Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Daily Life

Finding Your Rhythm

by

Much has been made about maintaining balance in our lives. We don’t want to be workaholics, but neither do we want to become lazy. We need to rest without becoming lethargic. We need to pray and study but we also need to take action. To be certain, we must figure out where all the different roles fit within the context of our life. I submit, however, that it is more about rhythm than it is about balance. Personalities are so unique that each of us will have differing capacities and priorities, and therefore what looks like a life that is wholly unbalanced to one person may in fact be the perfect balance for another. The key is how we allow the ebb and flow of life to pass through us; this is our rhythm.

As we read in the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything under the sun. God has created us to be a diverse people with varying tastes and styles. We have unique talents and abilities that we use in our own distinct ways that reveal the fingerprint of God on our lives. We pursue passions and a direction that God has instilled within us in ways that sometimes only makes sense to ourselves! God’s heart beats in a steady pulse that resonates in different rhythms for all of us. We must learn to tune into our personal rhythm and live in that flow.

The key to discovering your rhythm is to maintain your focus on Jesus Christ. When we are seeking Him first, we settle into an easy cadence that permits us to handle whatever comes our way. Did you ever notice that when you are focused on God that hard times or circumstances rarely seem so difficult? We are able to keep everything in perspective and understand that whatever befalls us on earth is truly a small thing in the grand scheme of eternity. When life begins to feel overwhelming or when we become depressed or unhappy, this is a sure sign that you have fallen out of rhythm.

I’m sure you’ve heard musical performances where the drummer “loses the beat”; his job is to supply the tempo and the rhythm for the group. When he falls out of time, the rest of the band loses their place and the ensuing cacophony is far from pleasant! God is the great cosmic drummer and supplies the tempo for our lives; He never misses a beat. However, if we stop listening for the beat, if we start playing our own rhythm, we get lost and start playing chaotic notes that don’t fit the song we have been given to perform. To carry the analogy a little further, when we are in rhythm, all of the various parts of the composition we are performing work together in beautiful harmony; when we get off time, all the parts come into conflict with one another and it takes great effort to pull them all back together again. As any musician knows, the way to get back on track is to relax and listen for the beat that is being laid down by the drummer. Once you hear it, you are then able to easily get back within the flow of the music. You have rediscovered your rhythm.

It is important that you pay attention to the tempo God is setting for your life. You keep in rhythm by focusing on Him so as not to lose your place. When our eyes stay focused on Jesus, all of the distractions of life are easily handled and put in their proper perspective. If you are feeling overwhelmed, chances are you have lost the beat in your relationship with Christ. Find some quiet time to get alone with Him and listen for the rhythm. Write down anything that is causing you stress. Putting it down on paper gets it out of your head and allows you to pray through the issue and determine tangible steps you can take to eliminate the problem. As you slowly decompress and spit out the cacophony of notes in your mind, you free up space to hear the divine heartbeat of God. Listen closely to the beat and find your rhythm. Relax and enjoy the beautiful song He is creating through the music of your life.

Time is of the Essence

by

Even though we have no guarantee of even our next breath, we tend to lead our lives as if we will live for years to come. Most people lack the sense of urgency in their lives that we should all have as followers of Christ. We do not know how much longer we will have to further His kingdom on earth. The homeless person you walked by today might be the last chance you will ever have to help someone. The new outfit or video game you purchased today might be the last dollar you ever have the opportunity to spend. The time you spent mindlessly staring at the television might just be the last chance you ever have to be with your family. The lack of urgency with which we live our lives now will most certainly lead to regret later. I don’t want to live a life marked by regrets.

It is made clear in Scripture that no man knows the span of his days. We lack the ability to see the big picture of life unfolding around us and therefore have no idea when our earthly life will be taken away. That is a fact we cannot alter. What we can affect, however, is what we do with every second we remain in our earthly clothes. This is why it is vital that we live our lives with absolute urgency. Every encounter and conversation is vitally important. Each activity becomes one of great importance. Until we start recognizing every second as an opportunity to be the Kingdom here on earth, we will not be living out our mission to its fullest extent. It is hard work to remain so focused, but this is how Jesus lived His life, and so we must strive to live our own lives in this manner as well.

Whenever possible we should remove useless motion. Many confuse being busy with being effective. Our urgency must be interlaced with purposeful intention. It is not enough to be doing something; we must be doing the things that matter, the things that will make the most impact for Jesus. By being mindful of the mission we have been given, we can plan our days around doing those activities which please Him and allow us to reflect His love onto our world. We must live our lives in a manner that keeps us free from the trappings of this world so that we will be free to spend all of our efforts on doing those activities that will glorify Him.

