For most birthdays, I usually have some clearly defined goals for the following year and high expectations for what I would set out to accomplish. You see, I have always been a fairly ambitious person.

I have been ambitious personally and professionally, setting high goals for personal achievement and for professional success. Growing up, I carried my keys around on a chain with the word that pretty much summed up my philosophy…excellence.

Yes, I have always been committed to doing things excellently, and that has usually translated into achievement and success. For this reason, I have usually met my goals and have always reached for my dreams.

However, something has changed for me. It’s not that I don’t have goals or dreams. It’s just that they’ve become fewer and smaller. Up until this past year, I’ve had many things I’ve wanted to pursue personally and have had big visions of reward and recognition professionally.

But, most of that has really subsided. I used to enthusiastically say that I wanted to “blow a hole in history” but now am actually quite content just to scratch it. And, by scratch, I mean that I just want to be faithful to what God has asked me to do.

I’m quite sure that God wants me to be a devoted husband and father, and that He wants me to teach the Bible. I think he may want me to write about it too. But, that’s about it.

I’m not sure God wants me to be the president or a senator, a mega church pastor or national speaker, a Pulitzer prize writer or best selling author. I’m not even sure God wants me to alter history in any way.

I’m just sure that God wants me to have integrity, love my family and serve the church. That being said, I think my goals are now simply to accomplish those things.

When Stephanie asked me what my hopes and dreams are for this year, I told her that I wanted my boys to be healthy, for her to find healing, and for the church to grow deeply. Yes, I’d be happy with those goals.

I’d be quite satisfied if the cyst in my son’s neck would finally heal, if my wife would find peace after her third miscarriage, and if the church would grow deeper in their love for God and each other.

Some would say those are meager goals. But, I think they are rather ideal. Sooner or later, we all learn to let go of our ambition. Not the holy ambition to serve God and make a difference in the world but the self-centered ambition to be something.

Everybody today seems to want to be somebody. They want to be a rock star, an actor, an athlete or an entertainer. They want to be some kind of celebrity and it’s usually not because they just like the craft. No, they like the fame, the money, and the fun that comes with it.

The truth is that we’re foolish if we think that we’re something. And, we’re all so very shortsighted if we believe that striking success in this world makes any difference in eternity.

Solomon told us that fame and success are short-lived and that the world will forget us as soon as we’re gone. So, why should we care what the world thinks of us anyway?

I once heard a missionary say that we’re all a bunch of nobodies just trying to make much of somebody. And, that Somebody, of course, is God. After all, He is the only Somebody.

When people tried to make much of John the Baptist, he deflected their adoration saying that Jesus must increase and that he must decrease. By decrease, he meant that he must become a nobody.

This past year, I have been thinking about that. I’ve been wondering why we say that we have an audience of One but in reality play to everyone else. If we really believed that we have just One to please, then shouldn’t this bear out in our lives?

Pleasing God, and God alone, is something we can do very quietly and discreetly. It’s something that can be accomplished while living completely off the radar screen of this world.

It’s something that can be done without any notable achievement, any renowned victory or any special merit. It can be fulfilled without any title, trophy or talent.

That means we can bring pleasure to God and accomplish everything that He desires of us in this life as nobodies. We don’t need anyone to notice us, to admire us, or to reward us to be enormously successful in God’s economy.

For most of us, this presents a radical recalibration of our view of success. It is an enormous shift away from the self-centered priorities of this world, which tell us that we have to be something or do something to have value.

Instead, it is a significant shift towards the priorities of God, which tell us that we don’t have to do or be anything in this world to bring pleasure to the only Somebody who matters.

How so? Well, hospitality is often confused with brotherly love. Brotherly love is about enjoying the company of those closest to us, especially our family and friends. But, hospitality is about sharing company with those farthest from us, especially strangers and foreigners.

Both of these words occur in the first two verses of Hebrews 13, which reads, “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Both words suggest love, but they suggest love of different people.

The Greek word for brotherly love is the very familiar word philadelphia,  which is actually a combination of two words phila and delphia, which respectively mean “love” and “brother or sister”. Together they mean “the love of brothers or sisters”.

