Life-Changing Decisions
I turned 50 in March of this year. I received the requisite birthday cards from family and friends making wisecracks about my age. And, unfortunately, I also received the requisite order from my doctor to get a colonoscopy.
The morning of that appointment Kendra and I drove to the office on Wolf River boulevard. After a short time in the waiting room, I was called to the procedure room. There an attendant asked me to sit down while she asked at least fifty health questions. I had already answered at least fifty questions on an online questionnaire before the appointment. But either I’d failed that questionaire or they were just really, really interested in my health.
When the attendant was done with her list of questions, she took out a form for me to sign. By signing the form, she said, I was making a commitment to several things. One of those commitments was put in these words:
“I will make no life-changing decisions today.”
Because I’d be going under anesthesia, and anesthesia can affect people in significant ways, they didn’t want any of their patients making life-changing decisions.
As I signed the document, I thought about that line.
After all, that’s a big ask–no life-changing decisions for the remainder of the day. I thought, “That’s a lot of power. You just removed me from all high level decision-making. All I get to do for the rest of the day is make low level decisions.” I suddenly felt like I no longer mattered. I couldn’t do anything of significance for the rest of the day.
But then I thought, “What if this thing they had just done to me was a super power? What if I had that super power? What if anytime someone around me was about to make a decision that was going to negatively affect me or others, and I could simply say, “Sorry, but for the next 24 hours, you’ve lost the ability to make life-changing decisions.” The cop about to give me a ticket that was going to raise my insurance. Zap. The politician about to make a crazy play. Zap. The criminal about to do something hurtful. Zap. Wouldn’t it be amazing to disable people from making life-changing decisions, especially when they are about to make life-changing decisions you disagree with?
But, then, I wondered: “What constitutes a life-changing decision?” Because sometimes it’s hard to know exactly when a decision is life-changing and when it isn’t.
Obviously, accepting a new job or quitting an old job is life-changing. Deciding to sell a house or buy a house is life-changing. But some decisions might not seem life-changing yet could be life-changing.
For example, I recently completed a book by Allison Pataki called Beauty in the Broken Places. It’s a true story. A few years ago, on the morning before she and her husband were to board a flight to Hawaii for a vacation, her husband made a simple decision. He decided not to take a run that morning. It was a small and insignificant decision. Yet that decision, made by a husband who’d been immobile for many days because he’d been writing papers required by his medical residency, may have been deadly. Had he run, he may have avoided the formation of a clot which eventually went into his brain when he and Allison were 30,000 feet in the air in the airplane and which led to a massive stroke and which permanently altered his life and hers. Allison looks at that one decision not to run and wonders if Dave had run, would things have turned out differently? Suddenly that insignificant decision seems like a life-changing decision.
So, which decisions are life-changing? And which ones are not?
Life-Saving or Life-Changing
How about the decision to follow Jesus? For many, the decision to follow Jesus is a life-saving decision but not necessarily a life-changing decision. For me, my initial decision to go with Jesus was motivated primarily about my desire to be saved from hell. Following Jesus, at least initially, was mostly something I did in order to be saved but not to be changed.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. Many turn to Jesus because they are primarily looking to Jesus to save their lives in some way. Some are looking for him to save their lives in an eternal sense. Others turn to Jesus because they are looking for him to save their lives in a more here-and-now sense. They need saving in terms of their parenting, in terms of their stress management, in terms of their career choices, in terms of their dealing with some issue or challenge in life. And thus they turn to Jesus and ask him for that life-saving help.
But what Jesus has come for is not just life-saving, but life-changing.
When Jesus describes what it’s like to be his disciple or his follower, he uses a variety of terms. One of the terms he uses is the word “seek.” We hear him use this word in his famous Sermon on the Mount:
But seekfirst the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt. 6:33 ESV)
This word “seek” implies a journey or a quest whose ultimate goal is life-change. Here’s a little background on the word.
- This word “seek” is used in Matthew 2 to describe how Herod would seek the young Jesus so he could put an end to Jesus’ life. Herod embarked on a quest, a search, for the young Jesus in order to eliminate this competitor to Herod’s power (Matt. 2:13).
- This is the same word Jesus uses to describe what happens to an unclean spirit when it is cast out of a person. That spirit passes through waterless places seeking rest. It goes on a quest to find a peaceful place (Matt. 12:43).
- Jesus will tell a parable of a merchant who goes searching for fine pearls (Matt. 13:45), and of a shepherd who goes on a long journey searching for a lost sheep (Matt. 18:12). That’s the same word Jesus uses in Matt. 6:33.
Jesus is describing life with him as a “seeking.” A quest. A journey.
When Hurricane Harvey swept through the Houston, TX area in 2017, it dropped 51 inches of rain in TX.[1]Over 27 trillion gallons of rain. Losses from the hurricane mounted up to $75 billion.
