Get Outta' My Face, Rat Race!

You ever rolled your eyes at time constraints? What does it mean when they annoy you?

Ever awakened wondering what day it is only to realize it's a non work day, which makes you OH SO THANKFUL?

Have you, at this realization, mentally and emotionally thrown up your hands, thanking God you don't have to part with your pillow and hit the morning grind as hard as you normally do?

As Christian radio host Willie Moore Jr. says, it just makes you feel good in your SHAH NAH-NAH!

Just last Saturday morning, I had this experience as my alarm went off! I felt so relieved that I didn't have to bid my current state of stillness and quiet goodbye. I got to stay right where I was, betwixt my warm bed sheets, inside my home, separated from the brisk morning elements just on the other side of the wall beside my bed. Oh, what a wonderful moment!

WHAT TO DO?

So, what are we to do when we must leave a safe, cozy environment only to thrust ourselves into the rat race feel of life?

Welp, the trick is carrying that internal stillness into our day as the gears begin to grind. And actually, this is not a trick, but it's a settling in our hearts that God's in and with us; therefore, we're fine, regardless. This posture of rest, of course, is for the believer. And not to throw shade or cast stones at the non-believer, but I cannot avoid shining a light on the factual truth that Christ followers are saved from more than just an abysmal, hell-fire-after-death experience. We're saved from an on earth, mark-missing detriment of life withOUT Christ. We're called to be ALL JESUS EVERYTHING.

I know this may sound like TOO MUCH, but the reality is that as the believer continues to live, our lives should increasingly be magnetically drawn, by the Holy Spirit who's in us, toward the righteousness that IS God. Everything in our lives should feel compelled to obedience to Him. Additionally and amazingly, He speaks to us, backed by His written Word, in order that we consistently perceive Him as He provides His spot-on specific instruction.

Here's where the intimacy that blows a mind happens. Our Father finds us right where we are, addressing everything that involves us AND OTHERS. He, as we begin to see maturely, talks to us the way He does and allows us to go through the things we go through for the sake of soooooooo many besides ourselves. We're to be letters "that anyone can read by" observing us. Christ writes them (us as the aforementioned letters) "—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives" (2 Cor. 2:13 -- AMP).

MORE THAN A COME-TO-JESUS MOMENT

This is how we evangelize, living lives that are unavoidably convincing of the downright necessity of CHRIST in the heart. As people encounter us, their insides should cry out for the internal rest and peace they sense we obtain. And a quite liberating concept that's recently been highlighted at my church by my pastor is that evangelism is not to only be directed at the individual without Christ. Christians need to be evangelized as well. We need encouraging reminders of the undeniable requirement that a soul has for oneness with Christ ... that we may keep trudging, keep fighting, keep being faithful, and keep being hopeful in the very thing that attracted us to Jesus in the first place.

When we begin to yield to our humanity, inching closer toward the illusion that Christ is okay with playing the role of supplement in our lives, a brother or sister evangelist comes along to remind us to rearrange our priority list, pushing prayer and meditating on the Bible back to their proper places. Bro and sis come to sharpen us again, telling us that things are not only about us, but that they're about our obedience to God in His grand scheme. Thus, we're recharged and not allowed to regress in our growth or occupy complacency. So, don't get mad when you're chin checked (one of my increasingly favorite terms) by another believer ... it's what God requires of them. If they left you dull, they'd be doing you a disservice.

Francis Chan put it like this:

"The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His."

Your life, believer or not, is not your own. You're not the author, nor are you the controller. This realization often readjusts my vision, making me see that much of the pressure in my day is self-created. Heck yeah, I still have stuff to do ... a Kingdom family to help weaponize and lead, a local ministry in which to serve with a pure heart, and broken students to pull up from the hellish pits in which they blindly dwell. However, because my primary call is showing people JESUS, all of the things that make up my daily grind shouldn't be allowed to make me anxiety ridden or uncontrollably annoyed. So, when the wrong emotional state begins to increase within, it's my hope that my ALL JESUS EVERYTHING posture leads me to quick remembrance that I've really got nothing to be up in arms about. My beat, regardless of my external pace, is one of peaceful, "Get-outta-my-face, Rat Race" rest that laughs at whatever tries to make me forget the heavenly place with Christ in which I'm seated. Geoffrey Golden speaks so well of this place at the front of his song "Glory to the Lamb". Listen ...

#RatRace #GetOutofMyFace #Evangelism #Evangelize #AllJesusEverything