Even If i Walk Alone

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

Awake?

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Within the prologue of the “Rules of Saint Benedict”, we find the following admonishment:  “Let us get up then, at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: It is high time for us to arise from sleep. Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out this charge: If you hear His voice today, do not harden your hearts.”  It is this challenge we are called to live out every single day.  It is in this challenge we become victorious through Christ.

Are you asleep?  Are you awake but still groggy from all that has happened in your life so far?  We are called to arise from sleep, to look out at the world and see those hurting around us.  Look at all those souls without any hope, without any love.  Do you see these people in the world around you?  How often do we take the time to stop, listen and give of ourselves?  We too often walk on by those in need.  We are busy, yes consumed even, by our own thoughts and pursuits.  How many do we walk by everyday in the grocery store, at our place of work or even in our own neighborhoods?  We are sleepwalking through life and we are missing the opportunities to love someone in Jesus’ name.  Being a follower of Christ means to follow at all times no matter what that might look like or where it may lead.  There is perhaps no greater tragedy than to profess Jesus with our lips and then to close our eyes.

Have you said ‘no’ to God lately?  Are you saying ‘no’ to Him right now?  Every time we are compelled to love someone in His name and do not do it, we say ‘no’ to Christ, the one who gave His life for us.  Being a follower of Jesus isn’t about saying a magical prayer or getting dunked in a pool of water.  It’s a call to a radical lifestyle of love.  It’s a call to put away everything we once considered to be our own and to start giving to those in need.  It’s about stopping and listening to a stranger on the street rather than stopping at the usual head nod or typical “Good Morning, how are you?” greeting.  It’s about looking like Jesus to the world around you.  We must not harden our hearts to the needs of others.  This is our calling.  This is how we follow Jesus.

How are you doing at waking up and seeing the need?  Once you see that need, how are you doing at being the one that fills it?  Are you reflecting Christ in everything that you do and say?  If we would be followers of Christ then we will look different.  The Bible calls us peculiar people; I love that!  I don’t want to be normal.  Normal is self-centered and comfortable.  I want to live radically.  I want to love others and live a life restless to do so.  I want to follow Jesus.  I want to love as He loved.  Care to join me?

Take a Breath

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Take a breath.  What are you running from?  What are you running to?  What’s it all mean anyway?  We push ourselves to the limit day after day after day in search of some peace, finding some meaning or perhaps just a little bit of hope.  Why are we so obsessed with doing when the end result turns out that nothing is getting done?  Step back.  Take a breath.

Did you ever notice that Jesus never seemed to be in a hurry?  He always had time to touch the person in need, to play with little children or to speak to the outcast.  He never seemed to script His day; He just met needs as he found them.  He knew what He was about.  He understood His core mission.  Yet He never seemed overwhelmed by what we might call intrusions on His time.  He walked in perfect peace, knowing exactly where He was headed and knowing exactly what He was going to accomplish.  Jesus wasn’t perplexed by the unexpected roadblock or stressed by opposition to His plans.

So here we are claiming to model our lives after Christ.  Reality check:  our lives look absolutely nothing like that of Jesus.  We’re fooling ourselves.  We have gotten so good at being “Christian” that we no longer seem to be followers of the Way.  We claim His Lordship but fret over the pettiest of problems.  We claim to love others like He did but seize every opportunity to go along with hurtful words and gossip.  We rush and hurry and stress and rejoice when we take five minutes out of our day to pray.  Jesus regularly got alone with God to pray.  It was central to His life, not simply something he tacked on at the end of the day as an afterthought.

Jesus took time to breathe.  He left space around all His activities.  He wasn’t afraid to rest or withdraw from everything to keep perspective.  He breathed.  When was the last time you took a breath in your life?  When was the last time you remember being so on mission that you were unbothered by the mess the day threw at you?  Have you ever been that certain of your life, your purpose?  Or like most of us do you rush about doing something – anything – to prove you are moving forward?

Take a breath.  Withdraw from everything; get rid of the cell phone and the pager.  Sit in the presence of God and just… breathe.  Ask Him to give you a vision of what your life could look like if only He truly was Lord.  Ask Him what it would look like if you were a little less of a Christian and a little more a follower and lover of Him.  And then breathe.  Feel your lungs expand and release.  Move forward with a passion of purpose.  See, really see, the needs around you and minister to them as Christ did.  In this you will find the beautiful rhythm to life that you have always sought.

No Fear

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There was no fear in Eden.  Humans lived among the wildlife and no one was afraid.  Man and woman lived naked together and there was no shame, no fear of acceptance.  The concept of fear did not exist, everything was good.  And in the midst of this environment God walked with man.

Fast forward to today.  Fear is rampant.  Animals flee in terror from humans, and humans in turn show both caution and fear to the beasts of the field.  Nakedness now comes in flavors of brazenness and embarrassment.  There is fear of acceptance.  In fact fear of acceptance leads some to hide away lest anyone should see and still others to give away what they rightfully own to those undeserving to receive it.  We fear a lack of money, a lack of food and worry over being able to afford shelter.  Fear is the great evil.  It paralyzes and it cheats us of our dreams.  Fear permeates the darkness and covers the light.  We are indeed a people infected by the curse of fear.

We weren’t created this way.  We weren’t created to deal with these feelings.  We were created to wonder and awe and to love all that surrounds us.  We have been robbed.  We have been cheated of the life we were meant to live, of the life we so deeply desire to live.  But there is hope… love conquers fear.  Love is not only the great equalizer, it is the greatest conqueror.

