I spent several days this
week with the tank of my car near empty. I kept on getting into the
car right before I needed to be somewhere and thinking, "I am not
going far. I have enough gas to make it, and I'll stop on the way
home."
Have you ever done
this?
As I finally pulled in to
the gas station, and thankfully before I had to walk there, I was
reminded of a sermon that I liked so much I adapted it myself. It
was about running on empty. The preacher suggested that God likes
it when we are running on empty because we are constantly in touch
with God, praying that we will make it to the gas station.
And I am still sure that
there is some truth to it. When we become too comfortable we can
forget we need God. There is more than one way to get to the point
of running on empty. One is by being so disorganized and such a
poor steward of what we have been given that we are always in
trouble, always struggling. I have been like that in my life.
It occurred to me also as
I pumped my gas that if my life were as disorganized as it has
sometimes been when the tsunami hit, I would not have had extra
money to donate. And when my child needed help, I was able to help
because I was being a better steward lately.
So now I may be running
close to empty because I have being giving out of what I have been
given and not because I am just bad at keeping track of it all.
Most churches I know are
running on empty. Even big churches. I attended one when I was on
vacation that had a budget three times our own and yet they were
struggling. This is not always a bad thing. Yes, for some it is
poor giving or mismanagement, but for most it is because they are
truly trying to stretch it always and trying to do as much as they
can for the people of God and for their community with what they
have been given. They are always seeing ways that they are being
called to be the people of God.
This kind of running on
empty is the best kind. We take what we have been given and we us
it as wisely as we can and give to need where we see it and then
pray that God will bless what we have and increase it for the work
to which God has called us.
Lord,
May we have the faith to
do what you call us to and to run sometimes on only our faith. Amen
