Giving Your Faith Guts

Coffee is amazing. It’s quite literally my drug of choice. I mean, yes, I could stop drinking if I had to… I think… but why stop doing something that makes me so peaceful and my thoughts so coherent and that gives me good grades? If you’re wondering whether or not this rambling on about coffee has a point then I’m sorry to disappoint you. Because it doesn’t really, aside from the fact that I don’t have any at the moment and really wish that I did. My coffee maker is at most 20 feet from where I’m sitting. But to make coffee would require me to get up out of this comfortable chair, walk out the door of Andrew’s room, across the hall, and then into my room. This would be followed up by the necessary preparations for coffee making such as: cleaning out the stale, old dried up coffee grounds from the last pot of coffee I made, filling up the water container in the back and putting it back on the coffee maker without spilling it five times (a feat in itself), and then filling up a fresh filter with new coffee (preferably Dunkin Donuts). That’s a lot of stuff to do. I may love coffee more than Andrew loves Husker football, but I’m also lazy. Coffee’s just too much work for me right now. See? I told you I wasn’t addicted.

But I’m not just lazy about inane things like getting up to make some coffee. I also tend to be lazy about things like school and working out (although you wouldn’t know it from my washboard abs and toned pecs). More importantly and more dangerously, I have a tendency to be lazy about my relationship with God. I go to bed all pumped about getting up early and spending time talking to God, but when I wake up I hit the snooze button almost without hesitation. I tell myself that I’ll do it later on in the day. I say I need my sleep so I can be a better witness for Jesus. That’s such a load of crap. The truth is I don’t value God enough. I view God like ordering in the drive-through at McDonalds: if it’s taking too long I just skip it and go on to the next thing in my day.

It doesn’t end there. I’m also lazy about standing up for my faith. I’m the kind of guy that hates conflict. Debating is my worst enemy, right up there with dentists and needles. One of the things that turns me off the most is the endless fighting over which denomination is the most right. As a result, when an individual says something in opposition to my faith whether it’s directly attacking it or not I tend to let it slide. I don’t want to disturb the peace, to make any waves. What a horrible way to live! Always trying to please everyone. Isaiah 8:14 says that Jesus is “a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” While I don’t think that this is an excuse for a no holds barred Gospel where Christians unapologetically cram the Bible down the throats unbelievers, I do believe that the good news of the Gospel will offend some people. I believe that some people will just think it’s crazy. But that’s not always something to shy away from. 2 Peter 1:5 says that one of the things that we must add to our faith in order for it to be complete is goodness (“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness…”). At first glance goodness seems like a weird word to put in that verse. Shouldn’t it say something about having a good quiet time or praying a lot in order to fill your faith? Instead all it says is that we need to have goodness. What does that mean, that we’re supposed to just be good? Isn’t that kind of obvious on its own? In actuality, the Greek word, arête, that is translated in the NIV as goodness really denotes manliness, a courage or valor. So Peter isn’t telling us that we need to be good, he’s telling us that we need to grow a pair! We need to stop tip-toeing around truth because it’s inconvenient for our friendships. True and effective faith requires the guts to back it up, whether or not that’s getting up early to talk to God or it’s finally telling a friend about the difference Christ has made in your life. Do you have the faith to submit completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Do you have what it takes? Being a follower of Christ was never meant to be easy. If you say you’re a Christian, then live like one. Be different. I dare you.

“If you do not stand firm in your faith you will not stand at all.” (Isaiah 7:9b)

-Jeremy