Jump! How High?

            So I (Dan) mentioned before that I teach Bible at a small Christian school (in northeast Montana), and as such I have a lot of opportunity to speak about what the Bible says about a lot of subjects, and what it really means to view the world by God’s Word.  I am inclined to think that this is one of major problems that Christians in the world have.  We struggle to view the world the way that God does and the way that His Word describes it, because we are stuck viewing the world the way we grew up to view it in our culture.  What troubles me about this is that when we are then confronted with what the Bible really says about things we often reject it because we don’t like what His Word says.  It is foreign to us.

            Sometimes this shows up in the way of more benign misunderstandings.  We read the Bible and misunderstand what God is truly saying to us, because we are reading the Bible or listening to it through our eyes.  Other times, it is foreign to us, but we understand it well and reject it because it asks to much of us.  This is what troubles me.  I have often described it this way.  When a military commander says, “jump”, is it appropriate to ask why?  Would we say “But that’s so harsh.”?  Wouldn’t the only questions we ought to be concerned with be “Where?” and “How high?”? 

In reality, this was one of the qualities that impressed me about my wife.  No, I’m not saying that she was perfect, but I quickly sensed that when she read the Bible, it didn’t matter what the subject was, she was quick to accept what God was telling her to do and to strive to do exactly what He wants.  She doesn’t always get it right, but then again, neither do I.  However, we both typically have this attitude:  God says “Jump!”, and we say “How high?” because it is our goal to jump that high, or at least strive to. 

This commitment has led us to make decisions that perhaps not all professing Christians would.  Many would recognize that these are good commitments.  Some would even talk about it.  Not many of us strive to do these things.  We live more simply (and yet we recognize that we are filthy rich compared to many in the world).  We give more generously than a tithe, when American’s think that my income and benefits keep me barely above the poverty line.  We are very careful about modesty, our language, movies and entertainment, and even what jokes we laugh at.  Sometimes this leaves us running a little bit of a small circle.  Sometimes you can feel a little bit like the odd man out.  But I have this thought that I find encouraging.  Isn’t it the straight and narrow way which few find that Christ calls us to follow?  So if I feel as though I walk a somewhat more narrow way than many, perhaps that is a good thing.  Perhaps it means that we are striving to jump as Christ asks us to.