Joyful Transformation

I like word games too! As far as the word liberal goes, I think we just to remember the words of a county music song… You’ve got to stand for something, or you will fall for anything. I believe that we have to be accepting of others and tolerant of their beliefs, but at the same time we cannot be swayed with every wind of doctrine, and we must know what we do believe. I am talking to myself here, I have the ability to see all sides of an argument. I have traditionally pulled for the underdog, and I have to watch myself to keep myself true to ME!
Another word I was thinking of is dormant.

dor·mant

1. Lying asleep or as if asleep; inactive.
2. Latent but capable of being activated: “a harrowing experience which... lay dormant but still menacing”
3. Temporarily quiescent: a dormant volcano.
4. In a condition of biological rest or inactivity characterized by cessation of growth or development and the suspension of many metabolic processes

In my banking life, an account went dormant when there was 6 months with no activity. This was an excuse to service charge the account, but it really wasn’t to make money for the bank. If there was no activity for 2 years (I think) you had to send the money to the state. That was a real hassle. The service charges were mostly to prompt the customer into activity.

My husband has created a beautiful fish pond and garden in our back yard. Each year I am amazed as the flowers that died the summer before reappear! That is such a beautiful end to dormancy. Also we don’t have to feed the fish over the winter, they become dormant as well, although this year when we cleared out the lily pads, etc. we found out we had four baby fish….not all that dormant…

I wonder, have you ever gone dormant in your spiritual life? Oh, you know, you didn’t give up on God, you just took a break for a while from thinking about him much. Maybe you came to church, but you really didn’t put any effort into doing anything else. Maybe you quit coming to church, you just really put it all on the back burner. Has it happened to you? Have you seen it happen to others? What kind of “service-charges” does it take to get someone to take care of the account of their spirituality? Sometimes we can slip into that 4th definition and think we are doing fine. We just quit growing and developing, we suspend metabolic (energy producing) processes.

Is it possible that if we are failing to reach the world for Christ it is because of our own dormant members? A plant will grow unrestrained if provided fertile soil. A volcano can effect many miles of terrain when it is not lying dormant. Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: But is there ever a good time to let our spiritual lives be dormant?