Fair Is The New Good

“Great writing is the creative use of words. It comes from reading, writing, failing and repeating.

It takes time to become a good writer. Since few have the time, fair is the new good.”

This was the last two lines of an editorial I happened across in the Tulsa World newspaper.  The article was entitled, “Graduates commence to join the real world” and for the most part, at least to me, it wasn’t an article I was impressed with, until the last two lines.  For some reason, it really made me think about what passes for modern Evangelical Church today.  Have we become so busy in this world that we no longer expect “good” from the Church?  It seems to me that all we want to do is show up, spend 45 minutes having a “worship experience” and then go on about our lives, happy with the fact that we have punched our ticket for another week.

“Oh, preacher,” thinks the little old gray haired lady, “You preached too long and now I won’t be able to get that handicapped parking spot and a good seat at the restaurant because all the other church’s have already finished their services.”  “Man, I’m going to miss the opening kickoff if he doesn’t wrap this up soon,” is the thought running through that guy who used to be the college fullback!  “If this pastor doesn’t shut up soon, I’m going to miss DW’s ‘boogity, boogity, boogity, let’s go racing boys,'” thinks the guy who always shows up in the NASCAR hat.

I realize that some who read this might push back some, but isn’t it the truth?  For the most part, we as human beings, desire the “fair” over the “good.”  Don’t believe me, take a look at the furniture you have in your house.  How much of it came from Walmart and how much of it was crafted by true furniture maker and will be passed down to your grandchildren?  How many of us get up in the morning, turn to our Bible’s and spend an hour digging into the Word of God and then praying that God apply His Word to our lives instead of just getting our “fix” on Sunday?

The problem, as I see it, is that we have such low expectations of ourselves in the area of our spiritual lives, which, by the way, is the most important area of our lives, that we come to expect even our Sunday Service to be just “fair.”  That, sir or ma’am, is absolutely wrong (wow, did this guy just make an absolute moral judgement, why yes he did). We should go to Church expecting to be fed meat, and not just any meat, but the meat that has been tenderized by the study of God’s Word, marinated in days of agonizing prayer, and served up to us with the knowledge that it was God Himself that chose to allow us to hear from Him through His chosen servant.

If we end up settling for less than the best of God’s Word, then I submit that we have failed (can you believe this guy, he has committed a major faux pas by making his second absolute moral judgment).  If, as Ephesians 1:3 states, “…[He] has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” and we blow that off by settling for less, what does that say about us as Christians.

Just a little food for thought today!