A 'Good' Lesson from a 'Bad' Dude

Andy Capp is a LOST British cartoon character. I say ‘lost’ because he definitely does not appear to be a ‘saved’ man. In his various cartoon strips, he drinks like a fish, gets in awful fights with his wife Flo, has very little to do with church, chain smokes and generally misbehaves a lot. But in spite of his flaws, ol’ Andy says things every now and then that could teach all of us—including church folk—some practical life lessons.

I remember one time Flo was scolding Andy for his neglect in taking her out; she said something like, “You’re a sorry lot as a husband! In the past couple of years you’ve only taken me out two times! When we married, you promised the vicar you’d take me out REGULARLY!” In the cartoon Andy looks out at us and grins, saying: “I’m just glad I didn’t say FREQUENTLY!”

Quick-thinking Andy's way with words might apply to many areas of our lives; today I'm pondering how it relates to our "walk with God." How is our QT--our Quiet Time--that is, our personal worship, our life of prayer and Bible reading? Would you say that you spend quality time with the living Lord Jesus Christ and His Word “frequently”—or would an honest answer be more like “uh, regularly”?

In these days when the overall stress level is higher than ever, how frequently do we ‘steal away’ just to be with Jesus? While our experiences of corporate worship are nothing like we’re used to, how’s our personal praise and worship? With the Lord’s Supper in many of our churches looking like something we’ve never seen before, how is our own private communion with the Christ of the cross? Like many probably do, I sometimes fret over the ‘weirdness of worship’ due to face coverings and physical distancing (in the pews and on the platforms)...the lack of hugs, handshakes and handouts... the absence of offering plates passed and altar calls given. But these should compel me to be more frequent in my time with the Lord, not less.

I see that some larger churches are totally moving away from corporate gatherings in their worship centers; they’re going into 'home groups’ for at least the rest of 2020. Wow! There seems to be no simple solution—and some people are going to find fault with whatever plan is proposed and followed. But I know that there's at least one guaranteed ‘fix’ to the worship problem: an increase in our PERSONAL hours of prayer and time reading/studying God's Word!

The same book of Hebrews that exhorts, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some” also says to us individual believers, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 10:24-25 and 4:16). So, we have clear instructions: we're to meet with each other whenever and however we can, AND we're to meet consistently with our Lord, regardless of the circumstances!

You want to ‘solve’ the problems of gathering during this crisis? I think we'll all agree on this: until we can re-unite for worship services that we recognize, we'll support our church leaders' efforts to keep us safe, AND we'll commit to being more ‘frequent’ in our personal daily time with God. Let's quit our flimsy excuses of just being ‘regular’ in the one thing about our worship experience which we have complete control over--our time with H!M! Brothers and sisters, for the final five months of the year, during the continued Covid craziness, you and I cannot predict the future; but we CAN redeem this evil time (Eh. 5:16), so let’s DO it--individually...daily...yes, 'frequently!'