GreatRidge Station

One of the challenges that I face in my work (as a teacher, a pastor-leader, and consultant) is getting what’s in people’s head to spill out into their lives. We have a tendency in our culture to value “thinky” over “do-ey,” and the result is often that we focus on the first and ignore the latter.

We need orthodoxy (right belief), but without orthopraxy (right practice), nothing happens. I’ve had some collossal failures in trying to get people to move from what they know to do, to actually doing it. Sorry for the gross generalization, but mostly, we are selfish, mean, cowardly, lazy, and arrogant–I know that’s not a kind list, but I know myself pretty well at this point in life, and if you are honest, you face the same temptations and sins. Living what we know is hard work, and it goes against ever fiber of our inwardly-focused being. To paraphrase from the Epistle of James, if it stays in your head and never gets to your hands, check your pulse.

I’m calling you out. Take what you know and use it.  As it says in James 4:17 (NET), “So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin.”

It was a moment at the gas station that got me thinking. There I was, doing the usual routine: Insert Card, Select type of card from menu, Select no receipt (saving paper), pump gas, return pump handle to pump, replace gas cap, drive away. So, right in the middle of that–the pump gas portion of the event–I have a few minutes to do nothing.

I heard a car start, and looked toward it. As I did, the woman in the car crossed herself, put the car in gear, and drove off.

Now, I’m not Catholic, and that kind of thing always used to strike me more as habit or superstition than devotion. But now, I think I may be wrong. This woman made me think about how much of my life I do without inviting God to be a part of it. Yes, I believe in God’s immanence, but I think I’m like a lot of people–I’m a whole lot more comfortable with his transcendence.  And that’s what’s bothering me. Am I guilty of trying to keep God at arm’s length, particularly when it comes to driving and other mundane aspects of life. As one of my old mentors used to say (and I think he borrowed this from either C.S. Lewis or Francis Shaeffer) — If Christ is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all.

I’m reminded of something that Martin Luther once said: “God is interested in a lot of things besides religion.” Well, he said it in German, but you get the idea.

All of this made me wonder if I spend a lot of my life in auto-pilot mode. If that’s my attitude, then I’m in the wrong. And it took a woman, crossing herself at a gas station, to remind me that God does care about all of life. Mine, and yours.

Oh, yeah. It’s cold. So cold, in fact, that it’s 80 degrees warmer in my refrigerator than in my yard. By the end of this cold spell, we will have spent 90 hours below zero. If that’s not a record, it should be.

This is one of those winters that we’ll remember. My grandfather always told me about winter weather from his day. Things like “So cold the oil lamps froze so we couldn’t blow them out.” I doubted him.

So years from now, I’ll be the one saying “I remember the winter of 08-09. It was so cold that Pizza Hut only delivered frozen pizzas. It was so cold I had to chip my dog off the fire hydrant. It was so cold that I had to buy thermal underwear–for my  I-pod.” And no one will believe me, either.