A blank check...

And as [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22, ESV)

Over the last 12 months, this passage has dealt me two devastating blows.  I've heard this story many times, and to my shame, I have always considered this story to be directed at someone other than me.  Surely Jesus wasn't talking about my life - I would have been a member of the crowd listening, and egging Jesus on.  Besides, that guy was probably what we could call a "one-percenter" - the disenfranchised bystanders would have cheered the idea that Jesus favored them and made rich guy walk away dejected.



The first strike against this reading was the realization that I really am that rich guy.  As you learned in my last post, I have recently had to confront the fact that I am a "one-percenter" in view of the world's population. In fact, I have learned that my solid middle-class lifestyle in the United States of America places me firmly in the top 1% among the world's population.  If you own a laptop like the one I'm typing this on, you probably are too.  Even if you don't, Jesus is speaking to you as well.  Jesus was calling all of us to surrender our comfort, security and the things that comprise our worldly identity as the price of following Him.  What is the reward? More stuff?

The second strike came when I read the following with the same context in mind:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:24-27)

This is the same command, but worded more bluntly, isn't it?  To follow Christ, I have to lay down my life and take up an instrument of suffering in its place.  What a stunning statement!  Surely, we say, He didn't really mean that we were to sell our homes and cars and embrace a life of poverty and suffering.  After all, He put us in our situation, gave us our wealth, and told us that life in Him would be overflowing with abundance.  What does he mean by losing my life in order to find it?  The only interpretation that I can come up with is that He wants me to abandon the life that I think I want and embrace a life of surrender in His name.  Could this be the kind of abundance He promised?

I have recently been challenged to ask myself the following question:  if I were to give God a blank check for my life, what would he write on it?  I wish I could say I have a clear answer that came to me in a lightning flash.  I don't, and don't ask me how I think you should answer this question.  I have no idea about what Christ wants for your life.  At this point, though, I think I'm starting to see what this looks like for me.

Nathaniel and Vani Kodavatikanti

I have introduced you already to the Chandra family: Pastor KV and his wife, Manjula.  When we began to communicate via Skype in 2010, I came to know Pastor's nephew, Nathaniel (Pastor would call him a son, since Indian families consider nieces and nephews to be like their own children).  Nathaniel is a pastor in the southeastern Indian city of Ongole.  He and his wife, Vani have a daughter, "Tweety" and a second child due very soon.

Hanna Renae (aka "Tweety")

Nathaniel is in his 30's and is passionate about the Gospel and the people around him.  He is supported by the meager contributions of the members of his churches and whatever else God provides when it is needed.  He gives half of this to another pastor who helps him with one of the churches.  We spoke about his poverty last year.  He supports his family for a month on an amount that many American families will spend on a single meal.  I suggested he explore the possibility of being bi-vocational - get a job that will help him with feeding the family and continue working with the churches on a part-time basis.  This is common in the US, I told him.  He laughed at the idea, saying he couldn't think of any justification to spend less time loving those around him and more time trying to make things easier for his family.  The cross is all of the abundance they need.

Despite his sporadic income, Nathaniel has received an education - recently completing a Master's thesis on the social issues and strategies of counseling HIV-positive people in his region.  The port of Ongole brings trade and lots of out-of-town traffic.  Along with it comes a busy sex industry and rampant HIV infection.  The degree will allow Nathaniel to counsel victims of HIV and bring the message of the cross to them.  As God provides, he travels to remote villages in the effort to establish churches and address the needs of the people there.  He spends his days praying and planning, traveling and teaching, counseling and caring.  When we talk (which, these days, can be an adventure because the availability of electricity is unreliable), I frequently see piles of printed material that he is preparing to distribute: books, tracts, pamphlets of testimonies from Christians in each of the castes.  He speaks with great concern over the poor of India, and wears the beaming smile of a man who knows that he has found the abundant life promised to him.

Nathaniel and the Chandra's are examples of the self-denying, cross-bearing, life-surrendering, riches-selling follower of Christ that I desire to be, but fall far too short.  How much have I done without to help those around me?  Can I find the joy promised me by ordering my life around what I can do to bring glory to Christ?  Why is it so hard to "lose" my life in order to "find" it?

Part of our blank check is this effort - an organization called Madhuri's Mission dedicated to the care of orphans and the advancement of the gospel to the poor of India.  We are at the beginning, and we can't wait to see where God leads.

If you were to give Christ a blank check for your life, what would He write on it?

Grace,

Todd