My team was having a 
discussion about Joel Osteen this morning and his messages. If you have never heard him, many of his messages revolve around the idea that when you believe in God he will bless you, financially, relationally, etc. I don’t want to deny the fact that God blesses us with our needs and through our families and friends. However, being a Christian is not always as easy as financial blessings and then everything is peachy keen. Being a Christian is often times hard. God asks us to do things a lot of the times we don’t want to do, or that we think we can’t do.
This discovery comes after a month of making choices I didn’t want to make. It started with door-to-door evangelism. Have you ever gone up to a strangers door, knocked on it with sweaty hands and then ask them if they know Jesus? It’s kind of nerve wrecking to sit on their couch and tell them they have been living life out of truth and have been lied to by the Devil. It’s awkward and uncomfortable. You say stupid things you wish you could take back, and think of things later that would have sounded so persuasive! In all honesty I hated doing it! And truth be told my agenda in doing door-to-door was get in, ask if they were saved, pray, get out, move on and be done. About half way through the month though God showed me his heart in door-to-door. It’s about LOVING his people. Not the awkward conversations and defensive arguments. So in obedience I had to choose to knock on that strangers door, awkwardly introduce myself, ask awkward questions and build a relationship with people who probably thought I was crazy. But the CHOICE to obey, that’s the important part.
Because then came the mental hospital. Talk about uncomfortable; men and women who are almost forgotten by society because something chemically has gone wrong in their body. Men and women that are incoherent because they are heavily sedated. Men and women who you’re just not sure how to love. But despite all obstacles, you must get past your
discomforts and love them the same way you love your neighbor. So you touch their shoulder, listen to them and respond to their questions, and you do it not through pity, but through sincere understanding and love. I met a woman in the criminal ward who told me how she wanted to go to Harvard to study law. I listened, I prayed and I hugged her. I tried to show her love but again, it started with the CHOICE to love.
You can have these experiences that make you think, or struggle through personal problems, but they mean nothing without the presence of God. And that’s the third choice. Did you ever think about choosing God? This is something that has been floating in my head for a while, but this month God brought out it’s importance. There is a relationship that must be built between you and God. Why? Because when you build relationship, you learn to trust someone. And when you trust someone, you understand the things they do. We can start to understand some of the things God does! But just like we choose our friends, we can choose our relationship with God. We choose how deep we want to go, we choose how much trust we place in him, we even choose how we allow him to meet our needs. These are similar decisions you make with any friends, so why is it so different with God? Over the past few months I have chosen to go deeper and more intimate with God, but you know what? It’s hard! To get good time with God without the distractions of teammates, I get up at 5:30. “But God, I’m tired, and I don’t hear you this morning. I should just go back to sleep.” Despite my excuses, I had chosen a deep relationship with God and waking up early was my best way to do this. So every morning my alarm clock went off, and I made the CHOICE to get up.
I’m not saying everyone has to wake up early to experience God. Nor am I saying your life should be full of hardships to be a good Christian. But I am saying that as a Christian you face choices that are hard, uncomfortable, and push you out of your box. But when you are presented with them, do you take the easy way out? The Bible says that you can only enter God’s Kingdom through the narrow gate. It is small, narrow, and full of obstacles. The path to destruction is easy and well traveled (Matthew 7:13). Which path do you tend to choose?
The life I lead as a Christian may be hard, but you know, there is so much joy. I actually started liking to do door-to-door and getting to know the people; the women in the mental hospital gave me her banana to show me her gratitude (a large price to pay when they do not have much to eat); and the more I choose to wake up early and spend good relational time with God, the more I understand his heart, his plans for my life, and just how much he truly loves me.
Yeah being a Christian is hard, but it is so worth it!
