

Bill sat down at our table and we talked about life. He shared about a mutual friend of ours who is now becoming a follower of Jesus; it seems she had been convicted by being around Bill.

He shared how he and his family had “kept it simple.” He had seen God work in the lives of the people they had time for because they weren’t in the choir or on five committees, etc. I think this message would have been mostly lost if it wasn’t for the fact that our talk was interrupted frequently by people coming over to talk to Bill. He literally knew everyone in the room! I, on the other hand, really only knew the people from my church. That’s when it hit me - Bill was living like Jesus.

Bill had moved his life into a different time signature. He was moving to a different beat – maybe a jazz beat. His tempo had space for people and relationships. My tempo, more like techno beats, barely left me time to sleep. What was the difference? Bill wasn’t involved in five things at church like I was. He had the time to have kingdom building relationships out in the world. I barely had enough time to get the stuff I needed for the Sunday morning worship service done. Maybe following Jesus has little to do with how much one serves at church? Maybe following Jesus is about having time for people?

Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I honestly could not say that as I reflected on my life. The church felt like a burden. It was heavy. Worst of all it was keeping me from the types of relationships I saw Bill having, as well as the relationships I saw Jesus have during His ministry on earth. Changes needed to be made.

This week I decided to quit doing too much stuff at church in order to follow Jesus better. I want to live in a different time signature. It’s strange what a trip to the jazz club can teach you.

While the writer makes some good points about looking outside the church and not getting burned out, he has missed a couple key ingredients in all this and that is balance and calling. These are ideas that everyone needs to come to terms with and not on our own. We need to take our hearts and set them before the Lord and ask him to help reveal to us how and where we should be serving his kingdom.

Just as a church needs to balance it’s ministries with the needs of the congregation and the community, so that they do not lose sight of who they are serving; so should an individual who is only part of that whole, balance how his time is spent serving the church. We should have relationships outside the church and not be an inwardly looking people or else the kingdom of God will not grow. Having “Holy huddles” and looking down on others for being different makes the life an evangelical Christian very difficult.

I lived 22 years of my life completely outside of the church and developed many friendships during that time. All but some of those relationships have faded. There is more at play here then just diverging paths and people growing apart. At a certain point in time, I removed myself from some of these relationships because I felt they were destructive and would hinder my spiritual growth. I have since tried to repair some of these relationships and rebuild them, but it has not been easy. I love having all the friends I do within the church and have never experienced the joys of being a part of the covenantal family until now. At the same time, I long to reach out to people that I once knew and had very close relationships with.

Our calling and where God is leading us plays a big role in directing our lives. In order for a church to survive, many people need to play a role in the various ministries within it. If we do not balance our needs with the needs of others, especially the needs of the church, then we are never going to be able to seek our calling. I believe that God’s calling for us will have that proper balance. We spend some time serving our church, some time serving those outside the church and some time serving ourselves. Perhaps the service to ourselves should be minimized, but it just seems to be something I selfishly need.

God has a very specific plan and purpose for his people and that plan is different for each one of us. If you are seeking the Lord’s will and he seems to be directing you to be involved in different ministries in the church, then you would be disobedient to turn away from that. He has given each of us very special gifts to bring glory to his kingdom and lift his name above all others, not for us to selfishly prosper from them. Our prosperity naturally flows out of serving God the way he calls us. That does not ensure there will not be bumps along the road, that there will not be suffering, but if we stay on the path the Lord has laid before us we cannot go wrong.

Our time signature should be one that is in tune with the Lord’s. Jesus Christ can simultaneously be the Good Shepherd and the Unblemished Lamb. So there is reason to believe his time signature is more like an orchestra with hundreds of instruments all playing at different beats and making the most beautiful redemptive music together. Having balance and calling will help us all to be an integral part of this symphony.

Posted by price at June 17, 2004 10:12 AM