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At the start of this week, I was in California helping my mom fix up her house as she prepares to sell it and move closer to her parents. It was a meaningful opportunity to give back, in a small way, to the investment my mom has made in my life over the last 28 years. I gathered a few items I wanted to keep and began the drive to my in-laws’ house in Colorado, where I would store them.

Let me tell you—that rental car was awesome! As I started the drive, I explored all the cool features the car had to offer. The one I appreciated the most was the adaptive cruise control. I loved that I could set it and forget it. It braked for me in traffic and then accelerated back to my preset speed when possible. However, after a while, I began to notice a downside to this feature. Sometimes, as I approached a slower-moving car, the deceleration was so gradual that I didn’t even notice I was slowing down. Then, several minutes later, I would glance at the speedometer and be shocked to see that I wasn’t going the 75 mph I had set but was instead cruising at a much lower speed.

I believe this can happen in our spiritual lives as well. We start out excited about living for Christ, our engines moving at full speed! We are passionate and purposeful in our Christian walk. Then, at some point, we set the cruise control. We continue moving at the speed we originally set, but other things in life begin to steal our momentum. The “adaptive cruise control” of our lives starts slowing down our spiritual output, and we don’t even realize it.

This can happen to people in all stages of life. We all have the tendency to slow down and take steps back if we aren’t careful. Every age bracket has its own pitfalls and obstacles that can hinder us. Whether it’s prioritizing entertainment over spiritual growth, letting a new job consume all our time, making relationships the center of our lives, overloading our children’s schedules, or embracing a retirement philosophy that revolves around the couch, the golf course, and grandkids—no one is immune to the effects of “adaptive cruise control.”

So, what is the solution to this natural slowing we face in life? The apostle Paul reminds us that the answer is intentionality. In Philippians 3, Paul gives us this insight:

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you."

Paul gives us the proper mindset—we must actively push forward to the finish line. When Paul uses the analogy of a runner, he isn’t picturing someone at the back of the pack, lightly jogging and chatting with the person next to them. He envisions someone with sweat pouring down their face, breathing intensely, giving everything they have. Why? To bring honor and glory to the King for whom we are running. Paul concludes by exhorting the believers in Philippi to pursue serving Christ with the same passion that he had!

All of us have the same opportunity to serve within Christ’s church. Not all of us can serve in the exact same way, but all of us should serve. A good question to ask yourself is: What have I done to serve my church in the last six months? You may find that you have set the adaptive cruise control and that your fervency has slowed more than you realized. Take the step of turning it off and pressing the gas in pursuit of Christ and His mission.

 

Serving together,

Pastor Derek