Jesus came into a fearful world and set us free from the curse.  He offers each of us absolute freedom from the poison of fear.  The antidote is love and this love bleeds from our Savior.  He poured out his love on Calvary and we need only bow at the foot of that cross to be drenched in His love.  When we love, we cannot fear.  Love casts out fear as surely as Christ cast out demons.  Love conquers fear every time.

Of what are you fearful?  Do you fear losing your job, your spouse, your children or your sense of security?  I submit that when we fear we expose the fact that we do not have enough love in our lives.  The love I speak of is love we give.  As followers of Christ, we all have been given more love than we could ever need.  This is the very reason we are to give some away.  In Christ we have an endless supply so we can never give too much love away.  When we allow fear to reside within us, we are squeezing out the places reserved for love.  Fear proves we are inward focused, we are selfish.  Start giving love away.  Instead of worrying about your own job, see if you can help someone who has already lost theirs.  Instead of fearing for your security, reach out and comfort someone else.  Remember, love trumps fear every time.  We are given a Spirit of love, not of fear.  We were created to love, not fear.  Start living as the person you were created to be.

They Gave Up Everything

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As I was reading a familiar passage of Scripture today, I was struck anew by a thought: when Jesus called His first four disciples, they immediately gave up everything that they had and followed Him.  Peter, James and John left behind their fishing business and jobs and just followed.  They didn’t question Jesus, they didn’t plan how they would make a living or pay the bills; they simply followed.  If Jesus were to appear on the scene today, come to your place of work and tell you to follow Him, would you?  Would I?

It’s so easy to read through these Bible stories without pausing to reflect on what they are really saying.  “Wow, the disciples left everything and followed Him.  How cool were they?  They were such spiritual giants.  Next.”  Let the story sink in; apply it to yourself.  Honestly, ask yourself, if Jesus told me to give up everything, to leave it right then and there, would I?  This call to follow Christ is not for the faint of heart.  There’s no promise of monetary success or fame.  In fact, to the contrary, Jesus tells us straight up that we will probably not have as much as a place to sleep at night and that we’ll face hostility and persecution.  Cool.  This is exactly why I’d want to give up my current lifestyle.  Well, okay, not so much really.

Yet, this was the call to the first disciples and it remains the call of Christ to each of us today.  Will we give up everything?  Will we risk alienating our friends and family?  Will we endure embarrassment and persecution?  Would we even (gulp) be willing to die?  All this simply because He said to follow Him; How much do you love Him?  Can we honestly say that we would do for Him what He did for us?  Or is it more comfortable to just thank Him for what he did and then snuggle down in our warm beds to catch a good night’s sleep?  What are you willing to give up?  If it’s less than everything then that is simply not good enough.  Christ demands it all.  We call Him Lord yet refuse to honor Him as such.  Do you trust Him to care for your needs, trust Him enough to spit in the face of logic by giving up all that we possess? Do you trust Him with your life to the degree that you are willing to lay it down?

It’s easy to give a lip service answer to these questions.  Of course we love Him; of course we trust Him.  Why of course we’d die for Him!  But would we?  What would your neighborhood, your city and your state look like if all the Christians returned to the New Testament model for the church and we sold everything we had so we could care for the needs of those who had less than we do?  I’m not talking Socialism here; Jesus never advocated any political system.  But I am talking about love, something Jesus was adamant about providing.  Would we be willing to give up everything?  Are we willing to follow Him to dangerous places so we can demonstrate and apply His love?  If Jesus were to start all over today, would you be one of His first disciples?  Until you are willing to give up everything – everything and everyone – then that answer would have to be ‘no’.  Let us repent of our lack of belief and beg that God would give us the strength to follow Him at any cost.

A Foundation of Love

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What is it you really want out of life, what do you hope to accomplish?  In the end, what will it all matter?  I have a lot of dreams and goals, but none of them will count for anything if I don’t get one thing right; that one thing being how well I reflect the love of Christ.

Putting everything else aside for now, let’s focus on that one thing.  What do we need to do today to best reflect the love of God?  Have we become too busy, so much so that we don’t take the time each day to just stop and communicate with Jesus?  Many people set aside time at the beginning of each day to do this, and that’s great.  There’s nothing magical about what time you do it, the important thing is that you do indeed take the time.  You can choose morning, afternoon or evening as long as you don’t let anything get in the way of this time with Christ.

What inevitably tends to happen is that instead of scheduling a set time to be alone and focused on God, we try and squeeze this time amongst the other activities of our day.  This never works!  Adding God to your life will always result in a low impact and uncommitted walk.  We can’t add God to our life, He must be our life.  If there is room for anything else we can add that on, but life must start and find its centrality in Christ.

This one change, this one way of changing how we do life will prove revolutionary.  Let nothing get in the way of your time with God.  Once you have established the time, don’t let outside distractions cheapen it.  Talk to God, sit quietly in His presence, listen and dream with Him.  This may take some getting used to, but I assure you it is more than worth the effort.

Starting with God as the foundation allows us to build up other areas of our lives.  Should we face trial or failure, even if we lose everything, our foundation will remain.  Hard times never seem as bad when we realize we are defined by our foundation, not by anything else.  We are His and He is ours.  Before attempting any other drastic changes in your life, make certain your foundation is solidly set.  With Christ as our foundation, we cannot but help but pour out His love on those around us.  With His love as our foundation, it will simply permeate our entire being.  True love cannot be shaken and will never be defeated.  Set your foundation in His love, and then use that strength to encourage others to do the same.  Watch your life change as everything you do flows from a basis of love.  Reflect Him in everything you do.