Hey friends! Hope all is well.
First and foremost, I wanted to give everyone a quick update on my summer timeline preparing for the race. Training camp is actually next week! (Gosh that was fast) So I’ll be in the Atlanta area June 7–17 with the Expedition squad, who I am super excited to meet since they’re going to literally be my family for 11 months. We launch for our first country on August 4th! (And yes I’m extremely nervous…but it’s a good nervous) The Lord is already cultivating the fields and preparing hearts.
This next post is about something I’ve been wrestling with ever since the Lord began wooing my heart towards missions… my desires. Also, how my perception of following Jesus was affected by how I viewed Jesus. This topic has been on my heart lately so I thought I’d share:
I have a small hunch (it’s actually a massive hunch) that a large majority of well-intentioned American Christians, both men and women, are in the same boat when it comes to cultural upbringing and how it subconsciously shapes our “wants and needs.” I almost wonder if they’re even truly ours, since we are constantly told while growing up what we “should” want and “should” strive to achieve to be “successful” or “satisfied” (sorry for all the quotations). And unfortunately, those satisfactions usually involve materialism, comfort, money, sex, power, fame, and “pursuing your passion.” And you might not consider that last one even bad… except when your passions usually involve attaining the rest of that list. If there was a society where believers would automatically be placed at a disadvantage, it’s a self-seeking and self-exalting materialistic one. Sadly, this culture has subtly taken root in the church, just in a different way…
This is where I come in., I struggled with wanting what my own church culture advertised as “good.” But, I tried defending it because I desired what my Christian environment told me I ought to desire at my age: good grades, a college diploma, a well-paying or enjoyable career, and a beautiful wife and kids to come home to; all of this while faithfully attending church every Sunday, visiting an occasional weekly Bible-study, giving, and maybe sharing the gospel if it was convenient. I was taught (not intentionally) that if I had checked off all of these boxes I would have a good life…
Pause here. Does this sound familiar? Have you thought this way? I mean I’ll be honest, I still desire a few of the things on this list, but in light of God’s will for us to multiply and proclaim his glory to the nations, they no longer consume my heart as they once did. Gosh, I felt empty pursuing those things, and I knew that even if I had every single point on that list, it would be meaningless. But why? I valued them more than God. Did I honestly believe, even after the Lord reached down into the depths of my dark, lifeless soul and revived it so that I might truly live in and with Him, that I could continue chasing after the same desires as passionately as I did before?
Heaven forbid.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.” – Romans 12:2
“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” – Jesus, John 10:10
It is entirely possible, in fact probable that the devil (the thief) uses something conceivably good to keep you from being “transformed by the renewal of your mind” and draw us away from the “abundant life” that Jesus gladly and freely offers us. And this life doesn’t involve self-indulgence and worldly pursuits, but self-denial and eternal joy that can only be found in abandonment.
“Almost unknowingly, we all have a tendency to redefine Christianity according to our own tastes, preferences, church traditions, and cultural norms. Slowly, subtly, we take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into someone with whom we are a little more comfortable. We dilute what he says about the cost of following him, we disregard what he says about those who choose not to follow him, we practically ignore what he says about materialism, and we functionally miss what he says about mission. We pick and choose what we like and don’t like from Jesus’ teachings. In the end, we create a nice, non-offensive, politically-correct, middle-class, American Jesus who looks just like us and thinks just like us.
But Jesus is not customizable. He has not left himself open to interpretation, adaptation, innovation, or alteration. He has spoken clearly through his Word, and we have no right to personalize him. Instead, he revolutionizes us.”
-David Platt, Follow Me
^^Incredible book, btw.
Just something to ponder for everyone. (Hopefully my thoughts are more organized this time.)
Love you all dearly. May the Lord bless and keep you close to him.
-Bradley
