Hardly Easy.

The Lesson

I woke up Tuesday morning at 5:30AM. 

An early start, to be sure. I had for a purpose and mission, which I chose to accept, to babysit (in my eyes) the most adorable baby chub monkey in the world. 

I find that when I'm up extremely early in the morning, while not completely functional, I think a lot. I think deeply. Early mornings are the times when I think with a deep consideration. My thoughts click on a much more serious level, and the weight of their considerations really hits home. 

Christianity is most certainly not for the faint of heart.

Christianity is not easy in any sense. It is the most difficult thing in the world to be a Christian. And I am not talking simply about persecution or trials, or the matter of trusting an invisible God. 

Sacrifice is painful. Surrender is hard. 

I considered the people I cared about who aren't Christians, or even the prospect of what it would be like to date a non-Christian. As much as you love and cherish these people in your life and want God for them, you have to step back, and realize just how much of a miracle your life as Christian is in the first place. The reason you came to faith, was by grace alone. As far as I can understand, the prospect of giving up everything in your life, sacrificing your whole entire life to God, is not something natural. 

The act of giving up all rights to yourself, and to your natural desires is wild and daunting. And yet that is what God wants from every human being. He wants relationship (Christ is our example of the perfect relationship), and from that flourishes, obedience. Obedience born out of love, willing and unyielding. 

Oswald Chamber explains it well:

"In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him—”. . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . .” (Ephesians 4:13), not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord."

God does not have in mind for us the goal to self-serve, let alone serve to in order to win the lost. Our goal is in obedience to Him. A Christian's goal is to become like Christ - one whose Spiritual life (the life of Christ) has overcome the natural life, which results in absolute obedience to the Father. This is a feat, not natural to man, and absolutely unfathomable to the non-believer. It is a transformation not possible by human means or efforts. 

So what does God want from us? 

God's desire is that every human being enter into relationship with Him, one that resembles that between Christ Jesus and Himself. 

Obedience is costly. People generally do not like sacrificing their earthly wants and desires, for we use these things to lead our lives and dictate our choices. Christianity demands sacrifice, it is a 'religion' that cries out for the practice of sacrifice. Because, in order to enter into our intended supernatural purpose, we must surrender the natural. 

"23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) 

This here is the image of the life of a Christian on the earth. This is the picture of obedience, love and devotion. We come to this point because of the grace of God. We cannot realize the end of ourselves on our own, we cannot simply "give up" our sinful nature. At the end of the day, we need grace - the unmerited intervention of the power of God in our lives.

And by grace, we enter into the most fulfilling relationship we were made for, and we will be utterly satisfied in Christ. 

The Connecting Point

This thing happens where God gives me a lot of answers and leaves me to decode the puzzle. I am given a lot of knowledge, but the true application and deciphering of how it applies in my life is usually lost. I spew out the wisdom, but cannot really understand how I need to use it. To anyone else it seems clear, but to me, I have trouble seeing the point.

Through the grace of God, I get the point of this tidbit though. I need to start treating my relationship with God as an actual relationship with someone I truly love and cherish. I can't put it in its own category. I can't segregate it and say it's "that special relationship" over there, and here are all my other relationships over here. It is a relationship, pure and simple, no different than any other I have, except for the fact that it is the most important one. 

I'm in this relationship not because I have to. No one maintains communication with a friend simply out of habit. We share similar interests, and values for one, and there is much more that draws me to them. Take an interest in your Lord. Sure, this is prodded by the Spirit in you, but you also have to feed that desire, and help it to blossom. 

Find every excuse to cherish God and to enjoy Him.