Even If i Walk Alone

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

passion

Seize Every Moment

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What do you want out of life, what is it you hope to accomplish? Have you ever taken the time to consider the legacy you want to leave behind or to list the things you hope to accomplish before you die? Many of us float through life oblivious to the opportunities that we have every day. Without a clearly defined purpose we allow life to happen to us rather than impacting the world. As followers of Jesus, we all have a clearly defined goal: to love God and to love people; to serve Him and serve others. While we may all agree with this premise in principle, living it out in our daily lives presents much more of a challenge. The stresses of life sap our energy and the shiny things we’re convinced we need divert our attention. Without passion and focus, our lives will never fulfill what we were created to be.

One of the problems we encounter is that we’ve developed a self-centered view of the world. We see everything as it relates to our lives and in relation to how it affects our comfort and well-being. As long as we are focused on our own lives, we will never be able to follow Jesus completely. If you walk around staring into a mirror, you will consistently crash into things that will knock you off course; if our gaze is always on our own reflection, we will never see the people directly in front of us. We must always be alert, having our head up and our eyes fixed on Jesus. Only then will we be able to see the dangers and the opportunities that are before us.

Seeing an opportunity and taking action on it are two very different things. Most of us walk by potential moments of service every day. We have the chance to reflect the love and character of God, but we deem ourselves too busy or worse yet we are simply too preoccupied to even notice. I can attest that there are few feelings worse than recognizing a missed opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It stays with you at night and gnaws at your soul. The only way to avoid that feeling is to seize every moment as it presents itself. In all things, both small and large, reflect Jesus and do the things you know He would do. Get into the habit of doing a selfless deed for someone every day and record that action in a journal before you go to bed. After 30 days your life will look very different from the way it does today. By consciously choosing to serve others at no benefit to yourself, you will transform your character to be more like Christ.

Each moment that we let slip by can never be recaptured; it is lost in our history, forever etched into the past. We will never know what effect seizing that opportunity may have had on a person or indeed the entire world. A regular Sunday school teacher seized the moment and led his student to trust in Christ as his Savior. That student, D.L. Moody, went on to lead millions to Christ through his preaching and the legacy of his work continues today. One man seized a moment and had an impact on the world that is difficult to quantify. Jesus asked that the difficult task of the cross be taken from Him if there was any other way; but when the moment of truth came, He seized the moment to do the will of His Father. He seized the divine moment and literally changed the history of the world forever.

We were not created to live aimless and disinterested lives. We were created for passion and for involvement in the lives of others. We have been given the task of continuing the mission of Jesus. Every day there are moments that we can either seize or ignore; our response creates the measure of our character. Our goal should be to seize each moment as it comes and wring out every ounce of life we are able to drain from it. Life is not about what we can achieve, but rather what we can give. Earl Nightingale once defined success as “the continual pursuit of a worthwhile goal.” By that definition, we who have chosen to follow Christ are already successful; we no longer should feel any pressure to prove ourselves to the world. Instead, we should concern ourselves only with proving ourselves faithful to the One we serve. This proof is found in how we respond to the moments of our lives. Ask God to make you aware of the divine moments you encounter every day. Never walk away from an opportunity to reflect His love and to serve others. Seize every moment; live the life He created you to live. May this be our goal, and one which we passionately pursue.

Why Do We Follow Jesus?

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Looking around the world today, it seems that each new sunrise brings word of a new political uprising. Almost without fail, these demonstrations turn violent and people are killed and wounded. Oppressive regimes grow in power and the persecution of Christians grows more frequent and violent with each day. European nations have all but abandoned the way of Jesus, and exchanged it for a life of relativism, cynicism and ultimately hopelessness. In America, a nation once considered the shining light of the world, we see a downward spiral of respect for authority and for God. The whole world has seemingly gone crazy, and perhaps we should expect nothing less from a planet that has abandoned its Creator to seek selfish pleasure and gain.

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Who Do You Want to Be?

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Remember when we were kids how we had dreams of the person we wanted to be when we grew up? Some dreams were based on what our parents did, some were based on what we saw on television or in the movies, and still others were inspired by our comic books. As we grew older, the fantastical dreams of youth began to fade and were replaced with less imaginative dreams that we deemed possible. Once we entered adulthood our focus shifted to those dreams that would make us the most money or secure the lifestyle we wanted to live. Many of us simply stopped dreaming all together. Our dreams became swallowed up in the drudgery and responsibilities of everyday tasks. Life came calling and we sacrificed the aspirations of our youth on the altar of rational expectations. We became what we were expected to be, rather than who we were created to be.

