Three Reasons Not to Phone It in
In one installment of Saturday Night Live still taking up space in my working memory where possibly something more profound should be is an opening by Steve Martin. He is already an established superstar, and the younger cast of acolytes surrounds him. They are asking about his previous successes, and one even asks for an autograph. Martin admits that he can buy and sell those around him now but builds to a crescendo that he is not going to "phone it in tonight."
The performance in this moment will get his full passion and attention. In the put-on of the performance, Martin's enthusiasm is catching, and soon the other cast members are pledging. "We gotta learn our lines, do our part as well, then we'll go back to coasting, but not while Steve's host. 'Cause we're not get a phone it in tonight, not gonna sleepwalk through tonight."
Steve Martin's introduction to his effort to show has more than a little in common with the apostle Paul's close to 2 Thessalonians the church in Thessalonica is established, along with a lot of others which bear Paul's imprint. He has seen the patterns through which Christians and churches both grow and falter. The close to this letter could be as routine as the setting on email which allows us to send identical salutations to all with whom we correspond. Paul could retrieve something which has been appreciated as profound and replicate it again and again.
He doesn't. He's not going to phone it in when given an opportunity to express God's grace afresh. Neither should we. I find at least three advantages to Paul's approach that we as his latter-day spiritual following can emulate. Taking our present opportunities as more than another copy of previous encounters can sweeten our intimacy with God and with people. Realizing the urgency of today's impact, even where it might be superficially similar to what happened yesterday, can make us more full and humble participants. Finally, fully engaging with today as something more savory than yesterday's leftovers can allow us to leave a memorable, individualized testimony for those who come behind us.
(1) We can publicly, prayerfully reconsider the "I got this," approach. 180° from a standard template closing, Paul opens what comes down to us as 2 Thessalonians 3 with a plea that seems as fresh and impassioned as the day it was written. In the first verse, he asks his disciples, the human proof of his effectiveness, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you,"
Realizing that present opportunities matter for their own sake deepens our communion vertically and horizontally. A man no less imminent than the apostle Paul is asking for the prayers of those he might be thought to outrank, showing in some sense his weakness before them. This testimony of reliance on the Lord matters more to him than prestige or intimidation. The fellowship with the Lord that he and his following will experience in a praying for ongoing, active help will continue to renew the faith of all involved.
(2) Distinct dangers require a discerning approach and increase our reliance on the Lord as we deal with them. If readers from the first century to this miss the warmth Paul's candor in asking for prayer, he follows with wake-up words nearly impossible to skim through. He enjoins his converts to ask the Lord with him, "2 and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one."
In the second and third verse successively, Paul uses the word that comes down to us as "evil" twice. This isn't a business-as-usual word, either when we consider its impact on the people we pray for or on the congregations with whom we gather.
With the word evil, Paul reminds us along with his original audience that there is a war going on. The enemy, he alerts us along with the words of Jesus, still comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Don't let, the evil alarm insists, the fact that your prayers sound similar or that your fellow congregants look the same as last week lull you into complacency. As with Peter, the enemy of our souls would sift those we say we care about like wheat. Our prayers, like Christ's, may be what fortifies spirits so they do not fail.
How sweet is it that in this effort so important and immediate, our prayers join with Christ's? Paul pivots similarly, as he reminds us in 2 Thessalonians 3:4, "And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. 5 Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ." Hell and Hell's minions are real, present, and intend to do harm. Yet, even the faintest whiff of such sulfur can allow us to inhale deeply the sweetness of Christ's righteous intercession for His own.
(3) Our all-in approach can have a lasting impact. Now Paul has invited us into his prayer huddle. He has warned us soberly that evil lurks where we may have seen only habit and routine. Perhaps he could focus our attention on one of the most insidious plots such an enemy foists on believers? The room is quiet. Attention is rapt. The lights are out. Attention is focused on the next PowerPoint slide as Paul clicks to reveal the evils of… laziness? He writes, "6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which [a]he received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread [b]free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you."
Idleness, it seems, is a gateway drug to those who would use their energy to cause disruption. Paul's preemptive antidote at the end of verse six and in verse seven is instructive. The lure of a lackadaisical attitude, Paul taps and occasionally pounds the table, is guaranteed. Take steps against it. Assertively contradict lazy distraction, he pleads, by focusing on what we taught you.
Beautifully, his insistence on vigilance comes with a three-dimensional example already burned on their brains. Paul asks Christians at Thessalonica to conduct spiritual warfare by remembering the way Paul and his companions worked, and to do the same.
Why not phone it in? Why not do the minimum we have to do to get through today? Because doing the opposite, summoning enthusiasm for tasks which would otherwise seem mundane, is so different. Other people may remember the contrast when laziness lurks.
Are aspects of your work, your family duties, your ministry responsibilities, boring or unpleasant? Paul made tents, which is to say the example he asks his disciples to invoke to remind them of the sweetness of Lord's presence comes with the smell of animal corpses and the powerful chemicals used to treat their skins.
