The neighborhood was still, as it should be at one in the morning. Amber-colored street lights stood their watch at the corners. Dead leaves crunched under our tires. The bright white beams of our headlights illuminated cats and the occasional raccoon as they scampered across the street in front of us. A few of the summer’s last crickets made themselves known by their songs. They’d be dead as soon as a hard frost hit. We were driving without music and mostly without talking. All three of us seemed to either have been caught up in the ambiance of the evening, or we were just really tired. Either way, we each stared out our windows at yards full of leaves. Some had pumpkins, while others had the fake spiders, lights, ghosts and all the other decor that comes with Halloween.
We rolled by new scenery every second, but it all felt the same at this hour. We turned every five minutes. North, then east, north again, but then we’d make two right turns and start heading south, meandering through the neighborhood. I was completely lost. I had a rough sense of our location, but had little notion of how far we had burrowed into this neighborhood. I also didn’t know what we were doing.
I wanted Jack in the Box curly fries. I thought everyone had agreed with me that they were hungry too. So when we piled into the car and started driving, I had a destination in mind. One easy, direct route would have gotten us there. Once at the nasty fast food place, we’d sit in the drive through, behind about a dozen stoned teenagers who happened to be out trying to gratify their weed-induced hunger.
That’s what I expected, but instead we were extravagating around some weird neighborhood looking at crap that I didn’t care about. My stomach was growling and my face started to get hot when I turned to our driver and asked,
“What are you doing? I’m hungry!”
His lowered eyebrows and the wrinkles on his forehead indicated that he didn’t know what I was talking about. “Dude. You’re supposed to be driving us to Jack in the Box. I’m starving, and you’re out here wandering the streets like you’re looking for something. Food is on State Street. Not wherever the deuce we are in the middle of suburbia!”
“I didn’t know we were getting food. I thought you guys wanted to go for a drive”
I ended the conversation by explaining that if we didn’t go get me some seasoned curly fries that very minute, I’d be taking control of the wheel and he’d be walking home after I pushed him out of the car. It was that simple. I’m not sure where the communication broke down or why it took me so long to say something, but I was done with the driving- I was probably more done with being awake, because grumpiness always accompanies excessive fatigue.
★ ★ ★
Too often in Christianity, we confuse the ends with the means. We do something just to do it and think that it’s what we’re supposed to work at. I hate to say it, but Jesus won’t reward us for memorizing His commands, if we didn’t do them. I would imagine He’d pat each one of us on the shoulder and ask,
“Did I tell you to do that? Or did I tell you to make disciples?”
Or perhaps He’d say,
“I made you to serve the poor and broken-hearted. I never expected you to quote Deuteronomy 14 at people.”
Memorization and reading the Bible are important. So are extra church services and small groups. As Christians, we can’t live without digging into God’s word on a regular basis. We shouldn’t function without fellowship with other believers, either. Understand though, you’ve been called to more than those tasks. So please, go out and serve your community. Learn God’s word then go out and do something with it because otherwise, you’ll be driving around while someone right next to you is probably starving and is really pissed off.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dustin La Mont, Jake Lee. Jake Lee said: NEW vml Post! "Wait- What are we Doing?" have you confused your end with the way to getting there? http://bit.ly/d7K3Mq […]
Confession: It took me a full 2 minutes to recover from laughing at the picture. I'm still giggling. What an excellent way to emphasize a point. You make me think and you make me laugh.
Thanks Kathy! I know we already tweeted about this, but seriously. Some of the people I choose to hang around with…. are absolutely incredible but at the same time…. I have nothing encouraging to say at that point.
Getting on to the memorizing and studying…. we hear about how important it is in church SO much (at least in my circle up here) that it starts to sound like it's all we should do. My pastors are great at telling us to get out there and use it, but that's only one church– we need to push community involvement, and not exclusively for the sake of evangelizing!
I have never been to a Jack in the Box, but I know what you mean. Bob needs to learn that when I ask "Are you hungry?" on a road trip, it means "Find some place for us to eat or you will be chauffeuring one cranky ho …."
Helen. That's why we're friends. Just so you know. Jack in the Box is gross. Everything there will kill you eventually, but I'll eat their fries at one in the morning. Or if I'm out of groceries- what can I say? I'm a bachelor.
AMEN!
We are called to be doers of the Word…not memorizers.
But we put so much emphasis on memorization, study, etc. it's ridiculous if we don't have any follow through to practice what we're learning– it's useless head knowledge! Glad you agree Dusty!
[…] Wait, what are we doing? (very Much Later – Jake Lee – @muchlater) […]
I can't. stop. laughing.
so good. i. love. curly. fries.
with ketchup.
… anyways… back to Jesus. i think He also looks at our heart too while we're out doing what He tells us. it's my pet peeve that people do things as a badge of honor, but they are not loving. clanging bell.