No wimps

No wimps

“No wimps, No wimps,” was heard as the boat swiftly glided over the water with a tube and passenger trailing. My brother-in-law, the captain, maneuvered his craft through sharp turns and jerking movements to send the passenger flying off the tube and crashing to the water. The child on the tube held fast – he was not a wimp.

Christianity is all too often looked on as a wimpy religion and Christians as weak and passive.
Hitler himself despised Christianity and called it a flabby outdated religion. Edmond Burke’s statement, “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”, is all to true. Sadly, the majority of the German Christians in the Nazi era proved this to be factual.

Christianity is really a religion of heroes, men and women of great strength: people willing to die of self so that God would live and move through them. John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease, (John 3:30)”, and Paul, “I die every day (1 Cor 15:31) “. The greatest teacher, and mentor Jesus, our God, while on earth, as an example to us, did nothing on His own.  He did only what the Father told and showed Him to do (John 5:30, 12:49). 

What does it actually mean to die of self, a popular Christian phrase? In the natural dying is a painful experience which no one desires. Yet so is it with the spiritual. We all have natural tendencies to want what is best “for us”, doing what satisfies at the moment. We all want to be loved and accepted, and following the crowd, avoiding conflict is the easy way to achieve this desire. On the other hand we all want justice. When offended we tend to offend back. As long as you are nice to me, ill response likewise, but you hurt me and I’ll hurt you back. This is the way of man without God, a civilization without unselfish love.

Yet Jesus came to show us another way, the way of His kingdom, the way that is right, true, and livable, the way that we are designed to live. This life is a life that loves, a life that builds, a life that is satisfying with eternal rewards. There lies the conflict, either following after our natural selfish inclinations or God’s life through us.

It takes a strong man or woman to love others when offended, to forgive instead of seeking vengeance.  When society says it is a woman’s right to kill her unborn child, or people have the right to have sexual intimacy before marriage, or people have the right to choose their own truth and live anyway they want, for the Christian to say no, in love, is the hard but right thing to do.  The Christian’s purpose on earth is to show people that there is a better way to live, God’s designed way, the way of life and truth. This is the Great commission, to lead others to God.

It is easier to cut off a head than to change a heart, but only a changed heart is man’s good and true destiny in God. It is a privilege for God to allow us to participate in His work. That we would all hear the words from our Lord and Savior, “job well done” when He calls us home.  Like getting on the tube on the lake, though the journey in God will at times be rough, let us cheer each other on, no wimps here.