I’ve been on staff in a fairly large church for nearly 7 years now.  The average weekly attendance is 1200-1300.  (By the way the average stay for a youth pastor is 18-24 months.)  Before coming on staff at this church, my ministry “backdrop” was in the smaller church setting.  I grew up in a church that rarely saw 100 people in attendance at worship services (the average church in America is 70-80 people).  When I stepped foot into the lobby/atrium of my current ministry location, I must admit to a rather unspiritual thought: “Wow. I’ve made it. This is the big time.”  I actually thought that moving from a medium-sized church (avg. 300-350) to a large church was some type of promotion; some type of message from God that “you’ve been faithful in little, now be faithful in much” kind of thing.  I naively thought that stepping into ministry in a large church setting would be an exhilarating joy-filled euphoria.  Well, not really all that, but you get the idea.  Simply put: I felt great about “moving up”.

Here’s some of what I’ve learned since that first day nearly 7 years ago:

1. A bigger church means a bigger budget.

While that might sound great at first glance, I’ve learned that that’s not the end of the statement.  It really goes like this: A bigger church means a bigger budget which means more pressure to meet that budget which means you’ve got to get people in the door to help support that budget which  means you need to keep people coming and happy and giving.  All this leads naturally to the tendency to rely on gimmicky flash rather than the power of the Holy Spirit.  It also leads me to care more about progress charts than I do about people’s hearts.

2. A bigger church means a bigger crowd.

Again, this one sounds nice at first.  Few and far between are the pastors/preachers who wouldn’t prefer to speak to a larger crowd than a smaller crowd.  Most pastors/preachers are a-ok with a “standing room only” kind of Sunday morning.  Most pastors/preachers would prefer full chairs/pews to empty ones.  That’s because most pastors/preachers are human beings.  But I want to make another gruesome confession to you as a pastor on staff at a larg(ish) church: I have no idea who many of the people in our church are.  I mean that literally.  Every Sunday I get plenty of greetings from people as I walk through the church building and I must admit that I very often have no idea of the names of those greeting me, despite my desire to know every one of them.  This leaves me feeling disconnected and if I’m honest I feel shamed as well.  After all, we go to the same local church.  Shouldn’t I know them? Their name? Their situation?

Another danger of the larger crowd is the ease in which people can find places to go unnoticed. While our church does do a fantastic job of connecting people in small groups, the nature of the large church gives plenty of opportunity for people to attend the church for weeks, months and even years and never establish good solid relationships with anyone.  I realize this has much to do with the desire and determination of the individual, but its still a reality.  Have you ever been to a pet store that was selling goldfish or guppies? Go to the crowded fish tank that holds them and try and keep your eye on one particular fish.  Pretty tough.  Next, spin around one time (this represents the many responsibilities/activities of the pastor) and try and find that one fish again.  That’s sometimes the feeling pastors/leaders of large churches have.  Despite their deepest desire to gather, connect, identify with, and serve every person who attends, it often seems so very difficult.  As a result, some go unnoticed; lost in the crowd.   And many of those will leave.

A bigger church can more easily lean toward “corporate” than toward “community”.

Let’s not kid ourselves.  When Jesus called His followers to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19), He wasn’t calling us to create an organization, an institution, or a manufacturing entity.  He called us to “make disciples”.  But by nature of the sheer size of the crowds of people, the building(s), the resources, the board, and the budget, we can allow our default setting as a large church to be more corporate than community.  And who wants to cuddle up with a corporation?  What Jesus meant as organic and organized (the first chapters of Acts show that organization has its place), we have morphed into something organized with little semblance of a living organism.  As a pastor on staff, I must constantly repeat in my mind, “People over policy”.  After all, its much easier in a church this size to chant “Policy over people” because that keeps things tidy and neat rather than messy and disheveled.  But organisms are messy.  Even as well-meaning as I am, I can fall into the trap of making what the policy or protocol says outweigh the caring of the person God has entrusted to the ministry I lead and serve.  Yikes.

So, what about some principles that might protect the large church from itself?  Let me take a crack at it.

1.  Spirit-led above all else.  We all desire it, but often times our decisions reinforce our yearning for the control that rightly belongs to God.

2.  Preach the Word.  No gimmick can do what God Himself can do through His Word, the Bible.  But when we want/need crowds, we’re tempted to turn the weekly worship into a spectacle of flashiness.  Trust that God won’t let His Word down…because He won’t.

