Some years ago I had the great opportunity to know a talented young man who, after graduating with a PHD in agricultural engineering chose to forgo a lucrative career with a major U.S. company to go to a Eastern country closed to the gospel so he could introduce more nationals for Christ. Sharing with a group of students I was leading at the time he identified what he believed was the number one reason most “Christian” youth and people end up with such an anemic faith. Here is what he said;
“I recently met with my old youth group; kids I had grown up with at church. We all were passionate about our lives and relationship with God and all said they were going to serve Him with abandon, not being taken captive by culture and a lackluster faith. You know as I spoke with many of them now married; well into their lives’ and professions, I realized I was the only one who was following the path we had all swore would be our destiny. I was the only one who had chosen a life based on how I could best serve God. None of my friends had rejected Christ mind you; they were not doing anything bad, they were involved in church, raising families, working hard, paying their bills, and trying to achieve a semblance of the ‘American Dream’. I had an epiphany; ‘The cares and difficulties of the world’ had sidetracked them. My mind filled with the passages of the gospels like Matthew and Mark as Christ challenged his followers with the parable of the sower, the seed and the different soils it would encounter.”In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
His insight has never left me. Dealing with people in general and especially students, I am keenly aware that the reason so many discount a life in Christ is fear; fear they will loose out in this life. They will not find the love or intimacy they long for, their lives will be void of passion and excitement. They will be subject to poverty and a life of want; want in all the desires of their hearts. They find it impossible to align life in Christ with all they care about. You and I should know this is not true, the question remains are we wise, committed, genuine, and experienced enough to show them something else?
Is your God; the God of your teaching and serving one who delivers the desires of your heart or one who enslaves to a life of monastic insignificance? You may need to take sometime to wrap your mind around the difference between the God who is the source of true fulfillment and the misnomer of the God who is a "genie". Help your students discover a life in Christ that delivers, by His design according to their design!
2 comments:
Sitting here, reading this, made me realize how often I get excited over God's work in my heart and life, yet I do nothing with it. Unfortunately, the cares and pressures of the immediate seem to move my passion for Him. I'm ashamed to admit it. . . most days I don't choose Him.
I try but fail so often... my plan, goal, course of action is to in the midst of doubt, turn my attention to the truth, filling my mind with the inspiration of the word and those who are seeking better things.
"as a man thinks in his heart, so he becomes...."
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