When I ask you to describe who you are… what do you say? American? Christian? Maybe you point to your job? Or look to your family? What do we do when just about everything in our day to day life changes?
That is the Race.
At home I work at a computer store, I drive a car, I have (what we like to believe is) almost full control of everything from what I will have for lunch to my weekend plans. When you leave for the race just about everything in your life changes.
Now we are homeless (to a degree), we have a new occupation, we have almost no control over anything other than our attitudes, and our families are suddenly thousands of miles away. Basically the only constant is Jesus. (I think thats by design) So, what do you do?
You look to the only real constant, Jesus. Then we do something really scary, we trust him!
Read Matthew 14:22-33
This is something that I am learning. When life is routine and easy we find our comforts in things. Sometimes that is our job security, or the security we feel as Americans. Sometimes it is just that morning cup of coffee, or the ice cream after dinner. Whatever that comfort is, big or small, how will you react when it is gone? How much are you leaning on that where you could be leaning on Jesus?
It is so easy to say, “I trust Jesus”, and you probably do! But do you trust him with your Sunday morning from 10 till noon (assuming of course there isn’t a big game on), or do you trust him with your life? I have found that trust is really complex, and sometimes it is surface level when we think it’s a really deep trust.
Like I said, I am working on this. I love the comfort that seems to be inherent with being in America. I love that morning cup of coffee, and at times I even miss the routine of work. There is a lot of comfort in those places. However, you can never learn to swim without getting wet. By that I mean, you can’t get comfortable trusting Jesus deeply, with your life, when relying on the comforts and certainties in life.
I know what you’re saying, I can already see my email blowing up with things like “life in America is not easy”, and “there are no certainties in life”. Jesus is the certainty, he is here. Life is hard no matter where you live, but Jesus came to be the safety net for you to land on. He will catch you. All you need to do is step out of the boat and lean into him a little more.
Like Bob Goff said at Catalyst last year, “We want to live just on the edge of Yikes!”. That is where we lean a little more on Jesus, and he shows us just a little more about how trustworthy he is.
