Be Nuts and Bolts
Rich Mullins, the late contemporary Christian recording artist, was credited with saying: “I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts.”
It's easy to take an objective approach to reading the Bible, talking about God, and theorizing about the best way to address the greatest needs in the world.
We all do it.
We enroll in classes at seminary, sit on used furniture in church basements with peers, or gather around bar tables with pints of beer and talk about how we should do things, how we should love others, or how the church should interpret those pesky Bible passages from Jesus.
I'm reminded once again, however, of the story in Luke 10 when a lawyer approaches Jesus with a list of questions. What’s the greatest commandment? Well, what about this interpretation of it? Who is my neighbor?
Jesus indicates that the man already knows all of the answers to his own questions. Instead of wasting his time ruminating on all the possible solutions, Jesus tells the man that he must "go and do” his answers.
It got me to thinking, perhaps we too should spend less time trying to explain or talk about our faith and more time actually practicing the “answers” we so desperately cling to.
Go be nuts and bolts.
Matt Snyder is a thirty-something writer and Director of Communications at First Baptist Church of Decatur. You can read more of his writing at matthewlasnyder.com