I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Revelation 3:15-18
“One of the most obvious warning signs that we are starting on the path of lukewarmness is that we give little value to the details of the life of piety, to details in our work, and to little specific acts of virtue: if we ignore these symptoms we end up paying little attention to big things as well… Love for God on the other hand is shown by our inventiveness, by our unremitting zeal, and our effort to find in everything an occasion for showing our love of God and for giving service to others.”
Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 527-528.
One of the biggest concern for stewards I serve around the world is lukewarmness. As they age, they move to passivity and personal comfort rather than inventiveness.
God sees when we give unremitting zeal to the little tasks in life. He not only sees, He smiles because our giving service to others shows His love to the world.
Notice in today’s Scripture, that Jesus wants the church in Laodicea to go from a place of wretchedness and poverty to abounding in goodness and true riches.
They likely quit valuing, as Fernandez puts it, the little specific acts of virtue and focused on accumulating wealth. Many fall into this trap. Don’t let it be you.
Aim at inventiveness. Focus not on what you can’t do because of what you don’t have and think how can use the possessions you have to show your love for God and others.
And value the life of piety, but not for piety’s sake. It’s not like piety get’s us brownie points with God. It a formational journey. We grow on the way.
And to grow in generosity, we need to give value to the life of piety and give service to others in a way that glorifies God. This appears as gold refined by fire.