Carol Swenson
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Hope for Tuckered Town
Turn north at Stress Village, drive a few miles east of Worryville, bear right at the fork leading through Worn-Out Valley, and you’ll find yourself entering the weary streets of Tuckered Town.
Her residents live up to the name. They lumber like pack mules on a Pike’s Peak climb. Eyes down. Faces long. Shoulders slumped. Ask them to explain their sluggish ways, and they point to the cars. “You’d be tired too if you had to push one of these.”
To your amazement that’s what they do! Shoulders pressing, feet digging, lungs puffing, they muscle automobiles up and down the street. Rather than sit behind the wheel, they lean into the trunk.
The sight puzzles you. The sound stuns you. Do you hear what you think you hear? Running engines. Citizens of Tuckered Town turn the key, start the car, slip it into neutral, and shove!
You have to ask someone why. A young mother rolls her minivan into the grocery store parking lot. “Ever thought of pressing the gas?” you question.
“I do,” she replies, brushing sweat away. “I press the gas to start the car; then I take over.”
A bizarre answer. But no more bizarre than that of the out-of-breath fellow leaning against his eighteen-wheeler, wheezing like an overweight marathoner. “Did you push this truck?” you ask.
“I did,” he gasps, covering his mouth with an oxygen mask.
“Why not use your accelerator?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Because I’m a Tucker trucker, and we’re strong enough to do our own work.”
He doesn’t look strong to you. But you say nothing. Just walk away wondering, What kind of people are these? A pedal push away from power, yet they ignore it. Who would live in such a way?
Paul asked the Galatian church an identical question. “You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power? That is foolish” (Gal. 3:3 NCV). Is God nothing more than a jumper cable? Start-up strength and nothing more?
Corinthian Christians pushed a few cars too. “You are still not spiritual,” the apostle accused (1 Cor. 3:3 NCV). What are you saying, Paul? Are they saved? Yes. He addresses them as “brothers and sisters” (1 Cor. 3:1 NCV). He considers them to be God’s children. Heaven bound. Saved, but not spiritual. Plugged in, but not flipped on. “Brothers and sisters…I had to talk to you as I would to people without the Spirit—babies in Christ.…You are still not spiritual, because there is jealousy and quarreling among you, and this shows that you are not spiritual. You are acting like people of the world” (1 Cor. 3:1–3 NCV).
I used to think there were two kinds of people: the saved and unsaved. Paul corrects me by describing a third: the saved, but unspiritual. The spiritual person is Spirit dependent, Spirit directed, Spirit dominated. He seeks to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16 NKJV). Conversely, the unspiritual person cranks the car and hunkers behind it. Tragically, these people act “like people of the world” (1 Cor. 3:3 NCV). In language, lifestyle, priorities, and personality, they blend in with nonbelievers. They let God save them, but not change them.
Such carnal Christianity frustrates Paul. “You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power? That is foolish” (Gal. 3:3 NCV).
Foolish and miserable. You don’t want to carpool with unspiritual Christians. They have no kind words to share. “There is jealousy and strife” among them (1 Cor. 3:3 NASB). The only joy they know graduated from high school last year. And gratitude? Gratitude for what? The two-ton Hummer that daily has to be pushed uphill? The saved but unspiritual see salvation the way a farmer sees a hundred acres of untilled soil—lots of work. Church attendance, sin resistance—have I done enough? No wonder they’re tired. No wonder they argue. “You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your own desires?” (1 Cor. 3:3).
Harsh words
Joyless days
Contentious relationships
Thirsty hearts
You’ll find more excitement at an Amish prom. Who wants to live in Tuckered Town? Moreover, who wants to move there? Nothing repels non-Christians more than gloomy Christians. No one wants a free truck if you have to push it. Your neighbor doesn’t. You don’t. And God doesn’t want it for any of us. He never intended for you to perambulate your life.
His word for tuckered-out Christians? “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him” (Col. 2:6 NCV).
How does one receive Christ? By coming thirsty and drinking deeply. How, then, does one live in Christ? By coming thirsty and drinking deeply.
When you do, saving power becomes staying power. “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again” (Phil. 1:6).
Christ did not give you a car and tell you to push it. He didn’t even give you a car and tell you to drive it. You know what he did? He threw open the passenger door, invited you to take a seat, and told you to buckle up for the adventure of your life.
