Yesterday's Pizza

Revelation 3:14–21

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• you are neither cold nor hot
• because you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth
• I stand at the door and knock
• if anyone opens the door I will come in to him and eat with him

Applying the Word to My Life:
In college it was pretty common to have friends over late. We would order pizza, stay up too long, and eventually everyone would head home. The next morning I would stumble out to the table and find a couple of slices still in the box. Room temperature. Not hot, not cold. Not what I would have chosen. But it was there, money was always tight, so I ate it.

It did the job. Just not well.

That image came back to me with the letter to the church at Laodicea. They get a pretty big wakeup call. Their faith is just lukewarm — comfortable, easy, not demanding much from anyone. And Christ says that is worse than either option.

Nobody wakes up and decides to be lukewarm. It is just what happens when you stop paying attention. When you get comfortable. When you let the day pass without letting anything touch you.

Think about walking through a day. Dozens of people moving past. Nobody's life touches anyone else's. That is not cruelty — it is just distance. The comfortable default when you haven't opened the door.

That is what lukewarm looks like. Not hostility. Just going through the motions of the day without meaning, without mission.

Christ wants more than this for us — he stands at the door and knocks, seeking to wake us up. He is not forcing his way in. He is not breaking the door down. He is standing there — the one who moved first while we were still enemies, the shepherd who stayed — and he is knocking. Waiting. Because the relationship only works if we open the door.

At its core, faith is not a set of practices or a doctrine or a list of rules. It is a willing relationship that goes both ways.

That does not make the practices and the doctrine worthless. They are not. They are the tools that help us deepen the relationship. The guardrails that keep us on the path rather than drifting into a religion built around ourselves. But the tools serve the relationship. The relationship comes first and gives the tools meaning.

Lukewarm is choosing the comfortable distance. Keeping the door closed because opening it requires something — attention, honesty, showing up. Christ seeks that for us when he knocks.

The door is there. He is knocking. The only question is what we do with that.

My Response for Today:
Today I will find one place where my faith has gone lukewarm — and name one thing I will do to open the door to Christ.