Sometimes I wonder about the perception that life in the U.S. is easy and comfortable. Blessed, is what they say. I wonder when I hear people say Christianity is easy over here, relatively, and that if we really were serious about our faith, there'd be some suffering for Christ. We would subject ourselves to what hardcore believer who are really sold out, subject themselves to. None of this living in wealth and prosperity, none of this Starbucks filled leisurely time where the standard of living is miles above anywhere else.
"I mean, it's cool I guess that you want to stay in the U.S., it's not everyone's calling to go out to reach the lost, America needs solid Christians too", we say.
But we don't mean it. Behind our words is this heart position that says "No, if you really cared about God's heart, you'd go to the fly-filled gutters of China, to the barren, AIDS ridden deserts of Sudan, to the savage tribes in South America. If you really cared, you'd put yourself in danger's path. If you really cared, you'd suffer".
But the very fact that we connect things like extra money in our pockets and air conditioning with wealth and prosperity, speaks a very dangerous truth about us. The fact that we look at life and assume that the availability of food and free speech and fun equals blessing, and suffering largely comes from physical need tells me we have no clue what we're talking about.
What does life consist of? What makes life rich? What makes it empty? What losses are the ones that mean something, and what gains are empty ones?
We are confused, from the pulpit to the congregation, and it is a deception far worse that we won't address, because we're too steeped in condemning the circumstances we were born into than praying that God gives us eyes to see.
Eyes to see. I wonder sometimes and ask rhetorical questions I've known the answer to for a long time. Do I even have true perspective? I claim God's name but I don't claim His eyes, nor His truth, choosing instead to compare and evaluate and judge based on shifting standards. True perspective: to see myself, and the world, through the eyes of Jesus. To live that truth is a step I am still unable to take.
And if you think that every morning you wake up, you aren't waking up into a war zone, full of spiritual forces and dangerously high stakes, then you are deceived. And if you really believe that your walk with Jesus is easy, that pursuit of holiness and the face of God have become comfortable for you, then maybe you've ceased walking and pursuing at all. And if you believe lies about who you are and Whose you are, then perhaps what is truth to you is really a lie you just won't let out of your grasp.
Jesus said it. What good is salt that has lost its flavor? Or perhaps the modern interpretation: what good is it to stay an orphan of God? To accept the words but not live them? To hear the truth but never let it apply to yourself.
You know what the most dangerous lie is?
The one you think is the truth
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