Comfortable Christianity
We have this unfortunate reality in the West to live quite comfortably as Christians. We live as very safe Christians, in very safe walls, with very safe jobs. We, unsurprisingly, also have this epidemic of a courage deficit. We are quite comfortable doing the bare minimum with little to no cost. A closed door is a door we should walk away from, right? If we aren’t in the right job, the right marriage, the right _______________ just walk away. We are meant to be happy, right?
Wrong.
It was the joy that was set before Jesus (us) that drew Him to completion of the cross (Hebrews 12:2). He now sits at the right hand of the Father in His much deserved, high position. But it cost Him the cross. It cost Him his flesh, to live by the Spirit. He was hungry, tired, beaten, ridiculed, sacrificed. He had to be willing to sacrifice. He had to be willing to lay down His life. Do you think Jesus was eager in the path of the cross? That path was filled with the hurting, the unbelieving, the reviled. He literally, (not figuratively) sweated drops of blood as He wrestled the cost of the cross. He blessed as He ministered to many, but He was all-knowing. He knew what was coming. That is what makes His love oh, so radical! He knew the future and He chose to love and surrender, to sacrifice anyway. He wrestled with the path of the unbelieving, the religious, and the cross that was ever-before Him.
Safety First
I tire of easy, safe, complacent Christianity. The Christianity that allows us to stream a worship service, listen to compelling podcasts, and read well-written books that implore us to do more. And more we do–more working, more striving, more proving, more religiosity at the detriment of our souls, our families, our dreams, and the lost. But what we do not do–surrender. If Jesus compels us to a mission outside ourselves, do we break covenant to meet the promise our way, in our time, in our understanding? This is the fallout of the Abrahamic covenant. God promises a fruitful promise through the womb of Sarah and we breed divided wombs through Sarah and Hagar because we lack belief. This is the fallout of a doubting Adam and Eve in the Garden. A people only half listening to God is a people of unrepentant sin–the sin of unbelief. A people relying on their own wisdom is a people that create divided nations. A people that run from the call of God get swallowed up by whales and spit back up on shores that they ran from in the first place.
Jesus Calling
Just because a call is not easy does not mean it is not a call very specifically designed for you, by God.
Easy Christianity breeds easy blessings; basic provisions of food, bread, and wine. A surrendered Christianity breeds suffering. If embraced, it will result in a triumph of faith:
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
American church, people of the West, I implore you to stop thinking that if something is hard, it’s time to walk away. That is likely the very time you are meant to push in. Just because a door is shut does not mean it cannot be opened. This is what keys are for. And when keys don’t work, perhaps it’s time to tear down those walls. There is a reason my mantra is to push into the hard.
Easy lives breed easy living.
Surrender
Surrendered lives breed challenge and hardship, but, personally, I am not looking for a temporal fix. I want Jesus. I desire Him deeply and I ache to hear Him at heaven’s gates saying, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). I want what He wants for me and for His purposes to come to completion in me, in spite of myself. I am not looking to please people in my processes to the kingdom of God. I am looking to live what Jesus has called me to for His good pleasure and purposes. If I am to have any impact on the godless, it most assuredly will not come through a painless path. Pillars of the faith who have gone before me suffered greatly, but they wouldn’t have had it any other way because God’s ways are higher than our ways. They counted the cost and determined, where would we go outside of you, Lord? (John 6:68). People who walk away from the hard things of God are like the many disciples who walked away with only the twelve remaining:
John 6:52-58, 60-66
Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[i] and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
If your day-to-day living does not cost you anything, you’re likely not truly living in the surrendered call of God daily. A surrendered life costs. A comfortable life does too. It’s just a matter of what price you are willing to pay–a temporal or an eternal one.