Our search for energy

We’re obsessed.  You can’t watch television very long without seeing those same tired workers grabbing one. Row after row at the grocery stores are lined with an ever-increasing variety of them, and cases of them call out to weary drivers at convenience stores along the winding roads of our country.  It seems that we can’t get enough of these energy drinks, and the craze that first hit the U.S. with Jolt Cola in 1985 has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry in 2010.  But doesn’t it beg the question: why are we so tired?

There are, I’m sure, a myriad of reasons, but let’s just deal with the most obvious: we’re not sleeping well. Only 30% of people responding to a recent survey by the CDC said that they slept well every night for the past month, and 11% said that they had absolutely not slept well.  That leaves half the population somewhere in the middle trying to figure out how to sleep in a way that will allow them to get up refreshed in the morning, or at least refreshed enough not to bump into furniture on their way to the coffeepot.  Our answer to this sleep dilemma? Energy drinks. Is anyone else intrigued by the fact that our answer isn’t to stop staying up until 3 a.m. playing the latest Tom Clancy X-box game or watching the latest hairstyle only possible with Bumpits?

In typical American style, we treat the symptom and not the cause.  We drink more energy instead of doing the very thing that would give us enough energy so that we wouldn’t need to drink more energy.  Bizarre?  Ummm, yeah.

But here’s what’s even more bizarre.  We do the same thing in our faith.

There’s a gem of truth found near the end of the short book of 2 Thessalonians.  In the 13th verse of the 3rd chapter, Paul wrote 7 short, thought-provoking words:

…never tire of doing what is right.

That’s a fairly tough one to chew on, because if we’re all honest, doing the right thing actually can be tiring, right?  Haven’t you ever done good things for people during the day and still ended up sprawled out on the couch mindlessly watching the mouths moving on the late night news without having a clue what they’re saying?  Of course you have.  So what does it mean to never tire, and how does that relate to our culture’s obsession with energy drinks?

A quick study of the word for “tire” will teach us that the Greek word means “to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, exhausted.”  Let the first part of that definition shine some light on the command to never tire. Other translations use the phrase “don’t grow weary in well-doing” and by using the definition of the word for weary, the command becomes “don’t grow spiritless in well-doing.”

Want a sure-fire way to tire of doing what is right?  Do it without the Spirit.  Keep on doing the right thing in your own strength because you’re pretty sure you’re supposed to, and keep on doing it long after you’ve realized you no longer want to.  The American church has grown weary in it’s well doing.  She seems tired of doing what is right, and her answer is an exciting worship set, a charismatic message from a great orator, or more activities than you’d expect to find on a luxury cruise liner.  Doesn’t seem much different than grabbing a 5 Hour Energy drink, and from the way that most church members can barely hang on to their faith from Sunday to Wednesday and back to Sunday again, I’d say it lasts about as long.

Maybe it’s time that we stop feeding the symptom and start admitting the cause: we are Spiritless, and we won’t find more energy in more activities buoyed by more stimulants.  We’ll find more energy in returning to the root cause and taking to heart the words of Jesus:

…apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5b)

Just like trying to fix a bad marriage by doing more together instead of being together more is destined to fail, we need to recognize that doing more for Jesus while being with Him less will end with each of us tired, empty, spiritless and exhausted.

What is we threw the whole thing in reverse, though?  What if we chose – for a season – to do less for Him while spending more time just being with Him?  My guess is that we would find the end to our search for energy, and an overwhelming supply ready to sustain us as we do right.

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