Concrete = Community.

I live in a fairly suburban, white-picket-fence style community. (I don't have a white-picket fence, and come to think of it, I don't know anyone who does. We need to get rid of that saying. This is a long parenthetical statement.)

Anyways, as I was saying, (before I was so rudely interrupted by my past self) in my community, there's a sidewalk that runs in front of pretty much every house. It passes through each persons property and links the whole community together.

As I was working around the house this past week, I accidentally got some grass fertilizer on the sidewalk, and I knew I had to get it off because it was pink. And if you don't know why that's bad, let me just say that water, pink fertilizer, and white concrete don't mix to produce a very nice-looking sidewalk. And considering my community's Nazi-minded Homeowner's Association, I wanted to keep the sidewalk looking nice.

That being said, I got out the biggest broom I could find (actually, the only broom I could find) and I started sweeping almost the entire length of my family's portion of the sidewalk. To get a little bit of insight as to why I think of writing about the topics that I pick, it's because of random moments like this: as I was sweeping I realized that the sidewalk reminded me of how the church works. Call it what crazy, but that's how my mind works, because apparently to me, concrete = community.

Anyhow, think of it this way: The houses are representations of each of our individual lives as believers, which would not be connected were it not for some common element. That's where the sidewalk comes in. The sidewalk represents all of us being brought together into the body of Christ. Now, I've written about the body of Christ before, but I wanted to add an element to this discussion of the church: responsibility to our part of the body. In other words:

Whatever you do, do it as best you can.

Just like the Homeowner's Association has requirements as far as how your sidewalk is supposed to look, God has requirements as to how we are to operate in our respective positions in the church. Ephesians 4 says, 

"From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

So, does that look like spending all of your time over-booking yourself with church responsibilities?

The short answer: No. 

The long answer: In whatever responsibility we have, whether it be pastoring a church, discipling a few people, cleaning bathrooms, offering up your home, volunteering to help the old lady who can't do much at your church, or serving in the children's ministries, we must make sure that we devote ourselves to doing the best job possible. We need to take care of our sidewalk.

For some people, this might mean being more disciplined in setting specific times to meet the people they are discipling, or making sure that you're spending enough time alone with God before you go out and serve, or sacrificing the time that you feel entitled to have for relaxation for God's purposes.

That might even mean dropping some responsibilities because you've taken on so much that you can't do anything with 100% of devotion. God would rather have you be serving in one area to the best of your ability, than serving in five areas with a half-hearted dedication to each.

Whatever it may be, look into your respective calling, ask God what you need to start changing about your involvement with it, and follow it through.

So let's get out that broom and start sweeping.

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