Spiritual Adventure

2005-04-21

Everyone has a spiritual journey. I want an adventure. It is an unfortunate thing to live every day with the mere goal to exist. Surely, since God made us for a purpose, the joy of living life ought to radiate from us and be contagious. The status quo strangles this joy; satisfaction with where and who we are plants the seeds of complacency. Time to reflect and evaluate who we are in light of who God is should be a daily experience. A period of quietness to examine what we are doing in light of what God is doing around the world, even around us, we should have concluded, is indispensable to a walk with the Lord Jesus. Caught up in living daily to the world’s standards has led my focus away from God so that I rarely do those minimal self-examinations. But today is one of those days that I am taking the time to do such a reflection. I see myself in the future walking closer and closer with God; growing, learning from mistakes, from pain, from experience. I desire to be that bold Christian that seeks God and not refuge in the status quo. When Peter and John preached in the Temple in those earliest days, they rejoiced even while being persecuted. What chasm separates me from them? This is perhaps the first question.

First, they lived for God - their purpose in life was to do what He commissioned them to do. They had no ambition in life other than this. It was an act of sacrifice and surrender. They did not seek worldly gain or riches, nor did they seek to be comfortable. Peter and John took hold of opportunity and preached in the Temple, and did not hide in fear. If fear or potential fear came their way, they prayed for boldness, and the Lord granted it. They lived the spiritual adventure.

But these were rarely my goals, and rarely seem to be anybody’s goals, either for the Christian or the non-Christian. I live in a culture that is entertainment-, consumerism-, and commercialism-based. Everything is shallow, meaningless, and ephemeral, yet we buy into it daily--the lifestyle that says, “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” The sense of urgency of Christ’s return has fled. Nonetheless, Christ is still calling us to die daily, and pick up our crosses and follow Him. To trust in Him alone, to live for Him alone. Otherwise, the consequences are evil: if they trust in or live for something else, we commit idolatry. Worse yet, we remain stagnant Christians who will never grow in the Lord. And even worse the world remains unsalted and remains in darkness. And in the end the non-invested talent we will dig up, and give back to the Lord. This letter is call to myself, and rally for my own spirit. Who am I living for, and why?