We do what we want to do

One of life's lessons is this: we do what we want to do.

"I can't do this," or "I can't go there," or....we do what we want to do.

Oh, I know that there are mitigating circumstances in life that can cross our path and prohibit us sometimes.

But most of the time, we do what we want to do.

I always joke that I can be in Target and see someone who goes to our church, and if they haven't come in a while, after I say "hi", they will start the conversation with, "I haven't been in church because." And all I wanted to do was to say, "hi"!

We do what we want to do.

Hebrews 10:24 exhorts us to "...not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing."

Obviously, I think that is a great idea. Don't give us meeting together. Don't hesitate at least once a week in gathering together with other followers of Christ to celebrate, to worship and to seek God.

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a Chicago talk radio station (I forget which one) and they were talking about Lent and the church and why they do or don't go to church.

Once again, they came back to the tired, well worn, universal comment, "I don't go to church because all the church wants is my money."

Ugh. After almost 30 years in the ministry, I just kind of let that go "in one ear and out the other." I've heard it so many times, it just sounds like a lot of "white noise," background noise to the flow of life. Blah,blah, blah.

Let's put that into perspective by applying that same kind of logic to sports. A lot of people in our city are sports fans. What if I used the same logic for not going to a sports event, for giving ups sports once and for all, as people do for not going to church?

Think about it.

Here are some excuses that we could use (and that I hear people use for not "meeting together," as the writer to the Hebrews writes) for not attending a baseball game, a football game or a hockey game.

- Every time I went, all they did was asked for money

- The people I sat next to didn't seem friendly

- The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all

- I went to many games but the coach (manager) never came to call on me

- The referees made decisions that I couldn't agree with

- The game went into overtime and I was late getting home

- The band played numbers I'd never heard before and it wasn't my style of music

- It seems the games are always scheduled when I want to do other things

- I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites. They came to see their friends and they talked during the whole game

- I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up

- I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game

Well, I could go on, but you get the point.

Excuses. Mark Twain once said that an excuse is "the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie."

I hear different excuses for not spending an hour and a half with God - some valid, most pretty lame.

You see - We do what we want to do.