ADVENTageous
- Jason Elder
- Nov 21, 2007
ADVENTageous
I’m an average person. Okay, besides the frequent images
of Jack Bauer saving the world, again, I think I’m average. I assume that many
others feel the same was as I. There are some things that grate on me and there
are some things, even simple things, in which I find great delight. I enjoy
times of busyness where it seems I can defy the odds and get so many things
accomplished and still have energy left over. I also enjoy times of quite where
I can stop, relax and think about my life, where I’ve been, where I’m going,
and what really makes it to the top-tier of my priority list. But most of all I
have this inner urge to make a difference, to use the energy of my life as a
force for God’s good in this world. Understand me, not to make my name great
but to make his name great. It’s not always been like that, though. Let us
proceed.
I became a believer when I was a teenager. I would hear
these great stories, almost legends, of global missionaries and local
Christians who seemed to give their all to God, even their very life. I began
to think that God would ask me to give my all. He would call me to be a
missionary that makes the American news for all the wrong reasons. I would live
there in poverty, in a mud hut, and do most of my work around a campfire. Many
would come to faith and I would eventually become a martyr. I would spill my
life’s blood out on spiritually dry ground and a church would flourish from my
seeds of sacrifice. Yes, God was going to ask all of me: my death.
Something life-altering has come about in my
understanding of how God works. He has asked me to do things numerous times
that I thought was impossible or outside my realm of finiteness. “I can’t do
that. I don’t have it in me. I don’t have the skills or the patience or the fortitude!”
I would honestly say to him. And yet the call went on. It wasn’t anything
dangerous, really. All of my blood stayed on the inside of me, yet God was
still asking for my all: my life. You see, I thought God would ask all of me
and that meant he would write one big check--account empty, body empty, and
eyes of young girls full of tears as they mourn for me in the afternoon sun. Obviously, I
was wrong on several accounts.
Recently we’ve been talking about the Advent Conspiracy,
which is about aligning ourselves with what God would like. We, of course, do
not think it is wrong to give gifts. We all will give and receive gifts. It’s
wonderful to celebrate with friends and family by exchanging gifts. It is also
good to spend differently, by reconsidering our habits so that others might
have what we take for granted. The main purpose of Advent Conspiracy is
to cut away some of the things that clutter the nativity scene, which tells of
the arrival of Jesus. But could it be that as I simply de-clutter my life and
give Jesus the worshipful attention he deserves that I could actually help
others, even something as simple as giving differently to my family? Could it
be that by making a small change in one area can be used by God to affect
change elsewhere? It’s an insane probability that only God could pull off! Though
I may not do it perfectly this year I’m going to try, and if I fail I will fail
forward upon the grace of God. This will not be the death of commercialism by
any means, but this could mean for me a Christmas that gives new life and changes the world again, theirs and mine.