Now, brothers and sisters are those in closest proximity to ourselves, not just physically but also spiritually. In this context it specifically refers to brothers and sisters in Christ who share our faith in Jesus and are adopted together with us into the family of God.

Certainly one could claim nuclear family as their brothers and sisters, but one could also claim spiritual family as their brothers and sisters as well. What this means is that we ought to love those who are closest to us either physically or spiritually. This is the essence of philadelphia.

However, the other word in the passage translated as hospitality is philoxenia, which is likewise a combination of two words philo and xenia, which respectively mean “love” and “stranger”. Together they mean “the love of strangers or foreigners”.

The Author of Hebrews tells us that it is the love of strangers by which we “entertain angels unawares”. In other words, it is only through sharing company with complete strangers that we actually encounter angels and, perhaps more importantly, practice biblical hospitality.

This distinction is important because it clarifies for us what hospitality really is. It is not about sharing company and love with our family and friends but with strangers and foreigners. Practically, this doesn’t mean just welcoming people off the streets into our lives but anyone outside of our own physical and spiritual circle.

This might give rise to concern for some who are terrified by the idea of welcoming people they don’t know into their lives and homes, especially in an age of distrust and abuse. Certainly, one wouldn’t want a complete stranger babysitting their children or sleeping on their couch without having some sense of their character.

However, biblical hospitality is not just about who we welcome into our living rooms. It is also about who we welcome into our routines, our workspaces, our appointments, our diversions and our conversations. Biblical hospitality is about allowing complete strangers into our personal space and daily life.

Biblical hospitality is about smiling at people that we pass us on the street, holding a door for the person behind us at the restaurant, striking up a conversation with a neighbor or giving a reassuring handshake or shoulder pat to an associate at work or school.

Biblical hospitality is also about sharing some food with the guy lingering at the fast food restaurant, visiting the local jail to pray for an inmate, volunteering at a shelter to help someone get back on their feet or bringing an abandoned child home to foster.

The thing about biblical hospitality that makes it distinctly different from brotherly love is that it must include strangers. It must include people we don’t know and people we might not even like. Biblical hospitality is something that is usually uncomfortable for us. It’s something that stretches us and grows us.

This means that if we claim to practice biblical hospitality, then having our family and friends into our homes for dinner and dessert does not qualify. This means that hanging out exclusively with the same people each week doesn’t qualify. And, it means that reserving our kindness and warmth only for those we recognize and trust doesn’t count.

It also means that those who say they have the gift of hospitality do not really possess that gift if they do not love the strangers around them. No, they may possess love for their brothers and sisters, which ought to be common for all Christians, but they do not possess the spiritual gift.

Rather, the practice of biblical hospitality manifests itself in those who are friendly and warm to complete strangers and in unfamiliar company. Real biblical hospitality is observed when love is on display among those and with those whom we least expect it.

Practically, the challenge for us is to first recalibrate and expand our thinking about what exactly qualifies as biblical hospitality and then ask ourselves if we are really practicing it. Chances are that in reality many of us, if we are honest with ourselves, are not.

If you find that you are cold and closed off to strangers and people you don’t know, that you have a hard time smiling at people on the street, that you find it difficult to step out of your close circle of friends, that you are unable to strike up a conversation with a new person or that you are not giving something of yourself away to those most unlike you, then it is likely that biblical hospitality is something that you’ve “neglected”.

The way we “un-neglect” hospitality in our lives is by making an effort to be friendly to strangers we encounter, by purposely seeking out new and different relationships, by stepping outside of our known and comfortable surroundings and by simply learning to smile and say a kind word to those around us.

Personally, I find this to be quite challenging, especially since I am one to hole up in my life and do not find it natural to exude warmth to people that I don’t know. By nature, I am a skeptic and do not trust most people. I have a hard time opening myself up to others whom I find unfamiliar or perhaps unlikable, and I am quite comfortable keeping to myself.

However, I know that I can’t live this way if I want to honor the Scriptures and the God who gave them. And, I’m fairly confident that I am not alone in this. I am admittedly bothered by my own selfishness but am equally bothered by the coldness of others that I have observed among so many Christians today. And, I’m genuinely concerned about the impression that our exclusion gives to the world of strangers around us.

