Desperately Needed

“The world desperately needs the generosity of a well-rested people.”

This sentiment flies in the face of everything American mainline churches seem to stand for. Every sermon, committee meeting, or personal interaction places another demand on our time and resources. We function under so much pressure. The church budget is perpetually underfunded, and there never seem to be enough people to fill its committees, not to mention run all of its programs. I can’t think of many people at my church (or anyone else’s), who I can describe as even adequately rested.

And it is causing the world to suffer.

In our exhausted hurry to do for others, we fail to love them. We only half-listen to our kids when they arrive home feeling chatty because there’s dinner to make and laundry to fold. We avoid the person breaking down in front of us because we need to go complete some other ‘important’ task that we’ve agreed to perform.

The world is in desperate need of the generosity of a well-rested people. I forget where I came across the quote, but these words have stuck with me as words of great wisdom. And I’ve thought of a few other phrases that seem just as true (and just as counter-cultural):

The world is in desperate need of the patience of a well-margined people.

The world is in desperate need of the passion of an authentic people.

The world is in desperate need of the courage of an imperfect people.

Will we, as the church, be the well-rested, well-margined, authentic, and imperfect people that our world so desperately needs?

May it be so!