While reading another blog, I came across this quote from Rick Warren; “Too many people are informed but not transformed.” The context of this phrase was talking about the belief that Christians already know more information than they are putting into practice.
As a pastor, this concept is something I am struggling with. I see truth in the statement and see how it’s an overstatement.
I see those who I wish would click over and live a transformed life and then others who I wonder if they are getting anything at all and then they some something or take a faith step that blows me away.
I hear people talk about how they want to make a difference and then blow off oppurtunities to reach others with the quickest excuse. Then I see people who have little and feel insecure in their gifts who go above the call of duty and make huge differences without ever seeing it themselves.
In the case of the above statement, it seems like the most devoted and willing are the ones who are young in the faith and our knowledge. Why do we learn more and do less? We do so well learning and studying and can pass many trivia quizzes about faith and be the most protective of our quiet time when we don’t want to do anything.
OK, I’m rambling, I get that. I have no easy thoughts or statements. And yes, a couple of recent events have made this all flarred up within me and I’ll be fine in a day or two. However, this doesn’t change the fact that for all his good or bad, Rick might have a point.
Emerging Conservative 
Why do we learn more and do less?
That’s an excellent question! As you know, I am no expert in Christianity or in the nature of Christians, but I am a longtime human being 😉 and I can’t help but wonder if it’s just not a “human” thing & not just a “Christian” thing.
Seems to me that we humans are just so naturally excited when we’re in the midst of learning something new, especially something new that we know is going to change our lives. Maybe, once our lives have been affected & the change works it’s way into our lives, it’s just human nature to begin to grow too used to our situations & to start taking for granted those things that once got our spiritual juices flowing, not out of any sudden change of heart or any loss of belief, but just because the “new & exciting” tends to morph into part of our everyday. Maybe–to reference the old saying–the excitement we felt at the beauty of the forest yesterday has been overshadowed somewhat by the tree standing right before us today. Trite as it may sound, maybe in the midst of continuing to endure the unfortunately-necessary mundane in our lives, we tend to lose sight of the “big picture”. Even those who are God’s eyes & hands & heart on earth still have to find a way to make their mortgage payment & fill up their gas tanks. That’s just how things are…good, bad or indifferent.
How to “fix” that or how to keep the excitement there day after day doesn’t seem to me to be an easy question to answer. Certainly, it’s a subject for minds greater than mine to ponder. Maybe we need to try to open our eyes a little wider & remember that miracles happen to us every day. Maybe we need to pledge ourselves to doing at least one good deed a day that brings to our lives & the lives of others the real meaning of God’s eternal love for all of us. Maybe it’s about DOING the work instead of talking about it. Maybe it means going out of our way every now & again to help a brother or a sister, even if it’s to just give them a pat on the back & a smile. I’ve personally found that these little things that don’t necessarily have “GOD” written all over them in big neon letters still connect us to God & still further His work.
Back when I still felt welcome in “the Church”, my old Sunday School teacher taught me that most of us aren’t meant to be preachers actively taking the healing Word of God into a hurting world. He told us kids in his class that, for most of us, advancing God’s Kingdom on Earth would involve just being the loving, good, decent human beings that He expected his children to be to one another. He told us that just by living the Word & remembering that even the smallest of us can do great things with sometimes just a kind word & a smile would make God real for someone out there who needs to know. My Sunday School teacher reinforced in me as a child what I still know now as a middle-aged man: it’s not necessarily the great & grandiose that will color our lives when we decide to follow the Lord, but usually the small & just-as-consequential. Knowing that my own life will probably never involve preaching to the masses & conferring with the Superstars of Christianity, I have come to understand that it’s my everyday life dedicated to what most would see as mostly insignificant but what I see as part of being a follower of the Living Christ that has “transformed” me. So maybe, in an odd way, it’s about lowering our expectations. Maybe, in learning about what a new life in God means, we need to understand that, where our Lord & His work is concerned, as the old song goes, “little things mean a lot”!
Then again, MAYBE, I ramble on a little too much sometimes!
😉