How Resurrection People Ought To Live

It's only a few days after Easter...

And life returns to routine... the whole celebration and reflection of Easter pushed to the back burner now, suddenly just like a distant memory.

Everyday life and everyday busy-ness consume us once more...

They are essential things, we say --- working and earning a living, going to school and acquiring an education, making dinner and feeding our families, folding laundry and clothing them, paying bills and providing for them.

And how can we forget... vacation plans, home renovation dreams, spring cleaning, landscaping plans, climbing the ladder, getting ahead... and the list goes on and on and on...

But, wait! Is this how resurrection people ought to live?

Doesn't Jesus say, "He who wants to keep his life will have it taken away from him. He who loses his life because of Me will have it given back to him."?

Hubby and I were chatting one night last week, during Holy Week... I asked him, "What if today's First World Christians have been duped into thinking that being comfortable is what God wants for us because of His love for us?"

Yes, no kidding! Someone once said to me, "I think that God wants to give us luxuries."

Friends, what if this First World lifestyle that we all love so much... is a trap that the enemy set up for the purpose of ensnaring us so that we do not experience the full and abundant life that God desires for us, the gift that Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could have? Yes, what if...

Indulge me for a moment here, friends...
How many of us would rather spend our money on a vacation instead of staying at home and giving that same amount of money to help the homeless?

How many of us would rather move into a "better" neighbourhood or "upgrade" our houses incurring more debt in the process instead of staying put where we are and using that same amount of money each month to sponsor a child or a few children?

How many of us would rather climb the ladder and get ahead instead of devoting our time doing volunteer work for so many Christ-centered organizations whose mission is to help the marginalized in our communities?

I am not casting stones here, friends. I am guilty myself...
Guilty of being selfish, of loving comfort, of justifying my needs and my wants, of wanting my luxuries!

I am aware that this is a very difficult topic... especially for us, First World Christians. I don't have all the answers and I suspect I never will, as long as I'm still on this side of heaven. But I think it is a healthy thing to have this discomfort, this disdain about this culture of a self-indulgent Christianity.

It is a good thing to always be striving to become a more radical Christian, to be more radical today than I was yesterday. To not be the kind of Christ-follower described in Romans 1:21-22:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

For doesn't Jesus teach us to love "the least of these" brothers and sisters of ours? 

For didn't Jesus say not to store up treasures here on earth where moths and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal?

For didn't Jesus command us to proclaim good news to the poor?

For didn't Jesus teach us to sell everything we have, give to the poor and follow Him?

For didn't Jesus say that to be His disciple we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him?

Friends, Jesus has clearly taught us how resurrection people ought to be living!

Oh, help me God... I sure want to live that abundant life that He gave His life up for so that I can have! Yes, that life... oh, to live it each and every day! How about you?

Compassion is a command, an act of worship, a song of thanks to Him.

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God!