The Sanctifying Work of Showing Up

For when you'd rather roll over and hit the snooze button

Hey friends,

This one is for when you’d rather roll over and hit the snooze button. . .

It’s early on a Sunday morning as I sit writing this, and I know a battle of sorts lies ahead of me: I will soon need to wake everybody to get ready for Church, and not everyone in this house will appreciate that wake-up call!

There would have been a time in my life where this being a battle would have seemed inconceivable. As a pastor’s kid who then went on to become a pastor myself, the Church was our family’s second home—and we all loved it. The kids had to be dragged away from it.

Now I feel like I have to drag us all into it, and some days it just feels too hard. It would be much easier to let everyone sleep in and enjoy a slow day.

But our pastor said something the other week that reminded me of just why I will soon begin the task of rousing everyone and starting the negotiations to get out the door. As he preached on the importance of remaining connected to the body of Christ, aka the Church, he made the statement that just the act of coming to Church—of pushing through the tiredness and the squabbles and the objections—is sanctifying for us. That is, it helps move us towards holiness, shaping us into the image of Christ.

Holiness, transformation, becoming like Christ, are not things that just happen. We have to make choices that reflect this desire to grow in God; we need discipline and disciplines. In this era of grace where we strive to avoid legalism, discipline can feel like a dirty word. But as I’ve often quoted my Dad saying, “Desire without discipline is fantasy. We must steward our desires with discipline.”