Follow The Directions

I sent off a fax today, but made a big mistake the first time around and had to re-send it properly. My mistake came about because all the copiers at work accept the paper face-up, but the fax machines require you to put the paper in face-down. There's even a big sign over the fax machine: "Put papers in face down." I went by force of habit and faxed two blank pages. I don't know what caused me to realize my error and send my fax again the right way, but I'm glad I caught my mistake.

God gave Moses instructions to build a tabernacle in the wilderness, and He explicitly told Moses to build it according to the pattern shown him in the mount. In other words, Moses was to follow the directions.

I sometimes wonder how off we are in our interpretation of God's desire for us in our churches. Are we doing things the way He wants us to? And if we're not, do we have a way of knowing that and of changing our course? Do we have that spark of life in everything we do? Are we going by habit or walking in the light? Are we just doing what we've always done?

I think we pride ourselves on our own ways, and can even strengthen our resolves to carry on our traditions. Church engenders a kind of self-righteousness: "Well, we're serving God so we must be okay." How often do we relax and take a look back at what we're doing to see if there's anything we should change? And, if we did that, would we have the guts to change?

Maybe we're afraid of being pessimistic and negative, and that's probably something good to be afraid of. But we should be just as afraid of being complacent, luke-warm, and out of the way.

One of my favorite organizations is Toastmasters, where you practice public speaking in front of your peers. After speaking, everyone gets evaluated. The benefit in that is in being able to see yourself as others see you. There's a right way to evaluate somebody in this setting: mention one strong point, then something that could be improved on, and close with another strong point. That goes down pretty easy.

Would that we could evaluate ourselves that way. Would that we had enough openness and honesty to say "Golly, we're not emphasizing what we should," or "we're just keeping the machinery going," or whatever the case may be. The blood is there to forgive and the light of God is there to lead us into His paths.

The Psalms speak of individual relationship with God and personal repentance, but the prophets speak of corporate repentance. That's something we don't hear about often enough in church. Joel says "Let the priests and ministers weep between the porch and the altars." That's heart-felt repentance coming from the top; that kind of change will flow down over the whole body.