The Wasp and the Church Member
Once while walking among the hills of a south-eastern state I noticed a piece of a paper lying by the road side.
Its presence there was, under the circumstances, so unexpected that it aroused my curiosity. I picked it up and found written on it in a clear legible hand these words: “In all the world there are only two creatures that are larger when they are born than when they get their growth; one is a wasp and the other is a church member.”
Whether this was a lost gem taken from a sermon delivered in a church somewhere among the hills or in a nearby town, or whether it had been placed there by some friendly philosopher who had observed my approach and dropped it there for my edification I will probably never know, but I found it more than a little interesting.
Not being an apiarist I am unable to judge the truth of the statement that a baby wasp is larger than an adult one; but that part about the church member I find too true to be amusing or even comfortable.
Knowing the good people of the hills as I do, and being familiar with their religious terminology, I am sure that the writer of the epigram meant the term “church member” to be understood as synonymous with Christian, and intended to say that his experience had taught him that average Christian lost “size” and become less a Christian later on than when he was first converted.
Why do so many enthusiastic new converts later run out of steam and settle down to a life of dull religious routine? Why do they lose their first zeal and accept the dead average subnormal spirituality they see about them as the best they can hope to maintain in this present world? Why are they often “smaller” after they have been on the way for several years than they were when they first started on their journey toward the Celestial City?
Now I do not insist that my description applies to all Christians. In fact I think our epigrammatist was covering too much territory when he gave the impression that all church members get smaller as they get older. I do not think they all do, but the fact that some do is enough to disturb one who loves the church and carries the welfare of the saints on his heart; and the fact that any do calls for prayer and careful investigation.
Could it be that after a joyful conversion many have without knowing it become enamored of their experience instead of fixing their eyes upon the Lord? Then when novelty wears off their experience the joy and enthusiasm go out of their lives. What they should be taught is that a true Christian is converted to Christ, not to peace or rest or joy. These things will come in their time, but they will go again unless the gaze is fixed upon Christ who is the source and fountain of all spiritual delights.
Only engrossment with God can maintain perpetual spiritual enthusiasm because only God can supply everlasting novelty. In God every moment is new and nothing ever gets old. Of things religious we may become tired; even prayer may weary us; but God never. He can show a new aspect of His glory to us each day for all the days of eternity and still we shall have but begun to explore the depths of the riches of His infinite being.
Excerpt taken from the book “God Tells the Man who Cares” written by A.W. Tozer, published by GLS Publishing.
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