Have you ever been awaiting something for a long time and then once it happens you feel let down? Yeah…me too!
However, that DIDN’T happen this weekend! I will admit that over the past couple of years I have been developing a bit of a man crush on Steven Furtick and his ministry. I am a devoted video podcast subscriber as well as follower of his blog. I present my rather unhealthy connection to this Pastor to simply say that I was really pumped about getting to be at Elevation for Saturday night services (Why I did not blog yesterday). I discussed some of this in a previous blog, You Can’t Choose Your Family. The thought that came to me toward the end of the service at Elevation is about habits and familiarity.
We entered the Matthews campus sanctuary/auditorium and found our seat with much fanfare after an amazing VIP experience, with gifts and a tour. As we sat in anticipation of the start I prepped my iPad for taking notes and examining scripture, and settled a swirling stomach and tried to quell my excitement. We were blessed by an awesome worship experience that had an amazing artistic element as well as spirit filled worship where I swear I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest with every bass drop. 
The most amazing part of the entire experience didn’t come when Steven hit the stage. It was such an intimate feel with nice banter going back and forth on occasion between He and the crowd. You got the feeling like he was just a guy talking to friends and family. The real interesting part was when I noticed myself, all 8 rows away from the Pastor I have been enjoying online via video podcast, watching him on the screen. I was DUMBFOUNDED. I couldn’t believe that I was there in the presence of the real thing and I was glued to a digital version. It made no sense to me.
I had reverted back to what I was used to.
I had prayed that He would be preaching live at our location, but chose to watch on the screen. I was so impressed and amazed at the intimacy of the location but fell back into the digital connection through the pixels. What is WRONG with me?
So how often do we do this every day in our lives?
How often do we anticipate something that we should be experiencing now? God has blessed us with such an inheritence but we often fail to posess it.
Like the Israelites failing to possess the promised land we can be at the dinner table for a feast yet settle for the crumbs that fall off the table. It’s like we can stand in the midst of victory and settle for defeat. Everything we hoped and dreamed at our fingertips, yet we don’t move.
Why?
I think it’s a mindset. As we go through life, it trains our minds in a way of thinking. If we develop a lack of expectation for the amazing, when it arrives, we are cynical, doubtful, and dismissive. We are not ready to receive the gift. Then we resort to living life based on our expectation of things and not in relation to the realities of life. Look around you right now. Are you living in the midst of fulfilled promises? Are you appreciating and taking advantage of those promises?
Are you enjoying the blessings or still living in a state of lack or wanting?
Or are you too looking at the digital screen? missing the here for something beyond?
Don’t look past your current blessings because you are used to living in lack. He has fulfilled many of his promises to you already and hasnt changed as he will continue to fulfill. However, if you don’t appreciate and take full advantage of that which you’ve been blessed with here, when you get to beyond…you won’t enjoy that much either.
I can’t believe I watched most of that sermon on the screen. Ugg. 🙂
