Stuff That Matters In Life

“Why do you behave so well in Bible drill but not in worship?” I asked a fifth-grade boy.

“Because I don’t want my mom to get mad at me in Bible drill.” He replied.

Even as adults we are often motivated by external forces without any inner change. We can act good and proper in certain circumstances but when no one’s looking or when it doesn’t matter, our true self comes out.

In the book Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp, he says,

We all have to talk ability to expound a passage that lauds God’s grace yet be a husband or father of ungrace in the car on the way home.

You can lead a men’s ministry discussion on the issue of biblical sexual purity and lust at the women at the grocery store on the way home.

You can teach about the self-sacrificing nature of love and be self-centered and unwilling to serve at home.

You and I can define biblical humility but be proud of what we know and what we’ve accomplished.

You and I have the ability to talk of what it means to invest our gifts and strengths in the work of the kingdom of God and then go home and waste countless hours in front of the flat screen….

There is a way in which all of us have a separation in our lives between our more pristine public ministry persona and the more messy details of our private lives. Aspects of this separation will be with us until the Lord returns.

This separation does not necessarily disqualify you from ministry, but it becomes spiritually debilitating to you and your ministry when you become comfortable with it. It is dangerous when you have learned the craft of making the separation work.

Our family members or people close to us should keep us accountable and call us on the carpet when we get too comfortable with the separation. May we continue to repent and not get comfortable with the separation of our public and private persona.