Christians & Being Unworthy

Happy Sabbath Guys & Gals

No time for pleasantries. So let us cut out the mustard.

Many people consider themselevs not worthy for some particular kind of endeavour. Such can be due because they do not consider themselves experts in a chosen field. Or, that due to some impediment, they can never possess the flambouyancy of character and dynamism of a charming personality to conduct a task outside of their everyday scope to.

Such when you are a Christian should be an obsolete thought, although the constant mantra, "we are not worthy" that some of our brethren exude ad nauseam, can breed a certain backward acceptance that we can never jump to the stars, that we can never speak on numerous subjects, that due to sin we are so floored that we the better for it sticking to the pigeon holes which some mistakenly state is "Gods plan for your life", when the reverse, which is ever more beautiful, is hardly expounded often enough.

Such is due to that common human trait, regardless of persuasion, that manifests itself towards the later years of ones thrid decade in life: mental, although not intellectual wind down which accompanies supposed maturity, which is so stark to the exuberance of thought and ideas that radiates from people at the start of their third decade in life, renders the idealistic dreams and passions of youth to become empty. Such is sad.

Your parents, yes those middle aged sometimes meddlesome people, shouted aloud the eager idealism we often times fool ourselves into thinking we created for our time. What happened to them you may ask? They knuckled down - got a job, then a spouse, a mortgage and credit cards, then some children and your university debt. So of course the idealism gets lost down the drain of the complex biological ecosystem known as modern day society, and the world remains the same: people starve and die the same way and Church and the criticisms of such remain the same.

Now that Church has been mentioned you may start to wake up. Many people have grudges against certain aspects of Church. Many young people, especially those enlightened such as yourselves who are fortunate to go to university, often shake their heads in amazement at what appears to be the simple but all to common mistakes made by the Church concerning what on earth we should be about and doing for our young people. You have a point - the patronage we sometimes grant Pastors is monstrous. Some of the politics that exists and racism and prejudice and outdated thoughts and backward uneducated inspired changing methology can persuade some to moan.

Moan? C'mon how easy it is such to do from the shadows of our bedrooms and clique social circles. Coming back to being worthy every one of you is worthy. You are smart. You have ideas and you have sense (one hopes) to recognise this one simple fact: the idealism that many of you wish and seek to occur in Church and in our world is never going to happen if you yourself do not change towards such an ideal before you expect everyone else to. Of the message sent out weeks ago, only one person had the guts to step forward - how unsurprising.

Expressed another way, Ghandi, one of the most inspirational figures of the modern age, once said "be the change you want to see in the world". You be that change. You become that change. You breathe that change. You think and exist as that change. Only then does sustainable change occur.

Such is obvious, so excuse the patronising tone, but, as aforementioned, one is cutting out the mustard. It tastes bad anyway. The person who always says that they are not worthy is indeed a worthless human being who is not deserving of the talents God has given them. Remember the story? I am someone who tries his best to avoid being friends with people who criticise but can never put foot to their own ass to get on and try and do a better job.

Talents grow through trial and error but excel through wisdom. Just read the biographies of great men and women who have changed the world. They took what they had and busted their guts to see their dreams come true, which means trying out things which you are not comfortable doing. You think you work hard? Think again. If some of you wish to have a bigger impact on this world, you are going to have to work harder, no matter what you do. Stating one goes to Oxford means nothing to the starving child in the street.

There are many things you can get stuck into in our Church to make it a better place. There is a small magazine called the Hub. There are numerous other things. So is it a question of not being worthy? Or, is it a question of laziness? Only you know you, so who am I to decide - not judge, but decide.

The previous message one sent out about me considering myself not being worthy is not along the same though, though. Why you may wonder? Let me provide you with a small analogy.

If you are a stereotypical young person in Church who is asked to prepare a sermon one day on a topic which causes deep concentration from the congregation, due to the theological and philosophical complexities core to such a topic, you may, providing you are a stereotypical young person, be somewhat timid at being asked to do preach on such.

You, although having weeks to thoroughly prepare a task which you have studiously undertaken, might perhaps still feel small and timid when the big day arrives. Such is understandable as you may consider others better read and educated to expound such a theological complexity. You may thus feel embarassed to do such, and consider you being pretentious to preach on a subject you know nothing about.

But that is where you are wrong. You are wrong to assume you are not worthy, as you are worthy due to everyone being called to understand the simplicities and complexities of Scripture. Your thorough preparation alone states aloud that you are worthy, that your focus is assured and that your talents, although arguably not appropriate to the task at hand, have been used to their best to make such better. Although you may moan that you consider yourself not worthy.

That is very different to a similar young person, who possesses an intellect which if used properly can benefit many people. But, who for whatever reason, instead of diligently preparing for the sermon by studiously reading as the previous person, goes out instead to satisfy their frivilous self through whatever easy means possible, to only stroll into Church to preach a sermon, which although similar to the previous person in terms of standard, should have been of a deeper tone and understanding, courtesy of their intellect, but which is not because they have expended their talents on other things secondary to their primary objective. Whereas the previous person has.

The difference is not necessarily a waste of talent, but a loss of focus. Now you can undertand my previous message. It was not a quest to find someone more righteous than me, more theologically versed than me, more Christian than me, more Adventist than me, but to find someone who possesses a keener focus than me upon which should be our primary objective once one has the audacity to call oneself a Christian. I have lost mine to some degree, not through the complexities of life but, through a systematic presumption to do so.

You would expect any one regardless of talent who has lost focus on something to either regain that focus or, if such is beyond them at that time, to stand back and let someone else who is more focused to take over.

That is all. I know my station.

God Bless

Simon