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Overwhelmed by a Relentless God


You Might Not Finish This ...

Francis Chan        

The point of your life is to point to Him.


Francis Chan

You could die before you finish reading this.  I could die while you're reading it.  Today.  At any moment.

But it's easy to think about today as just another day.  An average day where you go about life concerned with your to-do list, preoccupied by appointments, focused on family, thinking about your desires and needs.

On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves.  On the average day, we don't consider God very much.  On the average day, we forget that our life truly is a vapor.

But there is nothing normal about today.  Just think about everything that must function properly just for you to survive.  For example, your kidneys.  The only people who really think about their kidneys are people whose kidneys don't work correctly.  The majority of us take for granted our kidneys, liver, lungs, and other internal organs that we're dependent upon to continue living.

What about driving down the road at sixty-five miles per hour, only a few feet away from cars going the opposite direction at the same speed?  Someone would only have to jerk his or her arm and you would be dead.  I don't think that's morbid; I think it's reality.

It's crazy that we think today is just a normal day to do whatever we want with.  To those of us who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money," James writes, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (4:13-14).

When you think about it, that's a little disconcerting.  But even after reading those verses, do you really believe you could vanish at any minute?  That perhaps today you will die?  Or do you instead feel somehow invincible?

Frederick Buechner writes, "Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us.  We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true.  On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever." 1

Justified Stress?

 

I used to believe that in this world there are two kinds of people:  Natural worriers and naturally joyful people.  I couldn't really help it that I was the worrying kind.  I'm a problem-solver, so I have to focus on things that need fixing.  God can see that my intensity and anxiety are ministry related.  I worry because I take His work seriously.

Right?

But then there's that perplexing command:  "Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again:  Rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4).  You'll notice that it doesn't end with "... unless you're doing something extremely important."  No, it's a command for all of us, and it follows with the charge, "Do not be anxious about anything" (v. 6).

That came as a pretty staggering realization.  But what I realized next was even more staggering.

When I am consumed by my problems — stressed out about my life, my family, and my job — I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's command to always rejoice.  In other words, that I have a "right" to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.

Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional.  Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.  They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed.

Why are we so quick to forget God?  Who do we think we are?

 

This is an excerpt from chapter 2 of Crazy Love by Francis Chan.

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More by Francis Chan:

Luke Warm & Loving It — Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren't very different from your typical unbeliever.


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