Beyond the Status Quo
By Pastor Jason Terpack
There’s an old saying that goes, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” That is a very true statement. If you think about it in the simple terms of life, you’ll see that it is true. My wife enjoys watching a television show called “Worst Cooks in America.” It is a show about people who are awful cooks but enter into a “boot camp” taught by two top chefs to learn how to work well in the kitchen. The participants on the show are not culinary experts and if they never decided to do anything about it that would not change-they would stay horrible cooks. But, the ones who seek the difference by wanting to learn and grow and identify the challenges to their cooking will improve and change for the better. What often motivates the participants is their desire to provide quality meals for their loved ones.
In a similar way, we can choose as people of faith to identify our areas of weakness, our “cooking,” and seek to go beyond the status quo. We can get help from the experts or “top chefs” like Abraham, Moses, and Paul who left the status quo to fully follow God.
Abraham left the land of his father, Ur of the Chaldeans to seek a place, “A city whose builder and maker is God.” He left that place because God called him to do that. It was not easy and it was not convenient, and it was not what he had always done. He was used to that territory and was used to doing things that way. But God was calling him to something different, something new. And because of his obedience we have the Savior of the world who came at Christmas as a son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1).
Moses is another person we can learn from about leaving the status quo. He killed an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew slave and then worked in the desert as a fugitive shepherd. But God called him to lead the people of Israel, enslaved 400 years in Egypt, out to the Promised Land. Moses had plenty of reason not to go. He was 80 years old at this time. Also, he was not good at speaking; he had a stutter or other speech impediment. He listened though and because of his obedience we have the Law of God as given by Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy) which shows us our need for Christ (Galatians 3:24).
Then there is Paul. Paul was a religious leader, comfortable with his station in life. He was a Pharisee and well-respected as one who knew his own faith. He in fact was a persecutor of the then infant church with letters from the top religious leaders endorsing his quest against Christians. But God had different plans for Paul. The Lord Jesus appeared to Paul on his trip to Damascus, while on his way to persecute the followers of Jesus there. He was struck blind and spoken to in a voice from above (see Acts 9). After three days, Paul who was previously called Saul had a very different attitude and perspective. And he went on to found many churches and to write nearly two thirds of the New Testament of the Holy Bible.
In what way does God want to bring you out of the status quo in your life and in your church? What is God calling you to do that may not be comfortable or convenient? If you obey, you may just change the world!