Sometimes I try to do as much as I can for Christ…so long as it doesn’t inconvenience me. I am willing to donate and tithe…but I don’t give so much that I have to do without something. I will help and volunteer…but only if they ask me. I will reach out and minister to those in need…but I don’t want to feel uncomfortable. I will pray and lift up my brother and sisters…but if I’ve already been praying a while and I have stuff I “need” to get started on, I’ll catch them next time. And to these bouts of lethargy or complacency or minimalism, my Savior says:

I know your works,
that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Be watchful and strengthen what is left, which is going to die,
for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Revelations 3:2-3

To my ears, this is equivalent to the admonishment directed at the villian in A Knight’s Tale (which is an excellent movie by the way):

You have been weighed.
You have been measured.
And you have absolutely…
Been found wanting.

And of course He is right. If I do “just enough” then I am falling short of not only what God wants me to do for others…but also of what God wants to do for me. If I don’t actively pursue all the opportunities God has for me…then I am missing out. I can’t disrupt God’s plan by my disobedience. Someone else will donate, someone else will volunteer, someone else will minister, and someone else will pray. But I will miss out…I will be less.
Actually, Matthew West conveys all this far more powerfully than I can in his song The Motions.

This might hurt, it’s not safe But I know that I’ve gotta make a change I don’t care if I break, At least I’ll be feeling something’ Cause just okay is not enough Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions I don’t wanna go one more day without Your all consuming passion inside of me I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,”What if I had given everything, instead of going through the motions?”

So that’s it. I have to make a change. I have to strengthen what is left. I have to live this next moment, this next opportunity differently. When I feel worn down…when I feel tired…when selfishness starts to rear its ugly head in the middle of serving Christ…I have to keep going…keep pushing…and remember, I am not my own. I was bought at a price. And I am God’s servant. He supplies me all that I need…and will not ask more of me than He empowers me to do. So next time, whether its giving, or serving, or ministering, or praying…I can’t do just enough…I need to do more than enough…because enough simply ain’t enough.