There was a man sitting along the edge of the water--somewhere in his 60s with salt and pepper hair. He wore a black vest of sorts, which revealed his many tattoos--of marijuana leaves, women, odd symbols of all kinds. They were faded now, as he sat contentedly by the rocks. As I approached, I realized that he was talking to a group of kids about his life and washing one kid's feet with bay water in a Pepsi cup. I thought it was hilarious, to be honest, but still I watched and listened to this strange man. He was fascinating! He told us colorfully about how he used to believe he had it all; when he wasn't smokin' up with friends, he was playing in a band or biking around the country on his motorcycle. It had been the fast life--the "good" life.
I forget now what he said finally brought him to his knees, but I'll always remember what he said last: "I learned that the evil one gives us many seemingly good things in order to keep us from the best thing." BAM! I knew at that moment that I had heard TRUTH. Sweet, scary, awesome truth. And even though my life wasn't crazy and reckless like his had been, I knew that I was trying to find peace and joy in other "good" things that would never fill.
I'm reading a book called Crazy Love. It's written by a pastor named Francis Chan, whose passionate, bold spirit I have come to LOVE! (He has free podcasts on itunes--check him out!)
The chapter I'm reading now is called "Profile of the Lukewarm." He's basically talking about how the American church is spiritually suffocating. Most of us want a little bit of God--just enough to raise our kids with good morals, to have a nice marriage, to feel secure about death, maybe even to be a little involved in community service. Chan talks about how God is radically against this lukewarm lifestyle. In Matthew, it's written that "the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." This clearly means that our small lives are meant to be totally centered and wrapped up in God, and that when we truly know him, He radically transforms our hearts and lives!! We are merely extras in God's movie.
We are being choked by comfort, and all of the distractions and the false sense of security that America gives us. Because all of our earthly needs are met, we tend to waste our days. We wrongly assume that we have at least 60 more years to start living the way God wants us to. It's like a drug...our stomachs, our lives are so full of other things, that we don't hunger for God the way we are meant to. Chan tells it like it is: "My caution to you is this. Do not assume you are good soil. I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it."
"Good" things keeps us from the best thing. They keep me from Him all the time.
I don't know where you are with all this, but I long to be on good soil...and I just don't know if I am. In one of his messages, Francis Chan caused me to seriously reexamine my life of faith. In essence he said, "Imagine if the entire Church were made up of people who love and serve God and other people exactly as much as you do? If they gave as much as you do? What would it look like? What kind of shape would it be in?" I think, quite frankly, it might be dying.
This is so hard to take in--the Americanized, comfort-seeking part of me wants to forget the way I'm called to live as a follower of Christ...to be satisfied with just "enough" of Him. But the part of me that is the Holy Spirit tells me that this life is not meant to be easy at all. And to live for Him the sacrificial life of love--this is life to the FULL!! It really is!!
Jesus says that in our lives, we can do even greater things on earth than what He did, and he promises us that whatever we do in His name, we will receive back one hundred times!! How incredible is that? Whom then shall we fear?
Alas, it is awesome how God uses the weak and the broken to reveal his truth.
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