Is this all there is? Is this the abundant life that Jesus promised to those who would follow Him? Where in Scripture are we commanded to pursue the things of this world in order that we might obtain a more comfortable lifestyle? What I see instead is a challenge to live life with a faith so focused on Christ that we don’t worry about what we will eat or drink, or about what we will wear (Matthew 6:31-33); loving God with all of our heart, soul and mind is what drives us forward each day, the beauty that compels us to serve others for His glory (Matthew 22:37-38). We are commanded to love God and love people. Within this context we find all we will ever desire from life. As we set out to serve those around us we rediscover creative means to utilize long hidden gifts and passions. Each of us were created to do good works for the purposes of Christ (Ephesians 2:10). As we fulfill those purposes we find ourselves discovering true abundance in life.

The dreams of our youth were placed inside us to inspire thoughts of what could be accomplished in the world if we would only dare to believe. Too many of us let others talk us out of the possible in order that we might pursue only the probable. There was nothing ordinary about the way Jesus lived His life, nor is there anything mundane about the life He calls each of us to live. We are called to love and to serve in extraordinary ways. The actions in which we engage on Christ’s behalf need not necessarily be some grandiose demonstration; rather, simple acts of kindness and service can have an impact beyond our wildest dreams. A simple smile for one who is normally overlooked can change the course of their life forever. Taking just a moment to make eye contact with a homeless person, to share a kind word or a couple of dollars may convince them there is a reason to go on. It may communicate to them that they are loved by someone and perhaps this would be the catalyst that allows them to encourage others or even to set a new course for their life. One moment, one smile, and you can alter a life forever.

Just as all actions need not be huge in the grand scheme of things, sometimes we must engage in the utterly absurd in order to live out the mission of Christ. Perhaps there would be no hunger in the world if we would simply stop being obsessed with our salaries and 401(k) plans. Maybe it’s time we let go of the things we perceive to be our security in this world, throw caution to the wind and recklessly devote ourselves to an impossibly big challenge just to see what God might do with our leap of faith. Whether we are compelled to deceptively small or extravagantly large acts of service, together we will discover the life we were created to live, and together we will further the mission of Christ.

What dreams have you long ago abandoned in order to live what most would perceive to be a responsible life? What passions have you buried so that you might fall in line with the expectations of culture and society? Jesus didn’t call us to be part of the status quo; He called us to live a life that looks like His. He called us to follow Him. What might become of our lives if we returned to the imagination of our youth? How might we creatively discover fantastic new ways to serve others and reflect His love to the world at large? What have you left behind that should be retrieved and used for His glory?

Our only true responsibility is to become the person He created us to be. I encourage you to let go of the expectations of others, the opinions that confine you in a life of mediocrity. Embrace the work He created you to do; shine with the passion He placed inside you to accomplish all He has put before you. In this way you will find the abundant life; in this way you will discover what it truly means to be His hands and His feet in a world that cries out for the love of Jesus. Rediscover and start living your dreams today. Do it for the world, and do it for His glory.

Shaken

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In “The Perils of Ayden”, Erwin McManus wrote, “Do not stand in the center if you do not wish to be shaken. There is always danger when the movement comes.” If you’re like me, these words evoke excitement and rush of adrenalin. What follower of Christ doesn’t want to be shaken by the mighty hand of God? To be shaken is to be touched, and to be touched is to be overwhelmed by love. The love of God is beyond all we could ever imagine; it is passionate and it is fierce. Herein lies the danger; once you have been touched by God you will not, you cannot, ever be the same. You can go so far as to walk away from Him entirely, but you will never forget the feeling of that love and inwardly will always long to experience it again.

Being shaken by God brings an entirely new perspective to your life. The things that once held great importance to you no longer matter at all. The things you could once ignore now break your heart. If God shakes you, you will be changed. There is danger in pursuing His love because it will lead you to places you have never known and through experiences you could not imagine. There is danger in not pursuing Him because He has called you to follow Him; to refuse is to stand against the Holy Creator of the universe. Once God has shaken you, there is danger no matter which way you go. If you follow Him, He will be there to guide and comfort you through the storms that assail your life. If one must be in peril, it is far better to be there with Jesus than alone.

God longs to shake you; He desires to envelop you in His arms and fill you with His love and spirit. He needs radical followers who will go into the entire world telling others about Him. He needs fanatical lovers who will touch the sick and feed the hungry. He needs you and me. I want to be shaken by God; I want to be in the center of what He is doing in this world. Standing on the sidelines or cowering in the back is no way to serve the Lord. I want to be in the front row with a bird’s eye view of all that He is accomplishing. Watching a smile cross the face of a bitter man or wrapping your arm around a broken woman; this is the stuff of life. Coming along side of someone in need, just as Jesus did for us, is a high call and it is the command of Christ. You can’t carry on His mission from the seat of a spectator. You have to get in the game, and if you become involved, you will be shaken!

