5th Gear: Friendship to Fellowship

5th Gear: Friendship to Fellowship

As you move through each day, perhaps just “mowing the lawn,” as CS Lewis observes, do you not sense deep inside there has to be more to life than just keeping the lawn – your life – looking nice?

Last week we introduced the idea of driving in 5th Gear, not whining the transmission out in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd gear. Now, 4th gear is better, but it is in 5th gear where the “calm, relaxed pace” really kicks in. Remember,

“The 5th gear lowers engine RPMs at highway speeds, reducing noise and wear
and tear.”

Don’t we all want to live in 5th gear? We all want to lower our own RPMs, as well as reduce the noise and wear and tear on our lives – on our Body-Mind-Spirit. Think about that for a moment. Can you relate? Do you want this …enough to make some changes?

But how to? (For starters watch our current “721Live” videos about performing your own Spiritual Inventory)

We must get to know Jesus. I realize this sounds cliché-ish, but is it so cliché that you have glossed over it? To know him … as your personal, individual Savior, yes, but oh, there is so much more! Is Jesus your friend? Do you have ongoing conversations with him throughout the day, sharing your good times as well as your frustrations, worries, and irritations?

That is friendship that becomes companionship. No, more than companionship, deep fellowship.

But I have to know Jesus. If I am driving a car I am not familiar with, I will likely not even know I am using the gears improperly. Worse still, if I am driving with headphones on, the music or the news blaring in my head, distracted and hurried, I likely will not even hear the gears whining and the RPMs maxing out.

Does this not describe so many of us in our day-to-day, just mowing-the-lawn life?

I am guessing your answer is, “Sometimes.” But be careful, I bet it is more often than you think.

I will close with this Dallas Willard observation about our 5th Gear life:

Then we begin to understand that God’s whole purpose is to bring us to the point
where He can walk with us quietly, calmly and constantly, leaving us space to
grow to be His (often fumbling) collaborators – to have some distance from Him
and yet to be united with Him because we are being conformed to the image of
His son, bearing the family resemblance. Hearing God