Just showing up doesn’t change things …

There’s a saying positive thinking gurus love to teach, which is, “Showing up is half the battle.”

Not necessarily.

Many people show up to jobs but fail to do their work well. Showing up doesn’t equal productivity or fruitfulness.

Shortly after the start of the New Year, many people will participate in a popular ritual of showing up in their local gym with a new year resolution in their minds of losing weight and/or getting “in shape.” But just showing up won’t accomplish anything for them; it will take a lot of sweat and work to see and maintain real fitness gains, which is why the great majority of those people will drop out of showing up at the gym in less than a couple weeks.

Some people show up in relationships, but fail to engage, to consider others, to prioritize selfless love. Just showing up doesn’t make a relationship intimate or healthy.

Even when Jesus showed up in human form on the first Christmas, just showing up didn’t change the world, or the people in it. In fact, as John tells the story of Jesus first showing up, he tells us that Jesus wasn’t recognized and that He was rejected!

“The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God,” John 1:9-12.

There’s another saying some “gurus” like to toss around, which is, “Everyone is searching for the truth.”

Not true.

Jesus said about himself, “… I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me,” John 14:6, but when the truth came into the world “… to his own people …” they rejected the truth.

For many, Jesus just showing up wouldn’t matter because they rejected the truth.

The same thing continues to happen today, a fact profoundly demonstrated in the dramatic, true story of an alcoholic told by Dr. Timothy R. Jennings in his book, “The God-Shaped Brain”:

Jesse was in the ICU, heavily sedated, on a ventilator and could not communicate in any way. He was fifty-nine, but he looked eighty. He was dirty, unshaven and unwashed with nicotine-stained fingers. A foul cocktail of body odors mixed with tobacco hung in the air. Jesse was severely malnourished. His skin hung loosely for his bones; his eyes were sunk deep into the sockets, and the whites of his eyes were a dark, eerie yellow with blood dots speckled throughout. If it wasn’t for the ventilator causing his chest to rise and fall and the monitor showing a constant heart rhythm, he could easily be mistaken for dead. But he wasn’t dead — not yet, anyway.

As I was unable to get any history from Jesse, I reviewed his chart. It revealed that he was in liver failure, had severe electrolyte problems, resulting in a seizure, complete with cardiac arrhythmias, and was bleeding from his gastrointestinal system. All of this damage had been caused by heavy alcohol use. Jesse’s life was literally hanging in the balance.

The attending physician had told me, “This guy is an alcoholic, and if we are able to save him, he’s going to need rehab.”

Seven days later Jesse was off the ventilator, his electrolytes had been stabilized, the bleeding stopped, his liver was working again — just barely — and the detoxification from alcohol was progressing well enough this his mind was now clearer so that he could engage in a meaningful conversation. I entered his room and extended my hand. “Hello, I’m Dr. Jennings. I’m a psychiatrist and your doctor has asked me to see you.”

“I don’t need no psychiatrist!” Jesse responded with disdain.

“Do you know where you are?” I asked.

“In the hospital. I ain’t crazy.”

“No one said you were. I just want to check your memory and see if any of these medicines are affecting your thinking. Do you know why you’re here?”

“I been drinking.”

“How much?”

“Nuff to get drunk.”

“And how much is that?”

“A fifth.”

“A fifth of what?”

He offered no evasive answer and shot back, “Whiskey, Jim beam whiskey. Sure use some right now.”

“Why do you think you could use some whiskey right now?”

“So I can get drunk.”

“Do you think your drinking has anything to do with why you’re here?”

“Of course it do. I ‘spect I’ll die from drinkin’. Gotta die from som’ing.”

I looked at my patient for a long moment. “Your doctor wants me to evaluate you for admission to an alcohol rehab program once you’re stable enough to leave the ICU. It’s a place that will help you learn how to stay sober so you won’t die from drinking. Have you ever been in a rehab program before?”

“I ain’t going to no rehab program!” he said angrily.

“Have you ever been to a rehab program before?”

“Four or five. Can’t ‘member. But I ain’t going to no rehab!”

“If you don’t go to rehab, where are you going to go?”

“Home.”

“Who do you live with?”

“Myself.”

“You live alone?”

“You heard me.”

“What are your plans when you leave here?”

“Same as they were before I came. I’m gonna get drunk.”

“Do you want to die? Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“No, I don’t want to die, and I ain’t trying to kill myself neither!” he said, annoyed.

“What do you think will happen if you go home and drink?”

“It’ll ‘ventually kill me I ‘spect.”

Somewhat confused and searching for clarity, I pressed on. “If you don’t want to die and you know drinking is going to kill you, then why are you planning to go home and drink?”

“Cause I like gettin’ drunk. I like how it feels. I like it more than most anything in life I ‘spect, and Id rather die than not drink.”

Dazed with disbelief at what I was hearing, I remembered something I’d learned earlier in my career: Insight does not equal change. Knowing the truth is not sufficient, we must not only know it, we must apply it to our lives if we want healing, if we want to get well. Jesse understood all too clearly that alcohol was killing him, that he needed to stop if he wanted to live, but he was unwilling to apply this truth to his life. In fact, he actively refused to apply the truth and instead chose the path of willful self-destruction.

That first Christmas, truth showed up, but just showing up isn’t enough.

Although Jesus didn’t “just show up,” He would live a sinless life and sacrifice His life for ours, defeating sin and death and providing for us the only means to be reconciled to God and having an entirely new life in and through Him. Jesus showing up brought real hope for all humankind!

Astounding!

But like Jesse, it’s what we do with the truth about Jesus and what He did for us after showing up that shapes our lives.

John tells us that Jesus “… came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”

What have you done with the truth that is Jesus Christ?

Scotty