It’s all about me. It’s all about you. That’s what Christianity often is all about. Me and you. Or should I say you and I. The reason I think this is that the questions we ask are so fundamentally egocentric that it’s shocking.
When I read through the book of Acts I see all sorts of crap happen. Life was unjust for those early Christ Followers. Stephen died because people lied about him. People had to scatter across the world and leave their homes because a man named Saul was dragging them out and killing them. People were tortured, imprisoned, and ridiculed. But their questions were not our questions. We ask questions like “why would God do this?” or “how could God let this happen” or “if there were a God he wouldn’t let ______ happen” or we shake our fist at God saying things like “I thought you’d take care of me!” or “How could you do this!” We truly believe that God owes us something. Does he? Should he? He is all powerful. And he’s supposed to be love incarnate (for lack of a better word). So with those two characteristics why would we think any different of this God?
I don’t have any great answers, just some observations about that group of believers in the first century.
Why wasn’t Stephen angry about dieing? Did God know that if he lived he could do so much more for the kingdom? Why wasn’t Paul and Peter frustrated that they were imprisoned cruelly? What about James, one of the apostles who was martyred very early. Shouldn’t he have lived longer? Shouldn’t God have cared enough to save his life? And yet they didn’t shake their fists at God, no, they had a different starting place. Their starting place was much less egocentric I think. They were honored to die for Jesus. They didn’t believe that being a Christ Follower meant a safer more protected life. Rather they knew and understood that being a Christ Follower would be more painful, more difficult. And today I expect to be protected. Hmm…
Maybe it’s because their view of Christianity was one where this world was not their home, their prize was in the sky. Their gift was an eternal one. And it wasn’t like some Christian sects today where they hold onto those truths and then spout off about not being active politically, or not going to doctors, or not being active in the community. These early believers took care of those who were sick, orphans, widows, the impoverished. They did their best to bring Jesus’ kingdom to earth by living out kingdom principles (as taught through most of Jesus’ parables).
I want to type more but I’m late for a meeting. Maybe I’ll edit this later today. Anyway, I want to be a Christ Follower who is less concerned with my wellbeing and more concerned with the opportunity I have to bring a piece of his kingdom to this world by sharing love, hope, pizza, and water. I’m just glad that God works with what I give him…but hopefully I’ll learn to give him more.