I was sitting on my porch talking Jesus with a dear friend of mine who’s in a real life struggle. He turned and asked me a simple question that struck me as deeply profound, he asked “Why do you follow Jesus? Why?” See my friend, let’s call him Steve, knows how hard this life is as a disciple of Christ, I could hear the pain of that question in his voice. His entire walk has been a battle, a war in the trenches. It was as real of a life/ministry/discipleship moment I think I’ve had.
I had to really search my heart for an answer. My answer in short was, “Because God’s grace has impacted me to the point where I see and desire no other way. There aren’t any other options.” Really that’s what it’s boiled down to. I serve, follow and love Jesus because his grace has chased me down, replaced my heart and now I see my life in context to how it fits in and serves his kingdom. I love how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15:10
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain.”
As Steve’s follow up questions probed deeper, “Why do you sacrifice for this? Why allow yourself to be broken?” it became clearer and clearer that my life makes no sense outside of grace.
I don’t know why I’d sacrifice as much as I have, why I desire God to break me down, it’s just crazy really. There is no logic behind it, there is no formula, there is no global earthly reward I could point to that could explain why this life made sense. There is a great level of foolishness here that can’t be avoided, nor do I want to avoid it. Because as I explained to Steve, God’s grace does not compute in our brains, the math doesn’t work. Works makes sense, or as Matt Chandler brilliantly puts it, moralistic deism. That makes sense, you do good and you get good back. Do bad and you get bad back. But I did bad and God showered me with grace and replaced my heart. I received beauty for ashes and gladness for mourning.
Any good that comes out of my life is a reflection of grace poured out. It’s totally changed my heart, my mind and spirit and I can’t point to any 12 step program that makes you earn it or put God in your debt in any way. I don’t know if that comforted Steve or scared him, but it is what I know to be true.
Now I desire to simply place myself in his hands daily and beg him to work with this gross lump of clay. And because he is a good and loving God he does and it doesn’t make earthly sense, but I love him.
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Brother, this is brilliantly worded. No one has impacted me more with the truth and realization of grace at work than you have. You have taught me so much about the power of the changing grace of Christ. I love you. And I pray that "Steve's" clouded mind will come to focus on the cross and allow grace to break him down. You are an amazing example, and your legacy is eternal.
Wow Kyle, that is really good stuff right there. I would hope that I could answer that very simple but crucial question as well as you did but I don't know if I would have. I think this is such a great question to think on, pray on and let our hearts meditate on for a while. Not only do we need to know it for ourselves but we need to be able to put it into words so when the moment comes that by God's grace someone actually wants to know why we live our lives for Christ, we can provide an answer other than "just cause". I agree with Christy's prayer in that "Steve" needs a completly revolutionary view of Jesus, the cross and His grace poured out for us, grace that is ridiculously undeserved and should cause us in return to pour out our lives to Him no matter how foolish or difficult it seems.
Ditto, Kendra! I think there is power when we admit the angst of life with our hearts and eyes fixed on grace. Steve and Kyle's conversation was full of grace, full of angst, and the confession Jesus's disciples made when asked "Are you going, too?": "You alone have the words of life. Where else would we go?"
love it!
This is perfect. Studying apologetics I am always out to seek the hardest question. Until a friend asked me a simple, yet profound one, "Why do you follow Christianity?" I honestly didn't know how to answer it. I googled to start finding scriptures and other people's stories of why they really follow Christ. I love this blog. Good job
Brittni,
Thanks much for the encouragement. Glad this post was helpful to you.