I Will Run After You

It's hard to put words to what has been happening lately.

It all began when I read what is probably the best book I've ever read, The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. That book changed the way I looked at a lot of things in life and it made me want to live a simpler life, one that was focused less on stuff and more on people. I read that book over a year ago, but the past few weeks are when things really started happening all at once.

At the beginning of June, I started reading a book co-authored by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President, and became involved with a book study on a message board. I am about halfway through the book and I have realized that, although it isn't perfect (what book written by human beings is going to be?) God has been using some of the themes in it in a very powerful way. This book is a great reminder that as Christians, we are not called to change the world politically or to live our lives the way the rest of the world does; we are called to love others and to live the way Jesus told us to live.

I have also started this study of Luke; I actually started it about a week before I started posting about it here, so I'm further into Luke than 5 chapters. And as I am reading, so many things are jumping out at me, to the point that I cannot ignore them. Just from Luke 1-5, I am seeing certain themes and messages over and over. For example:
- How great God's plans are, even when they seem crazy, impossible, or scary.
- How God does things in a way we would never expect.
- Reminders that when we are following God, we are supposed to live lives that are less self-focused, we are supposed to focus on others, serve others, give to those who are in need, take less for ourselves, want less for ourselves, and be satisfied with simply having what we need.
- That even things that aren't inherently bad or wrong can take so much of our focus that they become sinful.
- That throughout Jesus' life, people left everything (their jobs, their ways of life, their plans, their dreams) to follow him.

It seems that everything lately is giving me the same message, pointing me in the same general direction. I read Luke 5 and began wondering if I would leave everything and follow God if he asked me to. Clark and I were talking about money and life in general, and we came to the conclusion that we have, very unintentionally, bought into the idea that life is about money; we are always so focused on paying bills, buying what we need, getting things we want. And we're sick of living that way. There's more to life than this. I read in Jesus for President, "Jesus is ready to set us free from the heavy yoke of an oppressive way of life. Plenty of wealthy Christians are suffering from the weight of the American dream, heavily burdened by the lifeless toil and consumption we embrace. This is the yoke from which we are being set free." No, we're not wealthy, but this quote describes so well the way of life we are tired of. We took Elijah to see Wall-E, and one of the characters was longing for a different way of life, a way that he knew would be harder but it would be so much better and more fulfilling, and he cried out, "I don't want to survive; I want to live!" I don't remember the last time I felt so overwhelmed with emotion; that was exactly the sentiment I had been trying to put words to. It seems that everywhere I turn, God is whispering, "There is more to life than this. I don't want you to just survive; I want you to live."

I know that God has a plan, but I don't know the specifics yet. I have a feeling it is going to involve the things I've mentioned above- changing our focus in life, leaving it all to follow him. I have a feeling the plan is going to look and sound crazy or impossible to many people- and maybe even us at first!- but that God has a great plan. And we are coming to a point where we're going to have to choose whether to keep living life the way we do now, or whether we are going to follow God. I'll wrap this up with a song we sang at church on Sunday, a song that has been my prayer all week:

Give me one pure and holy passion,
Give me one magnificent obsession,
Give me one glorious ambition for my life-
To know and follow hard after you.

To know and follow hard after you,
To grow as your disciple in your truth.
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you, my Lord,
So lead me on and I will run after you.
Lead me on and I will run after you.