If you have ever been in an earthquake, you have experienced a shaking from outside yourself. You have felt the ground tremble and experienced the disorientation this can cause. When God shakes you, He shakes you from the inside out. You will not be able to pinpoint the source of the shaking; you will just know it is happening. Instead of becoming disoriented, you may become euphoric. The love of God is awesome and it is majestic. To feel the shake and warmth of His touch is momentarily debilitating but permanently motivating. How can one keep silent once they have felt the touch of God; how can they not share His love with anyone who will listen?

Ask the Lord to shake you and you will be changed. Ask Him to plant you in the center of His mission and attack it with a vengeance. Only when we are surrounded by His love and carrying out His commands will we find peace; and in the midst of that peace we will be shaken. How incredible to experience God from the inside out. We have long been taught to ask Him into our heart, but once there we expect Him to be quiet and bring us rest. To the contrary, if we are true followers of Christ, He will begin shaking the house as soon as He arrives and will continue to do so as long as we pursue Him. I want to shake the world with the love of Jesus because He first shook me. Have you been shaken by the love of Jesus? I’d love to hear your story and encourage you to share it with others by commenting below. Jesus did not come to quietly express His love for the world. He came to violently shake the nations with His message of peace and hope. We are to carry on that mission. Filled with His love, let us move out to touch the weak, the lost and the weary. Let’s shake this world together.

Urgent and Reckless

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When considering your Christian life, would you classify it as urgent and reckless? Would you say that you are urgently doing all that you can to tell others about Christ? Is your life marked by a spirit of recklessness, one that pursues the kingdom at any cost? If our heart does not literally break with the thought of millions, even billions dying without the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, we need to seriously evaluate our commitment to Him. If we are not leading a life easily identified by urgency and recklessness, then I have to question if our hearts are truly broken by the things that break the heart of God.

Jesus said to go into all the nations telling the people there about His love and His mercy. This is our call and our mission, the very will of God for our lives. He has not blessed us to be in America so that we might live a life of comfort and ease. He has blessed us to be in America so we will take the vast resources entrusted to us and give them to a world so desperately in need. Parents all around the world are wasting away and their children lay dying at their feet. HIV and AIDS runs rampant because we simply have not yet heeded the call to go and educate the world about the facts of this disease. Communities drink filthy and contaminated water because they lack the resources to drill proper wells to reach the water that would bring life and vitality to their village. Half the world lives on less than $2 a day while we think nothing of spending twice that amount on a daily latte.

We lack urgency and we crave safety rather than recklessness. How can we claim we are doing all we can for the lost and dying when we can’t even get out of bed on a Saturday morning? How dare we say that we have given all we can give to help others in need while we sit in warm houses with full cupboards and a couple of cars parked in the garage. We’re not doing all that we can, and we’re not giving all that we can. We are doing just enough to present a good picture to our friends and neighbors and we are giving just enough to salve our consciouses. This isn’t urgency, this is apathy.

Until we cease pursuing first our own selfish comforts, we will never make a marked difference in this world. Until we let go of the safety of our corner of the world, we will have no idea what it means to live with reckless abandon. We have become accustomed to living in the manner of this world instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God. How can we sleep at night with the knowledge that we have a closet full of shoes while millions of people have nothing on their feet? We live in excess while they dwell in squalor. Jesus told us that we were not of this world, so why do we insist on living as if we are? When will it be time for us to stop living in selfishness and begin to release everything we have in service for God’s kingdom? How much longer will we refuse to live the lives for which we were created?

If the thoughts of the hungry around the world do not bring tears to your eyes and an ache to your heart, beg God to break your heart for the lost and the least of these. If you are not urgently seeking ways to serve the dying and the poor every minute of your life, pray that God would give you a fresh dose of zeal to further His mission. If you are not living recklessly, forsaking everything to pursue justice and serve the needs of the hurting, cry out and ask the Lord to instill His passion within you. With each breath we run closer to the end of our race; we are losing time and it cannot be regained. Who will not hear the name of Jesus because we were content to stay under the covers for ten more minutes? Who will die without Christ because we were too busy watching TV? How many children will go without food or water today because we refused to sacrifice what we have?

Each of us knows the score; each of us is aware that while difficult to hear, these words are true. It’s your turn now; it’s my turn too. Will today be the same as every other day? Will tomorrow be one more entry into a life poorly lived? This is a call to action. Change begins with you and it begins with me, and it must begin now. We have no more time. Will you choose to continue pursuing the American dream, or will you forsake everything to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world on the brink of disaster? This is our time; this is our call. What will you do?