All In
Mar 29
We are all into so many different things: sports, music, hobbies, money, career, family, video games, TV shows, education, politics, gadgets, celebrities, food–you name it! I’ve been wondering today why so few of us “church people” are all into Jesus. It seems to me that by definition, faith in a god is an all-or-nothing thing. Out of all the things one should be “all in” to, if there is a god, shouldn’t we be “all in” to Him? There is nothing greater outside of God himself to be seriously involved with.
Yet so many of us who profess faith in Jesus seem to think it perfectly acceptable to be uninvolved. All our other obligations or facets of life take priority over Him. And we see nothing wrong with that.
To me, it makes no sense. It’s like going up to someone and saying, “Hey, just received word your house is on fire.” And then they reply, “Wow, that’s nuts. Let me finish taking care of this project at work, pick up the dry cleaning, sneak in a weekend away, and hopefully, if I have enough time, I’ll get around to seeing what I can do for that situation.” If that really was someone’s response, I’d come to one of two conclusions: the guy really doesn’t believe me, or his house really isn’t that important to him.
I am forced to conclude that this how it is with so many “people of faith”: either we really don’t believe in Jesus, or He is not that important to us. And how much difference really is there between those two possibilities?
Can we really say that we believe that Jesus really is who the Bible says He is? How can this at all be acceptable?
I am challenged today, and hope to challenge you today, to become “all in” with God.
I have a few questions trying to wrap my mind around what you’re saying here.
“Yet so many of us who profess faith in Jesus seem to think it perfectly acceptable to be uninvolved. All our other obligations or facets of life take priority over Him. And we see nothing wrong with that.”
What exactly do you mean by “uninvolved?”
Also, when you refer to “our other obligations,” how do you really know those obligations aren’t themselves at least part of the “work” that God has called us to do? I think of things like raising my children, educating them (which often does involve driving them to various places where they are involved academically or athletically). How would someone like you know from the outside whether or not someone is treating their “obligations” as their ministry–doing them with great love for Jesus and those they are serving–as opposed to simply letting them take precedence over their relationship with Jesus? I have a hard time figuring that out about me sometimes, so would feel very unqualified to make that determination for someone else.
Uninvolved = any combination of neglecting the Great Commission, ignorance of what the Christian faith is all about, apathy for spiritual growth, a view of church as merely a place to attend, lack of alone time with God, lack of love for fellow man, being consumed with one’s life, etc.
Those things that you mention (work, family, etc.)–if that is all that it means to follow God’s call, then almost everyone in the world is following God’s call, Christian or not. Jesus said that when He comes back people will be consumed with such things, and then they will perish without warning, just like in the days of Noah. While it is definitely important to fulfill our earthly obligations (of course it is good to take care of a project at work, pick up the dry cleaning, take a weekend away, those things mentioned in my post), our life ought to serve a higher, more urgent purpose if the rest of the world is perishing for all eternity, and this should be evident in our lives, even in the way we fulfill our earthly obligations.
If it is not evident, there is a problem. We are apparently more interested in temporal life than eternal life, and then it isn’t helpful to argue that those obligations common to all human existence can be equated with the calling for the Christian.
I think I see what you’re saying–at least partially. Even if the external way we are meant to serve God at any given time consists in faithfully meeting our ordinary obligations, we are to have our heart set on God and the things He cares about. At the very least everyone should be praying very regularly and engaged in studying matters of the faith–such as spiritual reading–so as to grow spiritually. We all ought to be at least asking Jesus how He would have us preach the Gospel today.
I think the difference lies in our attitude towards the ordinary aspects of life. Do we do all those things as unto the Lord? When we are in the grocery store check out line, we could be praying for the person in front of us or the cashier. If we are stuck behind a slow car while driving, we could be praying for the driver. We should be open to opportunities to engage people around us and possibly minister to them in some way.
The issue is in the “evident” part. To someone observing, it doesn’t necessarily look different if I’m praying for the person in front of me in the grocery store line and the Christian in the next line is not even thinking about God at the time and truly consumed with the temporal things. So many things like prayer and spiritual growth do happen privately–Jesus even tells us to pray quietly in our room as opposed to in front of people.
Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say “this should be evident in our lives, even in the way we fulfill our earthly obligations?” What sort of visible differences are you looking for in the way an “involved” person fulfills their daily obligations vs. how an “uninvolved” person fulfills their daily obligations?
By evident, I don’t mean it should be necessarily evident in any specific event in our life (yesterday when I was in the checkout line), but evident in our lives in general.
It is not hard to know if someone is “all into” football. In the same way, there should be no question if we are all into Jesus.
I don’t know… I’ve been very much into Jesus since I was 8 years old, and all through my life I have met Christians who questioned that for one reason or another, meaning it obviously wasn’t evident to them. On the flip side, I often have been surprised by the depth of faith someone I knew had that I never saw before until I had a conversation about it with them. I of course want Jesus to shine through me and everyday I pray that He does, but many people who were very much into God and His Word at the time did not recognize Him for who He was, did not recognize God in Him, thought He was doing all sorts of things wrong. I think there very well could be a lot of very holy, but hidden, souls in our midst and it may take us awhile to even notice the evidence.
I agree we can be surprised by the depth of faith in a person when we get to know them. I see that as a different issue than the one I’m presenting.
I disagree that the people who rejected Jesus were into God or His word. They were into themselves, and used religion to justify themselves, which is why they rejected Him.
Their problems are not unique to them, and we all must come to realize ourselves in the same light before we are open to receiving Christ. But once we do, God changes us and we do become salt and light to the world. If that is not the testimony of our lives, there is a problem.
Jesus says that it’s important that we don’t become tasteless salt, and that we shine on a hill instead of under a basket. In other words, our lives should indeed reflect that we are into Jesus. If they don’t, there is a problem.
I am arguing that a vast number of people who claim to be Christian (including myself) are not “all in,” and that we can all grow a great bit in that respect. Your experience of followers of Jesus and of your own life may be different than mine–and I respect that!
I agree about the people who rejected Jesus. The religious leaders certainly *thought* they were into God and His word, but they were very proud and that blinded them to Jesus and His truth.
I respect the challenge. I have certainly seen my fair share of Christians where it was not clear to me how God was changing their lives and shining through them, and some people seem to grow very slowly. I’ve been in that boat at times too. I’m not so much in that boat now and your allowing God to shine through you has played a significant part (so keep up the good work!).
I struggle with how you define “all in” and how you would tell for sure if someone is “all in” or isn’t when so much of their life only God knows, but you’re probably not talking about that–just making a general observation.
In any case, there are some fantastic and faithful people who attend your church and whose hearts are truly set on God, and that’s definitely something to celebrate.
Yes, I am excited to see God working in and through many people’s lives in our church!