Just Keep Knocking!

Recently I heard of a girl who pressed paused in her walk with Jesus. She didn't deny him, but neither did she follow him, she just chose not to think about him for awhile. Her one reason for doing so was that she felt that Jesus wasn't doing enough in her life. She had waited for the holy spirit which she knew was promised to her, but after the initial "spiritual high" it felt that there was nothing there anymore. She thought Jesus had left her, so she chose to let go of him.

I always feel sad when I hear of people falling away or pressing pause on Christianity. Even though I have had a fair share of times when I thought "Why don't I just drop it all?", when I compare the world's values with Jesus' values, I see where real love comes from. What most makes my heart die a little is how the world can smother someone's senses, how it can entice so much their mind is clouded with a blinding haze, while God is trying to break through, blow the mist away to reveal the open sky of his unending love.

Coming back to my first paragraph, I initially heard of this girl's story in a talk at church, and my first thought was to ignore it and let all the "half-Christians" accept the challenge that he was giving. But God nudged me to look at her in terms of myself. It occurred to me that in the next five years, I could easily become like her. You could too. Slowly trying to take parts of my life away from God, until he has nothing. How can he mould his perfect creation if the clay runs away? Blaming God that he isn't changing me, when it is just because I won't let him.

What can we do? How can we continue to make sure God is present in our lives? Well, stealing from the man's sermon again, Jesus tells us exactly what we need to do.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will opened to you." Matthew 7:7 NIV

We need to ask God into our lives. But this isn't a one off thing. As irregular humans we are, our heart often throws fits and kicks God out. So we ask God again to come back in. Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking!

Strive forward in asking and seeking God, maybe even everyday, because pausing on Jesus is not worth it. Giving up real love for some small thrills? Let God shine through, let him in, so he can let you out of the cage that sin has created.

Let yourself free!

The self help genre has increased tremendously in the past few years. "Live better", "Take control of your life" "Become the person you want to!" All these slogans I always pass off as a money making venture. I've got God thanks. I am already joyful to the max, because of what is to come in heaven.

A lot of people are turned off Christianity because they think it ruins all their prospects of having fun in this world. No getting drunk? Come on! Not allowed to crack crude jokes? But then I miss out! All the things 'normal' people would do seemed out of bounds to Christians. This is true for some things, such as getting drunk and being disrespectful, but I started putting many more activities in the "Not allowed to do as a Christian" basket, when really it should be enjoyed. This fault of mine came to my attention one afternoon with my sister.

In our front garden, visible to about 4 houses, my sister forced me to dance. Putting some music on, I just wanted to listen, but she took me out of my shell. At first it was just flinging my arms around with the music, but as I gradually began to leave my embarrassment aside, I took risks. Someone maybe could have said, "You look stupid!" but no one did. My sister encouraged me all the way, and after 5 minutes the song stopped but I felt great!

Image from Costi

I put "making a fool of myself", such as through letting myself go in music, in the "not allowed" basket. Other things I made myself think were not allowed as a Christian were enjoying non-christian hang outs, like youth centres; going to concerts where stupid things could happen, and having good friendships with people from the opposite gender.

My mind had automatically assumed the worst of these situations, such as me taking drugs, or me becoming impure in my actions, and so I rejected them completely. When essentially they are God given gifts we are meant to enjoy.

God set me free not so that I could wrap myself in my own little rules for life, but so I could enjoy life to the full. Love God and love one another, are the two rules I need to live by, without adding anything else.