Christian Lifestyle

For many Christians there are two separate aspects of life: relationship with God and relationship with the real world. Unfortunately, the two seldom mix. I want to figure out how a relationship with God translates into a lifestyle that can serve as a contrast to the lifestyle created by the world. Unless I actually take the risk of practicing and discovering if what I believe is true, I do not have the right to preach it to someone else.

In part this is motivated by the irrelevance of the Christian lifestyle enjoyed in Suburban America. When I saw the poor people in the countryside in China, I knew that the gospel I carried was not good news to them. The gospel their country preached to them was a big house, plenty of money and no problems. My message was no different, except that I could promise a happy ending (a nice house, plenty of money, and no problems in a perfect world called heaven). Oops. Why would my message have any more pull than the other one? The only reason? Fear of a place called Hell.

While salvation is key to the gospel, the goal of salvation is restoration. Jesus is the second Adam, the reset button, the second chance for mankind to walk with God in this experience of life. If walking with God is my objective, then the standard of value by which I engage with life will be different. My value comes not from economic productivity. My Christianity is not part of my career. My career is my Christian life. What I do in the process of walking with God is irrelevant. If I walk with God as a server at a restaurant, a street sweeper in China, an executive in Ireland, or a gas station attendant in Minnesota, I am successful. I do not have to have a fancy house, a nice car, plenty of clothes, expensive food, or even a good reputation. I do not have to be distinguished as a Christian among those I serve. I simply have to love God in response to His love for me – and as I come to know His love, I will find myself loving those around me.

When it comes to a career, I no longer play that game. My career is my faith. When it comes to a retirement account, I no longer invest in dollars. My reward is incorruptible. When it comes to success, I have a new definition. My boasting is that I know God. When it comes to money, I am no longer a servant. My Father created the world and owns all its money.

I am setting up my life in a way that requires God to be real. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs shows religion near the top of the pyramid as part of self-actualization. Christianity is meant to be the pyramid. If I cannot trust God for my basic survival needs, how can I trust him for my identity, love Him in relationship, or depend on Him for my future?

Even as I think about this, I realize that I still trust in my own ability and intelligence to care for myself. I know these are gifts from God for me to use. For the past several weeks, I have devoted these to investing in the kingdom of God without really thinking of how I can use them to care for myself. It may be that this is the way I give these to Him. I still presume that if God does not come through in the way I expect, I can use them to somehow get by. Every day that I submit these to the service of His kingdom, I show my trust in Him as my sole provider. He is everything that I need.

Everlasting Rest

As I take to my knees to write what is in my heart, I desire to understand what I am giving up for. 
This sacrifice of my life, this pain, this letting go, must be something I do for a great reward.

The joy set before him, led Jesus to die. The cross where He suffered is now where I died.

Long ago, I gave up the life I once had, to take from Him what He died to give.

Now, in fear that by following in to things I do not know – that I may never understand,

I am forced to once again trust Him with my life and reach out with empty hands.

The good that I had, I left all behind. Now with nothing, O Lord, I come.

Give, give me all that I desire. I desire more of You. I desire only You.

My one great reward and my one great treasure is to know You, to hear Your voice.

Nothing inside me understands this call. It seems like I have given up the world.

Sometimes I wonder if I will look back one day and wonder what fantasy it was,

That drives me to give everything away. Abandoning the life I could have, every day.

Like the ancient ones of faith, I desire a kingdom that is not of clay,

But I don’t know if, like them, I can spend my entire life waiting for someday.

The pressures around me to conform to the attitudes and lifestyles of normality,

Remind me at once of the gravity of my situation, the futility of life, the morality of choice…

And, by the grace of God, the absolute hopelessness of my situation apart from Christ.

If I were not first drawn into the desire to have what is best, I could not enter rest.

But the rest eludes me in the struggle of war. To keep the faith is tough.

When life is easy, I get careless. When it is hard, I am tempted to let go.

But one thing keeps me holding on, pressing in. I have found a treasure in a field,

An unshakeable kingdom, a promise that is sure, and a fortune that will not be taken away.

In order to buy, I must give up all that I possess. Including my life. Nothing less.

This payment not to buy, but rather be given. The reward is priceless - sacred by blood.

For me this treasure is free, but I cannot with hands that are full of pleasure

And a heart that is full of pride, find room for a vision that could overflow my life.

So giving up, emptying out, losing what most desire to gain, I complete the suffering, know joy.

I buy with a great cost what is already mine to possess: Salvation through Jesus Christ. 
Everlasting Rest.

If there was no heaven, would you still follow Jesus?

From the beginning of time, people have been waiting for evil to be crushed and the world to finally work in the way we all know it’s supposed to. For many, heaven is the final realization of this desire. Somewhere along the way, the Christian movement saw its message evolve into the bite-sized message “believe in Jesus so you can go to heaven some day.” In this transition, the good news that Jesus preached lost its distinction and became nothing more than another religion offering its adherents the chance to go to “the good place” if they will only behave, worship, or believe in a certain way.

Although we say, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion,” how many of us actually know that to be true in the way that we live? If there was no heaven, if there was only this life, how may of us would still want a relationship with God? Does our relationship go beyond that of cause and effect (e.g. I ask Jesus into my heart, He gives me what I want [heaven, happiness, etc…])? How many of us would be fine with going to the heaven we hear about in Church even if God wasn’t there?

Perhaps part of the reason Christians today find their message lacking appeal is the gap of time between acceptance of the gospel and the final reward of heaven. Apart from fear, any intelligent person would wait until his very last minute to “trust in Jesus” because it involves the greatest amount of reward for the least amount of input.

As with any scenario, the solution is more difficult to describe than the problem.  However, I believe it requires a shift in the focus of Christianity from “believing” to “walking.” In the garden, one aspect of life differed consistently from the modern lifestyle: when man and woman had slept, worked and eaten, they spent time walking in the garden talking with God. This is the one aspect of their life that is completely obliterated by the fall into sin. When God came to talk with His friends, they were scared of Him and tried to hide. Though God in His perfect nature should have destroyed that which was now contrary to His image, He immediately began to offer promises of reassurance that He still wanted a relationship. The Biblical narrative continues from this point to show God constantly seeking a restoration of this relationship while maintaining the holiness of His character. Jesus death was required in order for God to justify His actions and stay true to His purity. At great personal cost, the Trinity made it possible for mankind to walk with God like in the first days of innocence.

This is both the blessing and the promise into which every person is called. Heaven is not the promise but a fuller realization of that promise. Walking with God is that missing piece of life that everything in a person longs to find. It is that hole in our hearts that simply ‘believing in Jesus’ is never going to fill.

If not for the joy of this ongoing relationship, what reason is there for a person to be a Christian? If we do not enjoy spending time with God right now, what makes us think we would like it any better in the place we know of as heaven?