Simmer Down Saints
A plea
for
believers to enjoy the rich full lives that God intended
Jim Croft
I deeply respect Billy Graham. Once, after he entered his senior years, I read a statement
that he made about his life and ministry.
It was something
akin to: If I had it to do all over again,
I would spend more
time enjoying my family.
My objective in this article is to serve the saints in a manner where at life’s end they
can look back and have full confidence of lives well spent. I am not at all sure that
lives of incessant, front-burner
preoccupation with religion
24/7 can accomplish this. I am not suggesting abandonment of first love fervency for Jesus and for
matters of the Kingdom.
I am rather suggesting that hyper, non-stop busyness in any aspect of life cannot produce
the quality of a rich and satisfying life that Jesus promised. (Jn
10:10 NLT) In this I have an observation. Christians who have the wisdom to balance
their lives between intense spiritual activity and relaxed
enjoyment of life’s many God ordained pleasures reap optimum credibility with the converted and the unconverted.
(1Pet 2:12)
The Bible
The Word of God might be described as God’s ongoing
conversation with humanity. No matter how much we read it and how well we think we know it, the Lord always manages
to show us new principles
with each reading about living life his way. It is best to discern what the Scriptures imply about the entirety of life, rather than just the explicit spiritual activities spoken of in the Bible.
Godly men were inspired
to write the Scriptures. The cumulative revelation of the Bible is greater than the revelation of any single
one of its book’s authors.
Unbeknownst to them, the words they penned
contained much beyond the revelations that they wanted to emphasize
in a particular writing session. Their by- the-way
remarks carry as much revelation about how we should live as anything
they intended to convey about religious
practice.
Most sermons
and testimonies focus on the spiritual aspects of life in the Spirit. We are constantly challenged to increase
our concentration on more prayer,
praise, witnessing, spiritual-warfare, greater exploits in spiritual gifts, and the exercise
of faith confessions, and so forth. That’s all needed. However, in some regards overdose on that diet can
become problematic.
It tends to produce
a mindset that leads believers
to think that they are failing Christian responsibility if every moment of existence does not have some sort of purposed
spiritual activity insertion. Too many saints fear disapproval about taking time to smell the roses of life and to rejoice
in their God-given
capacities for creativity. Some are hesitant
about sharing that they have zeal for pursuit of
hobbies and other secular interests. This should
not be so.
The Bible speaks of the Wisdom of Solomon. At various points in Ecclesiastes he advocated
these sentiments - Enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Your portion, along with that of your family, is to delight in God’s blessed provision of clothing,
food and drink all of the days of
your life. (Eccl 9:7-9)
The New Testament has similar
admonitions interwoven into it that are too often ignored. Apart from church involvement, it’s godly to live a quiet productive
life minding your own affairs and business.
(1Th 4:11; 1Tim 2:2; Eph 4:28)
Unfortunately, there
are believers who have been persuaded
that if they let up for a moment from heavy spiritual-warfare that something terrible might happen. This is a deception. None of the Bible heroes were exempt
from occasional bad eventualities regardless of their focus on intense spirituality and neither
are we.
Solomon said that bad things happen to the righteous
as well as the unrighteous. (Eccl 9:2) I have dedicated my life to an environment of zealous
Christians. I have not seen evidence
or experienced that super spirituality builds impenetrable hedges to tragedies
in relationships, health
and prosperity.
Does spiritual
fervency block much and are there
often full recoveries? Yes! But, those who preach guarantees of protection
by this method and that are setting- up
significant numbers
of their audience for disappointment and disillusionment.
A Shepherd’s Contentment
I believe that the early life of the Bible’s David supports leading a quiet life of contentment at minding one’s own affairs. He was a shepherd
who led his flock to green pastures
and to still waters. However, he wasn’t living in Colorado. He lived in the arid climate of the
Middle East.
I’ve seen shepherds there grazing their flocks in areas that had no evidence
of lush vegetation. But, those shepherds know that their sheep can grow fat eating the stubble they find in locales that have appearance of barrenness. Herding sheep in David’s day was not a labor intensive occupation.
There were intermittent glances to check on the welfare of foraging
livestock. At times, sheep had to be liberated from brambles. Other than that, there was a whole lot of time spent finding
a comfortable place to sit to escape the sun’s heat in inhospitable terrain. Any shepherd
who did not find a hobby to creatively fill his time
was
sentenced to vocational boredom.
A hobby of David’s was practicing with his sling to hit imaginary herd assailants. I suspect
that a lion, bear, or wolf trying to pick-off a sheep could have almost been a
welcome intrusion for him.
Forgive
me, but I also suspect that David’s acquired proficiency in playing
the harp and at composing
poetic songs might have initially
qualified as a hobby to offset routine boredom. Later, it was his sling, harp and songs that gave him access to fame and fortune. And, for sure his words of contentment have benefitted godly people throughout the
centuries.
Religion or Life
Like David and the members of the Early Church, Christ has made a rich satisfying life available to you. It is not a sign of Laodicean
lukewarmness to simmer
down from excessive preoccupation with religion.
My churches have always been noted for believers
who are of high spiritual fervency and proficiency in various
fields of Christian service. I have not ever scolded
anyone for taking time off to enjoy family and secular enjoyments.
The fact is that at one time I was concerned that our people were too busied with flocking
to church every time the doors were opened. Solution –
Stop Sunday services for over a year. We relied on midweek
home meetings for fellowship, mutual ministry to one another, and for generating the income for a fulltime staff
of 8. All needs were met in every respect.
I have practiced the simmer down approach for many years. When we sense that God is about to move in spectacular ways, we are prepared
to respond accordingly by laying aside other interests. When that is not obvious, we don’t try to manufacture it by continuous meeting marathons to call down heaven.
Though we regularly pray for and believe for great outpourings of the Spirit, we leave the initiative to God.
Does the simmer down approach
work? That it does. The fellowships that I have pastored
have had a history of experiencing influential revivals and at producing an uncommon
number of laymen who have meaningful
ministries of their own.
Not long ago, I was discussing these things with my wife, Prudence.
I made a comment
that brought a smile to my lips. It was that I am truly happy with the life
with which God has
blessed us. An alternate translation for blessed
is happier.
That dear friend
is what I covet for you. I want you happier
than those solely confined to hopes of fulfillment at the next meeting.
For me, your betterment in every good aspect of life is worth any criticism
that might come my way for
denting conventional spiritual perceptions in this article.
Editor's Note: artwork below added by me. Steve Martin
Hope was doing a short interview of me for the seasonal work at Samaritan’s Purse here in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Operation Christmas Child Shoebox season was fast approaching, and I wanted to be a part of the team again this go around. I had served here two previous years, and was looking forward to another time with Franklin Graham’s great program for worldwide kids. Blessed to be a blessing.
Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).
