The Engagement of a Lifetime

Before I moved to Dallas nearly two years ago, I bought a used Nissan Xterra. It was a good, reliable vehicle and for sale at a bargain price… and I could fit just about everything I owned inside of it. Score! The only problem? It had a manual transmission.

It’s not that I don’t know how to drive a stick shift. My very first car had a manual transmission and my dad spent countless hours teaching me how not to roll backward down the hill after I got stuck at a stoplight. I just wish someone had warned me that changing gears in Nashville traffic was nothing compared to the 4-hour daily deadlock that Dallas calls “rush hour.”

Every weekday morning I make the 23-mile trek to my office downtown. I never know how long it will take to get there… some days it takes 30 minutes and other days it takes an hour and a half. Although I’m tempted, I can’t drink my morning coffee during the drive because both of my hands are constantly occupied… one hand for the steering wheel and one hand for changing gears. Stop and go. Stop and go.

As frustrating as it is to constantly be changing gears while I’m driving, it is the single action that is required of me in order for my car to meet its full potential. Even if I don’t change the gears, my car will still function. The engine will idle; the air conditioner will blast cold air; the radio will play my favorite playlist from my iPod; the electric windows will even go up and down. It just won’t go anywhere. From the outside, my car will look completely normal to people walking by.

But what those people don’t know is that if I don’t manually engage in changing the gears my car can’t fulfill the one purpose it was designed for. If they asked me for a ride, I wouldn’t be able to give it to them.

How many of us have found ourselves in a similar place in our spiritual journeys? How many of us are living functional lives, but failing to meet our potential?

So many times we become satisfied with mediocrity. We work. We play. We sleep. And then we wake up the next morning and do it all over again. We exist, but we fail to engage.

I don’t want to be the person who breezes through life, concerned only with my own selfish desires. I long to be in tune with the needs of others and to serve the community in which I live, yet I often find myself stuck somewhere between functional and ordinary. I am plagued by the desire to change, yet I’m at a loss when it comes to taking the first step. How do I make a difference? The answer is simple: engage.

By engaging in the community around me, I am challenged to build relationships with all different types of people. I meet people who are lonely and need a friend. I meet people who are hurting and need hope. I meet people who are living life and I begin to walk alongside them, sharing in the joy and pain that the journey brings.

If one falls down, his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

Ecclesiastes 4:10

Through these new relationships, I am given the opportunity to engage in my community. Together we make progress. Together we learn. Together we grow. When we engage and live life together, we’re able to accomplish much more than we could have alone.

Instead of just cruising through life at a functional level, challenge yourself to connect with neighbors, coworkers and acquaintances. By building these relationships, you will become more aware of the needs of those around you… and be one step closer to meeting your full, God-given potential.