
I had the pleasure of hanging out with some college friends last weekend. There were five of us and we rented a house in Nashville, IN. A beautiful part of Indiana with an awesome coffee shop. (Or so I’m told. I don’t drink coffee. But the owners are a nice Christian couple brewing “Julian’s Coffee,” another nice Christian man.) Anyway, one of my friends lives in Nashville, TN (not to be mistaken for Nashville as mentioned earlier). My friend was working out one day a few years ago and he felt this pain. He thought it was indigestion but it turned out to be a heart attack. (I spared a lot of the details between working out and the hospital to find out it was a heart attack.)
He had a blockage in the “widow maker” artery which almost cost him his life. Reflecting on what took place, my friend decided life is too short and valuable not to take advantage of what God has blessed him with. My friend started pouring time into his kids and his wife. And he was the one last fall who suggested the five of us get together to go on this “retreat.” He said he was tired of talking about wanting to do stuff and decided just to start doing it.
G.K. Chesterton has been described as the best writer of the 20th century. His book, “The Everlasting Man,” played a huge part in a young atheist named C.S. Lewis giving his life to Christ. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
James 1:22-25 reads, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”
I wish I could tell you the Christian faith was a walk in the park. It comes with great challenges. We haven’t been called to simply read the Word. We have been called to do what it says. As James says, if we listen to the Word but don’t do what it says, it’s like looking at a mirror and walking away and forgetting what we look like. In other words, if we don’t do what it says, we walk away from it and forget our identity is in Christ Jesus.
I’m sorry my friend went through what he did. I can’t imagine how scared his wife and family were. He said at our weekend that he was okay because he knew where he would go if his time had come. He now has a new lease on life. He has always been a doer. But now he is a doer with purpose.
The Christian life is difficult, but give it a try. James says we’ll be blessed for being doers of the Word. Always remember your identity is in Christ, you have to be a doer not just a listener.