I want to be someone who makes others feel at home in mine as much as they do in theirs, and I really want that for all of us. My hope and prayer is that we would exude real warmth and kindness to every stranger we come into contact with and to each foreigner we encounter so that we might never miss the opportunity to “entertain angels unawares”.

Why? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all ashamed by the subject matter or by the fact that a church is willing to talk about it. I’m embarrassed as a Christian and as a pastor because the gimmicky appeal simply perpetuates the negative stereotype of Christianity that it is a cheap and shallow religion. You see, many people already think that Christianity is an American religion that derived in the last few hundred years, and this kind of ploy only reinforces that perception.

Any student of religion knows that Christianity is certainly not a modern invention of American culture, and it is absolutely not even a Western religion as its origins and foundations are in the ancient Middle East. In fact, its Judaic roots go so far back into history that in its incipient form Christianity can make the claim that it actually predates all the other religions in the world today. But, you wouldn’t know that when you get a mailer or drive by a billboard like that here in the United States, would you?

No, you’d probably think that Christianity is an American invention created by the founders of our country as part of the great American experiment. As Christianity is often presented in our culture today, you might easily get the impression that it is a religion that exists to serve the needs of American citizens and to make their lives better here in this country. But, that is simply not what Christianity is about.

In his book Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman wrote this: “I believe that I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.” American Christianity, when it is portrayed as light and entertaining, is not really Christianity at all. It is, as Postman says, “another religion altogether”.

Personally, I’m having a hard time picturing James or Peter back in Jerusalem sticking flyers in the doors of their neighbors inviting them to come hear a series on “How to have great sex” or “How to be successful in your trade”. Had they done so, I’m quite sure more people would have shown up, but those people would probably have gotten the wrong impression about Christianity.

They would likely have drawn the conclusion that Christianity is there to serve their needs and provide them the keys to living a more fulfilling existence. And yet, that isn’t what Jesus offered to his followers during his time on earth. Jesus told his disciples that following him wouldn’t add more friends, it would subtract them. Following him wouldn’t make them more successful, it would likely take it away. And, following him wouldn’t give them a better life, it would probably cost them theirs.

When Jesus preached wherever He went, we see that He deliberately thinned the crowds who had gathered by calling them to count the cost of following after him. People came from all over, perhaps hoping to hear something they liked, but we read in the gospels that many turned away from him when Jesus didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.

What resulted after this exodus was a gallery of followers who were fewer in number but who also were more sincere and devoted in their faith. This small band of disciples were more than willing to give up their comfort, give away their possessions, and give their very lives for the One who called them. And, it was this band of followers that, as it says in the book of Acts, “turned the world upside down”.

There is a story about the Italian warrior Garibaldi who long ago asked young followers to join his crusade to defend his country. They asked him: “What do you offer us?” His response was: “Offer you? I offer you neither pay nor quarters nor provisions. I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battle, and death. Let him know who loves his country in his heart, not with his lips only, follow me.”

This is akin to what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10:34-39 when He said: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace (read comfort, pleasure and success) to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Now, admittedly that is not a very likable message, but it is the true message nonetheless. The call of Jesus upon his followers is to a life of sacrifice and devotion, not a life of comfort and pleasure. That message doesn’t sell too well here in America, but we must make a choice between selling success and telling the truth. And, the truth is that real Christianity isn’t cheap and shallow, it’s costly and challenging.

Hundreds of years ago there was a king named Abu Taber, when threatened by invading forces and visited by an ambassador with terms of peace, he summoned one of his soldiers, handed him a dagger and commanded: “Plunge this into your chest.” Immediately the soldier obeyed and fell dead at his feet. Then, calling another, he ordered: “Leap over that precipice and into the Euphrates.” Without a moment’s hesitation that soldier leaped to his death.

Then, turning to the ambassador, the king said: “Go, tell your master that I have 500 men like that, and that within 24 hours I will have him chained with my dogs.” And, the story is that even against overwhelming odds, Abu Taber and his small but devoted band of followers won that war convincingly.

What is the point of this story? Well, the point is simply that having fewer but more devoted followers is actually preferable to having more but less faithful ones. That is what Jesus chose for himself and intended for those who would follow him, but many wouldn’t know that by the caricatured version of Christianity that they experience so often today.

