Believing that results in following
In Mark 15, Jesus said – “…believe in the gospel.” and in 1:17 he said “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
I’ve believed a lot of things in my life that didn’t result in living much differently. Beethoven was a great composer, puppies are cute, and ice cream tastes good. But these and countless other beliefs don’t give me a reason to get up in the morning.
Other deeper beliefs have given me the motivation to complete a goal. Playing clarinet would be satisfying, serving and contributing to society has a positive impact on the world around me. These have had direct impact on the way I live and have given me reasons during this life to get out of bed each morning.
Other beliefs have changed my life for eternity; that God made me to love Him and to love people (Matthew 22:36-40); that believing in Him would result in following Him. I believe that he wants to use my relationship with Him and with people as salt and light in redeeming His kingdom for Himself.
My first two kinds of belief are destinational. If I believe ice cream tastes good, I try arrive at eating it. If contributing to society or to an organization is good, I try to arrive at making a measurable/identifiable contribution.
But if I believe God wants me to love Him and people, arrival is not part of the equation. This core belief asks me to live directionally, to always ask the question right now, “Am I walking with God or away from Him?” And there are no destinational markers that can tell me that, no matter what contribution I’ve made. “From faith, to faith…the righteous shall live by faith.” (Rom 1:17).
It’s easier to measure myself by destinations, contributions, and arrivals – “I am now a believer, a member, contributor, etc.” But He just wants to know if I love Him right now, if I’m not just believing, but following.
I am a believer in Christ, but there is something much more powerful, personal, and transformational about identifying myself as a follower of Christ. I’m trying to live directionally in a world that asks me to identify my worth by the destinations to which I have arrived. I think it’s part of the worthy struggle. I’d love your thoughts as well.
July 21st, 2006 at 5:56 am
Dear Chuck,
This is a beautiful entry. Thanks for your thoughts. Directional living and thinking feels much more real to me–a more concrete and honest description of life experience. It opens life and possibilities, which the Gospel is intended to do. The destinational slant, which seems to often prevail in the evangelical subculture, may be a big reason that so many unconvinced people feel the Gospel as an oppressive force that closes life. What do you think?
Peace,
Kyle
July 21st, 2006 at 10:28 am
Kyle,
Great observation – I’ve mostly looked at this from the viewpoint of freeing up the convinced to live relationally. But if the unconvinced observe that the narrative of my life is about arriving at destinations it will be an unattractive story for people looking for relationship instead of productivity. It can also be the oppressive force as you say, because they will observe through my life that getting to know Jesus comes with a list of other things that they’re not sure they want to sign on to yet.
Living directionally is also more immediately attainable – I can start walking toward/with Jesus right now, even if being fully transformed seems a long way off. What I’ve done and what I’m planning to do don’t figure in God’s economy. Only if I’m walking with Him today. I like it because it is so simple for me and full of victory today.
July 24th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
I love that you are both talking about real life! Thank you! We can dialog all day long about what we should do and what we could do. The idea that Paul said I do what I don’t want to do, but don’t do what I want to. The hard part is living it out. How can we be IN this world, but not OF this world. We as Christians tend to try and cut ourselves off from the world so that we can be “”Christ-Like”". This is about as far away from being “Christ-Like” as I can imagine. To be “Christ-Like”, we would be among “sinners” (we are all sinners, and “I am the chief of all sinners” Paul) and not just around our Christian friends. I want to live this out. I have to live this out. I need to take the first step. Shannon and I are going to be starting not only a dialog with artists, but a critique and eventually art production with other artists. These artists are going to be your first rate liars, stealers, fornicators, God haters and more. I am sure this will be difficult, but with God all things are possible to him who believes. I would request and covet your prayers as we follow God on this roller coaster. We do have a hang up of working for and achieving things, as we have been taught as Americans. I want to learn how to want what God wants for my life and for others.
July 24th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Great understanding of where we all stand in God’s eyes! Re: the “first rate liars, stealers, fornicators,” etc. I was told recently of a pastor who had gotten a reputation for helping out at an AIDs clinic, so unconvinced people struggling with same-sex attraction began coming to his services. Some members approached him and asked how the organization was going to handle this. He simply replied that he planned on asking the regular liars, fornicators, stealers, idolators and gluttons to just move over and make room for the new sinners.
Those relationships you’re getting involved with are so valuable to Jesus. We should all be praying for you as you seek to be a 100 watt light bulb in a dark garage. What a great place to be salt and light! Let’s keep chatting – I know there will be lots of people on this site who will want to be an encouragement and to be encouraged by what you’re doing.