Make time to pray for those around you, to ask for wisdom to discern the things you should do and how you should go about them, and also pray for the courage to follow through. The best way to live a life of urgency is to simply begin doing something. Look for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Instead of being judgmental of others because of their appearance, seek to come up with ways that you might be of service to them. Pray for each person you encounter and be sensitive to what the Lord puts on your heart to do for that person. If you are standing in line at the grocery store and you feel a strong pull to pay for the groceries of someone else in line, do it! If you see a child with little money longing for a toy he can’t afford, buy it for him. If you see homeless people milling about, go grab some food and hand it out. Do the things Jesus told us to do. Don’t hesitate.

We have our marching orders. Move out, and do so with urgency. Make the most of your time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). We have no guarantee of tomorrow, we have only today. In fact we have only this moment. How are you choosing to spend it?

Cultural Silos

by

I have recently had the opportunity to attend a couple of events that cut across a wide swath of cultures. I have long been a vocal proponent of reaching across societal boundaries and have lamented the lack of diversity in most of our churches. For me, being at these events was especially rewarding and brought great joy to my heart. To be around people whose upbringing and entire culture has been vastly different from my own was encouraging and eye opening. The food, music, dance and style of worship all differed from that to which I am accustomed. While I found it both exciting and energizing, I could not help but wonder why these types of events are the exception rather than the rule.

Why is there such distrust among the family of God when it comes to cultural differences? One culture does not have all of the answers. We all grow in our walk with Jesus when we invest in the lives of others, regardless of their ethnicity or standing in society. We are all members of one another (Ephesians 4:25), so we should live in unity. There is a great passage in the book of Ephesians that tells us how we are to live with each other: we are to be honest, to only use words that will build up one another, and not be angry (see Ephesians 4:25-29). We often struggle to live this way among our own inner circle, much less when we reach out to those who we deem different from ourselves.

When Jesus came into contact with people, He didn’t consider where a person was from, how wealthy they were, or what their political affiliation may have been, He simply loved them and gave them His full attention. As the Creator of all things, He easily understood that every human soul is the same and He considered each one worthy of His love. Is this the way you and I look at people, or are we more likely to make a snap judgment of them based on hairstyle, clothing or the shade of pigment in their skin? The truth is we tend to huddle together with those who dress, act and look like us, affectively creating cultural silos across the Christian landscape. This is not what Jesus intended for His people; we were called to be one, not many.

We are the children of those who have gone before us, and we bear the scars of prejudice and genocide. Let us not be the ones who carry on the activities and perpetuate the mindsets that lead to division among people in general and the church at large. We are called to a higher standard; we are called to be more than this. We must rise above the fray and diligently do the work that leads to unity among all people. We are followers of Jesus and it is incumbent upon us to begin to live as if that were true.

I certainly have not yet figured all of this out, and I am definitely not above reproach in this area. Like everyone else, I carry the baggage of my generation and upbringing. I am learning though, and I encourage you to do the same. Don’t lock yourself into a cultural silo where everyone looks and acts the same. Branch out and discover what those who are different from you have to offer to your life and your faith. Jesus loves each of us the same, there is no favored class in Heaven. We need to rid ourselves of traditional stereotyping and begin to see the wonder in the great variety that is the human race. Our Creator is creative indeed; may we learn to dance in the beauty of our diversity.

Finding God’s Will for Your Life

by

Determining what God wants you to do with your life is a very Western question. God made his will for us very plain in the Scriptures. Jesus told us to love God with all of our strength, all of our heart and all of our minds. He told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. He told us to give the hungry something to eat, the thirsty something to drink and to clothe those who were poor. He told us to visit the sick and those who are in prison. The apostles continued the mission of Christ and told us to care for the widows and the orphans, to look after those in need and to keep ourselves free from the trappings of the world. All of the above is the will of God for your life. You can stop trying to find your specific calling, because that’s it! There is not a specific call for your life other than to be part of the corporate call that He has given to all of us.

The implementation of the call of Jesus is where we start to get into specifics. God has uniquely gifted each one of us so that we might manifest His calling in our lives. The way we express the mission of Jesus to the world is distinct to each of us. However, we shouldn’t get caught up and stress over whether we should be an entertainer, a plumber, a pilot or a biologist. Those are details on the periphery. No matter what we choose to do in life, as long as we are doing the things Christ commanded us to do, we are living out our calling. There’s no secret formula to determining your place in the world. Simply use what God has given you to reach out in love to the world around you. Finding God’s will for your life is as simple as studying the Scriptures and learning to live a life that reflects and radiates Jesus.