Rarely do people hear the convicting but truthful message about Christianity in our culture, that it is indeed as Neil Postman said “a demanding and serious religion”. The honest truth is that Christianity isn’t shallow and cheap, and it’s high time that pastors and churches stop presenting it that way.

If you are a pastor, elder or ministry leader of any kind, consider this a plea to stop trivializing our faith by peddling an inauthentic form of Christianity. Please stop the mailers, the flyers and the billboards that embarrass the church and make her look like a cheap tramp when she is the holy and unblemished bride of Jesus Christ.

For those of us that care deeply about preserving not just the message of our faith but also the legacy of our faith, we are asking that church leaders rethink how they sell the gospel in America. The truth is that Christianity is supposed to be a hard sell and many people just won’t be up to the task, so we are not doing them or our faith any favors by selling it on the cheap.

What I’m genuinely concerned about is that by peddling gimmicky Christianity we are not only filling our churches with insincere, halfhearted consumers but that we are also jeopardizing the legitimacy of our faith by encouraging it. This kind of selling doesn’t accomplish the mission that Jesus began and it even imperils the reputation of the Church in the world.

I believe, therefore, that the best thing we can do both for people and for our faith is to be up front and honest about the serious demands of Christianity so that we won’t defraud the people who come to our churches looking for genuine Christianity and so that we won’t defile the reputation of our churches in front of those who don’t.

Well, in the process of disconnecting from this world and connecting more and more to God’s Son, I have come to look at things a little differently today than I have in the past. What I have been experiencing is an untangling of sorts from the trappings of the world that have captured my attention and energy for many years. And, one of those things that I feel I am being freed from is the snare of ambition.

For some reason I have always been interested in and motivated by success in whatever field I have been engaged. Whether it was in marketing, recruitment, demography, real estate or vocational ministry, I have always been motivated and inspired to drive for more, never settling for the status quo or mediocrity. The downside of that kind of drive is that you never feel settled and are often discontent, and that is something I have always been at odds with in my own life.

All of this is to say that after plumbing the depths of Solomon’s wisdom and meditating on it each day, I have come to a stunning and convicting realization about life here on earth. For me, it is a mystery solved that now just needs to be applied. The epiphany that rocked my world and hopefully will also rock yours too is that I think I have been praying the wrong prayer all along. All of these years, I have been praying for God to give me more…more income, more comfort, more enjoyment, more experience, more influence and more responsibility. More, more, more, and I have a feeling I am not the only one who has been praying this way.

And, here’s the thing. I have been trained to pray this way because that is apparently what ambitious people do. Those we admire seem to pray for more, those who write the books we read usually tell us we should pray for more, and those who teach us often encourage us to ask for more. The central example of this kind of praying perhaps is the best selling The Prayer of Jabez that unabashedly taught us all to ask God to “enlarge our territory” and ask God for more, which oddly enough isn’t really at all what Jesus taught us to do.

In the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew it says that Jesus taught his disciples how to pray saying, “Pray like this: Our Father on heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…” And, there it is. So simple and yet so profound. Notice that in his instruction Jesus does not tell us to ask for more bread but for enough bread. There is a difference.

Literally, Jesus tells us to ask God each day for enough food to eat, and by implication that includes clothing and shelter for the day. He does not instruct us to ask for more than that. In fact, just a few verses later Jesus tells us not be anxious about our lives, about food, clothing and shelter because God knows what we need and will add them to our lives. Conversely, Jesus adds that needing or asking for more is actually consistent with the lives of nonbelievers and not disciples.

When we read Jesus’ instruction to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” it is logical and helpful to connect this to the bread that God gave to Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. In Exodus 16 we read that God gave manna, or bread from heaven, to the people of Israel as their sole sustenance during their journey to the Promised Land. It says that with the dew of the morning, there came a fine, flaky bread that was more than enough to feed everyone each day. However, there was only enough for that day.

We read that the bread from heaven quickly rotted and melted away if it was not consumed, so God did not give them more than was needed for each day during their exodus. It says that they gathered new manna “morning by morning” or day by day as it was given, and that they did this for the entire 40 years that they wandered! What they learned from this providential experience was an important lesson for them and should also be an important lesson for us. The lesson is that God sovereignly provides for his children, and his superintended provisions are enough.

