I’ve become complacent

I have become complacent. Let me first start this off with, I am so sorry that I have not posted. I have thought about posting for awhile, but honestly, I haven’t wanted to put in the effort. Life became busy, and I became fond of the mundane. A few months ago, I felt that Christians were becoming complacent, that we were no longer trying to continue our walk but instead we were satisfied in the everyday. As each day passed, I started noticing that I was one of those Christians.

I love this blog, and the outlet it provides, but I have a hard time staying on top of anything. I was scared when I started this that I wasn’t going to be able to keep it up, that I would eventually just stop writing and this would just be another hobbie that I wouldn’t continue. That was a risk that I knew that I was taking creating this blog, and here I am a year later and I am still using this outlet for its purpose, but in the words of Aunt May from Spider-Man, "with great power comes great responsibility", and I've felt like I've slacked on my responsibility to this blog. So, let me get back to my very first sentence…. I have become complacent.

To start this off, I want to kind of dive into where complacency comes from, what leads us to become complacent…. There are two examples in the Bible that I want to discuss for this very topic.

Firstly, when Jesus was traveling He often stayed with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in their home. Martha was the oldest and would prepare and make sure that everything was perfect for the Lord, Mary on the other hand would sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to what He was saying. Many times, we are so distracted, like Martha, trying to perfect things that we often forget Who is with us. We become complacent in the distractions that we don’t slow down for even a second to listen to what God is trying to say, where He is trying to lead. We can get so involved in our everyday lives that sometimes we even scold or judge someone who is actually taking the time to listen. We are on God's time. When we are in the presence of God, why are we preparing for His presence? You've done the preparing, now stop and listen for a second. (Luke 10: 38-42)

Secondly, the parable of the servants and the talents. In short, a man had three servants whom he gave gold or talents to while he was away. Each had a different amount of talents and each had the opportunity to do as they wished with said talents. Two of them invested and doubled there amounts so when the master came back, he had double. But one servant was fearful that he would lose everything that, instead of investing, he buried it in the ground. He was scared that there would be consequences, that he would lose all the money, so instead of the risk, he chose to do nothing about it. We become complacent because we become fearful of the next steps. We don’t want to reap what we sow at times because its scary. We don’t want to step out into the unknown because that is exactly what it is, unknown. God has given us all talents, whether that be writing, speaking, leading, etc. we should never waste those talents. My parents used to tell me, "if I didn't use my voice, then I was going to lose it." Ofcourse, they were talking about singing, but honestly, this applies to it all. If you aren't using your voice or your talents, God is going to find someone who will. (Matthew 25:14-30)

Both of these examples apply to me. I get so caught up in planning so many things at once that I forget to take a minute and relish in the fact that God is right here. And when He shows me little pieces of what’s next, I get very scared and try to bury it until I need it and not invest in it.

I see this happening in our world. Many people are carrying so many things on their shoulders that they are just trying to survive, let alone giving another part of themselves to what God wants. And there are people who are so scared of what the world is going to do that they stay where they are with no movement. Jesus’ last command to His disciples before He ascended was spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. I think we’ve forgotten this. In our western world, we are so used to God that we see Him as a second nature but don’t invest real time, or effort into Him. Or we do see His value but we’re so scared about what the world would say that we stay quiet and watch from the sidelines. Well, unfortunately, we can’t watch, and we can’t bench God until we think we need Him. To be honest, you shouldn't even be coaching, if anything you should be the number one player, listening to God's direction.

We need to be proactive Christians, including myself. We need to invest time and effort into God. We need to walk into those dark places and speak proudly about what God has done. We need to uphold our end of the deal, He has given us the talents or the means to do these things. The question is, are we going to be too focused on those talents and not enough on Him, or are we going to listen to Him on how to use them. Are we going to bury those talents deep because they're scary, or are we going to push forward and trust Him?

Thanks for reading,

Em