Missing Dinner

“He brought me to the banqueting table,

and His banner over me was love.”
Song of Solomon 2:4

 

Imagine being invited to a top-of-the-line banquet, the best food possible with no expense spared, hosted by the wealthiest person around, yet, when the time comes to attend, making lame excuses why you wouldn’t be able to attend. That was the exact story Jesus told with the end result being people missing out on something that could only be described as the opportunity of a lifetime.

 

An excuse is an explanation given as a pretext for our doing or not doing something. The dictionary gives us this sentence to help us understand: ‘He used his poor health as an excuse for evading all responsibility.’ We may try to convince ourselves that our excuses are valid reasons for what we’re hoping to justify but, like the men in the story, they’re often without validity and cause us to miss out on some needful and valuable life experiences. Consider the following points:

 

• Excuses are the enemies of change.
• Excuses are the enemies of growth.
• Excuses are the enemies of sacrifice.
• Excuses are a way out of paying the price being required of us.
• Excuses try to cleverly disguise themselves as reasons when they are not.
• Excuses are silent, unlikely enemies out to hold us back from all the good things that the Lord desires to do in our lives.
• Excuses are a clear, unobstructed path to selfishness and laziness.
• Excuses are like sugarcoated lies that we hope the Lord will not see through and others will not call us out on.

 

A seat at the Lord’s banqueting table, the opportunity to partake of His grace and goodness, and an invitation to greater fulfillment and satisfaction in life is waiting for each of us. But any penchant we might have for making excuses when things get tough and when the price gets steep has to be dealt with and exposed for what it is. The banquet the Lord’s prepared for us is just that incredible, far too valuable to allow our fondness for making excuses to stand in our way.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Sad Story of Kitty Genovese

‘And Isaiah answered, “Here am I Lord. Send me.”’  

Isaiah 6:8

Some anniversaries provide time for reflection rather than an opportunity to celebrate and yesterday’s 50th anniversary of Kitty Genovese’s murder on the streets on Queens was one of those. Her stabbing death in the middle of the night on March 13th, 1964, stunned a nation, not because of the senselessness of the violence but because of the number of people who witnessed the attack and heard Kitty’s cries for help, without anyone coming to her aid or calling the police.

The Kitty Genovese murder has become the focus of many case studies over the years on the subject of how, why and when people get involved in the troubles of others. One study coined the phrase ‘The Bystander Effect’ based on it, summarizing their findings that as more people witness something, the less likely each one is to help because they believe someone else will intervene or call the police. In the early morning hours of that spring night, no less than 38 people went to their windows, turned on the lights in their apartments, and, in tragic silence, witnessed the murder of the 28-year-old young woman. And a nation was forced to grapple with the question of why would civilized people, behind the safety of their locked doors, turn away from another human being in dire need of assistance.

In reality, we all face many problems in life that need fixing and require addressing, in our personal lives, in our marriages, in the churches we attend, and in the places we work. But, as this story reminds us, the existence of a problem is not the real issue we have to confront. No, the challenge we face is whether apathy and fear will win the day, as they did with Kitty Genovese’s neighbors, or whether we will choose to respond with action. We can hide from problems; we can run from situations where something not of our doing is clearly wrong, or we can choose to be the solution. Gandhi is often quoted for his short statement confronting the reticence of so many, simply saying, “Be The Change.” His was a call to model the behavior that we see missing in our circle of influence. His was a call to be the solution to the problems that have become obvious to us. His was a call to be the answer to the situation that needs someone to step forward and be the vessel of change in your home, your marriage, your church and your workplace.

We cannot afford to be like the 38 silent witnesses that night in 1964 who felt no responsibility to act because there were other witnesses. We have a God given responsibility to be part of the solution. Hiding, running, staying silent, and remaining passive can never be our options. Change has to start somewhere and my prayer is that it will begin, at this sad anniversary, with you and I.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Midnight Ride of ... William Dawes?

“A friend loves at all time and a brother is born for adversity.”

 Proverbs 17:17

Imagine my surprise, in reading recently, to find that Paul Revere was not the lone rider that fateful night of April 18th, 1775, as he made his famous “midnight ride” to warn colonists that the British were on their way. After becoming aware of British plans to arrest the colonial leaders in Lexington and then seize the guns and ammunition they had stored up in Concord, two men had set out to sound the alarm and to hopefully raise a defense. Two men carried with them the identical message; two men traveled just as many miles and through just as many towns as the other.  Yet only one of their names has been recorded in our history books and only one of the men has been given credit for the warning that was such a major turning point in the colonists stand against the British.

Paul Revere and William Dawes both set out from Boston late that night but the effects of their rides were vastly different. Those who heard the news from Paul Revere quickly responded, gathering the local militia, beginning preparations, and spreading the news further throughout their towns. But the same was not true of those warned by William Dawes, as history records a very subdued response in the towns Dawes rode through that night. What made the difference? And what can we learn from the midnight rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes?

One history writer tried to sum up the reason for the different responses to the two men by saying this: Paul Revere had far more “personal connections” than William Dawes, in effect saying that Paul Revere built far more relationships with people over the course of his years. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, said this about Paul Revere: “He would have known exactly whose door to knock on, who the key people in the town were as he would have met most of them before. And they knew and respected him as well.” Paul Revere’s success had nothing to do with the sound or strength of his voice but everything to do with the place people had in his life.

For Paul Revere, the seeds of success were sown not in the spirited ride on horseback, but in the years of relationship building and in the personal connections he established over the years. Showing an interest in people paid dividends that night as he hurriedly rode from town to town. Taking time to develop friendships paid dividends as he sounded the alarm that the British were coming. Relationships developed over years paid dividends in the dark of the night as those hearing his voice knew that the warning came from someone who cared and could be trusted. What a lesson on the value of building relationships in our lives, and on the importance of making those genuine personal connections with those whose paths our lives cross. People are always the best investment we can make; relationships pay far greater dividends than anything this world offers, and taking the time to make “personal connections” open doors like nothing else can!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church