So, if God always provides enough, then why do we keep asking for more? There is a most interesting biblical passage in Proverbs 30. In verses 7 through 9, it says: “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

This is a most convicting truth. The author of this Scripture asks God for two things in life. First, he asks God to make him honest. And, second, he asks for God to make him satisfied. Interestingly, he asks God NOT to make him rich or poor, but rather to give him enough. He goes on to say that if God gives him riches, then he will become distracted and will forget God, and if God makes him poor, then he will become a thief and dishonor God. Therefore, he doesn’t want to be either rich or poor…he just wants to be content.

So then, how does all of this relate to us? Well, these Scriptures both explicitly and implicitly show us that we have perhaps been praying the wrong prayers. Rather than asking God to give us more, we should be asking God to give us enough. This means not asking God for more money, more food, more clothes, more space, more luxury or more amusement. Instead this means asking God for just enough of these things to be enjoy the life He has given us and be pleasing to Him while we are here.

In light of all this, I am convinced that asking God for more is not the right prayer. Rather, what we should be asking God for is “enough”. In other words, we should be asking for enough money to live affordably, enough shelter to live comfortably, enough clothes to dress appropriately and enough food to eat moderately. Anything more than that is more than enough and should be considered excess. And, if there is excess, then we really ought to think about giving it away and not keeping it for ourselves.

In 2 Corinthians 9, for example, we are told that God supplies seed and bread to us and each for different purposes. The seed is for investment and the bread is for consumption, and that means bread is to be kept for ourselves and seed is to be given away to others. Interestingly, God does not promise to give us more bread, only more seed. Paul writes: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (2 Cor. 9:10). Conspicuously absent from the passage is any promise that God will give us more “bread” to consume for ourselves. Instead, it says that God wants the excess “seed” to be invested in the kingdom to help others. Paul adds: “The ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but it also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God” (2 Cor. 9:12).

So, what I have concluded in all this is that many of us, myself included, have probably confused bread and seed. I am quite convinced that we have been eating the seed and not planting it, and the end result is not only a materialistic culture but also a malnourished church. When we start presuming that more wealth means more to spend on ourselves, then we have tragically missed the biblical directive of generosity. Biblical generosity means only keeping for ourselves what we need and giving the rest away joyfully to others.

In my estimation, hoarding in the church is an embarrassingly obvious problem that is not only crippling the credibility of the gospel message but also compromising the mission of the church to care for others. The truth is that there is so much excess wealth sitting around in real estate assets, brokerage accounts and savings plans belonging to Christians that it is extraordinarily shocking that we can’t even take care of our own, let alone take care of others. At a time when the church’s credibility and mission in America is hanging in the balance, it is a shame that so many Christians are sitting on so much.

My point in saying all this is simply to share how I have been disturbed by my own selfishness and embarrassed by the collective selfishness that I see in the church today. As a pastor, I am honestly frustrated with the stunning inconsistency between what the Scriptures say about generosity and contentment and what I see in the everyday lives of so many Christians today. And, what really burdens me is the fact that so many Christians don’t even seem to notice it. They just keep on asking for more and spending it on themselves without ever asking if that kind of personal consumption is consistent with what the Lord desires.

In light of this revelation, my hope is that we would be courageous enough to confront ourselves with this issue and honest enough to talk about what needs to change in ourselves and in the church. Toward that end, I pray that a revolution would occur in the lives of believers everywhere and that we would finally be liberated from the things of this world that capture us like ambition, wealth and success. And, it is my belief that we will finally experience this kind of freedom in life once we learn to no longer ask for more but for enough.

So, what kind of religion would Christianity be if it is presented as easy and amusing? I think his point is that the American persuasion of Christianity fits that description well. By his observation, the American Christian on average is a different breed of Christian than the historical kind. In the book Postman argues that we are, as a nation, the most misinformed people in the world, and that applies as well to the knowledge and application of our so-called faith.

American Christianity has become to the world something of a caricature of its historic self. In other words, the Church in America today has been qualified as a lightweight version of a heavyweight institution because for the bulk of its history, the Church has leaned hard on its people and demanded much from them whereas today very little is asked or demanded of people by their Christian faith at all.

