FAITHdare #6: Revisited

This post has been several days in the making, brewing from my heart. The challenge is to find the right words. There are always words--cute words, smart words, wrong words, mean words...those kind of words are easy to find. RIGHT words take more time and effort. So I pray that "the words of my mouth [or keyboard in this case] and the meditations of my heart would be pleasing to Him..." (from Psalm 19).

I have to be honest. When God begins to convict me of wrong living, my mind begins racing. I start to make lists, on paper and in my head, of everything I need to do to straighten my path. Last week, the lists started building yet again after I watched the second Radical sermon (FAITHdare #5). My sister made a comment, though, that tripped me in the midst of my list forming: (paraphrased) "I think part of being 'radical' is learning daily faithfulness."

That comment has been the source of a constant conversation with Jesus this week. Because here's the deal...I WANT to change. I WANT to live in obedience to God. The danger is not in my desire to change, but in my weak ATTEMPTS to change. I start thinking drastic (doing something big on my own power) instead of radical (living in daily obedience to Christ)...because drastic is easier. And drastic draws attention. Want an example?

I could move to Africa {drastic}, but what's to say I won't live in laziness there, ignorant to the needs right outside my door? Drastic without radical faithfulness.
I could sell all I have {drastic}, but keep on spending frivolously. Drastic without radical faithfulness.
I could adopt a baby {drastic}, but fail to raise him or her with daily, selfless love. Drastic without radical faithfulness.

We know this principle already. A person can have gastric bypass surgery {drastic}, but what good is that operation going to do if all he or she does is continue to live in bad habits? In fact, in some ways we probably look down on people that live drastically without daily faithfulness. Like the drug addict who checks himself into a rehab facility{drastic}, but drops out a couple of weeks later. We despise those who can't follow through, looking down on their lack of willpower and desire to change. But I'M like that. I would much rather do something CRAZY than be FAITHFUL. I would rather move halfway around the world to serve the lost than walk next door to serve my neighbor. Not that there is anything wrong with moving halfway around the world to serve the lost...in fact, Jesus instructs us to take the Gospel to the lost. But how am I going to serve the lost there if I can't even serve the lost on my doorstep here?

Jesus teaches on this principle in Matthew 25, where the parable of the talents can be found. To the faithful servants, He says, "You have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things." This is the heart of what God has been teaching me this week. How can I expect God to trust me with 10 talents, when I buried the one He's already given me? I can certainly take things into my own hands and skip the hard stuff, but the result will be a painful lesson on my inadequacy. I cannot change on my own, and yet God cannot use me if I refuse to be obedient in the small things.

I don't know if any of what I am saying makes sense, but I want to direct you to the words of Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador and martyr for Jesus: "Wherever you are, be all there." God has me where I am, at this point in my life, for a reason. I can choose to live each day for myself, to stumble from pleasurable activity to pleasurable activity, waiting for God to give me something "better" to do (you know, like caring for orphans or healing the sick), or I can be ALL HERE...by seeking His voice everyday in disciplined prayer and meditation over His word, by spending the time looking for and loving the lost right next door, by being obedient in stewardship of His resources generously given to me, by finding new ways everyday to serve Him.

I guess the bottom line is this: We need to OBEY. If that means washing dishes and kissing the booboos of your kids, do those things with radical faithfulness in selfless love. If that means leaving everything and moving to a third world country to preach the Gospel to a people who has never heard about Jesus, go without looking back and serve in daily faithfulness to Him. It may not seem like it in comparison to drastic living, but daily faithfulness IS radical. Most people in our culture, and sadly most people in the Church, live for themselves. We like to THINK that we are living in daily faithfulness, but the amount of desperation and purposelessness plaguing our cities says otherwise. Truly radical living is not glamorous, and it does not really draw the kind of attention so many crave. But it's what Jesus calls us to.

Those we deem "heroes of the faith" knew daily faithfulness well. They did not get up one day and do something huge for God. They got up everyday and did something huge for God. You don't have to read many biographies to find their key to success...daily obedience in the grittiness of life. Lots of time in God's Word and in prayer. Lots of time doing unpleasant things to serve the needs of the lost. They weren't extraordinary people. They were EXTRA ordinary people.

Forgive me if I've thoroughly confused you = ] If you take nothing else from this post, watch the video below. It is about a family who allowed God to open their eyes to the lost right next door (9 miles away), a family that refused to bury the one talent God had given them. Daily faithfulness in the little things.



I love what she says: "One thing that we've learned...is that life can be very unpredictable. Being available, and being willing, can be enough. Let God do the rest...Let God bring the needs, and the opportunities, and even the ability to fulfill those needs...He can flow that through us." I really just want to be available and willing every day...LOOKING for God to fulfill needs through me. Obedience in daily faithfulness.

Thoughts? How do you live in daily faithfulness? What has God been teaching you?