I can remember pulling into a gas station when I was a child riding in the back seat of my parent’s car. My dad would roll down the window, and an attendant would ask him how much gas he wanted him to put in the tank. Then during the wait on the fill up, the attendant would clean our windows and ask my dad if he wanted him to check the oil. Unfortunately that kind of service is a thing of the past, a lost courtesy, which is now just a faint memory in the American landscape. I imagine the reason the service stopped is because so many people decided to just do it themselves. Customers probably thought that they could do it faster, especially if they skipped the steps of checking the oil and cleaning the windows. Then I imagine the store owner realized he could sell the same amount of his product while saving on the cost of an attendant, windshield cleaner, and paper towels!
I have heard a preacher more than once compare the midweek service as a Christian’s time to pull into the gas station {the Church} and refuel. This is truly the time to refill the spiritual goodness that the world drains off of us on a daily basis. Sadly the midweek service is too becoming a thing of the past; just like the gas station attendant. So what is the problem? We, as a nation, are too busy. We are in too big of a hurry to get nowhere in particular and we too think we can do it better ourselves. After all we are self reliant; aren’t we? We think that Sunday mornings are enough. We “top off the tank” on Sunday and that will give us enough spiritual fuel to last until the next Sunday. We think, “Hey I can block out an hour or two one day a week in my busy schedule to devote to God, but don’t ask me to commit to more!”
Brothers and sisters many congregations are already stopping midweek and Sunday evening services in the name of “progress” in order to coincide with what they deem as their “busy schedules”. But did you know that the word “progress” means a movement toward a goal to a further or a higher standard? Some people may argue that we have progressed so much since the good old days that what was known and practiced back then is truly out dated. But please remember what we have left behind. We have left behind the times where only one parent worked outside the home and divorce was at a minimum. We left behind the times where the children came home from school and mom was there to meet them. We left behind the times where families ate together and didn’t nuke a hotdog and run out the door. We have left behind the times where families would talk to each other instead of texting and surfing the net; while falsely calling this diversion family time. We left behind the times where you could enjoy a quiet dinner with your wife or husband without someone obnoxiously talking loudly on their cell phone. We left behind the times where abortions were sparingly performed in our nation. We left behind the times where the family ate together as a family and the biggest “crime” in school was chewing gum or talking in class! We have progressed so much that we are even too busy to take the time to instill the moral and ethical values of long ago to our children and grandchildren!
We have “progressed” so much that we, as Christians, cannot be bothered to serve the Lord more than one hour on Sunday morning. And don’t even ask us to come back Sunday evening or midweek! And then we have the nerve as a nation to sit back and wonder why our country is “going to hell in a hand basket!” I don’t know about you but those “out dated” things that I just wrote about look pretty good to me right now. Therefore I pray that we might return to those days when it was fitting to sing “God Bless America”, say the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America, read the Bible in school, and pray to the God of heaven for all that we have or ever hope to accomplish. To tell you the truth the more I think about it; I think I will cast my one vote to go back to the future!
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