Getting interrupted

Throughout the day yesterday I was interrupted probably 4 times to fix a grand total of 6 bikes. Man, it was divine. I admit, around the second time I felt a little annoyed. I mean, don’t these kids realize I have things to do?! I’m a busy man! But about time number three I began to realize a bunch of neighborhood kids weren’t interrupting me; God was. Fine. Doesn’t God realize I’m a busy man?!?! I have things to do, chores to complete, work to get done! (isn’t that what we say so often?) But seriously…I saw yesterday as a great time to enjoy the Lord’s presence while getting smeared with chain lube and grit. You know He’s not kidding…we really ARE supposed to wash the feet of the saints…even if the saints only wear a size 6 shoe….

These are the kinds of blessings I get down here in the city. Getting interrupted by kids who want to ride bikes or play basketball…single moms who need some juice for their babies…brothers and sisters in Christ who want to talk about Henri Nouwen over a game of Frisbee Golf…Man, God is good.

A thought occurred to me this week. Stuff like this (seeing brothers and sisters in Christ EVERY day, listening to messages of complete surrender to Jesus, barbequing with neighbors of completely different economic, racial, and social status from what I grew up in) is really normal for us down here. We kinda just see it as the average day. But to a lot of people we come off as “radical” or “extreme”. I don’t really like those words. I never read in the Bible about a “radical” Christian as compared to…well, whatever the opposite is. The only kind of Christian I read about is the fully devoted, saved-by-grace-sinner, follower of the one and only Messiah of God, kind of Christian.

I didn’t really grow up doing a lot of Church. So when I heard about the Way and chose to give my life fully to Jesus, I didn’t know of any alternatives. I just thought this was the way you did it. All the way. No exceptions.

But I guess there is a mentality that one is allowed to do less. You can probably tie it back to many things…avoiding the message of sin and redemption in our churches, “gooey” grace, people that are actually told that God doesn’t want their all, just the little bit they want to give him. I don’t know how important where it comes from is…the point is it’s here.

It bums me people who live a life of full dependence on Christ are labeled as “radical”. It marginalizes them and helps justify anyone who feels challenged by their unwavering devotion to Christ. I can definitely see that the how of this whole thing is very subjective: we each have different gifts, different things to share with the body and I believe we are definitely not all called to be the same. In fact, the body needs the diversity. But nevertheless, we are all called to a life of complete abandon and trust in Christ. Our jobs, our hopes, our fears, our “security” plans, our spouses, our kids, our acts of service, everything is His. He is the God of the universe and he does demand full devotion. Why? Because He loves us SO VERY MUCH!!!! Could you imagine a young man marrying a young woman and agreeing to share her half the time with some of his good ol’ boys from college? Of course not! He wants ALL of her, she wants ALL of him. So why would God be different? He wants us fully, and you know what? He promised if we seek him fully he would reveal himself to us, give himself to us. Now that’s love. And He showed us his love and loyalty first. So why settle for less?

In Psalm 34 it says to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” For us who have tasted, we know the Lord is good…so let’s go and get more of the goodness! Let’s surrender our WHOLE lives to Him, no more excuses, no more trying to give God boundaries, rules, or hoops to jump through. He proved his love. So no more of this 10% rule (and I’m not talking about tithing). No more of this “I’ll go once I get this or that thing done…or once I get this much money.” Our lives are like grass, we can get smoked at any moment. Why live a life preparing only to have it cut short by an unexpected turn of events? What will we say to God in that day? “Well Lord, I know my neighbors had a tough time making ends meet and you see I was planning to help out, but I just needed a little more in the bank first.” There’s a reason Jesus told us not to worry…that he would take care of all our needs for today. It’s trust. Complete reckless, misunderstood abandon to Christ. He bought us all so he gets us all. Let’s journey this together.