Whew! we’ve been through some tough and time consuming times of late and we’re about due for a break don’t you think? Especially if you’re one of those twice a year church goer’s (Easter and Christmas). Now one could take an extended break, kinda akin to back to back football seasons in length. Speaking of which…isn’t it a bit much to expect committed football fans to attend church from late August to January (excluding Christmas of course)? How about those golf fans? Surely they shouldn’t be expected to do anything during the four majors at the least, right? What about hockey, Baseball, softball, volleyball, sure those enthusiast would warrant the same rights.

Okay, to be clear, that’s all meant as facetious. However, is it really too far from the mark? I can tell you that I personally have come up with some very innovative reasons not to attend church. It’s too hot, it’s too cold, I have a headache, my wife has a headache and so on and so on.

Jesus walked this earth a little over 30 years. Let’s all take a moment to “Thank Him” for not being distracted as He set about saving all humanity over all time!! We can’t ever be like Him. We could try, but we’d fall short…if you’re at all like me you’d fall short on the first day, maybe within the first hour. However, I still want to try.

Nonetheless, I think we ought to seriously consider using Jesus as our Model. Today we lead busy and hopefully fruitful lives and in the final analysis have very little time left over for ourselves or our families. I have come to believe that in my old neighborhood that people were so busy the only time they had left in their busy schedules to cut their yards was obviously on Sunday Morning.

I write not a single word herein to bring about feelings of guilt. If that were the case I’d be at the head of the line. Rather, I write them simply for our own personal and respective reflection. The question I hope we’ll all be considering is something like, “Can I spend an hour or two a week in God’s house and working to bring disciples to Him?” 100 hours out of a year. To ask you if Jesus is worth that sacrifice is an insult to the reader and it’s rhetorical. Of course He’s worth it, everyone of us knows that!!

Instead, let’s change the entire perspective. Why are we here on this orb flying through space? Despite popular opinion it’s not to ‘be all we can be’. It’s not to be the smartest person around. It’s not to be the best employee or business owner. It’s not to be a great parent or child. It’s certainly not to accrue wealth! (although, those things aren’t inherently so bad). It’s not for any of the things that we spend most of our time perfecting and doing. Again, I appeal to your sense of reason and know that you already know all those things don’t count for much in the big scheme of things.

We are here for one main and simple purpose. To worship God.

That’s all this meandering post is about. Getting back to the basics. Please don’t give up Golf or whatever…that was never the point. The point was overwhelmingly simple…to remember why we’re here and for each of us to ask ourselves, “Am I happy with myself in that regard, and if not, what can I do differently”.

I know so many of you…and you all such Wonderful People!! I know of no one who needs to change the core of their being…but I think it does us all good from time to time to remember the big picture and keep our eye on the prize (I was going to say, keep our eyes on the ball…but then it’s back to sports).

God Bless and MCL to all,

Al