Get Up

Now, my son, the Lord be with you, so that you may succeed in building the house of the Lord your God, as he has spoken concerning you.  Only, may the Lord grant you discretion and understanding, that when he gives you charge over Israel you may keep the law of the Lord your God.  Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel.  Be strong and courageous.  Fear not; do not be dismayed.  ... there is so much of it ... I have provided. To these you must add.  You have an abundance of workmen....  Arise and work! The Lord be with you! -- 1 Chronicles 22:11-16

The old saying, "The Lord helps those who help themselves", annoys me because it is very close to right, yet there is something misleading in it.  It's the "help themselves" part that is just slightly distorted.  I suppose some would find "the Lord helps those who get off their asses" offensive, but I think it is close to correct and more memorable, perhaps, than "the Lord helps those that get up and get started".  "Get up and boogie, and the Lord will dance with you"?  I don't know. 

You and I have to get started.  I used to hang out with a preacher who was, frankly, incredibly lazy.  I liked the guy, but he was allergic to work.  He would, however, energetically tell me how we were "dead", and, therefore, it was all God, because a dead man couldn't even believe, a sort of reductio ad absurdum position regarding free will.  It is readily embraced by the slothful, the professional victim, the professional weaker brother, and others who choose to believe they are not responsible for their conditions or their actions.  It is closer to Islam than Christianity.

I am not going to get to heaven because I do good works, feed the hungry, or clothe the naked.  But, if I want to get something done -- for the Lord, for myself, for my family, my neighbors, or my church -- I going to have to start, make plans, get the tools and materials, take some time, expend some effort.  It doesn't matter what it is.  Pray then obey, and obedience does not usually consist solely in sitting on the couch waiting for the miracle to come. 

Yes, some of us do need to be weaned from the impulse to do everything ourselves.  If you are a German Catholic, this may well be the case for you.  The rest of us probably don't struggle that much with a constant, burning, and irrepressible urge to work between meals.    

The Bible says that we have "... died, and [our lives are] hidden with Christ in God".  I am told that "[i]t is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me".  This is true, but we are also told, by the very same Paul who wrote these things, to act, to believe, to have faith, to "...consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" and "... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."  

As David did for Solomon, Christ has done for us.  There is much that has been done, much that has been provided for us, but there remains a work for us to do.  Christ has suffered for us, borne our sins, griefs, and sorrows.  We are to complete that suffering as a ground completes a circuit that the power and presence of God may shine as light in a dark world. 

Each of us has a temple to build.  We have a vast store of resources on which to call.  Christ dwells in us by His Spirit quickening, strengthening, empowering, and enabling us to do His will, but we must arise.