Immediacy

Immediacy. Tobiah is all about immediacy. Surprise, surprise. When he wants his diaper changed, he wants it done right now. When he wants your attention, he wants it right now….not when it’s convenient for you. But most of all when he wants to eat, he wants it now. He wails. Granted his wailing is pretty quiet, but its still passionate and full of immediacy.
At 4 am the other night as I was setting with him giving him a bottle I started wondering where our immediacy is. What are we so passionate about that we need to yell? Or maybe it’s not yelling we need to do.

I wonder if we’re missing something. Do we overlook injustice? Do we rationalize evil because we’re “just one church” or “person”? Are we content letting the world just go on around us or are we willing to speak our minds because the Bible says right is right and wrong is wrong? Why don’t we get fed up with things and speak out? Or Yell? Or cry?

Why are only 2% of US Christians willing to do something about AIDS orphans in Africa (there are currently around 13 million children without parents in Africa)? Why do we turn a blind eye to child slavery and trafficking? The US bails out Wall Street for 700 billion but the entire G8 can’t find 25 billion to stop the 25,000 children that die daily from preventable disease (thank you Bono). Where are our priorities in the church? Why aren’t these the biggest problems in our lives?

These are some of the things we should be yelling about. Instead we complain because of the flower arrangements or the music or the lack of a drama team or how we don’t have a puppet ministry anymore or how the pastor changed the order of worship or why we’re not having enough potlucks or why we’re doing too many potlucks or why if we should call it a potluck or a tureen………

What happened to shouting the Gospel from the mountaintops? What happened to taking care of widows, and orphans and the least of these? When is enough enough? Where is our immediacy?