This week at camp, I was talking to Chris, a representative for Compassion International who is from Kenya. We had a large response from the students the night before, and he was saying how impressed he was that the students would respond when they had so many distractions. I looked at him and encouraged him to continue explaining this thought. He said that here in America, youth have so many options, so many demands for their attention, that he was happily surprised to see them choose to focus on God. Here, if you are sick, you go to the doctor; if you are hurt, you go to the hospital. If you are in danger, you call the police. If you are hungry, you go to the store, or just to the refrigerator. He explained, in Kenya, if you are sick, you pray. Because there is no doctor, God is your only option. If you are hurt, you pray. If you are in danger, you pray. If you are hungry, you pray. There is no other rescue. You must turn to God.
In that moment, I realized one of the greatest detriments of our wealthy Western culture. We have other options. In Kenya, they pray continuously, like the Bible instructs, because they have to. Here we try to, but we always get sidetracked, distracted, by our other options. I don’t want God to be an option; I want Him to be the solution, always. I want to turn to Him first and only. When I am sick, I want to pray, and if God answers and wants me to go to the doctor, awesome. When I am in danger, I want to pray, and then call 911. When I am hungry, I want to pray, then go to Whataburger. Although I think God might lead a different direction.
Thoughts?
Todd
P.S. We are getting back to Romans soon. I got a little overwhelmed by the beginning of Romans and then had to get ready for camp. It’s coming this next week.
God is amazing I am 13 years old and I am already singing on my church’s worship team:) singing is what I do I have been doing it since I was 8 and just fell in love with it and I love praising our lord God is fantastic and my faviorite worship song of all time is ” mighty to save” every time I sing it I start to cry it just means so much to me
I’m not disagreeing with anything you said, but that comment about not wanting God to be a choice made me think of this: while people who do not have the options and distractions we enjoy and who cling to God because they have to, experience something amazing that many Westerners have no concept of, (and it should humble us), the other side of the coin is that when we who have myriads of options and distractions choose God anyway, there is a precious element of worship that is sweet to God, an encouragement to other believers like it was to Chris, and a testimony to a lost and dying world.
So while I want in my heart to be so devoted to God that is is as if there is no other choice, I also love it that He is a choice, because when I choose Him it is because I want to, and I feel His pleasure at that choice as a Beloved child, because I know how wonderful it feels when one of my Beloveds in this life chooses me over other things.
2 Corinthians 1:9
Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.