The other day I was reading the blog of an Alumni Racer. One piece of advice stood out. This missionary issued a reality check for those to come:
Don’t expect to suddenly become a super Christian the moment you begin the World Race.
Don’t expect that you will suddenly start reading your Bible consistently.
Don’t expect to suddenly become a prayer warrior when you haven’t been.
I doubt he was saying that faithfulness wont develop on the Race, but rather understanding a change of scenery doesn’t necessarily equal a change of heart. The underlying fact of this warning is that often times we withhold ourselves for another time. In between the lines, reads “Don’t wait until the World Race to whole heartedly give of yourself.”
This advice isn’t just for racers. Do any of these circumstances sound familiar?
Waiting until Sunday, or that upcoming concert or mission trip to be ‘spiritual’. Not praying with sincerity until we’re in a desperate spot. Reading the scriptures with earnestness when we’re supposed to speak on them the next day.
It is more than procrastination. It is withholding. It is unsurrendered areas of our lives.
Christ desires us to know life abundantly, and not just on mission trips, conferences and Church gatherings. What if all the other areas of our lives, the margin spaces, are the real areas Christ longs to impact? He brings the depth. Upon returning to school, I see the contrast more and more—the shallowness of selfishness, of those trying to go it without Him.
What do we do?
Dive into today. This is the attitude Christ has been revealing to me the past week—to stop withholding myself(time, love, talents) from Him and His children. To start surrendering more and living wide open, ready for wherever He leads me. He didn’t disappoint.
A guy looking for a book, turned into Yener, my new friend from Turkey.
Grabbing coffee with friends became tossing around deep thoughts for hours around a table at Denny’s.
Bowling transformed into worship with a djembe, in a car full of guys, in the driveway of my friend’s house, until 4am.(My apologies to the neighbors)
That happened. I didn’t plan any of it, and God’s fingerprints were all over it. It was real and deep. Every day can’t be a parade, but it’s still a gift! A gift He wants us to enjoy with us, and when He is a part, everything, no matter how seemingly mundane has the potential to be worthwhile.
I talk about withholding ourselves from Christ, because I am guilty of it, and because I’ve gotten just a taste of the difference. The things that we stand to withhold are the things we stand to lose.
The ‘super Christian’ is not born of the event, but rather the wholeness that comes with daily whole hearted surrender.
Be blessed, friends!
