Eager To Please

Easter Sunday, Pastor Brett related the disciple Peter being "eager to please" God.  Peter is a lot like us -- or should I say, we're all a lot like Peter.

Many of you are familiar with VeggieTales and their creator, Phil Vischer.  By his own admission, Vischer admits to wanting to be “a Christian Walt Disney”.  Many Christians, I’m sure, would support him in those thoughts.  But years later, after the demise of Big Idea Entertainment, Vischer has a different take on what some call a “vision” or “dream” (an eagerness if you will).

His viewpoint, as I understand it, is that we often think we have a vision/dream from God, when in fact, it may really be our effort to appease God through our works.  Actually, this is really a fascinating concept in light of the holiday we just celebrated.  Easter is the celebration of Christ’s work on the cross.

He notes that many (most?) people in the Bible who responded to visions/dreams given by God were hesitant (i.e. Moses).  We, on the other hand, come up with a “dream/vision” that we get excited about.  We get excited about it because it’s something WE can do – on our own power.  We are not dependent on God in our endeaver.

Sure we ask for God’s help and blessing for our dream/vision, but is He becoming the means to an end?  Is God the “how” rather than the “what”?  Sometimes we have a tendency to make Christianity about us and not about God.

I hope I’m expressing Vischer’s views well enough here.  I don’t intend to step on the toes of Rose and Pat, who lead our spiritual gifts class.  That’s biblical – and important!  They are helping people find their passion, but that is different from a vision/dream.

Passion and skill sets are something God gives each of us to serve His bride – the Church.  In the Old Testament, we are told of those who had the skills necessary to build the Temple.  Others had the skills to lead worship, etc.

We could have lengthy discussions pertaining to the definition of dreams, visions, passions and skills.  But I think ultimately, Vischer’s key points are that,

1)    God is the focus (not us).

2)    Nothing we do for God is enough, not matter how hard we work or what is accomplished.

If this eager-to-serve concept is something that is causing you to consider some self-reflection, you may be interested in Vischer's book, Me, Myself and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God and Talking Vegetables.  Or, if you want just the YouTube "cliff notes" version, try this.

I think a great line from Phil is this: "Until I was ready to do nothing for God - to just rest in my relationship with Him - I wasn't ready to do anything for God."