Continuing the Journey

Last week I started reading Radical by David Platt. The first chapter really spoke deeply to me, not because it was filled with new ideas, but because the challenge presented was to live, really live, the way we were intended to live.
Next month I will be 49 years old - quickly approaching the half century mark! Sadly, I think I am only now beginning to understand what it really means to live as I was intended, by my creator, to live. I, like the majority of other North American Christians, bought into the materialism of my culture and thought I could have it all - suff and Jesus. I am learning that the more I let go of my "stuff" the more fully I am able to really love the Lord and His people.
It's funny, really. I have read the scripture many times where Jesus says to the rich man that if he wants to be a disciple he must go and sell all that he has and give it to the poor and then he can come back and follow Jesus. In light of the book Radical and what we are reading there, Rocky and I were talking about this passage yesterday. How would the average Canadian Christian respond if they were faced with this decision? How would I respond? Sell everything and follow Christ or hang on to your stuff. It should be an easy question, right? Sell it all and follow the Lord...but the reality is, it is not that simple. That day, when the rich man met Jesus on the road, he walked away sad because he was not prepared to give it all up in order to follow the Lord.
I have begun a journey of discovery - a journey of challenging myself to answer this very question. Would I give up everything to follow Christ?
David Platt's premise is that we were all created to make much of the glory of God to the nations. He reminds the reader that God has a global purpose - from the beginning to today, and that this purpose is not for a chosen few, but for us all.
So many of the things that I am reading make me stop and think, really think, and draw me to the Word. I love it!
For example, he asks, "How would you summarize the message of Christianity?" The average response is something like, "God loves me enough to send His Son, Jesus, to die for me." This is, although, incomplete, and creates in us an egotistic response - Christianity is about me! A more accurate and biblical summary is, "God loves me so that I might make Him - His ways, His salvation, His glory, and His greatness - known among all nations." He didn't save me for me - He saved me for Him. This places the focus back where it should be...on Him, not us.
Isn't that one of the challenges facing us today? Take ourselves off the throne and put God back where He rightly belongs.
This book reminds me of a session I participated in with Tony Campolo, "Red Letter Christians." Some Bibles have the words which Jesus spoke in red, to indicate these where His words. Campolo spoke that day of a group of young Bible school students who decided to live out the red letters of the Gospels literally, and how that radically changed their lives. In fact, their parents were not so happy about it, because they stopped living in a culturally acceptable fashion and lived without concern for themselves. Pretty radical!
My Bible doesn't have Jesus' words in red letters, but I just recently re-read the Gospels and I have to say, the challenge to change the way I live is pretty clear. I hope I am not too old to learn a new way of thinking and living. I am appreciating the challenges David Platt presents in Radical and I would encourage you to pick up a copy if you haven't already read it.
I want my life to line up scripture. I want my life to make a difference for the Kingdom...in my family... in my community... in my world. It is not one over the other, but it is all at the same time. I want my life to make much of the glory of God.
Thank you, Lord, for teaching me, for being patient with me! I want to learn.
Blessings,
Karren