by Paul Dragu
When I was little I wanted to be a ninja. I saw Enter the Dragon and I was convinced that when I would grow up, I would make a living by punching and kicking people into submission. My brother, Silviu, had seen the same movie and, as a ten year-old, walked a mile down the road to the nearest Tae Kwon Do studio, and signed up. I, on the other hand, wanted no part of walking two miles a day, five times a week. My plan was to obtain my ninja skills through a type of visual osmosis. It is many years later, and I’m not the one who can break bricks with my forehead.
Delivery pizza places, microwaves, and cell phones have catapulted us into an Instant Society. We want it- whatever it may be- and we want it now. We don’t have the patience to put in the time and the work. We want the results without the process. The process is tedious. It’s mundane. It’s painful. It’s frustrating. It makes us anxious. It’s the motivation for Facebook statuses like, “Thank God I get off at 4, I’m about to hurt somebody.” Can a job where you have the time to post Facebook statuses be so bad that it would cause you to want to hurt someone?
I’ve heard many people complain about their walk with God and how they’re just “not feeling” Him. “It’s like He’s not even there anymore,” I’ve heard someone say. What I’ve noticed, nine times out of ten, is that the same people complaining about their stale spiritual state are the same people who haven’t read their Bible in weeks. Some of them haven’t been to church in weeks. A lot of them don’t have a small group they attend regularly. A lot of these people spend more time with nonbelievers than Christians. And when it comes to excuses, they say that they just can’t force themselves to read the Bible if they don’t feel like it. The reason they haven’t been to church is because they had to work – as if Sunday is the only option-or they don’t like their church. And as far as small groups are concerned, they just don’t see that as a priority. Nobody has to walk far to find an excuse.
Apostle Paul refers to the Christian journey as a race. For anyone who has ever run enough to be tired, you know that the moment you become tired, your initial reaction is to stop running. But I’ve never seen anyone win a race and not be tired. I’ve never seen anyone make a last-second buzzard beater from the sidelines. Never once in the history of mankind has a woman taken less than three hours to prepare for an important event that includes four types of forks. But I always meet Christians who want to walk closer with God and reap more blessings without running. They want to win by walking.
I’m not advertising legalism. I’m not saying you should read your Bible everyday for an hour and say three prayers by lunchtime and listen to at least two sermons a week. I’m saying that God wants to have a closer relationship with you. A relationship is a two-way road. Where else would you find out about your Savior than in the book that’s about and by Him? How could you have a relationship with someone without talking to Him? Scripture tells us that we grow in Christ from glory to glory, day to day, little by little. It’s not an overnight process. Paul told the Galatians not to grow tired in doing good because they will reap in due time. The author of Hebrews tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Jacob wrestled God all night and would not let Him go until he got his blessing. Elisha followed Elijah in spite of much discouragement; he received a double portion of the power of Elijah (his last miracle was done after his flesh died). The theme here is persistence. We are responsible for putting ourselves in position for God to transform us. Rarely does God transform someone who watches three hours of SportsCenter a day, or every Housewives marathon. And I’ve yet to hear a testimony that includes God’s revelation during a four-hour Facebook binge.
I’m not talking as someone who’s way ahead. I’m talking as someone who is fighting the good fight as well. I’m talking as someone who just received a degree with a letter from the program director that says that in order for me to become a successful writer I must be persistent and use my rejections as motivation and not as a source of depression. I haven’t even told them of my rejections, yet they seem to be fully aware. So how much more, when our life in eternity is at stake, should we be diligent? How much more difficult is the fight going to be if we’re fighting for all the marbles? If we truly believe we are at war, why are we surprised when we encounter obstacles on our way to a fruitful relationship with Christ? My pastor once said that if we never run into the devil, it may be because we’re both going in the same direction.
My brother can break bricks with his head because he was willing to walk two miles a day, rain or shine, hot or cold. Jesus said that we can do greater things than He. But He never said it was going to be easy.
You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughtsaboutgod.com/blog/2012/03/28/pd_how-to-be-a-ninja/
http://www.pauldragu.blogspot.com/
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