Does becoming a Christian mean trading in a life of fun for holy living?
It might be easy to think that when someone makes the decision to follow Jesus Christ they have to give up everything they enjoy and turn to a life that has about as much excitement as being kicked in the crotch by David Beckham. It’s really not supposed to be that way.
Real Joy?
I remember having a conversation about this with a close friend of mine in our university cafeteria a few years ago. ‘Rich,’ she said, ‘I think it’s great that you take your faith seriously, but it’s just not for me.’ She continued saying, ‘I love sex and I love going out and getting drunk. I don’t want to feel bad about it.’ A few weeks later I saw with her again in the same cafeteria. While crying, she told me about a guy she met that weekend at a house party. They both got drunk and ended up sleeping together. She felt completely used and worthless. I didn’t say it at the time but I couldn’t help but wonder if her definition of fun had probably changed since our last chat.
Nowhere does the Bible say that Christians should expect a life of boredom. Following Jesus doesn’t mean you can never have sex (God is very pro-sex between a husband and a wife), smoke a cigar, have a beer, or rock out on air guitar to Bon Jovi whilst walking around your apartment in your underwear (am I the only one who does that?). But it does mean this – everything, absolutely everything, must come after Jesus and not before him.
So as I said before, following Jesus doesn’t mean giving up everything you like but it does mean a change in who you are living for. The Bible’s King David serves as a great example of this. In 2 Samuel 11 we read how David, after seeing Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop, sleeps with her even though she is married to another man. Things continue to spiral out of control to the point that David, after being confronted by one of God’s prophets and absolutely devastated by the grief he has caused, pours his heart out to God:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51
True Joy
David knew that true joy, the same type he had experienced before he even saw Bathsheba, could come only from God. David doesn’t beg God to punish him with a life of misery, nor do we read that God condemns David to eternal sorrow. Instead, David asks God to give him a ‘clean heart’, one that beats to the rhythm of God rather than his own. David, a man who knew ruled over a nation and knew wealth beyond anything you or I could imagine, still knew that real, unfading and eternal joy came only from God.
Life is way too predictable when you are living only for yourself. When you live for someone else, you open yourself up to possibilities and experiences that would have otherwise gone by unnoticed. A true encounter with Jesus Christ, the son of God, the Creator of the world, means the way you see the world will change. Your heart will be changed. What excites you will change and it will be anything but boring.
Rich Crosby is a Canadian living in Brighton who attends CCK with his unbelievably attractive wife. You can check out his own blog at http://richcrosby.blogspot.com
