This past Tuesday was just like every other Tuesday.  Our day was filled with normal, mundane errands and to-do’s.  Highest on the priority list was being on time for Conner’s latest eye appointment.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two years since he shared with us that his left eye doesn’t work as hard as his right.  The prognosis was disheartening but the progress has been steady except for that last appointment, a few months ago, when we were told that we had lost some ground previously gained.  Patching is not the strong suit of a go-getter like Conner.

So, on Monday evening as he drifted off to sleep, I simply laid my hand over his left eye and began to pray, knowing that God has never let us down.  After the discouragement of regression, we needed a good report.  Now, sitting in the waiting area, I offered one last prayer before his exam.  The nurse opens the door, calls his name and we make our way to the back when he looks at me and says, “Daddy, I want a good report.”  To which I respond, “Come on, buddy.  The Lord will take care of it.”  In my own fleshly mind, I feel his desperation.  There’s no doubt in my mind that the Lord can do it.  I just want Him to do it now.

It didn’t take long before we realized that the Lord had delivered once more.  Not only did he surprise himself, but he shocked his parents, the nurse and his physician.  Making his way into the room, he said, “Mr. Conner, we are reading very well.  What’s your secret?”  Conner, in a moment of God-ordained inspiration and a little sarcasm, says, “My secret is I did what you told me to do.”

Isn’t that interesting?  To think that good things would come from doing what we’re told to do.  There are so many individuals in our society today who pride themselves on having discovered that prayer, Bible reading, attending church faithfully, supporting the kingdom of God through tithes and offerings, and faith really doesn’t work.  They do their best through social media and casual conversation to convince all around that there’s nothing to those old-fashioned, outdated principles.  After all, they’ve “tried” those principles and found that they lack sufficient power for true life change.

Maybe that’s not you.  Maybe you don’t make it your mission to prove the Lamb of God to be a liar.  Maybe it’s not your goal to present the Father as a fake.  Maybe it’s not your passion to make Jesus the punchline of a joke.  But I wonder how you might contribute a certain amount of validity to these deceptions through a lack of commitment to the basic principles of the Christian faith.  Simply put, it may not be your mission to disprove the Bible, but do you not join the effort when you choose to follow your own way of living instead?

We don’t like to see ourselves as enemies of God.  But when we choose not to pray we testify of the unimportance of talking with the Father.  When we choose not to attend church we diminish the significance of God’s people.  When we choose not to spend quality time in the Word of God we boast of our ability to run our own lives.  When we choose not to share the Gospel of Christ we reduce it to a mere idea, rather than the plan of God to save the world.

Over the years, I’ve heard many speak of how they gave their “all” to prayer, Bible reading, faith, giving, fasting and other spiritual disciplines only to find that they lack the power to bring true change.  In layman’s terms, they don’t work.  But I wonder if the problem is not so much with the principles but how we work them.  For example, prayer won’t work if prayers are only prayed when you have nothing else to do (which is never the case) or when you’re in a moment of emergency.  Bible reading doesn’t work when you only read Scripture because it’s plastered on a 50-foot billboard just off the interstate.  Faith won’t work when you double-mindedly speak doubt out of the same mouth.  Giving won’t work when you tithe to Wal-Mart, Mickey Mouse, Bass Pro and JC Penney.

I wonder if the reason these principles fail so often in our lives is because we don’t know how to work them.  Jesus gave us a very simple plan.  While the Gospel is not hard to understand, it is very difficult to implement.  Following Jesus is going to cost you something.  Our flesh doesn’t like it, much like Conner’s stronger right eye doesn’t like the blurring drops that we put in for the purpose of forcing his left eye to work harder.  The interesting thing is that God is not asking us to work harder.  He’s just trying to let us in on His secret: “Just do what He told you to do.”