Stop Being a Good Person: Sit Down

The last few posts I have explored the idea that we can be a good, religious, moral, church person and not actually know God at all.  Such a person, when they die, will be in hell.  For better context on these ideas, I encourage you to read my previous posts, the "Tale of the Really Good Man" and "Are You Really a Good Person?".

Perhaps you've done the self-exam and determined that, though you thought you were good, you were completely bankrupt in the things of God.  There is very good news!  You have now come to the place where God can actually do something real in your life!

Here is the first piece of advice, and we are all fortunate that it is simple.

Stop.

Stop?  Yes, stop.  Stop doing all of the things.  

There is an old and hilarious sketch comedy routine from Mad TV featuring Bob Newhart.  He played a therapist and had a woman come see him about problems she was having.  She began sharing her problems with him and he listened patiently.  After a while he interrupted her and said that he had the solution and could give it to her quickly.  The woman was excited by this news and even pulled out a pen and paper so she could write it down.  When she was ready, Bob Newhart shouted "STOP IT!!  Just STOP IT!!"  The woman was dumbfounded.

I don't want to share advice anything like that, nor do I want to make light of the fact that you may have just realized that you are more of a Pharisee who doesn't know the Lord.  This is serious, and it will require a serious approach to dealing with it.  As ususal, I think the Bible can help us and give us an example we can live by, so I'll begin sharing those ideas here.

One of the foundational ideas you may need to come to grips with is that you need to take a break from it all.  Take a season of rest from the many good things you are doing to figure out for yourself why you are doing them.  It is time to take an honest look, with the Lord's help, at your motives for doing each and every one of those good things.  Ask yourself the questions posed in the last post for personal reflection, and be very honest with your answers.  After all, God already knows the correct answers for you, so the only person you potentially will fool is yourself.

I speak from a lot of hard experience in this area.  When our family moved to Everett, Washington, Amanda and I felt compelled to always be doing things for the Lord.  We did many things, all of which were good.  The trouble is that many of those things the Lord never asked us to do.  We went on our own, in our own strength, and it not only consumed us but nearly did us both in.  At the end we were exhausted and depleted simply from doing things we had come up with on our own.  After reflecting on it for a while I realized that we did this because God had called us to the Northwest and therefore must want us to constantly be working on His behalf.  Except that is wrong thinking.  For starters, that completely ignores the concept of a Sabbath day.  Jesus Himself said that "man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for the man."  We need rest.  She and I needed to be parents, which comes with responsibility but also comes with fun.  We also needed to be a married couple, which can never be put on the back burner.

Psalm 46:10 gives us a great picture of what it can mean for us to "stop it."

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth.”

Luke 10 gives us a great example of what we should do instead.

38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Many of us are a Martha, running around and doing things, important things, things that need doing!  And yet Jesus Himself is right there in the house, speaking, instructing, and loving.  But we are too busy doing the really important things to recognize His presence.

Jesus did acknowledge that Martha's to-do list was important, but He said there is only one thing we should be concerned about.  Him.  Here is Mary at the Lord's feet, and I imagine her hanging on every word he said.  She's basking in His presence just like a person basks in the sunlight after weeks of rainy days.  She's taking it all in.  She's taking Him all in.

How long has it been since you spent time reading the Bible and praying?  Or maybe just praying?  One of my biggest lessons over the last 15 years has been this:  if you want to know what God is saying to you today, open your Bible and read a bit of it.  No I'm not advocating the silly idea that you flip to some random page and a random verse.  I mean really read it slowly, maybe a chapter or a section at a time each and every day.  What you read is God's word for you today.  

I can already sense some of your objections to that because I have wrestled with the same ones.

Objection 1: Okay really, just read a chapter at a time?  What if there's nothing "important" in that part?  It is still God's word for you today.  You will not always have a passage that is "in your face" or often quoted in church.

Objection 2:  But I didn't get anything out of reading that part!  Okay, what did stand out then?  Read from a few places on a given day, maybe one part of the Old Testament and one part of the New Testament.  Then think on what you read and how it applies to your life right now.  That is God's word for you.

Objection 3:  I don't understand what it said!  Let me ask you a question about the Bible translation you read.  Does it make sense?  If not, get a version that is in plain English.  My personal favorite is the New Living Translation (NLT) because it is written in today's English.  The translators worked very hard to not only communicate the idea behind the original text but also the emotion behind it.  And the Bible is full of raw emotion!  For me, while the King James Version is beautifully written, I can't make a lot of sense of it because I don't talk like that, and people around me don't talk like that.  So find a version that you like and read that instead.

Today's advice was simple but not easy.  Maybe it is time to take a step back from all of the good things you are doing and reconsider why you are doing them.  It may take some reprioritization, but in the process if you find the Lord in a whole new way, it was worth it!  And as you do that, read God's word to see what He is saying to you today.  You will find that He will communicate with you, regularly, if you are truly seeking Him!