The forsythia have lost their colors, the dogwoods are in bloom, the azaleas couldn’t be prettier—but the kudzu? It isn’t taking a chance! It’s holding back, and refusing to green up, until every chance of frost is past.
Why is it that you find the grosser plants taking more care for their own welfare than the more delicate ones? The latter often get frost bitten and their beauty is ruined for the season.
I don’t know enough about the matter to hazard a guess, but I do know that the sons of this age, Jesus said, like kudzu, are shrewder than the children of light.
It may be time for you to take heed to that observation. Obviously, Jesus wasn’t commending His followers by such a characterization. He must have been shaking his head at the fact. It’s time, instead, to heed the implied exhortation in His words and to begin to “get with it. We need to wise up to the possibilities that are ours for living in exciting, productive ways rather than to always be tagging along at the tail end of the unbelieving crowd.
What am I talking about? Well, take as an example—Christian Gospel music. Why do we have to imitate what the world considers the current way to sing? Why do we even have to imitate the clothing of the world’s singers? Instead, why don’t Christian musicians get out in front and perfect new styles of singing—present ourselves in new ways—and do such a bang—up job of it that the world wants to imitate us? Who has the best things to sing about?
Why must Christian counselors become eclectic-borrowing from the world all sorts of approaches to human problems that it has manufactured? Why aren’t we out leading the pack on that front as well? Where can better resources for doing so be found than in God’s Word?
Why are our churches imitating the world’s ways of packaging and marketing our “product?” Jesus has almost become an add-on in some circles as a result: “Take Jesus as Savior and He’ll brighten up your life!” Instead we ought to show how trusting Him for salvation means that He will shake up your life!
Why aren’t we on the cutting edge in every endeavor? What’s holding us back? Is it cowardice? Fear? Laziness? Stupidity? What is it? And when will it change?
Oh well . . .