More

At our Church some time ago we did a series called more. Basically what we said was that the fundamental pursuit of the average american was more something. More stuff, more money, more sex, more power. Too often the church provides a heavy handed response--no! not more! You need less of all that stuff. That's wrong.
Of course this is fundamentally a question of lordship--who owns my money, sex, and power and to what purpose these are given. It's also (and I think this gets missed) a little bit about we need more passion, more dreaming, and THIS IS NEVER SAID more discipline.
Lots of people (myself included) have talked a lot about the difference between "training and trying" or how a tree doesn't strain to produce fruit, or one of a dozen other cute ways to say "transformation is the overflow of life in Christ." That's true, but there's more to it than that. Hard work matters. Delaying gratification matters. Manning up through pain matters.
People say that the de facto God of the suburban church is stuff. I used to think that, but I don't anymore. We bow down to the God of comfort.
There's a scene in Laurence of Arabia when he is asked of the declining England.
Fafas: [England,] Is it a desert country?
Lawrence: No. It is a fat country. Fat people.
We need to work harder. There are not 200 easy ways to go green or fix our schools our save our cities or (insert cause du jour here). There is one way--work our ass off for things bigger than us.