This generation or decade has been called various things like the “microwave” generation, “fast food” generation, and other names that refuse to come to mind at 5 am. The names refer to the insistence on having whatever is wanted immediately. There is an expectation that whatever is desired can be delivered instantly. And that word, “instant” is one I have never seen used the way Chambers used it, or rather as the King James Version uses it. I love that! I never knew it could be used that way.
But this demand for fast service is not reserved for the generation of the last decade. I have customers who are shocked when I cannot deliver access to our online platform immediately, when they have to wait overnight. They are shocked. They ask, “Aren’t you an information company?” or “Aren’t you a computer software company?” and I answer my usual “Sort of”, which is true. But the real question underlying theirs is, “How, in this age of electronic processes, can an enormous business entity not have the technology to deliver whatever they sell instantly via the internet.” It’s just that no one has the time to ask the full question. They are too busy demanding whatever they want however they want it, delivered when they want it. Since they invariably wait until the last moment to request (or demand), the crisis they have brought on themselves becomes our problem.
Enough whining about customers. I do the same thing, so I have little room for complaint. I am a part of this generation chirping for whatever I want to be delivered immediately. But this is not really the focus of Chambers this morning. His focus is on those servants who are not willing to work/serve until they are on; the Master has given them some special insight, illumination, a word, a message, a swift kick to the bottom. I had that worked out of me while “interning” as a minister for the pastor of the church where I grew up. He is a “different” kind of guy, still at that church, which is strange enough. His differences were of a range of things both good and bad, but I had a problem regarding him. I was prejudiced against him for some of his more “antique” views. He wasn’t old enough to really subscribe to such views, but he had this bull-dog tenacity in holding on to them. A lot of them were out of sync with the rest of the church and a lot of mainline thought in the churches around us, but he held them anyway. I thought him foolish because of that. It’s hard to work for someone you don’t respect. It is also hard to respect someone who you don’t really understand. And it makes it even harder to respect someone who has been “blasphemed” and I have believed the “blasphemy”. Anyway, my disrespect was, and has been, unwarranted, and was beneath the calling my Master had placed on my life. In fact, due to that calling, I should have been his most ardent supporter, but I was young, and stupid.
Now that I am old and stupid, I have at least had the benefit of being crushed in ministry by other people at least as equally stupid as myself. Now, I am more his supporter, in fact the more I get to know him on Facebook the more I am surprised by who he seems to be. I still don’t subscribe to many of his views, but I have learned that those views he holds, he holds without beating people about the head, neck, and shoulders with them; a lesson I learned slowly. He may be out of touch with much of society, but I think I now see that to his credit. Where his wisdom intersects with Chambers in this entry is in that he holds his beliefs when it’s popular and when it’s not. He doesn’t change with the wind, or bow to the popular trend or follow the latest ministry fad. He has a segment of our Baptist denomination he listens to, and ignores or confounds the rest. I was never able to stand that strong, even when I thought I was right. He is one tough minister, whatever else might be said about him. He has stuck in with that church when he was popular and when he wasn’t, and I and others did not make it easy for him to stay. He is an excellent example of being “instant” when it is convenient for others and not for himself. He is available with a word from his Master at any time, even if he doesn’t have the time.
So, this entry is sort of a confession of a failing of mine regarding a fellow minister. But it also explores an area where I need growth. I need to be “instant” whenever I am needed, not whenever I feel “inspired”. The seasons change, but my convictions should not, my readiness should not. My powder should be dry, my musket clean, and my shot handy. I am not always there. Paul’s charge to Timothy in his second letter (4:2) is still a good one for me, even now that I’m no longer in vocational ministry. Peter says to always be ready to give a reason for my hope. Well, I have a musket to clean and shot to gather.
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