Can we not, then, work, minister, parent, espouse among the dead and dying things of this world in a way that leaves a living impression of our reliance on Christ to constantly and finally reinvigorate? This, by His grace, can be our signature with a flourish!
The performance in this moment will get his full passion and attention. In the put-on of the performance, Martin's enthusiasm is catching, and soon the other cast members are pledging. "We gotta learn our lines, do our part as well, then we'll go back to coasting, but not while Steve's host. 'Cause we're not get a phone it in tonight, not gonna sleepwalk through tonight."
Steve Martin's introduction to his effort to show has more than a little in common with the apostle Paul's close to 2 Thessalonians the church in Thessalonica is established, along with a lot of others which bear Paul's imprint. He has seen the patterns through which Christians and churches both grow and falter. The close to this letter could be as routine as the setting on email which allows us to send identical salutations to all with whom we correspond. Paul could retrieve something which has been appreciated as profound and replicate it again and again.
He doesn't. He's not going to phone it in when given an opportunity to express God's grace afresh. Neither should we. I find at least three advantages to Paul's approach that we as his latter-day spiritual following can emulate. Taking our present opportunities as more than another copy of previous encounters can sweeten our intimacy with God and with people. Realizing the urgency of today's impact, even where it might be superficially similar to what happened yesterday, can make us more full and humble participants. Finally, fully engaging with today as something more savory than yesterday's leftovers can allow us to leave a memorable, individualized testimony for those who come behind us.
(1) We can publicly, prayerfully reconsider the "I got this," approach. 180° from a standard template closing, Paul opens what comes down to us as 2 Thessalonians 3 with a plea that seems as fresh and impassioned as the day it was written. In the first verse, he asks his disciples, the human proof of his effectiveness, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you,"
Realizing that present opportunities matter for their own sake deepens our communion vertically and horizontally. A man no less imminent than the apostle Paul is asking for the prayers of those he might be thought to outrank, showing in some sense his weakness before them. This testimony of reliance on the Lord matters more to him than prestige or intimidation. The fellowship with the Lord that he and his following will experience in a praying for ongoing, active help will continue to renew the faith of all involved.
(2) Distinct dangers require a discerning approach and increase our reliance on the Lord as we deal with them. If readers from the first century to this miss the warmth Paul's candor in asking for prayer, he follows with wake-up words nearly impossible to skim through. He enjoins his converts to ask the Lord with him, "2 and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one."
In the second and third verse successively, Paul uses the word that comes down to us as "evil" twice. This isn't a business-as-usual word, either when we consider its impact on the people we pray for or on the congregations with whom we gather.
With the word evil, Paul reminds us along with his original audience that there is a war going on. The enemy, he alerts us along with the words of Jesus, still comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Don't let, the evil alarm insists, the fact that your prayers sound similar or that your fellow congregants look the same as last week lull you into complacency. As with Peter, the enemy of our souls would sift those we say we care about like wheat. Our prayers, like Christ's, may be what fortifies spirits so they do not fail.
How sweet is it that in this effort so important and immediate, our prayers join with Christ's? Paul pivots similarly, as he reminds us in 2 Thessalonians 3:4, "And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. 5 Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ." Hell and Hell's minions are real, present, and intend to do harm. Yet, even the faintest whiff of such sulfur can allow us to inhale deeply the sweetness of Christ's righteous intercession for His own.
(3) Our all-in approach can have a lasting impact. Now Paul has invited us into his prayer huddle. He has warned us soberly that evil lurks where we may have seen only habit and routine. Perhaps he could focus our attention on one of the most insidious plots such an enemy foists on believers? The room is quiet. Attention is rapt. The lights are out. Attention is focused on the next PowerPoint slide as Paul clicks to reveal the evils of… laziness? He writes, "6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which [a]he received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; 8 nor did we eat anyone’s bread [b]free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you."
Idleness, it seems, is a gateway drug to those who would use their energy to cause disruption. Paul's preemptive antidote at the end of verse six and in verse seven is instructive. The lure of a lackadaisical attitude, Paul taps and occasionally pounds the table, is guaranteed. Take steps against it. Assertively contradict lazy distraction, he pleads, by focusing on what we taught you.
Beautifully, his insistence on vigilance comes with a three-dimensional example already burned on their brains. Paul asks Christians at Thessalonica to conduct spiritual warfare by remembering the way Paul and his companions worked, and to do the same.
Why not phone it in? Why not do the minimum we have to do to get through today? Because doing the opposite, summoning enthusiasm for tasks which would otherwise seem mundane, is so different. Other people may remember the contrast when laziness lurks.
Are aspects of your work, your family duties, your ministry responsibilities, boring or unpleasant? Paul made tents, which is to say the example he asks his disciples to invoke to remind them of the sweetness of Lord's presence comes with the smell of animal corpses and the powerful chemicals used to treat their skins.
Can we not, then, work, minister, parent, espouse among the dead and dying things of this world in a way that leaves a living impression of our reliance on Christ to constantly and finally reinvigorate? This, by His grace, can be our signature with a flourish!
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