What Do You Get Out of Church?

    Yesterday was bill paying day. Isn’t that fun? Hahaha! Actually, with modern technology, I’ve taken a lot of the work out of it. I pay pretty much all of it online, and have as many automatic payments going out as possible. But Linda and I still sit down every two weeks and review our budget, look at the amounts of the checks going out (or auto-withdrawals) and make sure the payments are in line with the bills. While we’ve gone paperless and automatic, it still requires our regular attention. When we finished and I closed the budget spreadsheet, I was in a whiny mood. Who likes sending money out…paying bills?
    But then a thought came to me, as though it were a rebuke from the Lord. “Look at all you get for what you pay!” I have a warm house in the winter; a cool house in the summer. I have two reliable cars, also with heat and air, and I don’t have to feed them! We turn a knob and we get our choice of hot or cold water. We turn another knob and we have fire to cook our food over. We have a cupboard full of food, as well as a fridge full of perishable food that is kept from spoiling (and I never have to chop ice to make it work). We have clean clothes that wash relatively easily, and likewise with our clean dishes. We have access to the world through high speed internet, as well as with a crystal clear image on a television that beams images from around the world in real time.
    You know I could go on and on. The fact that we can take hot showers whenever we want is something we rarely give a grateful thought to, but also something few people in all of history have been able to enjoy. Thinking about these things, and consciously thanking God for the blessings that come from our bills, takes the sting out of paying them. When I remember, I take it a step further and pray for those who may be blessed or whose needs may be met, partially through the bills I am paying. All of a sudden, a distasteful task actually becomes enjoyable.
    Nothing worthwhile comes free. You pay bills because you have much to be thankful for! In fact, the level of satisfaction from any activity or enterprise is directly related to the level of sacrifice made on its behalf. Vince Lombardi said, “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.”
    This blog is not so much about paying bills, though I hope it helps your approach to that. But I want you to think about what you get out of church. I’ve heard so many people, leaving really good churches, saying things like, “Well, we just weren’t getting fed.” Sometimes they see me roll my eyes :-). If you have been a believer for any length of time, you shouldn’t be going to church to get fed, anyway! You should be going to feed others! If you’ve been a Christian for more than a couple of years, you will only get out of any church what you put into it. Long-term satisfaction in a church is like anything else, it comes by way of sacrifice. People who sacrificially serve others in their church, with genuine love, enjoy their churches. It may not make logical worldly sense, but those who are not paying attention to what they get out of something, but are more concerned about what they are giving, they get more out of it! This isn’t my principle, this is Jesus’ (Acts 20:35).
    You get what you pay for! How much are you getting out of church? The better question….what sacrifices are you making to serve others through your church? The answer to that question will determine the answer to the one before it.