How FAT Are You?

Weight has been a sensitive subject for me. I’ve been trying to lose the same twenty pounds for umpteen years. But that’s not what I’m referring to when I ask if you are FAT.

FAT is an acronym for Faithful, Available, and Teachable. And in this situation, I want to be FAT.

Are you and I faithful?

The virtue of faithfulness is not as highly valued as it was in biblical times. In our culture, faithfulness is often promoted only until something better comes along. Then we’re encouraged to move on, to be true to ourselves, to look out for numero uno. Remain faithful in a marriage until you no longer “feel the love.” Stay with a church ministry only as long as it makes you feel good. Stick with a friend as long as it’s easy.

But what would happen if we gave our word…and kept it? If we chose to love as a matter of our will, rather than our emotions? If we put the interests of others first?

Are you and I available?

Listen to a few commercials or walk the aisle of any supermarket – you’ll be struck by how often convenience is touted as a critical feature of the products being marketed. We want dinners that cook in a minute or two. Computers that boot up in thirty seconds. Internet access as fast as our fingers can type – or faster.

But relationships are usually not convenient. Instead, they’re often messy, time-consuming, and confusing. In short, they’re inconvenient.

Still, what would happen if you and I made ourselves available to others, regardless of whether they could repay our kindness? If we visited the lonely, or volunteered for a ministry at church, or offered to watch a friend’s child so they could have a night to themselves? What would happen if we made ourselves available?

Are you and I teachable?

It’s been said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Maybe so. Or maybe it’s the source of that knowledge that’s dangerous. From which wells of knowledge do you and I drink? Do we run to those who will tell us what we want to hear? Do we immerse ourselves in wrong experiences, so we can “see for ourselves”? Or do we run to the unchanging Word of God as life’s instruction manual?

Perhaps it’s not the knowledge that’s dangerous. Perhaps it’s the lack of application of knowledge, otherwise known as wisdom, that gets us into trouble. Maybe, before we can learn something new, we need to take the time to apply something old.

What would happen if we presented ourselves as teachable…to the Lord, and to others? And then took that knowledge and applied it on a daily basis?

How FAT are you?