After the hurricane hit the Houston, TX area, Tennessee Task Force One Search and Rescue based in Memphis sent eighty members to the Houston area to assist with searching and rescuing people stranded by the floodwaters.[2]They engaged in long and arduous seeking for very important and valuable objects.
Jesus describes life with him with a similar term: seeking or searching. It is a quest or a journey for something very important.
Listen to the way one scholar frames this for us:
“The verb ‘seek’…refers to the ultimate life quest, what one relentlessly focuses on.” [Ben Witherington III Matthew]
Life with Jesus is a journey, a seeking, a quest. This makes sense, given that Jesus will later describe himself as “the Way” (Jn. 14:6) and the early church will be known simply as “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). Jesus self-identified as a journey, a pathway, and his earliest followers saw themselves in a similar way as well.
And the journey or quest Jesus is urging us to take with him, what he’s asking us to seek, is something that is life-changing. It’s a journey much like the one Gandalf invited Bilbo on in The Lord of the Rings:[3]
Bilbo understands something about Gandalf’s invitation that many of us never truly come to understand about Jesus’ invitation. It is an invitation to something that is life altering. It will make us late for dinner! It will make us uncomfortable. It is a quest that will indeed change our lives.
Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch have written about this search, this quest.[4]They say that, sadly, most churches and Christians misunderstand it. They illustrate this misunderstanding in this way.
Churches and Christians who are living out a “Bounded Set” view of following Jesus are focused solely on the clearly seen and hard boundary between who’s “in” and who’s “out.” That is, the journey for them is really just about getting “in” with Jesus and his church. Once you’re “in,” once baptized or a member of the right church, the journey is over. There is no clear and defined picture of anything beyond that. And, in that sense, the journey is hardly life-changing. The rest of life, in fact, is mostly about waiting for Jesus to return. And, judging. Judging those who are not “in.” The journey is just about getting baptized or placing membership. Then the journey is over.
But Hirsch and Frost say that the more biblical picture is of churches and Christians who are live out a “Centered Set” view of following Jesus. In this way of viewing things, our focus is not simply on the boundary between who’s “in” and who’s “out.” That’s still an important issue. It’s still important that we take those initial steps of entering into relationship with Jesus and with his community, the church. But the real focus is at the center. That’s what unifies us. That’s what draws us together. What our lives are about is not just doing something to get “in.” What our lives are about is also an ongoing journey to the center. And no matter where you are, how distant you are from that center, what we share in common is a commitment to seeking that center.
When I was in elementary school, my dad decided to take my brother Craig and I on a trip to the Grand Canyon. We drove for a couple of days and then spent the night in a motel outside the park. The next morning we got up to drive into the park. Before the entrance to the park, Dad said, “Boys, close your eyes.” He had us close our eyes as we entered the boundary of the park, pulled up to the rim of the canyon and parked the car. “Boys,” he said, “open your eyes.” We opened our eyes. And we were amazed! Even as elementary aged boys, we weren’t immune from the majesty and glory of the canyon. It left us breathless. We had gone from being “out” to being “in” the Grand Canyon National Park for the very first time. And just that short journey was inspiring. It was amazing.
But our journey was not just about that short yet momentous trip from “out” of the park to “in” the park. We had only just begun. Because for months we’d all been training to hike down into the center canyon and spend the night at the bottom. It was about ten miles down to the bottom where we’d stay at the Phantom Ranch. As amazing as the entrance was, our real focus was on the journey much farther into the canyon itself.
That’s the life Jesus is inviting us into. Not just the initial journey of the entrance into relationship with him. But the much longer and deeper journey toward the center–what he calls the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Royalty & Righteousness
There are many ways to describe the destination of this journey. Jesus’ favorite way to describe the destination, the center, was with the word “love.” Jesus said the two greatest commands were to love God and love neighbor. That’s one way of describing the center. We’re on a journey, a seeking, of ever-increasing love of God and love of neighbor.
But here, Jesus describes that destination using different, but related, concepts:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of Godand his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt. 6:31-33 ESV)
There’s a lot going on in this quote. We won’t take the time to fully upack it. But here’s one way to get to the heart of it: Jesus invites us to a life-changing journey of royalty and righteousness.
Earlier, in his beatitudes, Jesus invited us to hunger and thirst after this quality of righteousness:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matt. 5:6 ESV)
What is “righteousness”? Let me give you this definition:[5]
The establishment of a right relationship—primarily between God and people, secondarily between people themselves. Righteousness is the fulfillment of just expectations in any relationship, whether with God or other people. It is applicable at all levels of society and is relevant in every area of life. Therefore, righteousness denotes the fulfilled expectations in relationships between man and wife, parents and children, fellow citizens, employer and employee, merchant and customers, ruler and citizens, and God and people.
