100% Juice

Last Saturday the church community rallied together to paint the Nehemiah House. The paint and equiment was paid for by NASCAR Angels, a reality TV show in the vein of Extreme Home Makeover. The whole event was filmed and ended with the Yetters (our assistant pastor and wife and kids) recieving their "madeover" car. Some one from our church had randomly sent in an application unbenounced to the Yetters. The show will air sometime this fall on ABC I believe. Details to come.
Anyways, throughout the week the film crew interviewed people who were part of the Nehemiah House in some way or another. Literally hundereds of hours of film was used. After I was interviewed myself I got to thinking about how when the show actually airs only twenty two minutes of actual footage will be shown. Out of those twenty two minutes probably at least a third will be focused on the in- shop work being done on the Yetter's car. Another substantial chunk will be dedicated to the painting of the Nehemiah House. Although the Gospel was shared many times in the multiple interviews that were done, the chances of a clear Gospel message being aired are slim. Keep it in your prayers.
As I further meditated on the experience, feeling a level of frustration with the editing process and realizing the power of whoever makes the editing choices, I began to see some parrallels in our society as well as in my own life. For the most part I believe that as a culture, we have lost the art of soaking in information and knowledge. We want short excerpts, soundbites, and songs that stay under the three minute radio limit. If a movie breaks the two hour mark we whine because we would vote for quick explosive action in favor of character and plot development any day. Our stamina for literature over a few hundred pages is weak. Even in our relationships we strive to be shallow. When I see my wife in the evenings I want the cliff notes of her day. Rarely can I sit still through a post-dinner chat over coffee with friends. I have taken the role of editor of my life and have somehow deemed in-depth relationships superfulous.
Yet even more tragic is that this trend has also reared its ugly melon in my fellowship with God through His word. All too often I approach Divine Revelation with carnal impatience. I want something practical now! I hesitate to ask questions to which I know the answer will not come immediatly or without effort. And then I wonder when the syptoms of a shallow relationship with my Lord are evidenced in my life.
Join with me in declaring war on superfisciality. Saturate yourself in life. Don't live for sensual stimulation, seek true, slow growth. Sink your roots into relationships. And through it all sink your roots into the Word of God. Let us not be weeds in the garden of God that sprout quickly on the surface but are gone tommorrow. Rather let us be sturdy trees, sentinel like and beautiful, drinking deeply from the boundless depths of God's living water, dripping with juicy, God-glorifying fruit.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:1-3


By His Grace,
For His Glory,
jrf