3. People. People. People.  And not for the sake of tithes, but for the sake of eternity.  God and His people are the only things that will live eternally, so it stands to reason that we not become consumed with things that ultimately will not last.

I need to wrap up this post with a declaration that I am pleased, and (can I say it?) proud to be on staff at the church I serve at.  It is by no means the perfect church (which doesn’t exist anyway) but what we do is follow the Spirit of the Living God wherever He leads us.  That confounds some, unsettles some, and even pushes some away but I’m glad to say though that it exhilarates most.  We declare the infallible Word of God to any size crowd that shows up to hear it.  And we LOVE PEOPLE.  God helping us, we just LOVE PEOPLE.  I can tell you that I stand with those on staff in full conviction and surrender to the God who loves me enough to allow me the highest privilege of “Loving all people into a community of Christ-like disciples.”

Here’s to at least 7 more years.

As I type these words, I’m sitting on the couch in my living room with just enough energy to move my fingers across the keyboard.  I’ve spent the last 7 days in Kilmarnock, VA with 50 middle schoolers, 10 high school student leaders, and 10 adult leaders.  The 70 of us had set out for our annual adventure to see how many people in that region we could serve, love, and share God’s grace with.

I’d like to share some of my experiences and thoughts on what was most definitely a remarkable week.  We promote this week-long experience each year as “the best week you’ll have all summer”, but even that claim was outdone when one of our middle school girls came to me toward the end of the week and said, “Jerry, this is the best week of my life!”

We started the week with the plan, supplies, and manpower to attack 5 different projects at 5 different homes throughout Kilmarnock and neighboring towns.  We were reroofing 3 houses, painting the outside of one house, and repairing an unsafe and dilapidated front porch and back deck of another house.  But we ended up adding another reroof job and even throwing in the painting of an entire side of the very large dining hall of the camp we stayed at; a project that served as a kind of “thanks” to our hosts.

I’m usually serving as a leader on one of the worksites, and so am dedicated to that one location all week.  But this year I was given the opportunity to “float” between all the various locations in order to visit, bring needed supplies, and encourage those at each site.  So I spent the lion’s share of my time this past week behind the wheel of a sturdy, blue pick-up truck.  I loved seeing every work crew every day and the progress being made.

The first thing I noticed was common among nearly all the work crews.  There are some middle school students who seem to get right to work when a task is in front of them and there are those who seem to avoid work for as long as possible.  We call it “work ethic” and it describes which side a person is on.  Some seemed to not be able to get enough of the progress and momentum hard work brings, and some were completely content to sit and watch the progress happen at the hands of others.  What creates a good work ethic in a student has a large part to do with upbringing and parental example.  Not exclusively however, because I know many of the students’ parents and while I know them to be extremely hard workers their kids are still exhibiting the qualities of a loafer.  I’m glad to say though that this is was by far the exception rather than the rule.  The vast majority of our students were eager to serve the needs of others; even total strangers as was the case this past week.  And it was incredible to watch.

When we returned to camp mid- to late-afternoon each day, we gave students some downtime to rest, swim, or play.  Our expansive camp was equipped with a large in-ground pool, and is located on an inlet with a large dock where students could fish or just hang their feet over the edge and enjoy the breeze.

After dinner each night we had a worship service that included a time of “bragging” students could do on each other.  This is a time when any student or leader could share something they saw in another person that day; something that encouraged them or blessed them.  The only rule: you can’t brag on yourself.

After bragging time, we got into some worship singing and you simply haven’t lived until you’ve been in a large room with 50 middle schoolers singing praise to Jesus literally at the top of their lungs.  In fact, their favorite song to sing last week was a song by a band named “Starfield” called…you guessed it…”At the top of our lungs!”  Here’s a taste of that here…

After some time of singing, I was humbled and amazed to be used to deliver God’s Word to the students.  This week of messages has been unlike most that I’ve delivered.  Whereas I would normally have a handful of pages of typed notes to keep me on track with what I had prepared, my preparation for these messages consisted of prayer and nothing more than a few words scribbled on a legal pad.  Based on the freedom this approach offered me, I may never go back.

