What can you expect? Straight talk, laughable humor, real truth, simple living, and passionate yearning...
all regarding the God that still involves Himself in the details of the lives of His people
A calling to write what He leads, no matter how uncomfortable...
Because simple daily Christian living is never what we thought it would be
So, I know I don’t paint a very pretty picture to convince you to join the club. That’s okay…not my job today. I believe you, dear reader, are already a member. And you know, at least in part, just like I know… that a commitment to Christ offers joy beyond comprehension, pleasure beyond description, and fulfillment beyond the world’s ability to label. So you are here to see why I am blue and to somehow find a way to grasp the fact that Christ Himself said you would be hated and rejected, but that you must endure to the end.
Blue and Off-Skew
Have you ever been completely blue? The kind of feeling that makes you stop and wonder if that childhood injury to your head shook something permanently loose. Or, that last pregnancy somehow opened a hormonal can of worms that will just never be the same again. Or possibly, the incident you barely recovered from emotionally last year will really never heal. You know…that sort of blue. When you wake up and everything on your check list is almost in order, your husband is fine, your children are fine, the sun is shining…but you feel sad. You feel like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh…when everything you touch…everything you look at, wilts and then turns gray. And, that annoying rain cloud won’t quit following you around. That’s the kind of blue I am today.
So I did what I knew to do. I grabbed my Bible like a high school quarterback on the last play of his homecoming game and I ran to the table. With eyes closed and heart open, I quickly said a little prayer asking God to do what He knew I needed done. Actually it was more like “Lord you and I both know I need some positive scripture today…some promises…some uplifting shot of scriptural prednisone, so come on with it,” And I released my grip and let the Bible fall…opening wide to its wisdom.
As I began reading, I felt a scow form across my face. And then without even pondering any further, I said out loud, “Lord, you have got to be kidding.” And then I turned the page. Something in the back of head told me that there must have been a breeze pass by when I was letting the Lord choose the pages, so I helped Him out.
I began reading again and the emotions welled up in my throat passing by my nose and seeping out my eyes. Each passage I read was a vivid reminder to me that the Christian walk is not a garden of roses. It is a garden of Gethsemane. Christ came and lived among us so that we would see for ourselves the harshness of the task at hand. Our choice to follow Him is the choice for the most wonderfully peaceful and prosperous life available. It is also the choice to bear the same struggles He contended with while He was here…doing the same job that He left for us to do.
“Feed my sheep”, He said. “If you love me”, then love the things I love, and take care of the things that are most precious to me. “Feed my sheep”. And somehow we distort things in our minds (probably from those beautiful pictures they showed us in Sunday school each week of Christ in His clean clothes and perfectly styled hair sitting effortlessly in front of five sheep who were absolutely satisfied to be there. They loved the grass…it was just their favorite flavor, they loved the temperature…it was exactly warm enough without too much wind, and they loved the ambiance…those angels we saw in the corner of the picture were probably singing their favorite new release.) Funny though, those pictures have nothing to do with the scriptures I read today. And even though I know and love the 23rd Psalm, pleasant pictures from childhood or not, we as adult Christians should not be expectant of a life that Christ just never described.
“Behold, I send you out in the midst of wolves;
there be shred as serpents and innocent as doves.
But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the courts,
and scourge you in their synagogues.
And you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake,
as a testimony to them and to the gentiles.
But when they deliver you up,
do not be anxious about how or what you will speak;
for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak.
For it is not you who speak,
but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
And brother will deliver brother to death,
and a father his child;
and children will rise up against parents,
and cause them to be put to death.
And you will be hated by all on account of My name,
but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
Matthew 10: 16-22 NAS
Oh my, oh my…now that is a promise. And definitely not the kind of promise I was asking for. It is this kind of insight that seems to blur right by you when you are still in your Christian youth. Even in mid-life Christianity we speed read by these things knowing that the loving God we serve surely was quoted a little too aggressively. But then, in the aging years of our spirituality (some when they are but a physical child and some like me who are finally approaching it after forty some years with Christ) come to the absolute clarity that the duties and walk of a spirit filled Christian will… most certainly will… lead them to earthly trouble, surround them with wolves, and we…will…bleed…and…agonize.
So, I know I don’t paint a very pretty picture to convince you to join the club. That’s okay…not my job today. I believe you, dear reader, are already a member. And you know, at least in part, just like I know… that a commitment to Christ offers joy beyond comprehension, pleasure beyond description, and fulfillment beyond the world’s ability to label. So you are here to see why I am blue and to somehow find a way to grasp the fact that Christ Himself said you would be hated and rejected, but that you must endure to the end.
My Lord was serious this morning when He opened the pages of His Word to me. There was no breeze. He wanted me to read the scripture on that page and the next. So why am I blue today? Because… I have set myself up for that indigo feeling. Either the world, or my own desires, or the remembrances of childhood fantasies have set goals and standards for me that do not belong in a spiritual battle…did not come from the mouth of my Lord.
What are your expectations of your life today? Do they have a hint of Cinderella’s ball, or have they been influenced by the great marketing strategists of our age? Have you ever been satisfied with you, your house, your marriage, your job, your bank account, your friends, or your church? Do you look at those things with the perspective of a spiritual warrior?
My Lord reminded me today that a commitment to Him is a life absolutely worth it. It offers everything that the world cannot. But, because evil is the enemy of Christ…and we choose to be called by His name…then evil is also our enemy…by choice. And nothing makes an enemy “madder”.
I woke up this morning feeling a little blue. But once the Lord reminded me of just how absolutely terrible He told us a Christian’s life would be…with that enemy of His…I got my perspective all straightened out…and now I feel great.
Are you blue? Is your perspective a little off skew?
In obedience
Rhonda D Loucks