There are opportunities in life that you and I simply cannot experience by proxy. If you’re not there when it happened, no amount of description, recap video, or social media posts can make up for what you missed. You just had to be there to experience what was going on.
I feel like we live in an age of experience by proxy – where we consistently substitute the opportunity to actually be there when God wants to show up and show off, and instead settle for the rut and routine of a rat-race lifestyle… trusting in artificial experiences instead of the real thing.
It’s a lot like looking at pictures of Hawaii and saying you’ve been there. I had a coworker in college once that got into a conversation about how good he was with a sword… Upon further inquiry we all discovered that his experience with a sword was limited to playing Tekken 2 – a combat video game. The guy had never once held an actual sword – never felt it’s weight; never experienced it’s wield or the wring in the hands of connecting it with your target. But to hear him talk, he was a samurai warrior.
I think a lot of people have a proxy-only relationship with God.
They’ve read about Him. They’re extremely knowledgeable. They can quote His word, and recite theologians. They’ve even sang about Him. They have a “form of godliness” but never tasted the power thereof. When life happens, when disappointment appears, and when pain is present they act completely lost. I fear we are all guilty of this, far too often.
We talk about how much we trust God, but have never tithed faithfully.
We sing about Him being all we need, until suddenly He’s all we’ve got.
We declare to “worship Him alone”, when in reality we worship so much else.
We quote verses of God’s love, and then behave unloving to someone different.
We complain about our spouse’s lack of faith, but won’t pray with them.
We tell others that God is in control, just before freaking out about our own catastrophe.
We’ll give thousands to reach the lost in Africa, but won’t even befriend our neighbors.
It’s time we grow up, spiritually, and drop the sippy cups. We need to walk the walk. We need to do hard things. We need to put our life where our faith supposedly is. It is not enough to know of God, informationally – we must experience Him personally.
I wouldn’t be able to speak of God’s faithfulness if He hadn’t carried me through some tough times.
I wouldn’t truly understand worship if there wasn’t sacrifice accompanying my words and emotions.
I would never tell someone “you can trust God” if I hadn’t witnessed it personally over and over again.
I would know nothing of His strength if I had never been forced to acknowledge – and even embrace – my own weaknesses.
I couldn’t talk of God’s forgiveness, until I had learned to repent of my own sin and brokenness.
Quit playing the video game version of faith and get into real life instead – where it counts. Yes, you’ll get hurt in the process. We’re at war with a spiritual enemy. But that just means there’s something worth fighting for. We are more than conquers through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And the power of seeing God at work in and through you takes second place to none. You can’t experience this over your cell phone, on Youtube, or a blog post. You’ve got to go get into it. Rush into your own real-life experiences. See God make the sun stand still in your life. Let others’ stories inspire you to live your own, not replace your own. Don’t accept a vicarious adventure.
May your life be full of such experiences. May you share your story of God’s favor and faithfulness over your years. And when others ask what it was like, may you remember, smile, and reply,
“You just had to be there!”
Blessings,
Pastor John
John, I enjoyed that so much. I was telling my daughter that when she lost her job after 12 years. Thank you.