Followers of Jesus in countries outside of the West, particularly the more poor or war ravaged regions, do not waken each day trying to determine what God wants them to be when they grow up. Rather they are simply thankful for their meager provisions and for living through another night so that they might have the opportunity to tell someone else about Jesus. They understand what the will of God is for their lives. They get the fact that the entire reason they are alive is to teach others about Jesus and to come alongside those who are hurting. I don’t believe a Christian genocide survivor in a refugee camp laments over whether they should be a doctor or a lawyer. They simply want to share Jesus with someone and invest in the lives of others. Our Western preoccupation with trying to determine our exact fit into the Kingdom has caused our true mission to be pushed aside. We are no longer solely focused on bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to those who desperately need Him; instead we are focused on what career path would bring us the most comfort while “serving” God.

God is a relational God, and relationships are never an exact science. Relationships are grown and nourished through constant communication and striving together toward a common goal. Relationships are messy and hard to define. There are a few guidelines but not a lot of rules. He clearly defined our mission. He has left the details of how that mission gets carried out in the hands of the free agents He created to go into the entire world displaying His light and glory. It’s time we stop seeking the perfect place in the Kingdom for ourselves or landing on the exact spot God created for us. The only spot created specifically for us is the one on which we now stand. Serve Jesus right where you are. Look around you; in what way could you carry out the mission of Christ right now?

Finding the will of God for your life is a very easy task. He has clearly revealed to us through Scripture everything He wants us to do. It’s time to throw off the excuse of “I’m trying to determine God’s will for my life”. You already know it. Now we must move forward in faith, fully trusting that He will take our imperfect efforts of living out our calling and turn them into something Beautiful for Him.

Your Role in the Kingdom

by

What is your role in the Kingdom? Specifically, what are you uniquely gifted to do? I’ve recently been mulling over the concept that we all have the same command, but each of us have been uniquely gifted as to the ways we go about accomplishing that command. Every one of us is called to go and tell others about Jesus, to lead them to Christ and then to disciple them. We are told to go to the ends of the earth teaching about Him and demonstrating His love. Every follower of Jesus has the responsibility to feed the hungry, give water to those who thirst, clothe the needy, visit the sick and to care for those less fortunate than themselves. The orphans, the homeless, the discarded children from broken homes, the widows, and the single mothers are to be our focus. We are to love God with all that we are; He is to be everything to us. Finally we are to love everyone else the same way that we love ourselves; we are to put their needs before our own.

That is essentially what it means to be a follower of Jesus. In one paragraph we see all that we are supposed to do with our lives. It’s so simple. Following Jesus is not about a list of “do not’s” but rather a list of “do’s”. The Western church has become known more for what we are against than what we are for. Modern Christianity is more famous for its list of restrictions than it is for its charitable acts. This is antithetical to what Christ intended for His followers, and it is the polar opposite of the way we must live.

We know what to do, so the only questions that remain are “how will we live out our calling?” In what way will we use our unique talents and personality traits to do the work Jesus commanded us to do? The choreography of the cosmic dance orchestrated by God must be a thing of beauty to observe from Heaven. All of our unique expressions freely applied in His service, weaving back and forth in concert with one another. When we are all doing the things we should be doing, the resulting performance must be an amazing sight to behold. Unfortunately I’m sure that more often than not, our dance more resembles that of a kindergarten ballet, a chaotic sea of aimless movement teetering ever so closely to being out of control. It is only when we come together in unified purpose, when we begin to take our cues from the director, that our aimless flailing is turned into beautiful dance.

One of the beautiful mysteries of our mission is the way each of us has been given unique and specific gifts, yet we are urged to “diligently keep the unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3). With all of the freewill and individuality that God has placed within us all, His goal is that we might use all that diversity to form one complete picture. Much like a puzzle that depicts a beautiful mountainside, the individual pieces do not convey the majesty of the final scene. We must never be proud of the gifts we possess, because each is made more beautiful when fitted together with the gifts of another. We can achieve a little on our own; we can achieve much when working together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

How have you been uniquely gifted? What role has God given you to play in His grand design? Think back to your childhood, what sort of things were you passionate about? What excites you? These are great clues to the gifts God has placed within you. He gives us passions and interests that are uniquely blended on His canvas. Don’t waste what God has given you, don’t refuse to play your part in His masterpiece. You were created for a purpose and you are alive to fulfill it. The stage is set; the Director awaits. Join the ensemble; play your role. Dance to the rhythm He has defined in you alone, for the Glory of the One who sits on Heaven’s throne.