I love the big, grand, sweeping stories. The moments that take your breath away. I love big radical movements, ones where the speaker calls you to the front to give something away, something big. Ones that are inspiring, that change the course of your life in a single moment. I cry reading books like Through Gates of Splendor or Safely Home where the people in the story make a sacrifice so great, it takes your breath away.
I also cry my eyes out over less sacrificial, but still moving moments. In an episode of the show, Little House on the Prairie, Pa gets hurt and can’t work. If the Ingalls family can’t harvest their crops, then they will have no food, and they will die of starvation that winter. And then, just when you think all is lost, the whole town marches across the horizon to help him harvest his crop and Pa {Michael Landon} bursts into tears {which, by the way, he does in pretty much every episode}. And I am right there with him, bawling my eyes out.
We all love story. We love feeling something deep in our soul that inspires us and incites change. I don’t think I am much different. And, by and large, it is so good. I see people rising up, being inspired to change, and not settle for status quo. Again, so, so good. My only thought is that there are times where we as Christians get the cart before the horse, a sort of Mary versus Martha scenario.
I am wondering if we are so caught up in the surrender, the “doing big things for God” and being radical, that we are forgetting to spend time with Him? Am I? Michael Horton in his book, Christless Christianity says this, “We can lose Christ by distraction as easily as by denial. ‘Christless Christianity’ can happen through addition as well as subtraction.”
And, if we are forgetting to know and love God first, what does all the “good works” really mean? Aren’t we just a bunch of good people, “doing” social justice, and forgetting the thing that is most important of all? Are we seeking Him? According to the Westminster Catechism in answer to the question,What is the chief end of man? the answer is, To glorify God and enjoy Him forever, or as John Piper puts it, “To glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”
I am convicted more and more that the most radical thing that you and I can do is to spend time with Him, at His feet, in His Word, in prayer, and in worship. These things are unseen but have a huge ripple effect into the rest of life.
I want to remember this: “I am not primarily a worker for God; I am first and foremost a lover of God. This is who I am.” -Linda Dillow, Satisfy My Thirsty Soul
And, all those little, quiet moments spent on our knees turn into one big, sweeping life that is radical.
“More than that, I count all things to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him…..” Philippians 3:8
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