Help Wanted: Looking for corporate cheerleader to toss boatloads of confetti at narcissistic, self-focused employees and fill voicemail boxes with chipper-sounding “employee celebration” messages.
Today, as I was reading over past notes in my moleskine, I came across an article that I read two years ago in the Wall Street Journal. As a result of the coming of age of the latest surge of coddled youth, employers and spouses are faced with the crazy task of learning how to motivate, placate, and celebrate the new generation of contributors to our national workforce.
Corporate “celebration” advisors encourage employers to pass out helium balloons, offer a continuous flow of compliments, and, yes, toss confetti at workers – all in an attempt to keep them happy and committed.
While these measures are said to promote job retention and marriage interaction, the backlash is that often the acts and statements become rote and soon lose all depth and meaning. The givers become detached and generate compliments merely as a means of expected communication, and the recipients become so attuned to praise that they respond to little else.
So my question is: how does this impact the church?
As a church planter, I’ve seen this first-hand. While speaking with an admittedly broad brush, too often I encounter persons who are certain they are called by God, only if they are leading and in charge. For others, level of commitment is based on whether something is convenient, and is generally influenced by the amount of attention a situation can garner.
While this attitude and behavior is disappointing on a personal and logistical level, it is heartbreaking when I see it in people’s reactions to God.
Too many times, I’ve watched as God’s presence moved into a room, opening a door for healing and direction, mercy and purpose. In times like these, it is often all I can do to maintain my cool. While all I want to do is drop what I’m doing, fall on the floor, and melt into God’s love, I know the hurts and needs of the people around me. I turn away from my own instinct so that I can pray with others, knowing that they can surely sense the hope that certainly surrounds us.
And there I see them. Standing. Solemn. Waiting. Exerting little effort. Hands raised half-mast. Mind slightly disengaged. Heart off-limits. Waiting for God to hit them with his power.
What is going on? Do we feel we are owed something by God? Does seeking God require too much input from our lazy selves? Are we unsure of how to pursue him? Or are we simply waiting for him to bless us, just as we expect praise from the rest of life?
Maybe it is just me, but this reeks of self-centeredness, laziness, and humanity. To be frank, it makes me mad. It is ridiculous. It is sad. And it surely disgusts the God who was willing to sacrifice everything for us, to see our half-baked response.
I long to see people move back to old-fashioned pursuit of God. Praying until the week hours of the morning. Seeking him with urgency and intensity until we are knocked down by the surge of his power consuming our life. Determined to live in his presence with the passion of a lover.
My Prayer
God, I desperately want you to wreck havoc upon my world until I become completely disenchanted with myself and thoroughly consumed with love for you. May my eyes see the world as you sees it. May I change my attitude to reflect your love. May my energy be spent on your pursuits. May my choices follow your leading. May I not seek constant confirmation of your love, and instead rest assured in your promised peace. May my confidence and sense of security be found purely and solely in you.
The first part of this reminds me of “The Office” and the ridiculous parties they have that are planned and carried out by the “party committee” … which was recently disbanded if you aren’t up on your episodes.
The second part of this article just turns my stomach. In pastoring, how many times do we have to tell people, “Quit staring at your shoes and respond to what God is saying and doing in you!”
In an age where people want experiences to accompany their faith, it doesn’t make sense to me that so few people then are willing to step into the unknown and embarrass themselves for God. Some type of response to God is necessary. If you want an experience with God Almighty, then make yourself vulnerable and open. Step out into an opportunity that he has set before you where, if you do it, he must catch you, or it will be the worst.
My mind says move on to the next person, that the unresponsive persons are unworthy of God’s love and blessings. Bums. But the spirit in me says otherwise. He says, “Give them time and don’t shut them out.”
So, while we await for the planets to align just right for people to feel that they can obey God, I will obey him. I will worship him. I will respond in such a way that others can see that this is what it means to be a follower … to step out … and really live this faith.