In other words, righteousness has to do with relationship.[6]Every relationship in our lives now comes onto the radar screen as we engage on this seeking with Jesus. Every interaction gets colored by our walk with Jesus. We might like to think that spirituality only has to do with me and God, or me and Jesus. But following Jesus means entering a journey, a quest, in which every relationship is colored by our identity as a follower of Jesus. It is thatlife-changing. It’s not simply about being baptized or placing membership and gaining entrance to an initial relationship with Jesus or his church. It’s also about embarking on a search, a quest, in which every human interaction is “righteous” or “right” or “just.”
Every word you write about every person you agree with our disagree with on social media. Every interaction you have with waiters or salespersons or stewards or the people who clean your home or hotel room. How you handle interruptions. How you deal with difficult people. We’re on a journey to the deep center where every single relationship and interaction is colored by Jesus, is right and just–righteous.
In addition, Jesus calls us to seek, to enter a quest for, the “kingdom of God.” This is language of royalty, of kingship. When we decide to follow Jesus, we are following not just a helper, not just taking a walk with a friend. We are submitting to a king. And we are thus engaging on a journey of increasing submission to and obedience to this king and his reign or rule over our lives.
Here’s where all the Old Testament background comes into play, and two of the 16 texts we’re looking at in this series. Early in the story, in Genesis, we learn that the tribe of Judah, one of the tribes of Israel, will produce a never-ending king:
1 Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. 2 “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father…
8 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him(Gen. 49:1-2, 8-10 ESV)
Jacob, the father of Israel, calls his sons, the father’s of the twelve tribes, and he prophecies their futures. Of Judah, he speaks of how he will be as a lion. And the ruler’s scepter, staff, will never depart from his tribe. This is the language of a king and a kingdom.
Later, similar language is spoken of the family of David, who is of the tribe of Judah:
8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2 Sam. 7:8-13 ESV)
God promises to establish within David’s family a throne, a kingdom, that will endure forever.
And Jesus comes as that king. Jesus comes of the tribe of Judah. Of the family of David. He comes as the king whose rule will never end. This is how the angel Gabriel describes Jesus to Mary:
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”(Matt. 1:31-33 ESV)
And this is where the journey really gets life-changing. It’s one thing to think about righteousness. Righteousness is largely about relationships. But as we embark on an adventure of turning more and more of our relationships over to Jesus, it’s still possible to hold parts of ourselves back. But with royalty, with kingdom, with Jesus as king, that’s another matter. By introducing this issue of seeking the kingdom of God, seeking to allow Jesus to be the king he truly is, we embark on a journey where it becomes impossible to withhold any part of ourselves from Jesus.
- S. Lewis put it this way:[7]
Christ says “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit.
Some of us recently listened to some missionaries who had been in China. One told of a church she was familiar with. A Chinese policeman was sent to a large house church and told to put everyone there under arrest. The house church had annoyed some local official and that official wanted to send a message. So the policeman did as he was instructed. He interrupted the worship service and placed everyone under arrest. But, it turns out, his mother was worshipping there. And when she saw him, and realized what he was doing, she confronted him. She scolded him. She demanded he let the church members go. And, in the end, he did as his mother demanded.
When we heard the story, we laughed. But it was a subdued laughter. Because we knew there wasn’t always a mother to stop things like this from happening. And we’ve been talking about incidences like this with Hunter and Ruby as we get ready to send them off to China. What would happen if some local official got sideways with them or with a church they are working with and that official sent the police on them?
During one recent conversation, Hunter calmly and simply said this: “I don’t care if I get thrown into prison for preaching Christ. My only concern is for Ruby and Josiah. Make sure they are taken care of if anything happens to me.” He said it as easily as me saying, “Here’s what I’d like for dinner.” It left me speechless. And, to me, it was an indication of a person who’s not satisfied with just getting in. A person who is seeking. A person moving toward the center of righteousness and royalty.
What about you? Are you really satisfied with just getting in? Because Jesus is inviting you on a adventure. It’ll alter your life. Make you late for dinner–and much, much more. But it’ll be the most fulfilling thing you’ve ever done.
Where are you on this journey? Are you seeking?
[1]https://www.cnn.com/specials/us/hurricane-harvey
[2]http://www.localmemphis.com/news/local-news/tn-task-force-one-search-and-rescue-busy-saving-lives-in-houston/800380181
[3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdR1sBD55Dk (edit to run 1:13-3:45)
[4]The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century ChurchRevised and Updated, 253, Alan Hirsch, Michael Frost
[5]“Righteousness,” Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). In Tyndale Bible dictionary(p. 1134). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[6]Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Righteousness. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1860). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
[7]C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 196-198.
