Popping the Clutch

 September 22, 2021

John Wesley was a young Anglican priest in 1737. He had been a missionary to the English colony in Georgia, but sailed home with his tail between his legs, having been run out of the colonies for refusing communion to a young woman he courted and lost. On the trip home, he was despondent, not only for the failure of his missionary endeavors, but for the gift of salvation itself. He feared that in spite of being an Anglican priest, he had no real knowledge of salvation. Then he met Peter Boehler, a Moravian missionary whose confidence and joy in forgiveness was overflowing. 

Wesley knew he needed what Boehler had, and they talked and debated Scriptures regularly. At one point, when Wesley despaired of even preaching, wondering aloud how he could preach faith in Christ when he felt he himself didn’t have it, Boehler responded, “Preach faith until you have it. Then because you have it, you will preach faith.”

Sometimes I feel like Wesley when it comes to my nightly musings. There are days like today when my mind is dull and my spirit listless. I read my Bible, but it seems like just so many words on a page. I pray, but without the burning fervency I would like to have. And when it comes time to write, for all I have to say I often think I should just write, “Blah, blah, blah, blather, blather.” It would make just as much sense.

But Boehler’s words haunt me, so I write. And tonight I say, “Write. Pray. Read. Serve!”Even if you don’t feel like it, even if it seems empty and hollow, even hypocritical, do it anyway. Like Wesley who preached faith till he had faith, then preached faith because he had faith, we just keep doing it. Back in the day of standard shift, we often started a car with a dead battery by pushing it in neutral, then popping the clutch. The car would jump to life. We keep doing these spiritual disciplines knowing that somewhere along the line, God will step in, pop the clutch, and jumpstart us to life.