Like a Ball Rolling Uphill

     As Christians, we must think and act like a ball rolling uphill against gravity.  The worldly gravity of society pulls us toward it to fulfill our selfish desires.  God is spirit.  Spirit is not subject to the pull of worldly gravity; it has no boundaries.  As Christians, we should apply ourselves to the practice of thinking more in the spiritual realm without boundaries, more toward God.  We need to live in the Holy Spirit and roll uphill whenever God's love requires it.  We need to stand up and start thinking outside the Sunday box society wants to put us in.  Why would a young person want to join this lackluster group called Christians whose actions, more often than not, bear little resemblance to that revolutionary, earth-shaking, and exciting Jesus Christ, from whom it takes its name?  What are we thinking?

     Societies gravity pulls us toward hating our enemies and loving our friends.  Jesus teaches us to not just love our friends and relatives, but to love our enemies as well.  Basically, he was teaching,  if you want to know and please God, strive to be perfect like him by loving all your brothers and sisters unconditionally.  This teaching would logically include your enemies.  If you want to please worldly society, love only those who love you.  If you want to be closer to and please God, make your actions more God-like, include your enemies in your love.  By this act alone, you will begin to appear to society as a ball rolling uphill against gravity.

     Being a follower of Christ is being asked to be different.  Mankind is generally drawn toward comfort.  When one feels comfort, he or she gains reassurance and strength.  In giving  acceptance to the act of hating a person for whatever reason, society is giving comfort to its members when they perform that action; even though that action goes against the will of God.  Society is giving priority and power to itself in this case rather than to God.  Going against society in this case takes one out of their comfort zone.  Who should a faithful Christian fear, God or society?  If you go against society, you may feel awkward, you may even be ostracized, and you may be abandoned when you need society's comfort most.  In walking God's path, he may be saddened by some of your actions that are against his teachings, but he will never take his love from you nor abandon you.  Ultimately, it comes down to who do you trust?  This world is fleeting, God is forever.   Rolling uphill gives you a sense of accomplishment...it empowers you spiritually...it is your command in any situation where society attempts to separate itself from God's commandments; to separate itself from God.  

     God's Word isn't just for a Sunday glance to meet a the minimum requirements to keep your Christian membership.  God's Word is to be read, studied, and, most of all, put into practice.  Live, breathe, and lean on your faith, God.   He is our living God.  He is the God of the living.  God is spirit.  Therefore be a living, spiritual, and loving servant of a living God, our God, and roll uphill when the situation calls for it.  Put some excitement, some life into your faith.  Make others want some of what you've got.  That wealth of love God gives to you isn't going to diminish or shrink by giving it away, it will only increase in the giving.  I ask you, can you do that with material wealth?  Open up that treasure chest and make the non-Christians you encounter want to have a come-to-Jesus moment from all the exciting love from the Holy Spirit overflowing from within you.  How can being on a first name basis with God not be exciting and how can his allowing us to serve him not be worth any pitiful sacrifice we can offer?  I am not a fan of yelling, screaming preachers, but when the occasion demands it, I like a rousing call to action.  Do you think he went through the tortures of having huge nails driven through his hands and dying a horrible death hanging on that cross just so we could sit in an air conditioned and heated church on Sunday for an hour and call ourselves followers of him to wind up comfortably in heaven with eternal life with our Father?  Good God Almighty, my comfortable brothers and sisters, raise yourself up out of your easy chair, get your hands dirty in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.