…we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.” What is the American Dream? Is it the house, the cars, the education, the jobs, the 2.5 children? What is your American Dream? We all have an American Dream … a Dream we aim for and sometimes even with the best of intentions we are seeking fulfillment in places that God has not called us to. Staying where we are when we are called to go out, even if we are doing the “Christianâ€� thing … we are not doing the radical, follow Jesus with our whole being, relentlessly, and consistently pursuing abandonment to ourselves to further the Kingdom of God thing. When I look back on my life, I don’t want to say, I played it safe. I flew under the radar, never made a scene, and ‘Jesus here I am, unscathed.’ NO … NO … NO … I want to show up to Heaven proclaiming that I lived my life in a way that invited criticism, that invited ridicule, all in order to proclaim Jesus in every pore of my being. I want to get to Heaven after living a life that is completely radical! We want a Jesus that fits in our nice little box, who meets our every need, and who only expects us to give what we are comfortable with. We want to tell Jesus who to be in various aspects of our life. In Church, He is the Almighty Savior, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, but who is he in our relationships? He didn’t really mean that we have to seek Him in everything, just that churchy stuff, right? God gets my life on Sunday, but the rest of the week it is my life, unless I feel like taking God out of his pretty little box to ask him for something or to blame him for something that didn’t go right. That God doesn’t exist, that man made, self created God that fits our lifestyle isn’t real. The God of the Bible, who demands for us to give up our lives in order to follow Him, that is the God that exists. The God whose primary goal isn’t our American Dream, but instead His perfect plan! That’s right, even amidst all this abandonment and giving up of what we hold so dear, God is going to be replacing that junk with a treasure far greater. He isn’t out to get us, He loves His children very much and when we follow His commands, he rewards above and beyond what we could ever imagine. “This is the picture of Jesus in the gospel. He is something – someone – worth losing everything for. And if we walk away from the Jesus of the gospel, we walk away from eternal riches … For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus; we discover the infinite treasure of knowing and experiencing him.â€� But honestly, is it enough? We can say that Jesus is all we need and the things of this world don’t matter, but can we actually abandon it all? This is where I have to be honest; could I give it all up? I had this very conversation with my squad mate, Joshua Robinson, last night. So what is the answer? Sometimes I have this internal conflict – going on the Race I am in essence giving up ‘most’ all of my possessions, for 11 months, but I don’t know if I could give my stuff up indefinitely. I’m not saying that God is calling us to give up everything right now, but he is asking us to be willing to give up everything. But it’s in our nature to say … What do I get from doing this? Is the cost worth the reward? “Do we really believe he is worth abandoning everything for? Do you and I really believe that Jesus is so good, so satisfying, and so rewarding that we will leave all we have and all we own and all we are in order to find our fullness in him? Do you and I believe him enough to obey him and to follow him wherever he leads, even when the crowds in our culture – and maybe in our churches – turn the other way” “For the sake of more than a billion people today who have yet to even hear the gospel, I want to risk it all. For the sake of twenty-six thousand children who will die today of starvation or a preventable disease, I want to risk it all. For the sake of my life, my family, and the people who surround me, I want to risk it all.â€�
This is the continuation of my “Radical Series” … if you haven’t read Part 1, I would start there and then continue to this blog. Thanks for reading!
“We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate. And it is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor. But we don’t want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. “…what Jesus really meant was …â€�
I want to believe that His promises are worth abandoning my comforts, His promises are worth hardships here on Earth, and His promises are worth giving Him my life and risking it all.
Stay Tuned for Chapter Two: Too Hungry For Words
… Discovering The Truth and Beauty of The Gospel …