Monday night: We looked at the 2 men crucified on either side of Jesus and saw in them 2 distinct choices we can make in regards to the cross: defiance or reliance?  (Luke 23)

Tuesday night: We discussed the temporary condition of everything we see and conversely the eternal condition of all that is invisible.  (2 Cor. 4:18)  Then we decided if we’ll put more investment in the “pinky nail” thickness of this life or the unending line of eternity.

Wednesday night: We took a look at Peter.  Peter was a loud-mouth who’d often speak before thinking.  We looked at several instances between he and Jesus, but focused on Jesus’ question of Peter (and us): “Do you love me?” (John 21)

Thursday night: I wanted to attack the “critically incomplete” image that most of us have of Jesus.  Think of Jesus and you’ll likely have mental pictures of a fair-skinned, hair-flowing, blue-eyed, white robe-wearing, baby blue Miss America sash-sporting, twinkle-in-his-eye Jesus.  So we took a look at several instances when Jesus went ballistic.  Through them all, we learned about “the other side of Jesus”.  Needless to say, I had a roomful of middle schoolers who were shocked at what they heard as God blew up their view of a mind-mannered, mamsy-pamsy, milk-toast Jesus and replaced it with a wild-eyed Messiah worthy of their everything as He calls them into adventurous living.

On Friday night, I had felt unmistakably that God has put a message on my heart to share.  However, I was also least confident of how the passage I was speaking on was going to connect in any way with middle schoolers.  Even as I began sharing the message, I felt (humanly speaking) like this one might actually end up being a “dud”.  I should have remembered that God doesn’t really care what I think He can do.  He took this message and used it to pierce the hearts of so many students and before I knew it the room was filled with students literally standing to their feet in proclamation that their decision is to live louder and louder lives that scream the love of God to the world around them; that they were going to live free from what the world says they’re worth and instead stand on the truth of what God says.  Students moved around the room, gathering in clusters with leaders they love and who love them to pray together and cement their commitments.  Then they began to gather with each other and pray in groups all around the room.  Some prayed aloud while others wept at the undeniable presence of God’s Spirit.  Our high school student leaders took every opportunity to pray with the middle schoolers who they had spent the week loving and investing in.  Others just sat in amazement at what was going on around them.  No matter what an individual’s response to God that night, no one could deny it: God had made Himself evident.  Even I couldn’t have guessed that God would have done what He did that night, especially given the passage He had laid on my heart to share: The stoning of Stephen (Acts 7).

Saturday we ended the week of messages by focusing on the utter freedom we have in Christ.  That all of us were sitting on death row, waiting for our turn on the gurney when Jesus walked the hall to our cell, key in hand and freedom from it all as a gift to us.  As I shared “Christians are the only people on earth who have absolutely nothing to fear!”  It is us who should live as the most hysterical and hilarious people on the planet!  I used Romans 8:1 as a starting point and then went to 2 Cor. 3:17, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”, 1 Peter 2:16, “Live as free people…live as God’s slaves”, and Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom Christ has set us free!”  I believe many students felt chains falling off their hands and feet that night.

But I’ve always believed that while the success of a work site on a mission trip is one thing, the success of the mission trip overall is quite another.  We can all see when the last shingle on a roof is nailed down.  We can all see when the last brush stroke on a painted house is made.  But when it comes to lasting impact, we must trust God’s Spirit to connect the dots between there and here.  Even having given students follow-up devotions and things to do once they return home, we have to trust God to continue His work in their hearts as we continue to love them unconditionally with His love.

The theme of our week away was “Live Love Louder”, and I pray and hope that this is precisely what we’ll all do after having gone through this experience together.  That we would live unashamed lives of the loud kind of love that God gives to every one of us.

I’ve been to 2 weddings in 2 weeks.  And all 4 people involved have been through and have come out of the student ministry I’ve been leading for nearly 7 years.  As a student ministry pastor, its a joyous thing to watch teenagers transform into young adults and step into the next part of their lives that God has prepared for them.  And these 2 weddings were especially sweet to attend because all 4 students were also in my weekly small group Bible study.  As I watched them at their respective altars; vowing before God, each other, and those watching to serve, love, honor, and cherish each other–I had memories of discussions, questions, prayers, conversations, outings, and laughter with all of them running through my mind.  And I can’t lie: I cried too.

