Fat Christians

The basic principle of weight loss is very simple: your output must exceed your intake. If you are using and burning more calories than you are consuming, you WILL lose weight. The reverse is true as well... If you are consuming more calories than your body is using, you will gain weight. Likewise, in order to maintain your weight, to be healthy and balanced, your intake must equal your output. You must consume the same amount of calories that your body needs to sustain itself.

This is exactly why we are FAT. Not because we are terrible at math (which I am), but because we are lazy. We expect to be able to consume to our heart's content, yet we do not want to put forth the effort to burn off any of the excess. We eat until we are stuffed, we lie around and do nothing, we consume far more than we expend. And then, something totally expected happens... we become fat and unhealthy.

Do you sense a parallel coming? You should.

When I look at the Church today, I see pews full of fat Christians. Now before you get offended for the wrong reason, let me clarify. I not talking about beer-bellies, muffin-tops, and thunder thighs... I am talking about spiritually obese people. Religious consumers. Churchgoers who stuff themselves full of sermons, services, bible studies, retreats, luncheons, small groups and worship songs. They take it all in. which is fine. It is better than fine. it is great! That is what the church wants. That is what God wants. For us to soak up all of the knowledge, passion, wisdom, inspiration and other spiritual outpourings that the Church has to offer. The intake isn't the problem. The problem is what we do once we have been filled. Nothing. We do nothing. We just eat until we are stuffed and we get fat. We are a bunch of fat Christians.

Now you can be offended.

If this isn't you, if you are spiritually fit, if you are putting forth as much spiritually as you are receiving, then I am not talking about you. I am not addressing the spiritually healthy. I am not addressing the spiritually anorexic (not yet at least). I am talking to those of you whose spiritual consumption outweighs your exertion. I am talking about fat Christians.

God did not design us (or the Church) for this purpose. The Church is not a Buffett and Christians are nor hungry customers. If anything, Christians are the waiters in this analogy. Luke 22:27 says, "Who is greater, the one who reclines at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves."

The purpose of food is to fuel our bodies for work. The purpose of exercise is to burn off the excess calories we consume. In order to remain physically fit, we must balance our caloric intake with our caloric output. This is how God designed spiritual fitness as well. The intake we receive, the sermons, small groups, sunday school lessons, worship music, marriage retreats, women's luncheons and wednesday night bible studies... they are all designed to feed us. but not so we can eat, sit and get fat. they are food that serves as fuel. fuel to serve. When we fail to exert any spiritual effort, when we are consuming without exerting, we get spiritually fat.

Take a good look at your spiritual diet. Are you consuming more than you are exerting? Is your spiritual waistline widening as you eat your fill on Sunday mornings but fail to exert any effort through serving? Are you a fat Christian?

It is time to get healthy. It is time to give back. Find a place to serve. Find a way to work. Find an opportunity to pour out all that has been poured into to you. Over-indulgence is bad for your body, bad for your faith, and deadly for the Church. The Church needs fit Christians to be healthy. It is time to get up from the pew and into the pulpit. Or the kitchen. Or the classroom. Or the nursery. Just get up and get to work. No more fat Christians.