It was a teaching moment. To learn how to live life with substance and readiness sometimes we need to observe, listen and integrate the way of life we see in those leading the way. Who is watching you to learn a way of life?
I do not recall when I first heard my father tell the story, but it obviously stayed with me in a manner that actually helped form how I would make choices in my own life. My father grew up as a farmer and a trapper.
By the time I was an infant he had become a business man, complete with starched white shirt, suit and tie. To feed our growing family he had become an insurance salesman, providing both health and life insurance options to help others care for their own lives or families. He was dressed for the occasion and profession he was now in, quite a change from denim overalls and work boots.
Here is where the story changes, however.
Selling anything to farmers and ranchers in South Dakota and Wyoming is no small feat. Working from before sunrise to after sunset, often doing hard labor, does not leave much room for worrying about getting one’s shoes scuffed up.
Dad told the story of one particular farm that he visited. He came to the farmhouse first and was told that he would need to go out to the barn to talk to the farmer himself, though not to anticipate any interest.
Dad was not one to be dissuaded easily so he walked out to where the farmer and his workers were throwing hay bales. The farmer looked down at the man with the tie and suit, making some kind of comment about “readiness to work”. Within moments the suit coat and tie were off and this stranger was throwing the bales six tiers high, surpassing the workers’ efforts.
By the end of the day Dad had shared a meal at the farmhouse table, and developed a client/provider relationship that lasted for many years.
It was the willingness to get directly involved in hands-on needs that made the difference. The willingness to connect with the needs of that “community” context opened the door for seeing one another in new ways. Dad was unwilling to let superficial things block building relationships and new opportunities.
Who is watching you to learn a way of life? Who is watching your small group to see how community and faith are formed? Who is observing your church on a Sunday morning, or during the week to see what kind of Jesus you follow? What hands-on invitations might you need to consider if you are to open new relationships and invite people to pursue their faith walk?
In one of the teaching times for his disciples Jesus said, “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit…“ (Luke 12:35). It was clearly an invitation and call to be engaged and attentive to the context and time you are in as a follower of Jesus.
As disciples, we are to approach new relationships, adjusting ourselves to be relevant to the need and setting where necessary and appropriate. It is not a matter of asking others to constantly adapt to us within the church.
CNN reporter John Blake recently posted online an interview on “fake Christianity” and the impact it is having on teenagers. The interview was with Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of Almost Christian.
In her new book, Dean contends that we, as mid-to-older adults may be the source of a self-serving strain of Christianity which teens are picking up. She interviewed 3,300 American teenagers between ages 13 and 17. She writes that the results showed “though three out of four American teenagers claim to be Christian, fewer than half practice their faith, only half deem it important, and most can’t talk coherently about their beliefs.”
Rev. Dean, a United Methodist clergy, lays the responsibility for such apathy on adults and churches who have not taken their own faith journey seriously. She contends that many adults who identify as Christian are not consistent in their own faith practices, and may not be able to articulate a clear personal story about God and how they live out their discipleship.
Young people watch us to see if we are “dressed for action.” They will be shaped by what we do, more than by what we say.
You local church will be changed only as you become the change you seek to see. Worship, faith development, hands-on ministry, etc., will only be vitalized as you bring vitality and commitment to them.
Let us together be dressed and ready for action!
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