I’ve been reading ‘Prochownik’s Dream’ by Alex Miller. One of the characters, Marina, an artist, talked about how after she and her husband moved, she felt she was not in the right place and would ‘be cast as an onlooker for the rest of my days.’ As a result they moved back for a time to Melbourne, the city they’d originally came from.
Her friend, Toni, also an artist, remarks ’I would have thought being cast as an onlooker is something you allow to happen to you, isn’t it?’
It’s a fair comment. It made me think, how easy it is for us to become an onlooker in our church and in our community. Especially if we feel we are not in the right place, we can tend to sit back and coast along rather than become involved.
The truth is while ever we do that we will never be involved but will always feel like we are on the sidelines of life. That’s not what God wants for us. He wants us to be involved in our church and in our community. We’re not called to be Christians in secret but to stand out like lights on a hill, Matthew 5:14. That doesn’t mean cutting ourselves off from people but it means being involved but not adopting the world’s ways, standards and attitudes. This is not always easy to do when it is constantly thrust at us from billboards, TV and magazines. We are called to be in the world but not of it, John 17:16.
So how do we overcome being an onlooker in our church? Firstly sit down and pray asking God to show you your where your gifts are. Make a list of those things you are good at, or have skills or an interest in. Then ask God to clearly show you those areas where there is a need. Church newsletters and local papers often are good places to locate a need as they often have calls for volunteers in certain areas. Then approach the people in charge of those God reveals to you and offer your services.
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