Joel Littlefield

Are we determined and driven to bring change? Are we still burdened to reach the lost soul, to change the scenery, to transform our communities?

Are we complacent?

• Complacent means – “Satisfied with the current situation and unconcerned with changing it, often to the point of smugness.”

Jesus looked over His city with tears. He saw the situation but was not the least bit satisfied with what He saw. He was burdened with their loss and their unwillingness to turn to the loving embrace of the Father. The fully satisfied Son of God was completely unsatisfied with what He saw because His people were lost. Spiritually dead.

Isn’t that the way it is? Our friends and co-workers, our neighbors and unsaved family are unwilling to come. They won’t come to church, come to talk and reason, come to Christ. In their unwillingness we see their depravity and it hurts.

It needs to hurt. The hurt will keep us awake. Keep us alive to the mission. Don’t become complacent.

They live without a shepherd, wandering farther every day into the barren wasteland of life without Christ. They have no clean water, no green grass, and no pasture to safely graze upon.

Are you burdened for them? If not, then you may be a little too satisfied, a little too comfortable. From this vantage point you won’t care to see change in the world, or in the church because your eyes are looking inward.

Change is hard. It takes guts to introduce it. It takes boldness to confront what needs changing. It takes a fight. But it’s a fight worth fighting if the change is for the glory of Jesus.

Fight complacency with truth, with the real, cold, hard reality that things are not too good in this world. Fight the human tendency to be content in self, and look God-ward to His desires. God saw a need in the world and was not willing that it remain. He died to change people.

The complacent era needs to end.

We may think things are okay because we have comfy seats and friendly people to talk to on Sunday mornings, but things are not okay out there. People are dying and going to hell. The bright light at the end of the dark tunnel is Jesus. It’s the hope of the Spirit at work in this world. This complacent era will only come to an end when we learn to love and live like Christ.