Our Sunday morning adult class had an interesting discussion on February 7, and I'd like to thank Dan Wendland for sharing a bit of it with me.
They discussed the "benefits" of the Christian life, and although they acknowledged that we don't follow Jesus simply to receive benefits, there are nevertheless good things that come from being his disciple.
It seems to me that this is true on a couple of different levels. I think it's true good things come from living as God's child. I also think that while we don't love God simply to "get the goods," it would be very difficult to share Good News with people if we believed that God brought drudgery or boredom into our lives, or that our lives became worse because we confess to being followers of Jesus. The truth is that God wants us to know and share the benefits of a relationship with Jesus in order that others too might see and feel the love of God. In fact, I think one of the most debilitating myths about the Christian faith is that many non-believers imagine it to be dull and uninteresting, like tepid tea and stale bread.
Here are three of benefits of the Christian life, in the opinions of one group of Jesus-followers.
3. Living a Christian life helps to provide an organizational framework for all of life (I might call this a world-view): it gives motivation for acts of charity, helps one focus on the "other," not on one's self, provides resolve in trying times, and allows for endless gratitude.
The key to this world-view is the focus away from one's self and toward the neighbor. Jesus and Martin Luther both used the word neighbor to describe the object of one's love and efforts. The neighbor-focus means that we do not live life as self-absorbed navel-gazers, but as loving disciples, reaching out to neighbors near and far with acts of kindness and mercy. Imagine if everyone you know, including yourself, could do just one more act of service to one's neighbor every day. What a loving place this world could become!
2. Knowing that what comes after death is so much more exciting than this present experience.
The promise of eternal life brings incredible comfort to many followers of Jesus, and the hope of one day being directly in the presence of God makes facing the finality of life on earth less frightening and even less mysterious. We look forward to an end to human suffering of all kinds, that of nations and of individuals, and we dream of the day when all human sorrow will be no more. While no one has yet reported back from heaven, we know from the promise of Scripture than God's plan for our eternal future is filled with wonderful, unimaginable joy. We look ahead with the holy and certain hope of Christ's resurrection, that we too will take our place in God's kingdom.
and #1 on their list...
1. Knowing for certain that we are deeply loved and cared for by God
I cannot imagine a more important "benefit" for living in this world! We live in a time and place where we are saturated with messages about how unimportant and unimpressive we are, and that the only hope we have is to buy Product X and hope the extra-strength version is powerful enough to rescues us from our own insignificance. We know that none of us are immune from relational disintegration, from career implosion or health crisis. For me, to face the challenges of this world with nothing more than my own meager bootstraps seems like sheer madness and sure failure. If the world would call me weak for such a confession, so be it, for my own strength is nothing more than a canoe in the ocean. But knowing that I am loved by God changes everything! When I know that I will not be abandoned, not set adrift on some stormy sea, but can trust in the love of God in my life, then I can say with the Apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philip. 4.13).
You might have your own "top benefits" you'd like to add to this list. Please comment below!
Dana
