Charlene Gray, who is half of the duo that spearheaded the home church, is addicted to an app called Marco Polo. It's an app where you record a video message that is sent similarly to a text message. I heard it described as a mixture between text messaging and FaceTime. More mornings than not, we pass messages back and forth on church, community events, life, work, and all sorts of other casual conversation. Occasionally I am blessed with a guest appearance of Ryan Gray and his spectacular beard.
Today while using Marco Polo, Charlene told me about her Bible study last night which involved some discussion on the role of sacrifice in the service to God and others. She was explaining to me how the group dove into the subject of what it means to be willing to sacrifice the comforts of life in exchange for faithful obedience to the work God has called us to do. They described how that sacrifice may seem to lead to a place of exhaustion, but can actually lead us to rely even more heavily on God's participation in our lives.
This is an extremely valuable point. Making decisions, taking action, loving proactively, and sacrificing comfort or convenience are a part of the whole "following Christ" thing. The reality is that there is a strong drive towards "recreational Christianity" in our world today. Instead of approaching Christianity as something which moves us to think and act differently, it is something that we engage with so long as it fits within our desired lifestyle, schedule, or perceived physical limitations.
Think of what it means for something to be recreational.
...Recreation is something we do when it's convenient.
...Recreation is something we keep up with until it starts competing with higher life priorities.
...Recreation is something we may invest time, money, and energy in, but only what we have to spare after things which we "take seriously".
...Recreation is something which is negotiable when pitted against all of the other commitments or desires of life.
Sadly, many "good Christians" have fallen into the trap of becoming a recreational Christian. They tout verses from Psalms and Proverbs about resting and being peaceful while completely ignoring the examples set by all of our favorite Bible characters of faith that is anything but casual... it is aggressively active.
Adam was tasked with actively caring for God's creation and was later tasked with actively working the land.
Noah actively built the Ark as a display of his faithfulness to God's warning.
Abraham actively climbed the mountain, willing to sacrifice even his family in the name of God's bigger plan.
Moses actively led God's people out of Egypt to the Promised Land
David actively fought Goliath and led his kingdom.
Nehemiah actively traveled eastward with a fixed purpose of rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem.
Mary actively raised and nurtured the Christ child, even following him throughout his life until the cross.
Peter actively followed Christ, foregoing a quiet and peaceful life for one fraught with judgment and rejection.
Paul actively pursued his spiritual growth and later actively traveled throughout the Gentile world to spread the good news.
What you won't find in the Bible are many examples of individuals God celebrated for sitting back, staring at the clouds, and saying pretty things about God to "feel holy".
What we can see across these, and many more, Biblical heroes are lives lived with an active heart towards their relationship with God. They didn't sit back and dedicate themselves to God in only the time and energy they had to spare. They didn't limit God to work with only their excess while withholding their best resources for themselves. They were not merely recreational... they were on a mission. And on that mission, God strengthened them and gave them what they thought they didn't have. God equipped them with the words, spirit, and physical needs they required.
You could argue that God deliberately uses us in this way because it forces us to lean on something bigger than ourselves. If we could do it on our own time, with our own energy, and with our own resources, there wouldn't be a lot of room for faith to play a role, would there? God calls us to live lives actively dedicated towards His calling because to achieve His objectives we are forced to rely on something beyond ourselves.
So ask yourself this: are you living a life actively pursuing God's good, God's work, and God's calling, or are you recreationally following God? Are you living a life which is enabled by God's ability to provide or limited by concerns over your personal limitations? If we believe God is the guy we say he is, we have to believe he can provide what we need to be active participants in his kingdom's work. Strive to be an active Christian and when you feel weak, tired, exhausted, or empty, lean on God and the ones God has placed in your lives... see if He doesn't restore you to a better place than you were before!
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