Myth Busters
Are Christians Party Poopers?
By Roger Pryor, Heartland
Community Church
Church people are often perceived as "no
fun." We’ve heard people say, "He used to be fun until
they got religion." Church people can be boring. Rather than
living an off-road adventure of exhilaration and risk, they settle
for the residential street of boredom and redundancy.
Sadly, pre-Christians look at many church
people and figure God is a party pooper God—dull, boring,
unengaged with life, asleep at the wheel, and doing circles in
cul-de-sacs for cheap thrills. But that is not the case! One man
describes God as "wild, dangerous, unfettered, and free."
God is living out his adventure. He’s a God of risks and thrill
seeking.
He could have created and programmed robots to
do His will, but instead God created people with the freedom to
choose—even the freedom to reject Him. At great risk, God didn’t
make Adam and Eve obey Him, but allowed their choices to rewrite and
shape all of human history.
All of history to this day has been about God’s
adventure of pursuing a relationship with us—a relationship that
we messed up. The Bible is packed full of adventure stories where
God shows up to rescue his people. He loves to come through for us.
He wants relationship and to share the adventure with each of us.
When God invaded earth in the person of Jesus,
He certainly didn’t live a passive life of boredom. Was it always
fun and easy? No. But it was a life of adventure, risk, and passion
to rescue people who were spiritually lost. In turn, he challenged
his followers to stretch their limits and join him on an adventure
of extreme faith.
In Mark 8:35 Jesus said, "If
you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you
give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you
will find true life."
Jesus is saying if you play it safe, keep life
for yourself, you’ll miss out on all the life God has for you. But
if you will take some big time spiritual risks and give up your life
for Jesus’ sake, you’ll find true life—a life of extreme
adventure, a ride together with Him. It may not always be fun or
easy, but here are three things the Christian life can be for you:
1. A Great Adventure
Life is not a problem to be solved; it is an
adventure to be lived. God has wired us for adventure, not
necessarily for fun. Adventure requires something of us, puts us to
the test. Life is not made for boredom but for adventure. One day,
Jesus asked Simon Peter to go fishing. A professional fisherman,
Peter was reluctant because he had caught nothing the night before.
Besides, Jesus was a carpenter, not an angler. When he dropped his
nets, the catch was so large the nets began to tear and boat began
to sink. Luke 5:9-11says, For he was
awestruck by the size of their catch, as were the others with him.
His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.
Jesus replied to Simon, "Don't be afraid! From now on you'll be
fishing for people!" And as soon as they landed, they left
everything and followed Jesus.
Jesus was offering these fishermen the
adventure of a lifetime. They would be fishing for people—netting
out people for eternity. Ultimately, it was a high stakes drama that
cost Jesus his life and later it cost his disciples theirs as well.
Imagine an untrained, uneducated group of guys who walk away from
their greatest catch of fish and find a life worth living—a life
of casting nets toward people who are far from God and offering them
a relationship and the adventure of a lifetime with God.
The famous English sculptor Henry Moore at the
age of 80 was asked about the secret of life. Moore smiled and
answered: "The secret of life is to have a task, something you
do your entire life, something you bring everything to, every minute
of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is: It
must be something you cannot possibly do."
God has set us on earth with an incredible
mission that we can’t possible do on our own. That’s why God
asks us to join Him in netting out people for God. What could
be more thrilling than impacting another person for eternity? God
has made us for a great adventure, not for getting lost in the
cul-de-sacs of life.
2. The
Christian life is not always fun or easy—but for sure, it’s a
risk-taking climb. Adventure eventually leads to risk. Risk always
stretches the limits to what we’re comfortable with. So we dump
our dreams because we aren’t willing to risk or face our fears.
After the great catch of fish by Peter, he was awestruck and afraid.
He could have stayed paralyzed in his fears, but he and the others
signed on for the adventure of following Jesus. What a huge risk!
It was at Vickery Park in Dallas that
I made my first death-defying leap from the high board. Remember
when you climbed up the ladder of the high dive and walked out on
the board? Didn’t it seem like a mile high? For several days, I
made the climb, only to backtrack down the steps because I was
afraid—okay I was a coward. The risk was too great. So I’d slink
down to the safety of the shallow end. This went on for days until I
finally took the big leap.
That’s how it is for Christ
followers. We sign on for the greatest adventure in history that
will lead us to heaven—we climb the steps with the intention of
making a splash for God—only to freeze on the board. So we back
off the high dive with God, climb down and slink into the shallow
end of boredom and non-adventure. No wonder our spiritual lives are
dry; life has no sense of urgency; our existence is redundant and
boring; God seems distant and out of touch.
But it’s on the high dive where our
hearts beat fast and our knuckles turn white; where our prayers
really matter; where if God doesn’t show up we’re headed for a
belly flop. One author says, "God rigged the world in such a
way that it only works when we embrace risk as the theme of our
lives, which is to say, only when we live by faith."
3.
The Christian life is not always fun or easy—but it’s full of
eternal challenges. Life with too much comfort and not enough
challenge is dangerous. Researchers at the University of California
at Berkley did an experiment where they introduced an amoeba into a
perfectly stress-free environment; ideal temperature; and constant
food supply. In essence, they removed everything that might give
amoebas ulcers, high blood pressure or migraines. Yet, oddly enough,
it died. Apparently, there is something about all living creatures,
even amoebas that demands challenge and change. Otherwise, comfort
without challenge will kill us.
God is throwing you some eternal
challenges your way. He wants to move you from being a casual
observer to someone with skin in the game. He wants you to open your
heart to taking a dive off the high dive and making a splash for
Him. So let me close with two dangerous, risky prayers that are far
from shallow-end praying.
The first prayer is for those
of you who are not yet Christ followers, but are interested in God
with reservations. Let me challenge you to pray this high dive
prayer: "God, show me who you
are."
Jeremiah 29:13 says,
If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.
Are you open to praying "God,
show me who you are?" "God, my heart would be open to you
if you would show up. I’m going to start diligently looking for
you. Show me who you are."
For those of you who are Christ followers,
here’s your high dive risky prayer: "God, use me like
you’ve never used me before. God
I want to net out people for you. Use me to touch one more person so
they won’t be the same again. God take me out of the shallow end
and put me on the high dive and use me in amazing ways to make a
splash in this world."
Every man dies, not every man really
lives. Real living begins when we join the adventure by climbing on
the high dive and saying to God—"Here I am; I surrender my
life to the use of your plan."
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