More Than Enough

More than enough

Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ

December 15, 2002

The man told his doctor that he wasn’t able to do all the things around the house that he used to do. When the examination was complete, he said, "Now, Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what’s wrong with Me."

the doctor replied, "You’re just lazy"

That’s a struggle in life isn’t it.

That a lot of times it would be easier just not to mess with it. You might be thinking about starting or finishing some project and you realize that your day could go a lot easier if you didn’t have to do it.

Mike Breaugh says the most dangerous thing in your house is probably your easy chair. I am inclined to agree with him. Not because of what it might do to you but rather because of what you might not do when you are in it. I mean the name says it all “Lazy boy”

Some here have considered running for office or reconnecting with old friends but when the reality of the time, resources and effort are realized you may have just decided to drop the idea all together. In 1986, a group of researchers published a study of Japanese mothers and mothers in Minneapolis. The mothers were asked to rank the most important things that a child needs to succeed academically. The answers tell a lot about the difference in our two cultures today. The mothers in Minneapolis chose "ability." The mothers in Japan said "effort."

Many times we forget that God is not as interested in our abilities as he is in our availability. There is a very famous book called “The road less traveled” it starts out wit a 3 letter phrase that a lot of people agree with. It’s this “life is difficult”

I know a lot of people who share that sentiment. That life has been hard on them, Schedules get burdened, or you might be experiencing hardships. Because Life is what it is there is a major temptation to just get by. We try so hard just to get through.

Many times we also do just enough to make it. I remember receiving a poor grade on a test in middle school. The teacher told me afterwards that I could correct the test if I showed documentation on the correct answers. For every 10 questions I changed my letter grade would go up one grade was the deal.

So what do you do with life? Do you do the bare minimum required of you or do you do everything that is possible to leave your mark of excellence?

That is the principal we are talking about today. This principal can be found in Matthew chapter 5:vs 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

This is a key principal that Jesus teaches. First he is saying “be service oriented” and next he is saying “give that extra effort”.

A young boy was talking and his father was listening, the boy said "Hello, sir, I was calling you to see if you could use a lawn boy to do your yard work!" "Oh, I see you already have one!" "Well, is he doing your work to your satisfaction?" "He is! Thank you, sir, I was just checking," then the young boy hung up the phone. The father looked at his son and said, "Sorry son, you didn’t get the job!" "Oh, no" said the boy. "I’ve already got that job. I was just calling to check up on myself!"

It is my prayer that we would all check up on ourselves from time to time. That’s the kind of environment that we are trying to create around here. We are trying to create an environment where everyone goes the extra mile. We are doing our best to be a place of quality and excellence so that people can grasp the truth of Jesus here.

When people ask me what I want to be a recognizable mark of our church, I always say I want this to be a place where others see Jesus. But if I had to pinpoint the area that could be most evident I would have to say, “I want this church to be recognized for it’s extra mile efforts”

When people come in for the first time I want them to see that the greeters are friendly and helpful. That we make a great effort at each Job that gets done. I like people to see the quality of the worship service and appreciate the long hard hours that have been put into the communion meditation, prayer time, special music, sermon, child care. I want people to know that we are willing to do whatever it takes to make this thing run smoothly without one glitch.