In Defiance of Half-Way Living
I am beginning 2012 with one defiant proclamation – I’m done, through and finished with living half-way. I’ve been trying it for years, and I have come to the conclusion that as a Christian the half-way life sucks! Actually, for anyone, there is nothing satisfying, fulfilling or joyful about half-way. Leaving half-way through a movie, going half-way to your vacation destination, completing half of your degree, climbing half-way up a mountain, being committed half-way to a project, loving someone half-way, getting half-way to a goal, they all leave us disappointed and empty. Its even worse with the life of a follower of Jesus.
To live the half-way Christian life is to believe that what God really meant to say in His word was, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will probably deliver you most of the time”, “I will only occasionally leave you or forsake you”, “trust in the Lord with some of your heart”, “be anxious only for some things”, “most of the time there are not many things that can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” You get the point. Instead, God’s word is filled with absolutes. He constantly uses words like ‘never’, ‘always’, ‘all’, and ‘complete’. Why don’t we take Him at His word? Why do we look the Lord of the universe in the eye and respond to his unequivocal promises with skepticism?
What would my life look like if I believed, really believed that God wants to supply all of my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus? Instead of trusting Him half-way, following Him half-way, submitting our life to Him half-way and seeking to be conformed to His likeness half-way, what if, just what if we had the audacity to take Him at His word?
What if our one and only ‘resolution’ for 2012 was to defy every attempt of the enemy to pull us back into that anemic, powerless, soul-sucking half-way life and instead allowed the Holy Spirit to so overwhelm us that we were given a hint, a glimmer, a tiny peek into the ‘all-in’ life with Jesus?
Personally, I think that we would never go back. I think we would seek to move heaven and earth to stay in that holy place where we experienced – if even for a fleeting moment – the kind of fullness, richness, outrageous beauty and joy that awaits anyone who will seek to be so filled, so committed, so lost in the fullness of God.
That is my prayer, for an illogical, unreasonable, nonsensical and countercultural faith that dares to believe that God means what He says. I want to be all-in. So the journey begins today. If you’re not already there, are you interested in joining me?
