What Do You Spend On Flowers?

One of the most surprising aspects of being a lead pastor is how constant this battle is – protecting my time with God. I love people so any chance I get to meet someone and hear their story – I’m all for it. But it does come with a price tag…time.

In another not so random thought, Mark E. used to consistently challenge me to bring closer the lines of the seen work of the church with the unseen movement of God, His Kingdom. Then we’d both make fun of churches that spent more on flowers than the poor.

I still think it’s valid to make fun of churches that do that but I understand better now how it happens and this is where these two streams of thought collide. You can’t see the invisible traveling at 900 mph. You can’t move towards the invisible work of the Kingdom if all you do is worry about protecting the flowers. And you can’t know how worthless the flowers are in comparison to the poor if you never spend any time with the poor. You can’t spend any time with the poor if you live at 900 mph.

It’s a vicious cycle…I eat because I’m unhappy. I’m unhappy because I eat.

Even right now, I’m tempted to ‘do’ something with this post, with what I wrote. To be busy with the concept as opposed to allowing the concept to consume me and change me. Just another observation as I continue to learn this craft.