When Christ enters the Tuckered Towns of the world, he stands at the intersection of Dead-Tired Avenue and Done-In Street and compels, “ ‘If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.’ (When he said ‘living water,’ he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him)” (John 7:37–39).
“Come to me!” Not “come to my church” or “come to my system,” but “come to me!”
Come to me and drink. No sipping. No tasting. It’s time to chug-a-lug. Thirsty throats gulp water. Thirsty souls gulp Christ. The margin notes of the New American Standard Bible state: “Keep coming to Me and…keep drinking.” Annual fill-ups or monthly ingestions won’t do. You aren’t sampling wine at a California vineyard. You’re hiking through Death Valley, and that mirage you see is not a mirage but really is the river you need. Dive in and drink.
And as you do, look what happens: “rivers of living water will flow out from within” (John 7:38). The word for rivers can be translated floods (see Matt. 7:25, 27; Rev. 12:15–16). We’ve seen torrents torrential enough to carry homes. Newscasts run and rerun images of a house floating downstream. What is this force that can float a house?
One smaller than the power who floods you. “He was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him” (John 7:39). God’s Spirit. God’s powerful, unseen, undeniable presence pulsating through heart canals. A “spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life” (John 4:14 NCV).
God’s Spirit rages within you. Whether you feel him or not is unimportant. Whether you understand him is insignificant. Jesus said, “Living water will flow out from within” (7:38). Not “may flow,” “could flow,” or “has been known to flow.” But “will flow.”
If such is the case, Max, then explain my weariness and irritability. If God’s Spirit lives within me, why do I have the compassion of Hermann Goering? I can’t tolerate my mother or control my temper or forgive myself. I’m so tired.
God through Paul answers that question with five rich words: “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18 NCV). The verb tense caused original readers to see capital letters: BE FILLED. With the same imperative gusto that he instructs, “Forgive,” “Pray,” and “Speak truth,” God commands, “BE FILLED.”
Not only does Paul give a command; he gives a continuous, collective command. Continuous in the sense that the filling is a daily privilege. Collective because the invitation is offered to all people. “You all be filled with the Spirit.” Young, old, servants, businessmen, seasoned saints, and new converts. The Spirit will fill all. No SAT (Spiritual Aptitude Test) required. You don’t need to persuade him to enter; he already has. Better set another plate for dinner. You’ve got company. “Your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Cor. 6:19 NCV). As a Christian, you have all the power you need for all the problems you face.
The real question is not, how do I get more of the Spirit? but rather, how can you, Spirit, have more of me? We’d expect a Mother Teresa–size answer to that question. Build an orphanage. Memorize Leviticus. Bathe lepers. Stay awake through a dozen Lucado books. Do this and be filled, we think.
“Do this on your own and be tired,” God corrects. Do you desire God’s Spirit? Here is what you do. Ask. “Everyone who asks will receive.…You know how to give good things to your children. How much more your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:10, 13 NCV).
The Spirit fills as prayers flow. Desire to be filled with strength? Of course you do. Then pray, “Lord, I receive your energy. Empowered by your Holy Spirit, I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.” Welcome the Spirit into every room of your heart.
I did something similar with the air of my air conditioner. As I study in my dining room, cool air surrounds me. Outside the sidewalk sizzles in brick-oven heat. But inside I’m as cool as the other side of the pillow. Why? Two reasons. A compressor sits next to the house. I did not build nor install it. It came with the mortgage. Credit the cool house on a good compressor.
But equally credit the open vents. I did not install the “air makers,” but I did open the “air blockers.” Cool air fills the house because vents are open. I went from room to room, lowering the levers and releasing the air. The Holy Spirit will fill your life as you do the same: as you, room by room, invite him to flow in.
Try this: before you climb out of bed, mentally escort the Spirit into every room of your house. Before your feet touch the floor, open each vent. Got anger in a bedroom? Unpayable bills on a desk? Conflicts in an office? Need some air in the cellar or a change of atmosphere in the hallways? Invite him to fill each corridor of your life. Then, having welcomed him into your whole heart, go to your garage, climb into the passenger seat, buckle up, and thank your Driver that you don’t live in Tuckered Town anymore.
Lucado, M. (2004). Come thirsty (54–61). Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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