So I’m getting into the incredibly bad habit of drinking coffee at midnight and then being wired for about 4 hours before I crash and get about half a night’s sleep before a full school day. Bad idea. Oddly enough though I do some of my best work during those hours.
I was reading Ryan’s blog a few minutes ago, and something he said made my fried mind think twice. He said he had considered Christianity to be a romantic adventure.
He’s right.
Has anyone else heard the story of that far away land where there is a beautiful princess and a really bad guy and he lays siege to the kingdom and all sorts of evil things are happening and a really brave courageous prince comes riding in and fights to win the kingdom back and restores peace in all the land and falls in love with the princess and they reign for years and years in prosperity and triumph and wisdom? (hmm not sure if Ryan would have gone that far… )
But actually this life is an adventure. There’s a big battle going on all around us. I think deep down many of us have the desire to be part of an adventure in life, to do something big, to join a cause, a war, a campaign, and truly come alive as we fight for it. Christianity is such an amazing example of this:
First, there is a kingdom. It’s the kingdom of God. It can exist in the heart of every person. Next, there is an incredibly powerful bad guy named Satan who wants nothing more than to see this kingdom destroyed. He kills, assaults, maims, devours, and destroys. He is real. He has an army of soldiers – demons. However, the good guy, God, is ultimately much stronger than the bad guy. He has unlimited wisdom and strength and resources. He calls us to join him. To take up our crosses, and put on his armor and join him in the greatest battle of all time. This battle transcends this temporary life. The war is real. The results, either glorious or devastating, are eternal.
There’s a quote from Captivating that I love: Your life is a love story set in the midst of a life-and-death battle. Jesus fights on your behalf and on behalf of those you love. He asks you to join him.
Damn straight. This isn’t a joke. This isn’t fake. This isn’t some game we play.
Our enemy is real. Remember Eddie’s stories at camp? He was attacked. Not the type of attack where you wake up one morning and you’re tired of going to college (which is fixing to be in about 5 hours for me lol), the type of attack where you wake up and watch as everything in your life is taken from you. It takes a powerful enemy to do that.
I was thinking one night about the whole “reaching out to people” thing, when I realized something. No matter how much I attempt to influence people on this campus, to study the Bible with them, to have a positive and uplifting effect, to hang out and show them God’s love, there always seem to be ten or twenty or thirty more people in their life who are waiting to do the exact opposite!! People who want to lead them away from Christ, who want to influence them for ulterior motives, who want to lead them into sin and immorality. (To say nothing of TV or the media or society in general.)
At first, this was just really depressing. Then I was plain furious. How are we expected to fight when the odds are so overwhelmingly not in our favor?!! “It’s not fair God!” My heart cried out, “You should make the playing field even for us.”
Unfortunately, arguing with God doesn’t usually get very far. And this blog wasn’t supposed to be depressing, it was supposed to be about how neat it is that we can participate in a real adventure, so let me try again:
We are needed. The battle is real. What we do matters, and there is much to be done. The hour is late (literally at this point haha). This life is a chapter in the ultimate, true-story fairy tale of an amazing good God and the courageous princes and princesses who receive from him the strength to pick up a sword and follow him in rescuing a kingdom and defeating a terrible enemy.
6 comments:
"Damn straight." lol - you tell 'em sista!
I've been thinking about the reaching out idea too and came up with a similar conclusion but I think there's more to it. You're right that we are horribly outnumbered, that there are dozens of people out there to undo whatever progress we make in people's lives but that's not the end of it. I've come to realize that I can't have a lasting effect on anyone but I know someone who can... God. I've seen how when I try to change people and put all my effort into helping them that it more often than not ends up in vain and the world sucks them back in. We can't win over the hearts of people but God can so we should trust him to do so. It's my job to obey God and do what He tells me, it's His job to make something useful out of my obedience. If I offer God even as little as a few loaves of bread and some fish, he can turn it into enough food to feed 5k people. So really, while the playing field isn't fair, it's actually unfair in our favor. We're on God's side. I cheated and read the end of the story, God wins. :)
Christa, it's great to see the passion that God is growing in your heart and to hear the heart that you have for people. It's that kind of love that the world can't duplicate or fabricate and it can't compete with it either. As Paul said, "And now I will show you the most excellent way . . ."
Yes indeed, its a shame more people don't share the perspective, I love what it turns life into :)
I was at one of BSM's meetings and they had some guy come in and talk about evangelism. He said that we shouldn't think of ourselves as the person that introduces God to the nonbeliever (shun the nonbeliever, shunnnnnnnnn), but instead we are entering in on a conversation that God has already started with them. I really liked this idea, because I thought, "well, now I have help. God can help me win this guy over." But I have come to realize a greater truth. That unless God is already talking to them, our involvement will be fruitless. He is the necessary component and the mighty warrior that can overcome the ten or twenty or thirty people, with great ease. The key is: us joining God, not God joining us.
Thanks for sharing that Chris. Why is it so easy to start acting like I'm more powerful than God?
Deep thoughts. I love reading and hearing from people who are passionate about Gods things. I have moments where I feel really strongly about things, but then settle back to normal life so easily.
Seeing other people learning new things and being excited about it is so encouraging.
And I think Blake and Seiler are right, it's not that I'm so incredibly out numbered, it's that God counts for like a billion, so I think he wins. He wants to use us to do his work, not have us do it for him. But that's why our role is so crucial. God designed it all so we are his hands and feet.
and now I'm rambling..
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