Sierralima

I’ve heard it said that the sacrifice of things of this world for the things of God is worth it. I do want to say that I completely agree with this statement, but since the retreat this past weekend I’ve come to think of it in a different way.

It is not a sacrifice to give up the things of this world to gain Christ; it is sacrifice to not focus completely on him.

All of us understand sacrifice. We do things we don’t want to do at the moment but we do them for something ultimately better. We study hard to get better grades. We work hard to earn money. We always have to look at the “something better” when we perform duties we don’t like to keep our lives in the right perspective. We don’t consider studying to be sacrifice, nor work. I saw a glimpse during this retreat that the effort I have put into retreats and youth in general over the past 6 years is being used by God to bring their lives to him. I have not wasted a single second I spent in this effort.

If we are looking only at the treasures of Christ to guide our lives, we will never sacrifice anything again.

A while back I started wondering why we prayed before we ate. It had become simply a ritual to me, with words that were pretty much the same. I started thinking about the words I said, what they meant, and if I really meant them. From what I’ve seen and can remember from the Bible, food related prayers were not much more than “gave thanks.” So that made sense; we give thanks to God for providing the food for us. He is, after all, the true provider of food. But the thoughts continued – if God gives us food and all other good things, why do we only thank him for the food? Should we not be thanking God every time we turn on a light switch? Or check our email? Or meet friends? Or attend church? Or get into a car? Or survive a Shanghai taxi ride? That might be difficult, because then we’d pretty much be giving thanks continuously. Or maybe that’s the point…. (1 Thess. 5:18)

But what if giving thanks is not only showing honor to God who gives all good things, but is a way to keep us from sin? If we can develop a habit of thankfulness, we’ll always be conversing with God. “Thank you for these clothes. Thank for you for the sunshine today. Thank you for this paycheck. Thank you for Starbucks coffee. Thank you for water. Thank you for warmth. Thank you for breath.” Then it gets interesting. “Dear God, thank you for pornography. Thank you for this opportunity to sneak out and go clubbing. Thank you that nobody noticed I stole money from work.” That just doesn’t sound quite right, does it?

Let’s be thankful in everything, and allow our constant thought of God’s good gifts keep our eyes and minds focussed on him, so that when we are tempted to sin, we are aware that we cannot thank God for it, know it’s not his gift, and resist to stay centered in his goodness.

I have been caught up recently by the “gospel-centered” movement. I don’t mean to make it sound like a passing fad, but more appropriate words fail me at the moment. I don’t confess to yet be living a gospel-centered life as I see it defined, but I have caught glimpses of it over the past few months that make it the most desirable thing I could possibly imagine. I have been caught up in the scandal of Christ that is God’s grace to his enemies, which has brought me to my knees in thanksgiving. I have seen his sovereignty in this world, and coupled with his loving grace, has brought confidence in circumstances of this life – good or bad. And so I have lived without worry. Or was it apathy? As I see future decisions with so many unknowns that it makes any effort to decide a fruitless endeavor, I am accused of not planning for the future. So, am I trusting in Christ’s finished work for the future, or am I simply being a lazy idiot? I have found that in pretty much anything I plan for, the circumstances change (i.e. someone is late, someone is early, something doesn’t arrive, something else comes, there was a misunderstanding) to the extent that decisions must be made on the fly anyway. I have found it is easier/faster/cheaper to deal with the effects of a problem than to try to prevent the problem outright. (For these, I pick my battles – some problems are worth the extra effort to avoid.)

But a gospel-centered life has no room for apathy. These glimpses into the joy we have in Christ appear to be feeding my pride, puffing me up and making me think I know better than so many others. A gospel-centered life means I can plan my heart out without worrying about the outcomes, knowing that God uses the process as much, if not more, than the result. The solution to gospel-centered apathy is more gospel, more gazing (not glimpsing) into the glory and grace of God through our savior Jesus, until we are overwhelmed by his mercy and his love pours out of us onto others with the urgency of eternity at stake – the opposite of apathy.

We are compelled to share the gospel. Or are we coerced? Often in life we are guilt-tripped by leaders and friends to share the gospel with non-believers, but for most of us it is scary, and the other person always has questions we can’t answer. We are not properly equipped. So we read all the Lewis and Keller we can find to polish up our apologetics, and memorize key articles on answeresingenesis.org, but they still ask questions we can’t answer, and they still don’t believe. But just as David was well equipped by Saul before facing Goliath and wasn’t comfortable using anything except the gifts God gave him and his trust in God himself, so we must not step out and convince others using someone else’s Christianity, but our own lives transformed by the gospel’s scandal of grace. If we don’t know the gospel ourselves, how can we share it?

This world is broken. Our relationships are broken. Our desires are broken. Our families are broken. Our friends are broken. Our learning is broken. Our doing is broken. Our lives are broken. We are broken. We must not live in the lie that things are ok. Only Jesus can fix what’s broken. We must live in the hope that he is the fixer of our brokenness.

I was reading this Our Daily Bread and the idea of “flee” came to mind. Fleeing brings to mind the idea of rapidly leaving an area, and in general leaving many things behind. The idea is that you value your life much more than your possessions and are willing to leave them behind to save yourself.

So what should we be fleeing from?

Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry
– 1 Corinthians 10:14

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love,endurance and gentleness.
– 1 Timothy 6:11

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- 2 Timothy 2:22

So we must run. We must run from the ideas and temptations of this world. It’s not a running that is done with our legs, but with our hearts. There are many things that will be left behind as we run – everything that holds us back. We cannot take our worldly treasures with us and expect to be able to run fast enough. As our hearts flee the coming destruction of this world, we run towards Christ, our savior and protection. He has completed the work. The job is done. There is nothing else we need to fear as he has promised to provide for all our needs. We need to pack nothing for our journey. Let us not hold on to anything from this world, whether it be movies, video games, money, grades, computers, family, friends, sex, comfort, power, identity, or anything else that we already have in Christ. Let us empty our pockets, remove our bags, leave the carry-on at home, and run after Christ and him alone.