On Aquarium Fish

I have a 10 gallon aquarium that I keep up at the church in the youth room. I know, I know. I'm the coolest youth minister ever--or the dumbest one. Either way, it looks good. There are 5 little fish in there along with several decorative items.

I must admit that I don't take care of the aquarium like I should. We keep the heat off at the church during the week, so the temperature in the youth room drops dramatically. It was in the 50's this afternoon when I went up there. For those of you who do not have a lot of aquatic knowledge, 50 degrees and tropical fish do not mix well. However, my fish are real troopers and keep on swimming despite the cold.

Secondly, I don't feed them everyday. There are at least 2 days a week where I don't get to make it up there to feed them. But they're survivors. They even survived 5 days of Thanksgiving Break without a morsel of food.

Today, though, I splurged on them. I bought them a little heater. It controls the temperature in the aquarium, keeping it at a constant 78 degrees. It's a little fish thermostat, if you will. So now, my fishies are warm and cozy despite the cold weather. Plus, I gave them plenty of food, treated their water, and topped off the tank. Now they're happy.

Before you call PETA on me, I'd like to make a point. First of all, the fish don't mind going without food. They like to fast. After all, they are in a church.

More importantly, we often treat our spiritual lives like I do my fish tank. Yes, it's there, it's running, it looks cool, and that's great. But, we don't care for it every day. We don't nurture it, clean it, or feed it regularly. We tend to go several days without feeding on God's Word or worrying about the cleanliness of our spiritual condition. Instead of our Christianity being a daily process, we go to church once a week and get our spiritual cleansing/feeding and go another week before we do it again.

Friends, this cannot be so. I'm surprised my fish have lasted this long with my crappy care-giving. They're hardy, I guess. And like my fish, just because we don't feed our spirit doesn't mean it won't exist. It'll just be ugly, stinky, and on the verge of death.

Taking care of an aquarium is a daily process, and I'm working on getting better at it. More importantly, taking care of our spirit is much more serious, and we should work on it too.

After all, just like 50 degree weather and no food leads to weak or dead fish, the same conditions on our spirit have the same results.