Abort Mission or Abort Yourself

I had an opportunity to have a conversation with a couple of friends the other day about an unusual topic. We talked about God, church, and how we viewed Christians. I know as a born again believer of Christ, a conversation about the person that is "number one" in our lives shouldn't be unusual at all, but comfortable. I realized that isn't the case. God is in the box we have built for him and he better not get out. He better not convict us or try to interfere in our lives. I mean, it's OUR lives. 

Wrong. 

This isn't our life. It never was our life. We made it ours. We were called to die to ourselves every single day and live through Christ, for Christ. That truth has been twisted, blurred, tweaked, and made the perfect measurements to fit inside the God sized area of our lives, if you even include Him at all. 

Kamikaze; my death is gain. 

Kamikaze were Japanese airman in World War II that were suicide bombers. They didn't have fuel to fly back to the carriers so they used their planes as bombs. They could have easily landed their planes some where and become Prisoners of War. But they chose to die for their country. That was how the Japanese airman gained honor. They didn't take the easy route that led to nothing. They made the hard decision, they took the narrow path, and died an honorable death (by Japanese description). 

Hypothetically speaking, the members of the Church are Japanese airmen. The church's plane landed safely on a small island. "Christians" have it hard. I mean we have had to live on a deserted island, find food and learn to survive in the wild. We have accepted the title of Missing in Action. We chose to land. We chose to abort the mission and live an easy, meaningless, unfulfilling life. 

Everyday is a choice. For the vast majority, some unknowingly, Christians choose to abort the mission. What if one day we wake up, tired of the same ole emptiness we live with everyday, and choose to get on the battlefield. What if we embrace the mission and fight until the war is won? What if we chose to abort ourselves everyday?

I've been marked by my Maker, a peculiar display.

Oh man. If we, myself included, put the same effort, the same faith, into our relationship with Christ as we do sports, significant others, work, or dare I say, church, what would this place look like? I can tell you what it won't look like. It won't look like anything we've ever seen. 

I believe that there are so many people in my community searching for something more than the lives they are living. They may not know that they are looking for Christ, but they are. What if those of us who claim God as number one in our lives, actually made him number one. I can see the spiritual spark and flicker of individual fires all over this place. God wants to work. God is fighting for us. God's heart is shattered because we haven't given ourselves to him. We live the American definition of Christianity. The American definition of following Christ is a wide and wore path. Many have mistaken it for the straight and narrow. God is waiting for us to die to ourselves every single day. He loves us so much. It will take your breath away if you take time to think about it. 

It's never too late to die to yourselves and live for God. You're never too far into sin to get out. You are never too far away from God that he can't reach. You will never have a stain so big or messy that God can't clean it. He's waiting on us. What's it going to be?

Abort Mission or Abort Yourself?