Skip to main content

We were made to thrive?

The other night riding home in the car, I turned on the local Christian radio station.  The song playing had the following chorus:

  Just to know You and
To make You known
We lift Your name on High
Shine like the sun make darkness run and hide
We know we were made for so much more
Than ordinary lives
It's time for us to more than just survive
We were made to thrive

Now I don't want to throw stones at the group that sings the song because, the whole, they are more theologically sound than most.  However, the one line really bothers me.  Why do we know we were made for so much more than ordinary lives? 

What about all of our brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution around the world?  For them surviving is a daily miracle in the hostile environment in which they live.  I am afraid that the line reflects the narcissistic North American mindset that makes Christianity about how great we are rather than how great Jesus is.  "We are not ordinary," we crow.  "We are world-changers."  "We are significant."

I guess this really bothers me for two major reasons.  First, it misses the point. that the primary promises of Christ are not for now, but for eternity.  Jesus tells us that in this world we will have trouble but that He has overcome the world (John 16:33).  This is not our best life.  Our thriving will ultimately find fulfillment in eternity.

Second, it despises small things.  Our ego drives us to be world-changers and difference-makers.  Yet the standard of our God is that we be faithful in the small things.  The widow gave her mite.  The little boy gave his tiny loaves and fishes.  The faithful stewards are commended for be faithful with the small things.  In fact, faithfulness is that standard by which our stewardships will be judged (1 Cor. 4:2).  In North America we are awed by size, by numbers and by success.  God is not.  He desires to see faithful obedience in the everyday, ordinary living of life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Ready for Friday

Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him, and say, "Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not." --Martin Luther
Post a Comment
Read more

Families' Fridays

You Cannot Raise Snowflakes in Jesus’ Name David Prince “What you are describing is not a crisis; it is life.” I find myself making that assertion often as I talk to parents. The parent will describe a situation where someone teased their child, or spoke a harsh word to them, and then ask me, “How should we respond?” Usually, what they are describing is normal stuff that happens between children in a fallen world. I tell them what they are describing it is not a crisis; it is life. Their responsibility is to coach their child on how to appropriately respond. Typically, the parent responds to me with shock and I hear phrases like: “But it hurts their feelings.” “They are a sensitive child.” It doesn’t dawn on them that their child’s sensitivity could be the major problem. Frequently, parents place the blame on other children for their child’s reaction. They position their child as a victim. Focusing on the child a parent has no control over while neglecting and opportunity to t...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Grace Too Small

Last evening our sermon passage was found in Genesis 38.  It is an ugly passage.  It tells the story of Judah, his sons Er, Onan, and Shelah, and Er's wife Tamar.  Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons.  His sons are so evil that God kills both Er and Onan for their wickedness.  Because Judah fears the loss of his remaining son, he fails to fulfill his obligation to Tamar of marrying her to his last son so that an heir might be raised up to Er.  Seeing the failure of her father-in-law, Tamar takes matters into her own hand by dressing as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah.  Judah, unaware of with whom he has had sex, subsequently hears that Tamar is pregnant by immorality. He demands that she be brought out and burned for her crime (can anyone say "hypocrite?").  Tamar then produces the evidence against her father-in-law and he relents.  The story ends with the birth of twin boys. I jokingly called the sermon the "Jerry ...
Post a Comment
Read more