I Have Fallen And Can’t Get Up

Overheard about a month ago “Mom, I don’t want to ride the bike, I keep falling off and I hate it.” The mother’s response was “You don’t have to worry, you don’t have to ride it if you don’t want to.” Today, I started to think about this a bit deeper. My grandmother used to say “You don’t have to eat it if you don’t like it, just leave it off to the side.” Then there was, “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

I am much older now and I love brussel sprouts, haggis, long drives in the country, bagpipe music, reading, history and attending church with my friends. All of these things I was told at one point in time that I did not have to do them or eat them or attend if I did not want to. I missed so much growing up and the substitutes were so; unfulfilling. Days of lazing in front of the one eyed monster rather than going for a drive with the folks out to the countryside. Decades later, reuniting with friends from long ago because I had better things to do on a Sunday then go to church. I simply did not feel like going. Funny, when I ended up in the greatest need, I tended to call upon the church but it was on my time schedule, not the church’s. The wonderful intricacies of the Bible, lost until a couple decades ago because, for me, the Bible was old and irrelevant and I didn’t want to read it. “Don’t worry” the devil says “you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to!”

Jesus said to the disciples at the very beginning of His ministry “Follow Me!” All of the men who heard His call probably questioned leaving what they knew for the unknown. What would have been had they said “Do I have to?” And what would have happened if Christ replied “Don’t worry, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Salvation relies on all God’s children saying “Yes, I will follow Christ!” Should you attend a church, be in fellowship with other Christians, learn God’s word, support one another in times of good and in bad, commit to serving the needs of the church and of others. The answer is Yes! Beware world, the devil wants you be indifferent because it makes his job easier.

Be blessed all.

Pastor Todd