No, We’re Just Friends

Last week was a crazy week for my family and me. We traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina, to see my brother graduate from seminary, spent some time with our best friends, and attended their daughters first birthday. Then we kept on driving to the beach where we joined up with the rest of my family and my wife’s family. It was a great week of vacation and family time. Vacationing at the beach used to mean lying in the sun and catching up on the reading I rarely found time for during my normal schedule. I had hoped that would be the case this year, but I found vacationing with a 2-year-old keeps you busy. Needless to say, before I blinked, the week was wrapping up and I had spent about 15 minutes reading. I’m not a speed-reader so that translates into roughly one chapter. As I tried to go to sleep the last night, I heard God’s voice speaking loud and clear. It was one of those moments you expect at the end of a period of fasting or a week away at a spiritual retreat. Yet, it came at the end of a week where little of my time was spent in Gods Word or anything remotely resembling fasting. Most of my week was spent chasing children, dodging glaciers in the freezing water, and napping when the opportunities presented themselves. Yet, in the silence of that last night, God spoke.

I would love to say it was words of encouragement or good game or anything like that, but instead the words have been ringing in my mind for the last six days, and I am only in the beginning phases of processing it. As I looked through Proverbs this week, and focused on the passages for this Sunday, a big part of what I heard Friday night came up again. This week we are looking at how our faith can have an impact on the work we do as well as the places we work. The beginning point is what I want to address today. Before our faith can impact our work—co-workers, clients, friends, family or anyone else—it has to impact us personally. This will be the focus for me this week.

There’s a big idea consuming my mind when I pause long enough to allow it in, and it revolves around what I heard Friday night. Your faith is getting rather casual Chad.” Those are the words I heard. Those are the words I keep hearing. For the sake of this blog not turning into a book, I wont dig very deep here today. I will save it for a future blog, and most likely many future blogs. But I do want to raise the issue.

For the past several days I’ve been trying to find someone in the Bible who had a casual encounter with Christ that ended well. I have not found any yet, but page after page, chapter after chapter, I find zealots and rebels having unbelievable experiences with Christ. The disciples are great examples. All but one met Christ and never looked back. Judas, I would argue, remained casual, and we all know how his life ended. So the thought I keep coming back to is how can I and how can we have a more zealous faith? We make Jesus seem so nice and loving and we treat Him like a friend who stops by for dinner once a month or an acquaintance we run into at Target. You wont find that Jesus in the Bible though. You will find a Savior who lovingly accepts all who choose to follow Him. That idea of following Him is where things get a little hairy. That’s where true adventure begins.

So I’ve been examining my life the past few days, and guess what, He was right. My faith has become casual, too casual for my liking. Like I said, I’ve only been processing this thought for a few days, so I don’t have any answers. But I’m trying to move in the right direction. Until my faith becomes radical, can it impact others? Can yours? Can a casual walk with the Creator of the universe have much impact on those around us? What about you? Does this thought make sense to you? Maybe being friends just isn’t enough. I would love to know what you think.