Mind the Gap

Jul 25, 2021 | by Pastor Andrew Blackstone | series: (All)

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My wife hates it when I go grocery shopping with her. I always thought it would be a good time of fellowship and connection as we sauntered down the aisles looking for things to buy to eat for the week. Inevitably though, the grocery bill is often much more than it would be if she went on her own. My wife is a planner. She thinks about the meals we will eat, snacks, what days we are home or away, who we might be inviting over and often strikes a near perfect balance come the end of the week. Then there is me, and I think part of the mistake comes from asking her to grab groceries and then go to lunch. Have you ever shopped hungry? By the time we get to the checkout her well planned list has been riddled with extras that l snuck into the cart.

There is often a gap between what we plan and what we do. The same goes for our spiritual lives. As we grow in a faith and knowledge of Christ through the process of sanctification we are also called to GO and DO rather than just KNOW and PLAN. The gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News to those who are perishing but how will they know if no one tells them? Back in 2018 Pastor Tate and I talked about being on Mission as a church and one of the things Pastor Tate said was, “You can’t go with God and stay where you are.” You can’t plan to eat healthy and then bring your hungry snack loving husband along while you shop. You can’t set your alarm early and then snooze it twelve times. A life in Christ is about transformation because of His marvelous mercy.

The Lord said to the people in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” As Christians we must mind the gap between our desires and our actions. Even those desires that are rightly motivated might be derailed in the moment if we aren’t prepared so how do we bridge the gap between what we know and what we do when God says GO?