we often think people will reach their God-ordained destiny by accident. We get frustrated waiting for people to grow up.

I started laughing when I read this one. People actually do think that. I’ve known people that really just want to sit back and let people figure out how to walk out in their giftings without any outside help. Sounds crazy when you really think about it, so I usually assume that it something like frustration, busy schedules, or maybe laziness that causes Godly people to just sit back and let others flounder.

As I blog through the list of ten things that we can do to improve church atmosphere, I seem to see a common theme in all of them – the Church has to work together, as a team, to accomplish God’s will. The point I am blogging on this week is “Be a people of destiny.” The author (surprise, surprise) related this point back to everyone being involved in church life.
Some well-meaning Christians told me that I was supposed to grow up spiritually before I could help others grow.

I’ve heard that said so many times: first you get healed, and then you reach out. The problem is, you don’t find that thought anywhere in the Bible. Pretty much from the beginning, Jesus was taking his disciples with him as he went out to minister. We see in some cases that the disciples were praying for people while Jesus was off somewhere else (Mark 9:14-32). The disciples obviously had some issues in their life, but they were still reaching out to others and doing what they knew, even if it wasn’t that much. I believe that as we are healed, we reach out. Isn’t it kind of crazy to think that we ever get to a place of full healing? That would make us perfect.

So, the next item on the list that I have been blogging through is “accomplish the great commission.” Being a part of the Antioch movement seems to ingrain this one in our brains. I did find this statement in the article pretty funny:

A “go” atmosphere creates expectation and excitement, and transforms a dull Christian life into an action thriller.

It just made think of a really cheesy idea for an action thriller: The Missionary! Somewhere in there is probably a really good idea for a cool, entertaining training video. Or at least a really funny one.

Sometimes, though, we have to watch out for ideas like this. Not the one about sharing the great commission. The one about Christian life being an action thriller. Don’t get me wrong – there can some great times to be had when you follow the Lord. But there are also the hard times when it’s not too exciting.

The secret is to realize how bad unrealistic expectations can be for our sanity. If you can’t control whether an expectation is fulfilled, then you will become depressed, upset, or downright cranky when it doesn’t. Something like “I will have an exciting day every day of my life” is just something that will be out of our control from time to time. However, something like “I will look for the exciting aspect in everything I deal with every day” is much better – because you can control that one by making a choice. Notice that it doesn’t say “find the exciting aspect.” You can look for something all you want, but there is no guarantee that you will find it.

Reaching out to the lost can also breed these types of expectations. If you start the day with the goal to “convert 3 people” by the end of the day, you might end up a little disappointed if everyone you share Jesus with that day ends up rejecting Him. But if you have the goal of “sharing the love of Jesus with most of the people I meet today,” you can be in control of whether or not that goal is realized.