[taraleigh]

…CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS ENTRY

Part of me really wants to say all the right things to make you feel strongly about the fact that our freedoms are being stolen here. I want to incite you to action, too. I want you standing there with me on the roof of that house, daring the bulldozers to come through. But my heart knows that there is a bigger battle to fight. And if only one battle can get your attention, it should be this one:

I met a 19-year old guy named Tim after one of my concerts the other night. A group of us went out to eat after the concert. Tim wanted to tell the waitress about Jesus. Tim wanted to tell everyone about Jesus. He is passionate about Jesus, about people who need Him (which, by the way, is all of us). I wish I had half the desire to go share Jesus with the lost as I do to go sit on the roof of my great-grandfather’s house and fight off the four-lane crew.

I guess it’s easy to do what your heart naturally is inclined to do. In the same way, it’s easy to stand in an air-conditioned church and sing praise songs about taking God to the nations. But how many people singing that song will actually do that? How many people will be as passionate and excited about those foreign missions as they are about raising their well-manicured hands into the air during the praise songs? I can preach about constitutional freedoms all day long (as long as we still have the First Amendment), but what about eternal freedoms for those who are captives of sin?

I know that there’s nothing wrong with being passionate kayaking and football and guns and America. In fact, there’s something incredibly beautiful about it. And I still plan to fight the battle against the road. I still dream of saving my family’s land. I still love America (and my .12 gauge shotgun). And maybe this is unfair, but… I don’t have a whole lot of tolerance for people who aren’t passionate about something bigger than themselves. Personally, I find apathy to be entirely disgusting and selfish.

So I guess this is the big wooden board in my eye: I should be a little more disgusted by my barely-flickering passion for the lost. God, help me.

[management]

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