The first week in August is a busy week in New Zealand. This is the time of year that sheep ranchers welcome new baby lambs into their flock. Last week something very strange happened, farmer Dave Callaghan's ewe gave birth to twin lambs! That alone is not so strange, but one of the lambs was born with seven legs. Yes, seven legs. The Methven locals reported Mr. Callaghan as saying that the little deformed lamb seemed very happy, but he fell down a lot. The plan is to euthanize the lamb as his deformity makes a quality life impossible. His four-legged twin, however, is doing well.
I began to think about how we as Americans, as 21st century Christians, seem to have a mindset that more is always better. We work and work and work, to make more money, so we can buy more things. And like the little lamb, we seem happy. Also like the lamb, we fall alot. We fall prey to pride. We look at all our possessions and our chests swell. We feel good about "all that we have done". We stand back and survey our wealth and then we notice that our neighbor has more. And we fall prey to greed and covetousness. In our desire to be the best and have the most, we decide we must have even more. So we take extra shifts, even if they fall during worship times. And we begin to fall---this time, we are falling down before false idols. Our things, our money, our stuff becomes our god and we can focus on nothing else. We reach the point where we are falling so much that we no longer function as God's people.
Sometimes even as the church, we get caught up in the "more is better" attitude. We invite all our friends and all our neighbors to worship with us. We watch proudly as the attendance numbers climb. During worship we look at the big wooden placards up front. We are excited that attendance is climbing as is contribution. We can't wait to get more people in. Unfortunately, our evangelism usually ends at the waters of baptism. Once the commitment is made and we have a new brother or sister, our work is done and we are off to another lost soul. We no longer study with, pray with or work with the new convert. We are happy they are there but we have moved on to other important matters. And so, we raise up generation after generation after generation of wishy-washy Christians, Christians whose faith is a surface faith, whose roots are shallow and who are in danger of falling away. I daresay our pews are filled with such brothers and sisters.
It is sad that this little lamb will lose his life, but he cannot survive in this world. He is an anomaly, a freak of nature. It was not intended he should be born this way. It is even more sad when we become "freaks" and when we begin to live outside the intentions of our Creator. We may seem to be happy but we will fall----all the time. It is sad when we boast large numbers of members ---only to note that few of them bring their bibles to church or read them at home, few of them pray as a part of their daily walk, few of them live God throughout the week, and when the struggles and trials come, the shallow Christian turns somewhere else for comfort.
No, more is not always better. Most of us would be happier and more productive and more godly if we had less. We would have more time to worship God, to work for Him, to become more like Him. And most of our congregations would be better off if we took the time, (however much time it took), to really ground our new converts, if we worked with and prayed with them until their faith was strong and their conviction deep. Even if our numbers only increased slowly, it would be better to have a few strong, convicted Christians than hundreds of shallow ones.
(Now before someone starts jumping on me about judging, please read the message of this post---it is not about deciding who is shallow and who is not, it is about making sure our new converts are fully grounded---please do not read into this what I did not write.) I often think about the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness. They did not have a lot. And yet, they were closer to God than they ever would be in history ---because they had less, they depended on God for everything, for food and water, for guidance and the scripture says even their shoes did not wear out. Less was best for them. Later on in history, they became wealthy and powerful and they began serving idols. We are similar creatures and for most of us, we will need to change our mindset. We will need to accept that sometimes less is best!
Peace
Neva