Whenever I attend a wedding, I also flash back to my own wedding.  At the ripe young age of 21, I and my bride stood before God and made the covenant commitment to one another and to Him that we’d seek Him and serve each other above all else.  And if you know me at all, you know that that decision is second only to my decision to follow Christ as the greatest decision I’ve ever made.  Truly, my wife is an non-stop picture of God’s grace: getting what I absolutely do not deserve, but have because of the lavish love of my Heavenly Father.  I look at her everyday and see the goodness of the Lord wrapped up in a package that I affectionately refer to as “The Hotness”.  (She hates that name.)

And because of that truth, I’d hope that if you know me, you know me as one of the most happily married men you’ve come across.  More than that, I’d hope that that’s how my wife sees me.  And I suppose my daily life is quite wrapped up in showing that to anyone who cares to notice.  I once heard this piece of advice in how to affair-proof your marriage: “Make your marriage so amazing that your spouse would have to be crazy to look anywhere else.”  Sounds nice, right?  But how?  Is there a formula to follow?  Well, I don’t think formula is the right word but I do think and have seen that there are some pretty obvious principles anyone can follow to strengthen the marriage they’ve got.  And at the risk of repeating age-old advice, I’d like to toss a few out there.

1. I can’t think of any better preventive medicine for a successful marriage than successful communication.  

Non-verbal: We’re told by sociologists that the majority of our communication is actually non-verbal.  So, things like a smile when your spouse enters the room, an out-of-the blue wink at an unexpected moment, a simple “I love you” note left in an inconspicuous spot, a for-no-reason-whatsoever hug, or a loving pat on their behind as you walk by–any and all of these can clearly communicate your thoughts without saying a word.  And they are peppered throughout my everyday.

Verbal: Problems arise from things like under-communication, hurtful communication, and miscommunication.  Like most guys, I’m most often guilty of under-communication.  There’s a terrible feeling in my stomach when I hear the words from my wife, “I didn’t know about that.”  Again, studies show that women use far more words on a daily basis than men do.  In short, women usually need to hear more words than men do.  No secret there.  But knowing something and making necessary changes to address it are two different things, right guys?  Case in point: a very common occurrence is for my wife to ask me, “how did your day at work go?”  My common response is “It was good.”  I just gave her a 3-word answer when she’s probably looking for a 3,000-word answer.  I answer the question with a summation of my day overall, when she wants to know about every conversation with every person I talked to, what we talked about, how I felt about it, what I did as a result, what I ate for lunch, if I liked it, and how many times I went to the bathroom.  Instead, I give her, “It was good.”  Guys, I’m not saying to act like a woman (that’d be a pretty big turn-off for your wife), but I am saying that we should recognize the need your wife has for more than she’s typically given.  If she asked for you to get her a drink of iced tea, you’d be an idiot to bring her an empty glass, right?  I mean it’s a good start but it’s only a start.   And believe me, I’m typing these words while looking in the mirror, if you know what I mean.

2. You and your spouse need consistent rest to stay fresh in your marriage.

Our culture is set against us on this one, but we also often give up too much ground in this area as we try and fit in with social norms and expectations; to the detriment of our marriage and intimacy.  Look around at the jam-packed schedules we subject ourselves to.  On top of our work schedule, we’ve got kids, helping with their homework, their interests and the schedules that come along with them, our own hobbies, and other things that vie for your time and attention.  This can all leave us running from one thing to the next with only enough energy at the end of the day to say “goodnight” to the person laying next to us (if they’re there at all).

Reversing schedule decisions is a difficult thing to do, especially if they’ve been around long enough to become the norm.  But there’s no way to sugarcoat it: if you’re serious about having sacred space in your marriage and time to give each other attention, then you very well may have to pull out of things you’d previously given yourselves too.  You’ve got to be honest when schedules start to reek havoc on your closeness as a husband and wife.  Many might say “But what about the kids? They’d be devastated not to be on swim team, dance troupe, baseball, chess squad, and student government.”  But what good is any of that if they have parents who barely know each other?  The concept of existing for your kids might sound right to some, but its anything but.  The greatest gift you can give your kids is the reality of a rock-solid marriage, and that takes a commitment to the time it takes to cultivate it.  And that will pay dividends to your family that no state championship can or will.

I’ll stop here and pick this up later, but I’d love to hear your responses.  And even if I’ve said something you completely disagree with or struggle with, feel free to share your thoughts.

