Friends and family!
Happy new years! We just finished celebrating the Lunear New Years with fireworks and dancing here in Saigon, Vietnam. My team and I rushed the streets of Ho Chi Min a couple nights ago, playing frogger at every crosswalk and celebrated the new year with locals. That night I was dead tired about ready to climb into bed when my friend Kristin said "Joe, you know you have to come." That's what this trip has been about. It's been about living in the moment, learning to be present with people and with God. It's about saying yes, saying yes to adventure, saying yes to risk, saying yes to loving people more than yourself and saying yes to Jesus when he calls us to die to ourselves and follow him. And that's all that he asks of us. He asks us to follow him, to abide in him and we will bear much fruit. Never has a call been so complex, so difficult, so countercultural.. but at the same time so simple. So as I try to pen where my heart is at, the life changing lessons I've been learning, what the Father is revealing to me as I'm traveling around this world.. I'll save the theological banter and just tell you this.. I've been learning and experiencing that there is no greater joy than to follow Jesus in every moment of life. And the Father has been showing me that this takes a tremendous amount of obedience. But unfortunately this obedience doesn't come over night.. it comes with practice, with repetition and with training. I wish that I could just say a prayer and immediately take on the character of Chirst. I really do. But I'm really learning that life in the Spirit, a Romans 8 type of lifestyle, is not something we just pray for. It's actually something that takes our initiative too.
As many of you know I played basketball for years. Making the Varsity squad as a Sophomore was probably one of the greatest moments of my life. But here is the thing.. I didn't just stumble upon that accomplishment. Only my dad and I really know how much focus and dedication went into that dream coming to fruition. When I got cut from the middle school basketball team I was crushed, but I know I had to make a choice. I had to decide if I was going to give up and maybe play piano or something, or if I was going to make sure I never got cut from a basketball team again. But I knew that this meant that I had to do something more than just shoot outside in my driveway.. I recognized that something had to change. And with my dads help I began to train with a new focus and new commitment. He would wake me up in the early morning to do speed training, then go shoot one thousand plus shots, then I would play scrimmage games late into the night. I remember in the moment I hated most of it. Everything in me would say 10 more minutes of sleep, or 4 laps instead of 12, or 100 shots instead of 800. I knew what was convenient and what was comfortable and I would so much rather indulge in my laziness than to keep pressing forward. But I didn't. I chose to keep pushing because I know that the prize ahead would be far greater than the toil. And when I saw my name on that Varsity list.. it was all worth it. Every lost hour of sleep, every ounce of sweat, every night I had to say no to friends. It was all worth it.
I'm learning that a life of following Christ, life in His Kingdom, is very similar.
We can't just half-heartedly walk through it and expect to be satisfied with the results we get at the end. We can't just accidentally stumble into Christlikeness. We don't just magically arrive at the thing God has called us to do or become the person he has called us to become with an unfocused, undisciplined pursuit. It actually takes a level of commitment and sacrifice.. a level of vision. I guess I'm just learning that this shouldn't be a heavy thing at all.. it should actually be the most joyful thing ever. It's joyful because we get to do this in relationship with a loving and patient Father. Christ's Spirit is our teacher. The Spirit is so willing to teach us obedience, we just have to choose to meet Him halfway. As Dallas Willard says, "When our deepest attitudes and dispositions are those of Jesus, it is because we have learned to let the Spirit foster his life in us." And that's the good news for the one who sets out to follow Christ, the disciple of Jesus. We have an end goal in mind.. and that is Christlikeness. And those who are set out to change this world for the Glory of God, who have a longing to see the poor be fed, the lonely be loved and the lost be found.. Christlikeness is what's going to sustain that passion. Crucifying our self-centered tendencies and selfish desires in order to see the world through the eyes of the Father only comes through a transformed heart.. A heart that beats with the heart of Jesus. And that is what I'm after. I'm after the heart of Jesus Himself and if that means shooting 1,000 shots instead of 100.. I'll do it. A wise pastor from South Africa told me.. "You can't expect change if you keep doing the same things." So this is me renouncing the familiar and picking up risk. These final six months I want to see God's power like never before. I want to experience the heart of Christ, but I know that I can't keep doing the same things. That's my charge to all of you back home! I'm here to tell a heart transplant doesn't come easy, but you can admit defeat and carry on in a mediocre walk with Christ.. or you can actually claim His Victory, renounce complacency and the lack of trust you might have. It all starts with recognizing that something has to change.
The fact that I'm almost at the halfway point of this journey is crazy. I really can't thank you all enough for your support, your encouraging words and prayers. Please, please keep praying. I know it is because of your faithful prayers that I have been able to call out for the strength of God after some hard days. I need your prayers more than ever. I really wish that I could share some of the amazing moments of the trip in more detail. I decided to try.. so my next blog will be the 5 most memorable moments of the trip so far. In the meantime, check out my tumblr to see some photos I've recently uploaded!
joeofthelion.tumblr.com
Bless you guys,
Joe
* Quick shoutout to: ADJ, Las Delicias, The Herms and Gdub.. Miss you all.
