November 2018
Difficult and Left Untried
13 November 2018 @ 16:22
I awoke early this morning thinking of a quote by the British writer, G. K. Chesterton where he wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
How these words have challenged me. I continually struggle with the argument that we were founded as a Christian country as I consider what that would mean. It would mean loving without condition as Jesus loved unconditionally(1 Corinthians 13); it would mean not just loving our neighbor, and those who are most like us, because it also requires us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48); it would mean feeding, giving drink to, clothing and spending time with the least of these if we truly want to minister to Christ (Matthew 25:31-46). It is difficult as I watch my own country increasingly cower in fear of outsiders, yet as I look at the hate and the horrific acts happening around me in my own country, most have been committed by Americans. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell’(Matthew 10:28) yet we arm ourselves and look for walls to protect us because we choose, instead, to live in constant fear. It seems we are most comfortable with the old testament thought of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ yet Jesus brought us a new response. One of unconditional love. (Matthew 5:38-42) We speak words of hate and judgment and wonder why there is ever more hate and judgement around us.
G. K. Chesterton was so right! “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” I am simply choosing to TRY and PUT ON CHRIST in my own walk. I will never become what I long to be in this lifetime but I stand strong knowing that Jesus loves each of us as we are and not as we should be for none of us will ever be as we should be. I will pursue the way of love and not the way of fear and distrust. The late Rich Mullins used to say “Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.” He also said, “I had a professor one time . . . He said, 'Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway'.” Lord God, let my ears, and heart, be open and speak to me as you will!
How these words have challenged me. I continually struggle with the argument that we were founded as a Christian country as I consider what that would mean. It would mean loving without condition as Jesus loved unconditionally(1 Corinthians 13); it would mean not just loving our neighbor, and those who are most like us, because it also requires us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48); it would mean feeding, giving drink to, clothing and spending time with the least of these if we truly want to minister to Christ (Matthew 25:31-46). It is difficult as I watch my own country increasingly cower in fear of outsiders, yet as I look at the hate and the horrific acts happening around me in my own country, most have been committed by Americans. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell’(Matthew 10:28) yet we arm ourselves and look for walls to protect us because we choose, instead, to live in constant fear. It seems we are most comfortable with the old testament thought of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ yet Jesus brought us a new response. One of unconditional love. (Matthew 5:38-42) We speak words of hate and judgment and wonder why there is ever more hate and judgement around us.
G. K. Chesterton was so right! “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” I am simply choosing to TRY and PUT ON CHRIST in my own walk. I will never become what I long to be in this lifetime but I stand strong knowing that Jesus loves each of us as we are and not as we should be for none of us will ever be as we should be. I will pursue the way of love and not the way of fear and distrust. The late Rich Mullins used to say “Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.” He also said, “I had a professor one time . . . He said, 'Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway'.” Lord God, let my ears, and heart, be open and speak to me as you will!