“WHAT KEEPS US FROM FOLLOWING JESUS?”


The text from Matthew for our worship services this weekend is about the rich young ruler, and about possessions and wealth and what really matters most in the long run (Matt. 19:16-30). This is always a tricky passage for me, creating much guilt, excuses, musings about faith and works and salvation, and so forth and so on.

Today, as I was reading my “Magnificent Prayer” devotional, I remembered a recent entry about this very thing. I went back and reread it. Here is what it says:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. (I John 2:15-16)

Friends, it seems to me that I can see two hands outstretched to grip the throat of Christians and to strangle prayer. One is the hot, feverish, restless hand of worldliness; the other the cold, nervous hand of ceaseless activity. Has either gripped your throat and all but stopped your prayer? Ruth Paxson

PRAY ABOUT IT: We can be one with Christ or one with the world, but we cannot be one with both. If the love of the world is clutching your throat, it will surely strangle your prayer life. Ceaseless activity, even good activity in the name of Christ, will also thwart our prayerfulness. Better to step aside from worldliness and busyness and retain our prayer life than to lose the latter and be devoid of the Spirit. Watch today for those two outstretched hands that are reaching for your throat. Refuse their pull and stay close to God.

God cannot hear the prayers on our lips often because the desires of our heart after the world cry out to Him much more strongly and loudly than our desires for Him. Andrew Murray

What a descriptive phrase: “two hands outstretched to grip the throat of Christians, and to strangle prayer!” I certainly feel that often enough, don’t you?


How often and with such immediacy the “things of the world” assault us and overwhelm us! All our gadgets and gizmos, possessions and pleasures, diversions and desires (physical, emotional, spiritual), appetites, comforts, security--the list is almost limitless! And because these are so tangible, so ubiquitous, so normal and regular (“everyone is doing it” kind of thinking), so obviously basic and necessary (we think! After all, “we must be sensible about these things...”), we hardly take even a moment to stop, to question, to reflect, to step back and get a bigger, better view of what’s really at work here, in our normal everyday “domain of the drudgery” lives.


How often and with such compulsion we are driven to keep busy, get things done, achieve goals, accomplish a host of tasks, fill up our schedules, get involved, do this, do that, finish such-and-such before bed/before dinner/before going home--and along the way becoming “human doings” instead of “human beings.” Even in our spiritual lives, we get caught up in “oughts” and “shoulds” and almost ceaseless activity: read the Bible, pray more, pray a certain way, study more, go to more Bible studies/small groups/support groups, join this program/this ministry/this team, be at church whenever the doors are open, volunteer more, use your gifts and talents, get behind this cause, speak out about that issue, learn more, practice more--and before you know it, our relationship with God has gotten buried in a sea of actions, responsibilities, and commitments.

I guess my challenge to you--and to me--is simply this: Remember your priorities. Recall what truly counts. Live consciously. Keep aware, alert, in tune. Choose what you think and do and value every moment of every day with wisdom, discernment, and purpose. Do not worry. Release fear. Be in the present. Refuse to be overwhelmed. Push against everything that threatens to undo you. Getting rid of the worldly “stuff” that we already have too much of is a good way to go (the discipline of simplicity). “Letting go and letting God” (as my dear friend Dorothy Peterson used to say) is a wonderful way to not let all that good “Christian” activity weigh you down and smother your spirit. Take seriously to heart the teachings of Jesus about these things: “Store up treasures in heaven.” “You cannot serve God and money.” “Become like little children.” “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.” “Peace I give you--not as the world gives.” Recall the Scriptures: “Be still, and know that I am God.” “The Lord was not in the wind-earthquake-fire; (He) came in a gentle whisper.” “Be still before the Lord; wait patiently for Him.”


In some recent correspondence with people, I have written about our American Christian penchant for comfort and security. It seems to me that, because these cultural values have really infected us who claim to follow Christ, and have come to have such a high priority in the Church as well, it is necessary for Christians to pursue wealth and possessions and to keep busy doing all we can to keep ourselves safe and secure.

Isn’t this ironic? Isn’t this stupid? Isn’t this completely antithetical to our beliefs, to what “faith" is actually about, to the very essence of how Christ’s body, the Church (us; His representatives on earth) is supposed to be in the world? Isn’t all of this exactly what our rabbi and Savior, Jesus, warned us about? What He preached against? Think about it; all the ways Jesus made people uncomfortable (see this Sunday’s text again!). Think how often Jesus made people insecure. How He re-framed situations and understandings and expectations, moving people off center. These two priorities, comfort and security, are part and parcel of those two outstretched hands gripping the throat of Christians. Look at the adjectives: hot, feverish, restless, nervous, ceaseless. They are descriptive of preoccupations with comfort and security. And I think I hear Jesus saying that if we insist on pursuing these priorities, we can have no part in Him (John 13:8 paraphrased).

Harsh words. Stern warnings from Jesus. “Who then can be saved?”

If we are willing to live counter to all of the influences and pressures and expectations that the world places on us daily, it is possible to live more intimately and presently and responsively to the living God. We must willfully give our hearts--all of us; all of our affections and desires and preoccupations--over to our Lord and, through regular, persistent, ongoing prayer, make it clear Who it is that we love and serve; in Who it is that “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) It takes intentionality. It takes commitment. It takes dogged determination! But the more we practice a lifestyle that demonstrates Who has captured our heart, the easier it will become to put away uncertainty, worry, fear, obsessions, and the like.

Keeping open and responsive to the realities of the wider world can help too. I want to close this blog post with an example of this, one that is very difficult to watch but that certainly helps put one’s priorities into proper place with no doubts whatsoever. I received the link to this YouTube video from a friend at the AIDS hospice in Chennai, India who I continue to support. Watch it, and see if your priorities aren’t significantly realigned almost immediately. Then, let the impact of what you see and experience transform, in some way, your own attitude about possessions, wealth, and your personal priorities. comfort?security?

This Sunday is also Pentecost Sunday. A blessed Pentecost to all of you!

“Veni Sancte Spiritus!”

Come, O Holy Spirit. Come as Holy Fire and burn us. Come as Holy Wind and cleanse us within. Come as Holy Light and lead us in the darkness. Come as Holy Truth and dispel our ignorance. Come as Holy Power and enable our weakness. Come as Holy Life and dwell in us.

Convict us, convert us, consecrate us until we are set free from the service of ourselves to be your servants in the world.

Amen.