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by Charlie Wolcott

God has been working on my heart in some issues, and I believe I need to write about this before I continue on addressing Matthew Vines. Eric Ludy has a spectacular sermon titled “The Amen Life.” I do not want to just parrot Ludy’s message here, but I cannot recommend enough to listen to this message and get the full details of what I will be sharing about it today. First, I need to define what “amen living” is and to do that, I need to define what “amen” really is. Amen is a word we often stick at the end of a prayer indicating “we are done,” but that is actually not what amen actually means. Simply it means, “Let it be done,” but it means much more than that. In the Bible, when we see “faithfully,” “surely,” “it will be done,” and the like that is actually what amen means. When God says he will do something, he is going to do it. We can trust him.

After defining amen and how God is “amen,” Ludy then asks us, “How are we living an amen life?” Are we faithful to our word? Are we trustworthy to where if we say we will do something we will do it? Can people trust us to keep their secrets? Are we loyal to do the jobs we do, even when our bosses are not? Are we trustworthy to not spread ill about those in authority over us, even if they don’t deserve it? Do we respect the authorities over us?

Or are we “fickle,” where the moment something turns against us, we turn against them? Do we abandon our friends in need because we might get hurt in the process? Do we rebel against those God has placed in authority because something is not going the way we want it to go at the moment, even if you have a right to do so because those above you are doing something wrong?

Ludy details the lives of two types of people: “amen” people and “fickle” people. The amen people are the ones you can count on to do what they said they will do. Any promise they make is sure and you can take it to the bank. Fickle people are those that are not trustworthy. They make great promises but rarely fulfill them. They talk big but have little action to back it up. Amen people see their job through to the end, even at the expense of self. Fickle people only stick around as long as they get the benefits, and once that starts to turn, they back off.

Which ones are we? This post is a sermon for me more than anyone else. My primary audience in this post is me, because I need this preached to me. But I write this so you may see my heart in this and so you too may become an amen person. I like to believe I am an amen person. Why? I am loyal. I don’t change loyalties very easily. I am committed. When I set my mind upon a task, I’ll get it done and people can count on me getting it done. And if I cannot get it done, I am quick to let the person who needs to know that I got delayed. I can talk all day and boast how I have managed to be completely committed to serving my church the last 10 years as the Power Point person, how I can do lesson plans as a physics teacher, while doing weekly blog posts for Worldview Warriors, while also teaching a weekly Bible study. People who see that will see me as an amen person. But am I really?

I have legal right to complain about my current job situation. I am not going to give the details about it here, because that would undo the whole point of this post. And I will confess I have been complaining to people I talk to about what is going on. But God is trying to get into me the message that I need to be an amen person even in this situation. How?

Do I hide the faults of my administration, or do I proclaims the problems? Do I speak of the virtues of my administrators and co-workers, or do only speak ill of them? Am I content to do the job God has me in, getting paid to what was previously agreed upon, or am I complaining that I should get paid for doing the job above and beyond what is required of me? I will be frank: I am still working on this and my attitude in my current situation has not been great. I am frustrated about it and I have good reason to be frustrated. But that does not give me the right to be fickle and to turn against those who have given me opportunity when I don’t get what I think I deserve.

In my quiet time, I just finished reading Genesis and as I have been wrestling with this idea of amen living, Joseph’s account stood out. I had not seen it this way before, even though I know practically every detail about the account. Joseph was kidnapped by his brothers, left to die temporarily before being sold to slave traders. After he was sold in Egypt, he worked for Potiphar for several years until Potiphar’s wife accused him of rape, something he never did, and he was put into prison. And after he was put into prison, he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and asked him to get Pharaoh’s help to get him out of prison. He had to wait two more years - thirteen years in all.

Joseph got frustrated too. He did everything to the best of his ability and God blessed him. He was obedient and loyal to the point where his masters never had to question or think about anything under his authority. Joseph lived an amen life. He had every right to be fickle. To scream at God for putting him through all that trouble. To sit in a corner and pout, complaining to all about the hand he was given. But he did not. He lived an Amen life - loyal, committed, never speaking a word of ill intent. It got worse for him as he did that, but he stayed the course. And in the process, God prepared him and raised him to become the #2 person in Egypt, Pharaoh’s right hand man.

I have been greatly frustrated in my situation. I feel like Joseph when he was in prison and saw an opportunity to move up, but it never materialized. But God is teaching me to stay true to the course he has me on, to be an Amen person, and to stop complaining about my current situation and start only speaking about the good that has come with it. I have learned more about my job in the last 4 months than the previous 4 years combined. I still have a lot more to learn, but God is faithful. He set me on this course and he will see it through. God is amen. I have been amen in several areas, but not as much here as I would like. I would like to be amen in this one.

I share this with you to encourage you. Be amen, even when you see nothing good coming out of the situation. Do not be fickle and serve only when it benefits you. Be amen. Be someone that can be counted on to be trusted with getting the job done and even one that could be trusted with intimate secrets without fear of it getting out. God is the Amen. And he would like to look at our lives and say “Amen.” May I live a life where he can say that, and may you do the same.

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