Statue in the Pew

The picture got my attention first. It was a bronze statue of a lady sitting on the front row of a beautiful church, with what appeared to be an open Bible on her lap. Now, that was interesting but the accompanying article was unbelievable. In it, the statue was described as the embalmed and bronzed image of a longtime church-goer named Mrs. Gert, who was so devoted to her spot in the pew that her family received special permission to bronze her body and affix it permanently to her special aisle seat where she had sat for the previous forty years.

Talk about being stuck in the pew! I was knee-deep in googling other articles, and getting quite a picture of the divide it was causing in the church between those that thought it was sweet and those who found it unsettling, when I realized I’d been had. Yes, it was a complete gag and I had fallen for it along with several million other people. Have mercy!

And yet, here’s the thing. It happens all the time. Oh, not the bronzed version but something similar. It’s all too easy for any of us to get stuck in our comfy spot. It happens when we swallow the ridiculous deception that having been born again, we know enough about this mysterious all-powerful amazing God and the only thing that remains is “to do church” ‘til we die. Can I be honest without losing listeners and readers? That’s nauseating to me. It also nails me because I once lived that way and I was well on my way to atrophying in my pew.

Here’s the choice that’s always before us. We can sit fixed and immovable, year in and year out with hearts as hard as a bronze statue or we can regularly lay our hearts bare and ask this God Man, this Savior, this Messiah to make them burn again. If you choose the latter, get ready. He is a consuming fire.

Hugs, Shellie

Hebrews 12: 28-29  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,  for our “God is a consuming fire.”