Last summer Exeter City Football Club made it to the Conference playoff final at the new Wembley stadium - and I was there. A part of the thirty thousand plus Exeter fans that filled one end of the stadium. It is great being a part of a crowd. Unfortunately things didn't work out last year - but we're pushing hard for another Wembley playoff final again this year (and there could be the chance of beating Torquay on the way!)
But there are dangers in being a part of a crowd. People do things in a crowd that they wouldn't do if they were on their own. Encouraged by those around them, submitting to peer pressure, unthinkingly absorbing the mentality of the crowd...
On the first Palm Sunday Jesus was victoriously welcomed into Jerusalem by the crowd. But within a few days those same people were in another crowd that was calling for Jesus to be killed and an enemy of the people to be set free.
I guess if you could ask those people what they were thinking, many might say that they weren't thinking - they were just going along with everyone else. And that's a danger of a crowd. It is all too easy to get swept along with everyone else without thinking for yourself - or without making a courageous stand against what everyone else is doing, thinking, saying ...
I wonder how many people in church this weekend will simply be a part of the crowd. They don't really know what they believe, or why they believe it. Outside of the church context if they are asked probing questions about their faith they don't really have any convincing responses. They sing the songs without thinking about the words. If everyone else sings 'Hallelujah' they sing 'Hallelujah'. If everyone else starts singing 'Crucify' how many would stop and think?
Being a part of the crowd can be a dangerous place to be unless we know what we believe and why we believe it. Unless we have the courage to swim against the tide or to stand up and be counted when the time comes.
5 comments:
I'm hearing you! Got any practical tips on how to not get too knackered whilst seemingly constantly fighting the incoming tide or putting one's head above the trench.
I know some of the good foundational practices of making sure you're in step with God, praying and reading His word and spending time with His people; All of which is the best way to work out which battle is yours and with His strength facing which ever particular battle. I know there is a fantastic Christian cliche - do the thing that only you can do - However, sometimes when there just seem to be so many, relentless, equally deserving good causes that mean we should be going against the grain - its hard to differentiate one's own responsibility. In fact just trying to differentiate them is pretty exhausting....
Anyway, I can recommend taking a sabbath...! I think I'm suffering from sabbathless syndrome over the last couple of weeks!
In summary, I just want to say that I can controversially recommend the crowd option - it looks less tiring. However, significantly less fulfilling and I'm not sure what you say to God when you meet Him and are trying to call yourself a believer and follower of Christ - prepared to suffer and to prosper.
Verona
Discerning what we should be doing amongst all the good things that we could be doing is very difficult - and I would say that most of us probably get it wrong! I heard someone say this week something along the line of, 'the enemy of the great is the good'. Often it is doing the good stuff that stops us doing the great stuff. Personally I think I need to do less, better.
Hi there,
I noticed this post about my book A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY on a blog that links to yours, and then had lots of fun exploring your blog, so thanks for that
Anyway, here's the post from http://dreamingofthecountry.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/a-place-in-my-country/
You can find out more about my book at my website, but I thought you too might find it interesting.
With kind regards,
Ian
www.ianwalthew.com
A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY - RECENT REVIEWS
"When stressed out media exec Ian Walthew panic buys a Cotswold cottage as an escape route from the urban treadmill, he unwittingly acquires a window on a corner of rural Britain at work and at play, and his writer’s eye sees just what’s going on. Walthew has a genuine gift for bringing both people and places to life and marshals his runaway real life narratives with a novelist’s skill. The story of his surprising friendship with his neighbour Norman - who is trying to keep his ramshackle farm and his dignity together with a few strands of baler twine, while his millionaire neighbours embrace the prairie concept of modern industrial farming - is compelling and often deeply moving. And Walthew’s own struggle with age-old issues of identity, friendship, community and a place to call home are fresh, sympathetic and never trying. It’s not the sort of book you’d pick up expecting a page-turner, but that’s exactly what it turn's out to be."
Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall
it is easy being part of the crowd.
part of a good crowd can help one's overall spirituality.There are times when one has to make a stand in secular and christian life.My fear is that one gets labled as a trouble maker for doing so. isn't there a place for one not making such a stand precisely because of it?
any thoughts?
Daniel
27th March 2008 21.31
Certainly you can get labelled a trouble maker for making a stand - see what happened to Jesus for example!
But I do think that it is important that we choose our battles carefully - if we were to make a stand on everything then a) we end up doing nothing effectively, b) we get the reputation of being a trouble maker and no one takes us seriously - instead we get the response 'oh it's only so and so going off on one again'.
So the key is knowing when to take a stand and when not to. Fortunately God has promised us wisdom if we ask Him for it - James 1:5.
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