Yesterday, I met with a good friend named Rob.  We get together each week for lunch.  Rob is in my small group and whenever we meet I always come away encouraged.  I’d sure hope he’d say the same.  I think he would.

So, yesterday was our scheduled lunch “man-date” and since I had exactly 5 1-dollar bills in my wallet, I suggested meeting at Costco for the cheapest lunch in town–a buck 57 for a huge hotdog and a drink.

We got our lunch, found a table and sat down.  We bowed our heads and I thanked God for our friendship, for our wives and kids, asked God to bless them with a great day, thanked Him for all-beef hotdogs, and told Him we love Him.  Amen.

Not a minute after I finished praying, I saw a man moving toward our table.  He got close to us, leaned down and said, “Thank for your testimony.”  Apparently he had seen us praying.  Have you ever wanted to say something but were too stunned by what you just heard that your brain couldn’t process it all fast enough?  Before I could engage my mouth with something intelligent; something besides “Uh, thanks”, he walked off.

I was thrown.  That might sound weird, but I honestly took several seconds to get my mind back in gear to continue the conversation with Rob.  I’m pretty sure I literally stumbled with my words for a minute or so.  I’ve never been thanked or acknowledged for praying before.  And I’ve certainly never been thanked “for my testimony” like that before.

And quite honestly I’m not sure that I would have responded to the stranger any differently even if I could somehow have known what was coming.  I mean, what do you say to someone who appears out of the blue, thanks you for your testimony (of praying in Costco), and disappears into the crowd?  I’m not sure you say anything.

But it got me thinking about what a testimony is.  Everyone has one.  I believe that every person on earth–past, present, and future–has a testimony.  Everyone has a story that they are telling every day of their lives.  Some are amazing to watch, some are honestly painful to watch.  Some are dripping with adventure, and some with paralyzing fear.  Some take every moment as a gift, and some take every moment as a right due them.  Some live serving, some live taking, and some live lives that seem to want neither.  Some live bold lives that come off as obnoxious and preachy.  Some live quiet lives that are somehow just as bold.  Some live for God and others while others live for themselves.  Some live right, and some live wrong.  But ALL of them tell a story.

That man who I’ll likely never see again played a part in my life yesterday.  He reminded me that even in the smallest of moments, like bowing your head over a Costco hotdog, is a moment of significance for someone else.

I’ve been accidentally leaving my zipper down more often recently, and that reminded me of a spiritual truth.  I think I may have lost some of you already.

For those of you still with me, look down at your zipper.  I know this seems weird, but go with it.  If you’re wearing a jacket, use that but if not–there’s really only one zipper left to look it.  If you’re one of those chic button-fly hipsters, then you can just leave now.

A zipper has basically 3 parts: the “teeth”, the “pull” and the “slider”.  They all work together to get the job done.  Take one of the three out the equation and none of it works.

When you pull up on that zipper pull and that slider moves along those teeth, the teeth do an amazing thing.  They mesh together.  I know this isn’t rocket science, but neither is the spiritual truth represented in this simple fastener.

Take a look at these verses in 2 Corinthians chapter 5:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

There’s a theme here, don’t you think?  The biblical concept of reconciliation is more than near and dear to the heart of God, it is the desire behind every decision God makes.  God’s desire is to be reconciled to you, His creation.  The passage starts out stating clearly what happens when reconciliation with God happens: “the new is here!”  That is, all things are new. Fresh start. New beginnings. A new day and a new you in every sense.

The word “reconciliation” is one that is repeated in different variations through that passage.  The Greek word is “katallasso” and its the combination of 2 words: “kata” = “down” and “allasso” = “change”.  In reconciling us to Himself, God brings about a “down-change” within us.  And I don’t have to convince anyone of the fact that in order for change to happen in our lives–any change–something has got to “come down”.  It may be our pride, our habits, our sinful nature, or anything else that might stand in the way of our forward motion toward God.

Have you ever zipped up a jacket zipper and gotten a piece of fabric stuck in it?  It seems the more you pull, the more fabric gets stuck in the zipper.  Things bind up and the zipper doesn’t work the way it was designed to work.  If I may, I’d like to draw a parallel here.  Reconciliation with God is the meshing of your heart to God’s heart, without any “fabric” getting in the way and jamming up our complete surrender to Him.

