Advent ABC's: Neglect

I just dusted and cobwebbed my house. I had to do that or I wouldn’t have been able to write today’s thought. Today is N. And the word that jumped off the page of my concordance at me was neglect. Ugh. Right before I looked at the concordance I was sitting at my desk scanning my bookshelf. My eyes came upon my copy of the “One Year Devotional Bible.” (Insert defeated sigh and shoulder shrug.) More neglect.

At my suggestion, our Curves is going to be open on New Year’s Day. I wanted to start the year right! I want to help our members set real goals that they can keep through the year. I want them to get to the end of the year and be amazed at how they didn’t forget, how they were able to achieve, and how good they feel about it all. Now, I know what that means: Tina is going to be doing a lot of work. My N word for the year will probably be NAG. I know if I don’t stay on them, they will likely forget their goals.

As I was running the duster around my house, pulling down more cobwebs than I care to own up to, I was wondering why God doesn’t nag? Why doesn’t he “get on us” more? Shouldn’t that be the job of the Holy Spirit? But I quickly repented of that way of thinking: nobody likes a nag. So how do we avoid spiritual neglect?

I closed my eyes and envisioned all my friends coming to my house and the cobwebs hung as thick as moss on the trees in South Carolina. It was so heavy and I was so terribly embarrassed. Thankfully, I’ve done better at keeping my house clean, but somehow those webs just develop. I have to stay on top, stay ahead of them.

Spiritually, it’s not so different. As I pondered how I would do better in the battle against neglect, I was reminded of the writer of Hebrew encouraging words: 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1, NIV). The antidote to neglect is perseverance.

I remember early on in my years of sermon prep that I came across the difference between perseverance and endurance. The key difference is one of position. When you endure, it’s like having your shoulder to the stone; like you’re always under something. To persevere, on the other hand, is to be ahead. A second component is attitude. Perseverance’s attitude is positive and empowered, while endurance is weighted and fearful.

Scripture has some pretty scary things to say in warning us about neglecting our salvation, neglecting the needs of others, neglecting our relationships. We need to work at look at these things, including our spiritual life, from a more perseverance mindset. We can’t be afraid or weighted down, we need to
be empowered and out ahead.

So what have you been neglecting? Who? My house is pretty much cobweb free and I even dusted off that devotion to get it ready for next year. How about you?