This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:4
Many years ago, when our kids were little and my husband and I purchased a membership to a fitness club. A year later, we cancelled it. Why? Because we hardly ever used it. According to a report about fitness clubs, we were exactly the kind of people they love. Fitness clubs enroll more members than their facilities can serve. If everyone showed up at once, there would not be nearly enough torture devices–excuse me–I mean, treadmills, elliptical machines, and stationary bicycles. Personal trainers would become the gym rat equivalent of an elementary school teacher teaching 25 children to count change, tell time, and convert pounds to ounces to tons at the same time. Not a pretty sight.
So those fitness club ads aimed at motivating couch potatoes to get off the couch and into the gym secretly hope for something else. They hope a few people will buff up–to show off in future ads–but that most will leave their couches just long enough to pay their money, work out once or twice, and then go back to watching the yoga channel on TV.
Which got me to thinking. What if the church followed the fitness club business model? What if believers motivated oodles of people to follow Jesus? And what if they encouraged a few to get spiritually buffed up–for future evangelism ads–but hoped most would come to church once or twice, tithe annually, and then watch the televangelist channel at home?
Then it hit me. Our faith is like the fitness club business model until we know who Christ is and who we are in comparison, until we know why he came to earth as a baby and lived a sinless life, until we comprehend his work on the cross and proclaim him the risen Savior, until we claim the blood on his brow as payment our sins and bow undone at his nail-scarred feet.
The spiritually buff may look better on the surface than the couch potato, but neither has a deep faith. Faith isn’t a business transaction. It’s a relationship with Christ fostered through spiritual discipline like delving into God’s word, committing to prayer, fellowshipping with believers, giving back to God through tithes, and serving the local body. A relationship of Christ is a lifetime of giant leaps into the darkness of the future and finding him there before you, of learning to trust him in the depth of sorrow, and of praising him in joyful mountaintop moments.
Faith isn’t an advertising campaign either. Christ didn’t die on the cross so many would believe, but only a few come to know him well. No, he desired for all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So when you make your New Year’s resolutions for 2015, how about adding one designed to grow your relationship with Christ? To read scripture daily or keep a prayer journal. To join a Bible study or tithe regularly. To find a place to serve at church.
Now, how about writing you resolution above the one about joining a fitness club. Because a relationship with Christ trumps even the best business model and our best intentions. Not just for today, but for eternity.
