I’ve had a song stuck in my head, Cruising on a Sunday afternoon. If you grew up in the ‘80’s, you would remember cruising the strip. We would drive up and down the same road, over and over and over again. Hours of time and who knows how many gallons of gas were spent, driving up the strip, turning around, and then driving back the opposite direction. Sometimes, we would park in the grocery store parking lot and just hang out.

That memory made me think; are we, the church, cruising through our lives, just wasting time as we go through each day, up and down the same road, over and over and over again? Or to think of it another way, do we have our life set on cruise control? Are we in the habit of just setting our speed, clicking cruise, and mindlessly driving? Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” How often are we as Christians just satisfied enough knowing we have eternal salvation, so we switch on the cruise control of our lives and just coast through each day? Where is our drive? Where is our passion? Have we forgotten the multitudes that will pass into the darkness, unaware of the love of Christ, the blood he shed for their sins…for our sins? We are called by Christ, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

I think many of us think of the great commission as a command to missionaries. We send missionaries out into the world to spread the gospel. But Christ wasn’t telling his disciples to spread the gospel only to foreign lands. He is telling us to spread the gospel, wherever God has placed you. But to change the world, we must first change our hearts. We must put aside this world, take up our bibles and fill our hearts and our minds with the truth of Gods word. Without that, we become salt that has lost its flavor, and we are useless!

I am reading, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. I was struck by this paragraph, and it really fits with our cruising lifestyle. “Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don’t have to trust God if something unexpected happens—they have their savings account. They don’t need God to help them—they have their retirement plan in place. They don’t genuinely seek out what life God would have them live—they have life figured and mapped out. They don’t depend on God on a daily basis—their refrigerators are full, and for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.” Wow! Say it isn’t so!

I don’t want to be useless to the kingdom of God! I want to make a difference. Yet, I am broken and unable to change on my own. I need God to fill me with Himself so that through Him, and not of my own desire or effort, my heart and my life is changed. I need Him to turn off the cruise control of my life and punch that accelerator. It’s more than Jesus take the wheel. It’s Jesus, put me in the trunk, close the lid and take me where you want me to go!