I had a professor in college who summarized a distinctive of America’s mindset by saying, “Europeans have all the time in the world and no land. Americans have all the land in the world and no time.” He waxed eloquent on the topic, suggesting Europeans had to care for the small plots of land their ancestors left them while Americans were always able to “go someplace new and start over.” Whether it was homesteading or following pioneers into unsettled lands, we always had wilderness frontiers where we could go to begin again. We had to destroy millions of native peoples and their cultures to do it, but we always figured we had the option of going wherever we wanted to go.
Those days are coming to an end.
On Fat Tuesday, a day that’s become synonymous with self-indulgence and inebriated excess, we’d do well to remember the days of imagining unlimited options are coming to an end.
How much longer will it be before we have nowhere to go?
Marriage:
How much longer before we discover we need to fix the marriage we have, instead of moving on to the next one? How many times can we bail on the marriages we’ve ruined before we run out of options? Do you really believe there’s an unlimited supply of wonderful people standing in line to be your next spouse? Eventually you’ll either fix the marriage you have, or you’ll have none. You’ll have nowhere to go.
Money:
How much longer until we stop spending out of control? When do we pay what we owe instead of trashing our financial future with more and more debt? Who can possibly believe someone will bail us out and pay our debts forever? To whom will you go for another bailout when you’re short-list is exhausted? Eventually no one will extend us credit and when that happens, irresponsible spending comes to an end. The only option left will be to fix the financial mess we’ve made. There will be no place to go.
Physical Life:
When will we realize there’s no place to run from our self-indulgent lifestyles? We’ve made our bodies soft and weak. Can you ruin your body and move to a new one? Maybe you can get a new knee; maybe not, but the sooner we face the fact we’re only going to get a new body when Jesus establishes a new heaven and a new earth, the sooner we’ll stop mistreating the body we have. Wake up. You ruin the body you’re in and you’ll have no place (in this world) to go.
Spiritual Life:
There are only a few hundred congregations within driving distance of your home. Move to a new congregation every week, looking for a local church that’s good enough for such a person as yourself, and you’ll quickly exhaust your options. Wherever you go, there you are, so where can you go? Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” He recognized going somewhere else couldn’t guarantee fulfillment; going to Jesus and adjusting his plans to follow HIM would.
We’re running out of self-serving escape options. As millions of Americans go crazy with gluttony and self-indulgent intoxicated intemperance the day before Lent, we face a sobering end to our fantasy of endless alternatives.
The unavoidable consequence to violating marriage vows is the end of marriage. The inescapable upshot of ignoring your children is losing them. Neglect your body (or over indulge it) and you’ll ruin it. The undeniable burden of ever increasing debt is the end of freedom. Rejecting the WAY that leads to life means life ends.
When there is no place else to go, we’ll have only one good option left. We’ll have to leave our old ways, turn to Jesus and adjust our lives to HIS will. Following Jesus is the WAY.
What we should have done in the beginning is our last best hope in the end.
Romans 14:11-12 - Read it for yourself in Scripture: "As I live and breathe," God says, "Every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God." So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God.
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Great post Mark!!
Posted by: Justin Moyer | February 21, 2012 at 04:20 PM
Thank you! What a great reminder for those of us just walking the line, forgetting why we are really here.
Posted by: Amy Luther | February 22, 2012 at 09:00 AM
Your questions raise the vital importance of spiritual self-governance.
Yes, ultimately God created us for community, but communities have a dangerous tendency towards groupthink, that if left unchecked, can strip the individual soul of his or her own personal responsibility.
A community is only as strong as the individuals it comprises.
The questions you ask your community of followers can not be overstated. Within every question lies a seed of truth each of us must take courage to identify and engage for ourselves.
Am I governing this individual life God gave me and the beliefs I hold with spiritual tenacity and grace, or have been unknowingly swept into the societal current that surrounds me?
Am I diligently looking for God's truth or simply seeking permission to "fit-in"?
I am in week four of The Tangible Kingdom. As I work to make God's Kingdom tangible within my immediate sphere of influence I am most impressed by how my smallest decisions impact man's kingdom, in a missional way.
Everyday I make hundreds of decisions that many would file under routine or unimportant yet I believe the economy of God is vastly different than the economy of man.
EVERYTHING we do holds missional potential.
As each year passes I am less concerned with hitting home runs and more concerned with hitting singles. Whatever influence I have must be felt NOW to those within my immediate world.
Once last thing. I lead a very small Men's Fellowship Group. We recently ditched studying third-party Christian books in favor of the Bible.
Man...is that a tough thing to do. What an awesome responsible to look into God's word for ourselves.
As I began to study I ran across this quote from Oswald Chambers concerning the personal responsibility of every believer that gave me pause.
“The Holy Spirit “abideth in you” says John. At the beginning of your spiritual life you wanted to run off to this man and to that, to this book and to that, until you learn that “the anointing abideth in you.” John and Peter and Paul all insist on the superb right of the humblest believer to test the teacher by the anointing which is in him. If we put teachers over against the Holy Ghost, when God removes them we go down, we mourn and say, “What shall we do now?” Watch how Paul deals with the people who say, “I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas”; he says in effect, “All teachers are yours.” A teacher is simply meant to rouse us up to face the truths revealed in the Bible and witnessed to by the Holy Ghost.”
God has set in motion a current that is drawing all life to Himself. Escape is not an option. I fall so so short in so so many ways but the miracle of Christ in my life is that He stoops down each time and lifts me up.
I will never be the same.
Posted by: Mark McClean | February 22, 2012 at 09:59 AM
Well stated Mark B & Mark McC. Your words give cause to pause, reflect and self evaluate. Today is the first day of Lent and a perfect symbolic day & reminder for us to repent & start anew in our attitude and walk.
Posted by: Sheryl Doll-Lewis | February 22, 2012 at 10:32 AM