“Act your way to a new way of thinking” (Alan Hirsch)
July 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Thanks Chuck! I appreciate the encouragement. We are having trouble with our church as we have been called by God to step down from a leadership position so we can obey in this arena, and their reaction to this puts a damper on my excitement. I like your pastor friends quote about moving over! Ha! Thanks again!
July 29th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Darin,
I appreciate the difficulty of stepping down from an organizational responsibility to have more time to be involved in the lives of your unconvinced friends. While some have been able to do both, others have to make the choice to focus largely on the organization or those far from religion (I had to). This is understandably difficult for some organizations to understand for a lot of reasons. Sometimes its because their default assumption is they exist to do just what you want to do – so why do you have to leave to do it? Other times it might be fear you will go off the deep end (a very real fear) if you immerse yourselves in the lives of people who don’t know Jesus. Other times it might be a feeling that your loyalties should be with the organization because to them it represents God’s “called” expression of what the Body of Christ should look like on earth – and you’re leaving that called vehicle. These are probably just a few of the reasons.
The key for me has been a sense of “going forth” – Gen. 12:1-4. If I feel compelled to go forth and fill a gap that is on my heart, that is usually a very healthy thing – I am going TO something, not AWAY from something. If I’m leaving something because I have negative emotions or experiences there, I’m not going TO, but AWAY. The successful movements throughout history always go forth, TO something they can’t stay away from. You wrote “I want to live this out. I have to live this out.” That to me seems to be a clear sense of going forth in the spirit of Acts 1:8. As the Aussies would say “Good on ya!”
Make sure as you go forth that you do what you can to ensure you’ve got people who know you and can continue to help you hold to the essentials of the faith – you’ll need that! Let’s keep in touch – really want to see what God will be doing with and in Shannon and you over the next year.
August 2nd, 2006 at 4:29 pm
These comments of yours are very right on, and appreciated. We are looking for Godly counsel to hold us accountable. We also will continue to be involved in accountability Bible studies, we just won’t be leading them at this point. Gen 12 and going forth, is what we feel God has called us to do. Your insights are very helpful. Thank you! We will stay in touch. Let me know if there is something that we can pray for you all.
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Dear Darin (and Chuck),
For us, after moving to Europe, we had to choose between staying publically connected to the institutional church and getting connected to “non-religious” (unconvinced) people. We couldn’t have it both ways. The traditional religious identity would have made it practically impossible to get close to the people that God brought across our path. We wanted to live alongside them rather than get marginalized by religious labels that failed to communicate who were really were (and who Jesus might be for them).
During my occasional trips back to the US, and also back to the evangelical subculture, I get the impression that a lot of folks think that the identity of Christianity is not as big as a problem for the advance of the Gospel in the US as it is in Europe… but I have to wonder. I suspect that the evangelical community may not have a very good grasp of just how bad Christendom’s identity problem is in the American cultural mainstream.
Thoughts anyone?
Peace,
Kyle
August 9th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
Hi Kyle,
I think you’re on the right track. Jesus had exact the same problem. How the heck did he stay connected to the religious people, while at the same time, drinking vino with the unwashed sinners?
Can’t help thinking, if it feels like you’re between a rock and hard place, you’re in the right spot.
August 20th, 2006 at 11:09 am
All,
I just read this thread. Thanks to all for your thoughts and insights.
I particularly like what Chuck says when he wrote, “I can start walking toward/with Jesus right now, even if being fully transformed seems a long way off. What I’ve done and what I’m planning to do don’t figure in God’s economy. Only if I’m walking with Him today.”
I think Paul said it well when he said, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Ph 3 v13,14
I look at my life as one great, sometimes painful, mountain climb. This verse has always been a mountain verse. It’s a “this is where I’m at, forget the falls and the backslides, look up, look to the peak, the goal, make the next step be higher, and press on” sort of real life thing. I can’t climb from where I’m not. To try to climb from anywhere but from where I am would be fruitless. Be real. And climb again.
It is very directional. It’s very hard to stay level on a mountain. One is usually going up or down. To reach the goal one must be going up. But it is also “now”. I’m not just living for the summit, I’m living for all the experiences and views of the journey. Each step brings a new experience. Each step up, higher, brings a greater view. There’s a joy in the climb, the journey, itself.
As Chuck said, it’s a walk, a climb, that is both with and towards Him at the same time. Experience Him. Enjoy Him. Climb towards Him.
Darin, Keep up the climb. Have, and will be, praying for the adventurous trail you and God are trekking up on.
Tom
August 30th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Thanks Tom. I appreciate your words of encouragement! darin