Keeping
House Isn't Romantic
by
Pastor Jack Hayford
Most Believers face a hurdle called "romanticism" in the
course of their growth in the Lord Jesus. You and I must find a
way to leap that hurdle...or be tripped up again and again.
I didn't say that a deeply emotional or sentimental feeling toward
our Lord is wrong. It isn't. Such feelings should never be
lost. They're part of retaining that "first love" which
He seeks in the simplicity of our worship, walk, and service.
But there is a thoughtless giddiness sometimes found in folks like
any of the best of us. It is usually evident in those who have freshly
tasted the new wine of life in Christ—a Christianity that has
been stripped of the nonessentials of ritualism, religion, and doctrinaire
attitudes which reduce life to form and remove joy from experience.
It's heady stuff, new wine. It will make you suppose that everything
is coming up roses. That's not bad when everything really is
coming up roses. But not everything that rises in the midst of a
freshly sown garden is fruitful. Even the best gardens have weeds.
Over the years I've noticed a certain weediness of mind
among people freshly aglow from revival's fires. Unfortunately,
the fire doesn't consume the weeds. In fact, at times
it seems the heat encourages their growth. These weeds
have a way of diminishing the possibilities of fruitfulness
in the newly ignited.
Excitement is mistaken for growth.
Information is mistaken for understanding.
Sentimental feelings are mistaken
for true commitment.
Having the "feel-goods," hearing the latest teaching tape,
or attending the latest Christian seminar has little to do with
maturity. And no "word from the Lord" or singing "O,
How I Love Jesus" will substitute for abiding commitment.
Maturity and commitment are durables. As desirable and proper-in-place
as the excitement, the hearing of stirring truth, or the romantic
might be, they are each only introductory. They are starting places
toward deeper maturity and firmer resolve.
Every romance, to become a deepening relationship, must come to
the point of accepting responsibility for "setting up house."
This involves accepting the commitment of marriage, assuming certain
duties, and attending to certain details. does this mean that you
lose the electric thrill of the merely "romantic"? Perhaps.
But you don't lose love. In fact, love is given a new dimension
in which to mature.
You and I are wise to think through this distinction in our churches.
Are we only a "revival church," or are we a revival
people, constantly deepening in our maturity and our capacity to
accept the responsibility involved in true commitment?
Romance is fine. Flowers and candles and goose bumps have their
place. But it is commitment that binds the wounds, pays the bills,
stands the heat, and hangs in there regardless of the cost.
The former sounds like a fling. The latter sounds like
love.
Reprinted from
the book Moments With Majesty. ©1990 by Jack Hayford. Published
by Multnomah Press. |
Jack
Hayford Ministries
14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405-2233