The Faith Flu?

I have to start off by saying that sometimes sermon series titles kind of kill me. I understand the value of them, I appreciate the visual it can give people (including me!), but sometimes I just laugh in my head at what pastors come up with. Knowing me, I would have probably been one of those people laughing at Jesus' titles of his parables when He was speaking too. (God forgive me.)

Today at church our pastor started talking about the swine flu. Obviously pretty much everyone knows someone with it, or has had it, or at least has a clue as to what it is. He listed some symptoms of the virus and then began talking about the "Faith Flu" and what you would look like if you had it. He was using Psalm 78:4b-7, and showing how our symptoms of having the faith flu would be 1. confidence in God, 2. gratitude to God, and 3. obedience to God.

He went on to explain them and said that if we don't have these symptoms, then we don't have the disease.

It really made me think a lot about myself. Not what I want to believe about myself, but about what is really me. I feel like I have become prideful and arrogant in so many ways. I go days without listening to God. I go hours without talking to God. (I was extremely moved by what Lauren had to say.) And sure, I'm "busy" and have a lot on my plate and am tired, but who doesn't? Did Jesus literally not have the entire weight of the world on His shoulders when He decided to die for us? Did He not ask God if there could be another way, listened, and continued to be obedient? And obviously I haven't faced anything near as heavy as that, but I have made decisions not only for me, but for my family, without consulting the One who loves me more than anyone else.

I want to teach my sons and show my sons the goodness that is Jesus. Steve, the pastor, said that to do that we need to be doing every day life together, we need to make time for it, and we must do it with integrity. If you don't have the swine flu, you can cough and sneeze on your family all you want, but you're not giving them the swine flu. Same thing here. If faith really isn't in me, if I'm not living a life of integrity, then my boys won't catch it from me. I think Summer has a lot of good points if you have a moment to check it out.

I just want to be authentic in every way. Even changing "fitness" to "faith" in my blog title. That's more authentically me. I would love to know more about fitness, I would love for it to be a real priority to me, but at the moment, it's not. When it is... well, then maybe I can add it back. :)

The Faith Flu. As silly as I thought that title was, I totally get it now. I hope we all catch it.