Our youngest son, Levi, learned how to ride his bike without training wheels last summer with his older brother Caleb. But, for some reason, he got scared and lost the interest of riding it. So for quite some time he wouldn't even get on his bike even after he got a new one for Christmas last year.
This summer some family friends of ours that live down the street asked the boys to go ride their bikes together. Levi watched as their youngest zipped along on his bike around the parking lot. He came home and as we were eating dinner blurted out, “OK I’M GOING TO RIDE MY BIKE!” The next day we took him out with his bike and hasn’t looked back. He just needed some peer pressure or, better yet, some inspiration.
So often we in the American Christian culture live comfortable and non-threatened lives. We take part in a “consumer only” type of faith where we listen to sermons at church, we listen to different teacher’s podcasts, we listen to Christian radio, etc. We spend all of our time consuming. But what happens when we do nothing but consume physical food without some type of exercise? We get fat, lazy, apathetic. The same is true with our Christian lives. If all we do is consume we become fat, lazy, and apathetic.
Just like for a whole year Levi knew how to ride a bike, we can know how to look like a Christian. We can dress the part, go to church, put on the right face, and even say all of the right things. But in reality, we aren't really ever doing anything for Christ. We need to move and actually put our faith to action. Often times, for us to do that it takes a little inspiration.
Where ever you are and no matter where you go there are men, women, boys, and girls that desperately need Jesus. The world needs JESUS! The world does not need fat, lazy, apathetic, and uninspired church attenders. The world around us and all the people in it need authentic, genuine, bold, and inspired believers who live, breath, and speak the gospel! We’ve been consumers for too long, it’s time for us to exercise our faith in the communities, workplaces, and schools that we are in. It’s time that we say, “OK I’M GOING TO RIDE MY BIKE!” Well, in this particular case, “OK I’M GOING TO START BEING JESUS TO THE WORLD AROUND ME!”