Yes, we hear sermons about taking up our crosses by being willing to suffer or even die, but almost none of us will ever be called upon to do so. We also hear about hating our mothers and fathers in comparison to loving Jesus, and still very few of us will ever really choose to do that. And, we are told that we should forsake the world in exchange for eternal glory, and yet only a small segment of us will be serious enough about our commitment to follow through with it.

The simple truth is that we are the most comfortable, self-centered and affluent generation living in the most protected, egocentric and excessive nation in all the world, and we have chosen a version of Christianity that fits our paradigm perfectly. Our persuasion of the Christian faith is very much a reflection of ourselves and our culture, and one of the distinctives of that reflection is a relatively easy and amusing Christianity.

Even Neil Postman is cynical about how Christianity is sold and exchanged in our country as a form of shallow entertainment and dedicated a whole chapter in his book to the embarrassing subject. His conclusion is that we have created this brand of Christianity by treating the church like we treat listeners or viewers on radio or television, as demographically monitored consumers to be studied and marketed to. In other words, Christians in the pews are not so much soldiers of faith or servants of righteousness but clients with felt needs as well as thick wallets and open calendars.

The suggestion is that we are responsible for creating this thimble deep Christian consumer culture because we do try to give people not what they need but rather what they want. And, as Postman pointed out, that is not what religion is for. As he rightly said, no recognized worldwide religion in history has offered people what they want, only what they need. And, what people need is not more forms of entertainment but answers to real problems, which aren’t losing weight, making money or having a happier marriage, by the way. No, real problems are personal corruption because of sin, self destruction because of immoral choices and self consumption because of poor stewardship.

Postman rightly observes that Christianity is actually a very demanding and serious religion, but one wouldn’t necessarily get that from a cursory overview of the average church experience. Nor would they get that from the average sermon or book or television simulcast. Though there are obvious exceptions, the usual message sent across pulpits, through pages and over the airwaves is usually a non-offensive user friendly message intended to appeal to and offer something positive to the masses.

Now, it’s not that there isn’t something very positive in the message of the gospel, which is that there is genuine forgiveness, life and purpose for all who believe in Jesus Christ, but that promise is often attached to personal sacrifice, societal rejection and even global persecution. Jesus never offered his followers promises of or keys to prosperity and health but rather guarantees of and invitations to suffering and death. Admittedly, that message doesn’t sell very well to an opulent, egocentric culture, and one can understand why the message has been softened and translated the way that it has today.

However, understanding why and how the message has been changed doesn’t make that aberration acceptable or even tolerable. In fact, accepting and even tolerating that message is precisely the reason why we are in the dilemma we are facing now. Perhaps if we had followed historical precedent and carried on the tradition of keeping the message pure, then we would be in a very different place in the world than we are today.

Postman’s assessment that the message of Christian faith is largely easy and amusing today is primarily why the Church is so large in America in comparison to the Church elsewhere in the world. America has long billed itself as the Christian nation of the world, and it is still perhaps true to make that statement only in the sense that more people call themselves Christian in America per capita than any other country in the world. Now, that number would absolutely plummet to the point of being realistically on par with other nations around the world if we dropped the label and counted genuine disciples of Jesus rather than professing cultural Christians.

I, for one, am convinced that the Church in American is probably nothing close to the size that we boast. And, though I am admittedly skeptical by nature, I feel in my spirit that there are a great many people who fill churches around this nation who neither know Christ or His Word in any sort of personal way. Though they may squeeze attending church into their public life as part of their American social portfolio, the truth of the matter is that likely nothing seismic has occurred in their hearts that would call them to genuine radical and sacrificial faith.

I’m convinced that if we started to call people to make a choice between the two, then the Church would start to take its real form and begin to function as it should. At the same time, I believe that if we did this, then Christians would have to get used to the realization that we are and have probably always been among the religious minority in our country. The truth is that the public face of our nation has always been Christian, but the private practice of our people has really always been something different.

So, perhaps what we need to do is take another look at ourselves in an honest mirror and see what we really look like. Though, we should be forewarned and prepared for the fact that we might not look like we thought we did and might not actually like what we see. But that, after all, may be just the kind of motivation that we need.