And once your heart is zipped and meshed with the heart of God, He then gives you the privilege and responsibility of sharing His message of reconciliation with the world.  This is our “ministry of reconciliation” handed to us by God Himself.  And we’re told clearly that God is not holding people’s sins against them, and He is making His loving appeal of reconciliation to the entire world through those who have already been reconciled to Him.

In essence, if I may take a risk here, we’re urging people to “check their fly” and see where they stand with God.  Are you reconciled to God?  If you are, let me celebrate and praise the Lord!  Now, go and allow God to make His appeal to humanity through you.  If you are not, let me encourage you to “be reconciled to God”!  He’s not holding your sins against you, but let me be gut-level honest: that offer will only stand for a certain time.  There will be a day of reckoning when those who have not been reconciled will have to pay their own price for their sins.  I beg and urge you if you have not done so already, be reconciled to God.

Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of “God-isms”; statements that are born out of a need to understand things, be at peace with things, or even encourage others.  One such example is “God doesn’t give us more than we can bear.”  I heard it again just the other day from a wonderful, Godly Christian person.

And when I heard it, I thought to myself, “Really?”

Now, I’m not trying to be a stickler or a legalist.  If you’re thinking I should “lighten up” then clearly we’ve never met face-to-face.  I’m about as “light” as you get.  But when I see something that seems to collide with Scripture and has the potential to rob us from a deeper understanding of the things of God and the rich truth of God’s Word, I really find myself desiring to dive in and wrestle.

Let’s start with an obvious truth: Nobody in the Bible or in all of human history had a problem-free life.  Everyone without exception had difficulties, trials, problems, and heart-breaking situations to face.  From Adam to Zephaniah, all people have had problems.

And all throughout Scripture we can see lots of different methods for dealing with our problems.  Some stand and fight, some go to prayer, some hide, some wrestle with unanswered questions, some live in denial, some sweep it under the rug, some surrender, and some run.

But does God really only give us what we can handle?  Did He give Moses what Moses could handle?  Did He give Abraham what only Abraham could handle?  Did He give Esther what Esther was able to handle?  Did He saddle David what David’s “fair share” and not an ounce more?  Did He give Paul what Paul was strong enough to deal with?  With John, did He reach John’s limit and not give John any more?  I believe that to all of these we can offer a resounding “No!”

The truth is, when we look at each of the examples of people in the Bible and when we look at our own lives honestly, we find that God doesn’t seem to use the same system of measurement that we do.  He doesn’t put only in your life that which you can handle.  He puts in your life that which will drive you to Him, and no less.

There are so many passages in God’s Word that tell of His enabling strength, but let me point out just three:

I’m at the Simply Youth Workers Conference in Chicago.  The event started today and it has been a full day to say the least.  Let me share with you a true truth that I was reminded of while in the “general session” just a few hours away.

I was sitting in a veritable sea of youth workers from all across the country.  I knew only one person the row I was sitting in; my co-youth pastor and partner in student ministry crime, Steve.  And as I sat and listened to what was going on up on the stage, I heard a still, small voice.  But this time, it wasn’t God.

It was a guy 4 seats away who was talking to the person next to him.  He wasn’t talking all that loud, but he was talking loudly enough for me (4 seats away) to hear that he was talking.  I don’t know about you, but that just bugged me.  Certainly what was going on onstage was louder, better, more interesting, and more worth my attention.  Still, I just couldn’t help but be distracted by that stranger’s voice just 4 seats away.

As the session went on, I began to hope more and more that he’d stop talking.  And I found myself more and more disappointed and frustrated that he didn’t.  I was hoping someone closer to him would shush him, or at least give him an eye roll; something that would send a message to him to shut it.  I’d have done it, but remember–I was 4 seats away, clearly outside the circle of responsibility.

Jesus Christ wants my attention.  What Jesus is saying and doing and thinking is more worth my attention than anything else.  If I allow anything else to distract me from His rare voice, then I’ve got to face the reality that while that chatterbox 4 seats away has responsibility over his etiquette while in a crowd, I have responsibility over keeping my ear, mind, heart and life tuned to the One who is more interesting, more loving, and more worth my attention than anything or anyone else.

As I sat there stewing about this stranger’s incessant talking, I was reminded that where my attention lies is always up to me.  There will always be something just 4 seats away, something calling for me to look over here, give my heart over there, and spend my attention other than where it belongs.