First of all I greet you in the name of our Savior Jesus
Christ. I am blessed with the
opportunity to enjoy a wonderful vacation and birthday week. Of course the week included worship at New
Hope Church as well as time with my Life Group, and I want to share with you my
thoughts on the week’s sermon by the esteemed Pastor Brooks.
The message by Pastor Brooks was a continuation of the rhythm
series. He gave a wonderful account of
the passage of Luke 10:38 – 42 which provided
the summary of the message detailing the story of Mary and Martha experience
with the visit of Jesus. According to scripture Martha was the
example of hospitality; cooking and straightening up to give her guest the best
possible experience. Mary, however, neglected all of these duties to sit at the feet of Jesus causing
Martha to become annoyed at Mary for not helping her. Martha sought support from Jesus, however His words stressed the importance of making the most of
what was taking place.
So now we bridge this scripture to the series on Rhythm. He talked about rhythm at work, in sport, and
in our personal lives. He expressed how
there was a balance in activities based on how we reacted to things. When he spoke of rhythm I couldn’t help but
to think about the difference between rhythm and routine and then it dawned on
me: Rhythm is a relationship! When Jesus stopped by, Mary maintained her
routine. She provided snacks, prepared dinner,
as well as anything else she knew to do under the circumstances. Her productivity set a nice atmosphere and put
food on the table, but what was important at that moment? She was ignoring the presence of Jesus, our
Savior and our Liberator. Her behavior
is classic in today’s society. We scurry
about like mice looking for cheese in order to achieve our own personal desires.
We struggle to go to school and go into debt to get bigger house, a nicer car,
public admiration or professional achievements but what good are these things
if we don’t have Christ in our lives?
That being said, Pastor Brooks mentioned that we need to LISTEN. We need to hear from God. How do we do that? We must first clear away all distractions. Martha
was distracted by her routine, a routine that was productive yet produced
nothing that compared to what was being offered just a short distance
away. So why didn’t she follow suit with
Mary? Lack of relationship! She did not value the presence of Jesus as
she should before it had yet to have meaning to the rest of the world.
So once we value His Word we begin to have a relationship
with Him and our heart longs for His word and instruction. At this point hearing from God allows us to
react to what He is telling us and therefore affecting our behavior and
environment.
So how is rhythm different from routine? A routine is what you form in accordance to
what you need to accomplish in an ideal situation. Rhythm is the action and reaction in
relationship with what matters to us. So
to give an example in the spirit of rhythm, I bring up the world of dance. Solo dancers learn routines to integrate the
elements of a performance to convey the technique and artistry of a
choreographer’s vision. By repeating the
techniques over and over again they build their body and physical memory so
they can perform it with excellence on the dance floor. To bring it to the scope of group routines,
the contribution is greater than the sum of their individual roles. They must work in tandem with other artists
bringing the whole vision to pass.
For those of you who do sports, your routine starts with exercise
and drills. You practice the exercises
and movements that build your body and train it to react accordingly. When you add teammates in the mix, you have
to learn how they function so you can work together towards your common goal. By understanding their rhythm you gain a
working relationship, and you do what is important to achieve you desire.
So my question to you is "Do you have a religious routine
or do you have spiritual rhythm?"
Do you go through the motions to get Christian caffeine boost, or do you
react to the presence of the Lord on High, forming a spiritual symbiosis with
our Heavenly Father so that you are bobbing and weaving, ducking and dodging from
sin and listening for his instruction so we work with the knowledge of what is
important in how we live our lives?
For those who seek the latter I provide a mash-up of Psalm
119:37 (NIV) and a verse from one of Gloria Estefan's songs:
“Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to
your word so when you do, the “Rhythm is gonna get ya”