Well, when the gun sounded, I remember taking off like a jackrabbit and keeping up with the front of the pack for the first couple of miles. I seemed to just breeze past many tortoises in the field of runners and was feeling like I was born for this! But, soon it became clear that I was, in fact, not born for this.

After the first couple of miles, my chest started to hurt and my legs started to ache, and about half way through the course I started to feel like my lungs were going to combust and my legs petrify. And, I realized that I was no longer running as much as skipping with intermittent periods of walking. As I was painfully plodding along the road, I noticed that many of the tortoises I passed up early on were now passing me by en masse, and I remember feeling especially bad about myself when some elderly ladies blew by me.

Well, I did eventually finish the race in very unspectacular fashion, but I was glad actually that I just survived it. I got the t-shirt but lost my pride. All that to say that I learned some important things as I reflected on that race afterward. Though it was likely my last undignified foray into the world of running, I am glad that I made the effort anyway. First, because of what it taught me about pride, but second because of what it taught me about the nature of the Christian life.

There is a man in the church that I pastor who runs 100 mile endurance races several times during the year. That’s right, 100 mile races! I had never heard of anything like this until he approached me after a Sunday sermon when I had compared the Christian life to a foot race citing Paul’s illustration about the runner competing for the prize. Now, I had heard of marathons and triathlons but had never conceived that it was humanly possible to run 100 miles!

Well, as he told me about his exploits running these long foot races in all kinds of terrain, he recounted how during each race he would at times stumble and even fall, how he would get sick or develop blisters on his feet, how he would get dehydrated and lightheaded, and how he would at times walk for long periods to catch his breath. What I heard was that even though he always finished the race that there were many peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows as well as breathers and breaks along the way. Rarely if ever had he completed a race in one smooth and steady trajectory. No, there were bumps and bruises as well as setbacks and slowdowns that defined the journey every time.

As I listened to his experiences and thought on them, I realized that his exploits on the open road were not unlike the experience of the Christian life. And, more than that, I figured out that my perception of the course of Christian living up until that point had been mistaken. You see, I sort of always thought that the nature of the Christian life was that it was a course of wise and righteous living that despite occasional bumps and drops was on a positive trajectory at all times. In other words, although I had always considered the speed of the race, I had not considered the pace.

And, maintaining the pace means that there are times that you walk or even stop to catch your breath or get some perspective, that there are times when you fall and need some extra help and attention, and that there are painful bruises and cuts that make portions of the journey difficult and frustrating. The nature of the Christian life is truly like an endurance race, and it is called a race of “endurance” for a reason. Enduring means surviving and completing the journey, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the journey is smooth or even direct for any of us.

The truth is that the journey of the Christian life is not static but dynamic, and that means that there are ebbs and flows in the process for each one of us.  And, although the course itself is in many ways the same for all of us, the obstacles and effects of each part of the journey for each person is different.

What this means to me is that we have to give ourselves the grace to walk or even stop when we’re spiritually winded to get some rest or at least some perspective. And, if this means taking on less commitments or taking a break altogether for a time to get refreshed or healed, then that’s ok. This also means that we must expect that there will be bumps and bruises that will make life hard at times, and those setbacks will force us to confront our doubts and frustrations, which is all a healthy part of the process of spiritual development. As well, this means that we will stumble and fall at times and sometimes in very painful ways, and when that happens we will need some extra help and encouragement from others to help us get back on our feet.

Whatever occurs in our Christian life, it helps to know that what matters most is that we finish and survive the race. The only really disappointing outcome for any of us is if we never get to the finish line at all. Although, we tend to judge ourselves and others by how we are doing right now, we need to remember that we will be judged by God not on how we’re faring right now but by how we fare for the duration! What I mean is that God reviews our lives in their entirety and knows that there will be dynamic ebbs and flows in our lives so He chooses to wait for us at the finish line rather than along the course.

So, I guess it all comes down to this…we have to learn to look at our life the way that God does, in its entirety. And, when we do that, we can stop being so hard on ourselves and others about how well we happen to be running at the moment because what matters most is not that we ran the race smoothly but that we ran with endurance!