Paul similarly displays this attitude in his letter to the Philippians; describing how he is willing to give up all that seems good in the world so that the gospel can be proclaimed. He takes Jesus call to deny himself very seriously and says he counts all the seemingly great things he has as "rubbish."
In my own life I have found myself too busy to really get serious about proclaiming the gospel to the world and personally investing more time in discipling those who are young in the faith. My personal prayer and study time has been diminishing as I find too many excuses to ignore such vital components of the Christian life. This summer, I thought, would be a season of great growth for me and the ministries I am involved in. But I have found myself along for the ride as every single weekend is planned out for me doing something different and I am sacrificing my prayer time, Bible study, personal reading, and ministry opportunities.
The difficult thing is that the things that are taking up my time aren’t necessarily sinful. Going to cousins weddings, visiting aunts and uncles, family reunions, playing baseball with unsaved neighbors and attending graduations aren’t bad things and are actually good things because I get opportunities to discuss the gospel with many different people. But it comes at a cost of my first ministries; my own sanctification, my wife (and soon my first child), and serving in my own church.
During the week it is so easy to go through the routine of life that I forget that I am a pilgrim simply passing through this world. I think that too often we justify our worldly behavior by pointing out that it isn’t specifically defined as a sin. However, anything that takes time away from what we have been called to do is also a sin and that is where I find myself battling right now. We are called to deny our personal desires and to gain holy desires to serve the King who is coming soon to take us home.
Imagine how much time we would have to read our Bibles if we got rid of our televisions. I know, I know. Watching TV isn’t in itself a sin. But it is so easy to be distracted by it. It consumes an hour of your life before you realize what happened. How much more time would we have to serve in a church ministry if we spent less time surfing the internet for no reason or being entertained by some game.Often times in our efforts to be relevant to the world by “becoming all things to all men” we lose focus on the fact that we are not of this world. Even though we live in America, our citizenship is of another world. We work daily at our jobs and live in an entertainment culture and it is too easy to end up going through life like people who are of this world.
I pray that we can all be reminded more often that Christians are not of this world. We are called to deny ourselves and take up the cross daily. Being a Christian isn’t about doing the same things as everyone else while wearing a name tag that says “Christian.” It isn’t an easy life that involves being everyone’s friend so they might like Jesus too. It often involves losing friends, sacrificing some of our favorite things, and delaying gratification until Christ returns. We are foreigners to this land. People should recognize us as foreigners by how we talk, what we are entertained by, what consumes our free time. I pray that I can become a much better example of the pilgrim life.
"If it doesn't matter the day you die, it doesn't matter." -Mark Cahill
No comments:
Post a Comment