THE "SOMETIMES" RABBIT OWNER

I am the proud new owner of a rabbit named Monty.

Well, I'm sometimes his owner, anyway.

This adorable, fuzzy guy spends Monday through Friday hanging out in Justin's classroom as one of his many class pets. Then on the weekends, Monty comes home and stays with us.

So I spend my weekends as a rabbit owner, but there's nothing about my Monday through Friday that indicates I own a rabbit on the weekends.

Once Monday rolls around, there's no cage, no big bag of rabbit food, no floppy-eared critter hopping around our living room. No evidence of what took place over the weekend. You could walk into my house on Wednesday afternoon and have no clue a rabbit was ever there, unless I happen to miss one of his special little "rabbit presents" as I'm cleaning up!

Sometimes I think we can compartmentalize our faith and worship in a similar way. We can raise our hands and feel a lot of compelling emotions as we sing in church, we can feel challenged and encouraged as the pastor delivers his message. We might live one way on a Sunday morning...

...but our Monday through Friday holds little evidence to what took place over the weekend.

It's tough to live a life of authentic worship every day. A typical Monday through Friday demands a lot! And on top of that, attempts to distract, disarm and destroy us are constantly coming at us. No wonder it's a challenge to walk out of the sanctuary on Sunday morning where worship is not just allowed to happen, but it what's supposed to happen--and head into a world that is ambivalent to our lifestyle of worship.

Jon Acuff writes of this in his legendary "Booty, God, Booty" post on Stuff Christians Like. He used to listen to a rap/R&B station on the radio that had something called an "Inspirational Vitamin" each day, which was basically a Bible verse or a gospel song sandwiched between two songs about hot women and gettin' your drink on. He called this the "Booty, God, Booty" formula, and tied this into how we live. And it's true--sometimes we try to wedge a little bit of Jesus in between our other completely-unrelated activities of our day-to-day lives.

But our rest-of-the-week is supposed to match our Sunday. If I am moved by the love and grace of Christ on Sunday morning, then you should be able to tell that if you run into me on a Tuesday afternoon. Even if I'm standing in the checkout line behind the "extreme couponer" with 78 coupons who is trying to get $400 dollars worth of cereal for 34 cents.

And if you are moved toward selflessness as you sit in a church pew, there should be some evidence of that when your Friday night rolls around. Even if you don't get your way. Even if you're worn out. And sometimes even if your husband suggests seeing the latest Transformers movie when you'd rather pluck your eyes out. Don't know where I might've come up with that last one.

We can't compartmentalize our love for Jesus--It is supposed to spill over into every area, every crack and crevice of our lives. Sure, I can be a "sometimes" rabbit owner. But there's no room for me to be a "sometimes" follower of Christ.

What is the area in which you most battle being a "sometimes" follower of Christ?