Job XCVIII

 Attempting to place conditions on your affection, worship, or obedience is venal, immature, and sure to leave you spiritually hollow. It’s no better than having a rabbit’s foot you rub for good luck, then once the luck doesn’t materialize, you throw it away because it didn’t do what you hoped it would. We keep trying to convince each other that God cannot exist independently of us. Therefore, His need for our presence in His habitation is far greater than our need for Him in our lives, and we can use that to twist His arm to do our bidding and get our way, even if it be against His will. In case you haven’t heard, God is eternal. He’s been around forever, countless eons since before Adam took his first breath, and will be around long after we take our last, forever, in fact. A God with no beginning and no end is just that. Self-importance is offputting enough on its own. Delusional self-importance is downright stomach-churning.

It’s not about what God will do for you; it’s about what God has already done. He sent His only begotten Son who hung on a cross and died upon it, only to rise on the third day, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

If that’s not enough to deserve your lifelong devotion, then I dare say you don’t understand the value of Christ’s blood and what He did upon that cross. Well, eternal life is all well and good, but what about some sheckles? What about a new car, some straight teeth, and a fully house-trained puppy?

In scope, it’s nowhere near comparable, but it’s like someone giving you the keys to a house you never even allowed yourself to dream of possibly owning, fully paid and furnished, and shrugging your shoulders, you ask if they’re throwing in maid service for life. You have this precious, priceless gift you could never hope to acquire in ten lifetimes, no matter how hard you worked, how much you did, or how much you wanted it, and although it’s within your ability to keep it clean, you’d rather someone else do the elbow work, because you’re a homeowner now, and have a reputation to maintain. You’re only a homeowner due to the grace bestowed to you by God and through what Christ did. Tend to the garden, mop the floors, wash the windows, keep it tidy, and appreciate the fact that an immeasurable blessing has been bequeathed you through no merit of your own.

Far too many people today suffer the consequences of their choices and actions, do nothing to change their trajectory, but expect God to swoop in and fix it all the moment they wave a hand in church. Why should I have to work two jobs when I could win the lottery instead? Why should I have to watch what I eat when I could just pray the calories away?

If what Jesus did on the cross isn’t enough, nothing in this world will ever be enough because you do not possess the ability to assign value to what you’ve already been given. Give a toddler the option between a bar of gold and an empty box, and they’ll likely pick the box because of the varied ways they can play with it. This isn’t hypothetical; I’ve lived it repeatedly, not so much the gold bar, but toys and stuffies I’d buy my daughters only to have them spend an hour straight playing with the box they came in. I’d sit there, biting my tongue and rolling my eyes because I’d just spent ten bucks on a stuffed tiger they barely even glanced at, while the box in which it came was the highlight of the day.

When men dismiss Jesus and His sacrifice, when they undervalue what He did, and overvalue the baubles and worthless dross of this earth, desiring them over Christ, it is a comparable tableau. If we would live out the songs we sing, perhaps we’d get somewhere. All I need is You. You are my heart’s desire; I’m desperate for You, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. If only. Nowadays, it’s likelier that men will sing lies rather than tell them, but they are what they are whether there’s a melody to them or not.

Jesus isn’t someone we identify with or pay lip service to once a week between ten and twelve. He isn’t someone we can relegate to a box in the attic until we have need of Him, or have a problem we require Him to solve. Either He is our all in all, or He is nothing at all. There is no in-between when it comes to surrendering one’s life to Christ. We can’t be playing at being weekend warriors for Jesus while we are doing the enemy’s bidding the rest of the week.

In the olden days, it was common practice that once a fleet of ships reached their destination, they would set fire to their own boats, both eliminating the possibility of retreat and ensuring that they would do their utmost to achieve victory or die in the trying. As children of God, we must possess a similar mindset, wherein we don’t have a backup plan if the whole Jesus thing doesn’t work out, and we don’t have safety nets in case the road gets hard. We commit to the course, we commit to the way, and retreating from the face of the enemy is not a viable option.

Halfhearted commitment will get you dismal results when it comes to your spiritual growth, as is the case with everything else in life. Between someone who shows up to work an hour early and leaves two hours after everyone is gone and someone who’s always five minutes late clocking in, the one who puts in more time and effort will inevitably get more accomplished.

Paul wrote almost 40% of the New Testament while he was being hunted, hounded, imprisoned, and persecuted. The disciples of the early church traveled to the far reaches of the world, not by air or rail, but on rickety ships, the backs of donkeys, and on foot to spread the gospel of Christ. Closer to our modern age, there have been individuals such as George Muller, who cared for 17,000 orphaned children throughout his ministry, established 117 schools offering Christ-centered education, traveled to 42 countries, and gave away 280,000 Bibles, all without the internet, telephones, combustible engines, or public relations firms.

What’s our excuse? What can we possibly say that will justify our indifference, apathy, and disinterest? The cold, hard truth is that it’s less about ability or resources than it is about desire and willingness. If the work of the kingdom is your priority, you will find a way to do the work of the kingdom. If it’s not, you won’t.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.