The season of Lent is rapidly reaching its resolution; those of you who have been on the journey of letting God put to death old habits to resurrect new possibilities have just 12 more days until you are released from the restraints of Lent. The question is, “Will you continue down the path you have pursued or will you return to the old ruts in the road?”
It’s no easy task to continue to pursue a new path. Old habits die hard. Our past habits and the repetitive choices we made over a lengthy period of time no doubt created deep ruts in our roads, ruts that remain the path of least resistance. The new habits we seek to embrace are so fragile at the beginning of their lives and require such constant and consistent nurture if they are to survive and thrive.
Rut filling and path picking is hard work and requires a ton of intentionality over the length of our lives. It is no small task for our convictions to become conversions and our lives to become living proof that God is at work within us. That, however, is the goal. That you and I become living proof that there is a God who changes lives, living proof of a God who does such thorough work that people become new creations, living proof that God offers everyone a chance to be born again without the ruts of our previous lives, living proof of a God who promises that the work he began he will carry on to completion.
We are to be living proof, signs and testimonies to the God who put sin to death and raised new life out of the grave. It may take longer than three days for us to be raised, but the resurrection of our lives is not just a pipe dream. It is a promise from the God who says, “With human beings this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26)
It is impossible to reroute the ruts without the work of God, but is equally impossible to reroute the ruts without the commitment of God’s people to his work. Our lives simply will not change without you and I working on changing them. New life in Christ does not just happen. We are not just born again all grown up. We have to commit to raising the new life that Jesus Christ has birthed within us. We have to feed this new life, bathe it, get up late nights with it, discipline it, love it, educate it and feed it again as new lives are hungry little buggers. It is impossible to become living proof of new life without the work of God, but is also impossible to be transformed into living proof of new life without working to nurture the life that God is manifesting.
At University Ministries we have as our mission statement, “Transforming students to impact the world for God.” For transformation to occur we believe it is essential that three things happen: That people would know their Christian identity, that they would grow in Christ-like character, and that they would then go and put their faith into action.
I am personally drawn to the ‘know’ and ‘go’ categories. I love knowing that Jesus loves me, that he died for me so that my sins could be forgiven and that God raised him from the dead so that I could have eternal life. I love that he called me, that he joined me together with you and that he will return someday to restore everything to the way it was meant to be.
I also love putting my faith into action, partly because it’s exciting to be on the front lines of the work of God, experiencing new things, blessing people and having people bless me right back. It feels powerful to put my faith into action and it feels good to have such a public testimony where everyone can see how extraordinary I am. Although I love knowing and going, it’s the growing that I struggle with.
Growing is tedious and rarely exciting. In fact, growing is often a commitment to do the same thing day after day. Growing is hard work and it doesn’t make me feel powerful; it makes me feel weak. Growing is painful and so much of it comes down to what I do in private where no one praises me at all. In growing I experience Jesus’ love. It’s a pushy kind of love, however, where Jesus says he loves me where I am but that he’s not interested in leaving me there. Growing requires my commitment to the difficult work join God in rerouting the ruts and in picking new paths.
