A thorn of a question has been nagging me for quite awhile now. The question is this: What does it mean to live all-out for Jesus? To put it another way: What does it mean to be a wholehearted Christian? I don't like questions like that because there is never an easy-to-swallow answer. Living "all-out" for Jesus sounds hip and thrilling until you actually try to do it. You soon find yourself on a lonely narrow road, and you begin to wonder if you're going the right way, while everyone else is going the other way. If someone says that the answer to my question is to "live like Jesus lived" then I don't know anyone personally who is a wholehearted Christian, me included. Jesus walked around all day, everyday preaching to unbelievers. Most Christians just preach to other Christians. Jesus didn't have a house or a paying job and yet He constantly helped people to the point of exhaustion. I don't know many homeless Christians, and I certainly don't know any homeless Christians who are constantly helping people.
At this point, most people will quickly play the "grace card." Yes, I too am grateful for grace, but I'm not sure that it lets us off the hook so easily. I wonder if Jesus was serious when He said that we must "lose our lives" and "take up our cross and follow Him." When Jesus told the rich young ruler to "sell all his possessions" he didn't give him a loophole and add "or you can just talk about grace a lot." I wonder what all of this means for me in 2010 here in America. I feel like writing a book, but I don't think that we need another book. I feel like writing a song, but the world doesn't need another song either. Frankly, I get tired of Christian talk. I've grown up with it and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of Christians talking about how church should be done. I'm tired of Christians talking about their latest epiphany from God or their latest profound insight on easy-to-understand Scriptures. I'm tired of hearing Christians pray without lifting a finger and telling God to do everything. More than anything, I'm tired of Christians telling other Christians what to do and not living up to their preaching. I'm amazed at how much Christians talk and don't really do much more than that. I'm guilty of this too, and it bothers me. But then I come back to my initial question and it bothers me too. What does it mean to really live for Jesus? What are we really supposed to be doing with these lives that will soon vanish like a vapor? I think it's more than just occasionally telling people about God. I think it's more than just being a family man. I think it's more than smiling and hugging and opening doors for people. I think it's more than being in "ministry." It's definitely more than singing songs. Sometimes, I wish Jesus would've just spelled it all out, step by step, and yet that would've led to mere legalism, not love. At any rate, I'm not sure that I want a feel-good resolution to my question because that only enables me to get comfortable again. And yet, I don't want to remain comfortable with ambiguity either. No, I must know the answer, but only an answer that demands change.
Sometimes, I'm on the verge of selling everything and moving to a third-world country and living out my days in impoverished obscurity and yet happy that I will be known by Jesus in heaven. I wonder if that's what Jesus meant by choosing Him over the world. Most Christians would say that they would gladly do that too if that's what God told them to do. But it's so easy to "hear" God "say" what we want Him to say, it enables us to find loopholes in boldface, pointblank Scriptures that demand everything of us.
I'm just thinking out loud. The finger is pointed at you and me. I don't think God wants us to feel guilty about any of this, but I do think He wants us to feel a little bit uncomfortable. Lord, I need to be wholehearted, show me what that means, eternity is at stake. . .
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Living "all out" is part of the serious business of heaven. According to CS Lewis, "Joy is the serious business of heaven"
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that living "all out" has a lot to do with having the faith to walk in the fullness of the grace that He has provided for us and to not become entangled again in a yoke of bondage (Law). It is only when we are walking in freedom that we are truly free to perform the "works" (that James refers to)from a pure heart and pure motives. Our service to God should not be mercenary (in that we do it to gain ground in our relationship with Him)but rather it should be an outflowing as a result of our having supped with Him.
Walking this Christian walk is difficult but not complicated. It's quite simple really, although extremely challenging. I think John 17:3 sums it up very succinctly, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." Living all out is as simple as presenting ourselves to Him daily, hourly, minutely but we tend to cloud the issue with rules and regs and we can miss the whole point. Focus on relationship and the fruits will come. Focus on the fruit and we get neither.
“…But creatures are not thus separate from their Creator, nor can He misunderstand them. The place for which He designs them in His scheme of things is the place they are made for. When they reach it their nature is fulfilled and their happiness attained…When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy…God wills our good, and our good is to love Him…and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God…”
C.S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain
Each person will answer that question differently, because each person has their own perception of who God is and what it is He expects of us. No one on earth has the definitive answer.
ReplyDeleteAnd your songs aren't just songs. They are hugely significant in bringing so many hearts closer to God. And your writing isn't just writing, your openness and love reminds us that we are all just humans trying our very best to love a pure and holy God in a sick depraved world.
I hope you continue using your gifts...keep singing...keep writing...:)
you're so stinkin good at it!