Pondering

Pondering is a good thing to do sometimes.  I don’t seem to take the time often enough to do it but this is 2nd month of the new year and we are past the need to live up to our resolutions we either made or didn’t even think about.  So let’s think that after we leave church Sunday morning, we locked up the doors, and none of us came back until 5 years later. No one sets foot on this property until 2015.
When we come back, what would our church look like after 5 years of no upkeep? The grass would be waist-high. The various bushes would be overgrown and uneven. Our church sign would be full of 5 years worth of weathering.  And the of the building would be dirty and mildewed all over.  None of the bills were paid so the electricity would be off and the property would be dark. In short, there would be a lot of cleaning up to do.

Well now we are here again after five years and we begin the clean up on the outside and it begins to look better.  Years of misuse and disuse had cause the structure to look more like a building in the slums of a large city.  It doesn’t look like a house of God or a house of much for anyone to say nothing of the place for people to worship.  But then we’re ready to turn it around; to clean it up and refurbished the beautiful house it once was.
There is still a problem. The refurbishing and cleaning looks good but it isn’t done.  It is looking good on the outside, but there really is a great deal more to do on the inside.  The internal damage is done and still in need of repair.  The repair is more of an internal change with people. God always looks for an inner change as much as outer one.

We will be gathering for Ash Wednesday this month.  Wednesday the 17th to be exact and God will be looking for a change from you. God doesn’t just want you to say all the right words this Lenten Season or anytime you commune with God.  God doesn’t give lists of things to do as we go through life but looks for the inward change. 

That neglected building that we talked about. That church that no one took care of for the past 5 years could be you. Can you take an honest look at your life and see more good than bad? Or during this past year have you been more interested in the things of this world rather than the love of God?
In just this past week, can you honestly say that God has always taken first place in your heart, or sort of slipped through the cracks as other priorities crowded God out? Perhaps it is your income or spending time with friends, maybe it’s the television or the computer, maybe it’s simply our “me” time. We seem to be great at finding things that bring us unhappiness.
Have you been busy taking care of your daily duties, neglecting the church inside of you? Is it strong or have you let the weeds outgrow the beauty of the exterior.  Have the repairs gone undone.  Is the work of the inside going undone?  Is the door of your heart locked?  Have you taken a vacation from God and assume our Christian life will be fine.  Think about the journey of the Lenten Season and the meaning of the beginning, Ash Wednesday as you clean from our hearts what is dangerous to our spiritual life and our souls.