Even If i Walk Alone

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

purpose

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.

Frustrated or Restless?

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I’m tired of watching life happen to me.  The best laid plans seem to always go astray.  The many desires I have to accomplish more and more crowd out any peace that should be in my head.  Where is the peace of Christ?  Why this frustration and restlessness?

Have you been there?  Welcome to life in the Western world.  Convenience is at our fingertips, achievement is ours to obtain.  We are free to pursue any and everything this world has to offer.  Stop for a moment and simply ask, “At what cost?”  What have we lost in our hurried, results-oriented culture?  Look around your neighborhood; observe the affluence regardless of income.  What have we become?

As Christians we are called to live differently, we are called to a life of humility and love.  We are called to peace and selflessness.  Does your life reflect these attributes?  I know I have a long way to go when measured against these core principles.  We are supposed to be a peculiar folk, but instead we have learned to blend right in.  We have become Americans (if you’re a U.S. reader, if not fill in your own nationality) at the cost of being Christians.  We have lost our first love, in fact I believe we’re in danger of losing love altogether.

Christianity was never meant to be proper people attending large brick buildings where they are entertained for an hour or two each week before going back into the day to day drudgery of the “real world”.   We are to be a people in community with one another every day, and every day we are to be about serving the needs of those in our cities and our world.  When was the last time we left our church buildings and immediately began planning how we were going to love and care for the sick, homeless, widowed and orphaned?  More likely we start planning the grocery list or what our jobs will require of us over the upcoming week or even worse, what football game we will watch that afternoon.  Christianity as a whole has become hypocritical and pharisaical.  I cringe at the thought of what Christ would say of my life in particular and the body of the Western church as a whole.  We have become complacent, self-centered and blinded to those around us.

So how do we stop reacting to what comes at us in life and instead start dictating what our life will look like?  How do we quell the restlessness in our souls?  We get back to being the church Christ called us to be.  We return to our first love, Christ, by imparting His love to everyone we meet.  It is virtually impossible to find yourself frustrated with life when you are walking in step with Christ, doing the things he has commanded us to do.  Are you frustrated?  Serve Christ by loving others.  Does life keep slamming into you?  Take a break and find someone to love.  Do you want to impact the world?  Look like Jesus and love your neighbor, serve their needs.  Are you sensing a theme?  Life is easy, we’ve made it difficult.  Love Christ, love others.  Nothing else matters.

Are You On Mission?

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I’ve been thinking a lot about goals lately, and how to make certain we accomplish all we can for Christ during our time here on earth.  So many things beg for our time and attention that it is all too easy to become distracted and pulled off mission.  Harder still to remain focused if we have never defined our purpose and goals.  I encourage everyone to develop a mission statement as well as some life goals for themselves.

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God’s Will

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What is your purpose in life?  What is your mission?  Have you ever thought about big questions like these or are you content to simply take each day as it comes?  The Biblical answer to these questions is beautifully simple to discover yet maddeningly complex to implement!

For as long as I can remember I have heard Christians lament about the fact that they don’t know God’s will for their life, they don’t know what they were put on earth to do.  For those folks, I have great news: you can indeed know with 100% certainty what God’s will is for your life.  God’s will for your life is the same as it is for my life and for your neighbor’s life.  God’s will is that we would love him with an all consuming, passionate and unconditional love.  Not only this, but His will is that we love everyone with whom we come into contact with this same all consuming, passionate and unconditional love.  Show His glory to others by demonstrating His love at all times.  Tell others about Him with our words and actions.  That’s it; it really is no more and no less than this.  This is what Scripture teaches us is the will of God.

Still, we all want to know what this looks like on a more practical, day to day level.  What are we to do with our lives as it concerns our work, dreams and goals?  Beyond loving people, what else are we to do?  Should we not seek to do extravagant and amazing things for God?  Should we not seek to prosper so we might have more resources with which to serve the poor and hungry?  We know we are to love, but that doesn’t tell us what we should do for our vocation or if we should get married or if we should become a missionary in a foreign land or any of a hundred other questions!  How do we know what to do in these circumstances?

I submit to you that love is the answer here as well.  Go loves us more than we could ever possibly hope to imagine.  He has given each of us passions, dreams and talents.  All we have to do is determine how best to use our gifts to demonstrate His love.  Maybe it means staying in that dead end job so you can continue to love your co-workers.  Or maybe it means you leave that dead end job to give you time to drink more fully of His love so you can share more of it with even more people.

Whatever decision you face, look at the issue in terms of how you might best demonstrate the love of Christ.  Imagine all the ways you can serve Him if you decided to do plan A or plan B.  Which decision gives you the greatest opportunity to fulfill His will for your life?  Remember His will is simply that you love Him with all that you are, and you love everyone else in the same way.  Are you participating in activities, relationships or a job that is choking the amount of love you are able to show to others?  Are the things you are currently doing preventing you from fully serving and loving God?  If your answer is yes, then you are out of the will of God, and it is time to put aside anything that would hold you back from total love and devotion to the one we call Lord.  Decide today to walk in His way only.  Walk in love.