Dangerous Faith

It’s time to get dirty.

Roll up your sleeves, pick up a shovel, and dig in. If you claim to be a follower of Christ, you better be living out your faith – on a daily basis. So many proclaimed “Christians” live out their entire lives without significantly impacting the lives of those around them. We were not called to live comfortably or casually. We are all called to very specific purposes, ones in which we are to fall in love with our Savior, ultimately compelling us to share the Love that He has so graciously given us to those around us. But how many of us actually do that?

Don’t you realize what He has done for us? Don’t you claim to follow Jesus? He died for us. He gave up His very life to save our broken souls from what we deserved – an eternity separated from any semblance of hope. If you have grown up in America, you know full well the promises that this country so proudly offers – “The American Dream”. If you work hard, you will ultimately become wealthy and/or successful, obtaining the dream of a pleasant house with a white picket fence, a dog, and 2.5 children. But is this really worth living for? And did Jesus ever mention anything about our lives being easy?

Jesus – the one we claim to follow. Did He ever say anything about living a comfortable life in suburbia? Jesus literally asked us to give up our livelihoods, drop everything, and follow Him. Imagine if this happened to you: a random, somewhat questionable looking man walks up to you and tells you this: “Stop what you’re doing. Quit your job, leave your family, risk homelessness, pick up your electric chair and follow me.” Come again?

 

Being a follower does not allow for an easy life. It requires us to abandon everything – your needs, your desires, even your family. In Matthew 4, Mark 10, and Luke 9, Jesus asks for everything from potential followers. He asks Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John all to simply drop their fishing nets and follow Him. And they did it. There must have been something that they noticed about Jesus that would have spurred them to simply walk away from their only source of income, their homes and friends, and follow someone that they have never met before. In Mark 10, a rich young man wants to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but Jesus asks him to sell everything he has and give it to the poor. In Luke 9, Jesus tells us that we have to pick up an instrument of torture and die to ourselves in order to follow Him.

Somewhere in there I think we missed the part where Jesus talks about followers having a well-paying desk job, a Beemer, and a five-bedroom house in the suburbs. Doesn’t Jesus want us to live a comfortable life; one in which we are able to pursue our own desires and live happily ever after? Doesn’t He just want us to be happy?

Let me clarify this to you. If you want to take Jesus up on His promise of salvation, you better brace yourself for what is to come. You are not going to have an easy life. In fact, it will be far from it. It will be uncomfortable, frightening, and risky. You may lose your job, become homeless, or even be killed. Such is the cost of being a disciple of Jesus.

“[The disciples] were leaving certainty for uncertainty, safety for danger, self-preservation for self-denunciation. In a world that prizes promoting oneself, they were following a teacher who told them to crucify themselves. And history tells us the result. Almost all of them would lose their lives because they responded to this invitation.” –Radical by David Platt

Not what you signed up for?

So you rationalize it away. Jesus didn’t really call us to risk everything. Sure, some people are called by God to go to foreign lands and give up their lives for the Kingdom, but there is nothing wrong with enjoying a modest life; one in which we have a nice car (or three or four) and a comfortable job.

“A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.” –Radical

But don’t you see what we are doing at this point? We are changing our perspective of who Jesus really is. We are making him safe. We are allowing Christianity to be comfortable. We are making Jesus look a lot more like us and much less like the true radical that He really is. But there is a very real danger here. When we create a friendly, American Jesus, we are no longer worshiping the Creator of the universe – we are worshipping ourselves.

But is He really worth it?

When I look back on the experiences that I’ve had during the course of my life, I see a very clear theme throughout. When I chase after my own desires – when I choose the temporary and quickly (but momentarily) satisfying things of this world – I lose hope. Moments away from Him are dark and painful – I simply exist without purpose. But when I am giving myself up for His sake, my life is so much more meaningful. I’m pursuing purpose and growing closer to my Father, and I cannot imagine a better life. God loves to do absolutely insane things in my life, using these unqualified hands and this decaying body. The desires of this world are so incredibly futile compared to the Love of my Father. No, it’s not easy. I can’t say that it ever truly has been, but the struggles that He and I have worked through have allowed me to mature in my faith and grow even closer to the One who created me. I know that every year of my life will be better than the year prior, and I owe it all to Him.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.”

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their crosses daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” –Luke 9:23-24

“Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” –Luke 9:58