I was going to start with some section on old paradigms – you know – like: kinking the garden hose will break the pipes in the walls…. Ok. I’ll just say it: The Normal Christian Life is defined by a LACK of balance.
What? Oh yeah, now we’re stepping into some strange waters. Oops, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to upset your Feng shui…
No, what is the life of a man which is truly lived, but that which is imbued by heroic Grace in action? There is no other life. One has only to look to Christ on Easter to be convinced. Jesus went all out. He fully did everything He did in total obedience to the Father.
K.P. Yohannan says: “We misunderstand obedience for legalism and bondage.” While obedience is, in fact, the norm for the best-lived life of freedom in Christ. In Christ we are given the freedom and liberty to hand our lives over to the One Who has redeemed us.
Indeed, obedience and the cross mean absolute self-denial. Total surrender to Him then – most often – yields a life defined by only a few words. One of the most relevant? Obsessed.
A life in the Spirit is not about adding a little bit of Jesus, reading a couple verses of Scripture, and praying for a couple minutes to “balance” out our day. No beloved, if we are a Christian, we no longer have a day. Each breath, every heartbeat; they are His, for His purposes. Oh, He’ll bring about good for sure. But, just as sure, it ain’t almost ever gonna look like what we think it should.
You see, all of this is just only about the Person of Jesus Christ. He started it all – and He is going to finish it all. He is EVERYTHING.
Please watch the following 6 minute segment from Stephen Manley. Yeah, this guy doesn’t have any balance… and i think i’d like him as a neighbor!
C.S. Lewis is writing about Aslan the Lion (an allegorical Christ in the Chronicles of Narnia series): “Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
