“Well, I’m back”
Sam Gamgee
We’re happy to be back in our home country - and our
home town. A variety of berries, light bulbs that do not explode all over the floor when they blow out, a dryer, a dishwasher, smooth traffic flow, customer service in stores, the familiar - these are blessings we will not take for granted.
It was also good to be back in our
home church last Sunday and to fellowship with friends, old and new. All the “weirdness” I thought might be present when coming back to the church I had pastored for 13 years, now as a congregant, was not there at all. We have enjoyed worshipping in that familiar, yet slightly new context. There was a phrase our pastor used in his message that has gripped me all week. He spoke of American society, and particularly the environment we are now living in (Franklin, TN) as being “
safe … perhaps even dangerously safe.” We talked about the phrase in his home later in the week.
After this, I was sitting in one of my favorite
old haunts, working on a paper for a class I am taking. I was listening to conversations around me which included discussions about new books, new records, “following your dream” and very loud laughter (I am finding that Americans are typically much louder in public than Asians). At the table next to me, a local pastor and his wife were meeting with a young couple who, it seems, had just started coming to their church. They were having a discussion that I know I’ve had with other young couples in the past. Maybe in the same coffee shop. Perhaps at the same table. There was nothing “wrong” with the interview, other than the fact that I was rudely eavesdropping in on the conversation. The pastor and his wife were asking about all the right stuff. The linchpin question was asked by the pastor’s wife. “What are you passionate about?”. I have asked this question of others before - or at least something similar. I am sure of it. The conversation went on about music and art and drama and software development and even missions. Good things to be passionate about. Very safe things to be passionate about, in the church anyway. Franklin, Tennessee is a town full of music and art and drama and software development - and, to a certain extent, even missions. It’s the place to be if any of these areas are personal “passions.”
Passion is one of those new century words which has become very familiar in almost every circle. In the church, businesses, schools, career counseling - common wisdom now instructs us, “Figure out what you’re passionate about, and spend your life doing it.”
I will be spending this next year
speaking in churches and (I hope) calling believers to awaken their passion for missions and the work of God among the unreached and least-reached peoples of the world. I deeply desire that people in the US church give their lives away for that cause. I want people to spend their gifts and talents and resources for this cause. However, this also misses the mark. Even a call to missions is a call that is too safe. Dangerously safe. For the Christian, “passion” is too powerful of a word to be used for everything from art to missions to stamp collecting.
Paul made it clear what his passion was. In a word, Christ. He put it this way in his letter to the Philippians:
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Philippians 3:7-11
It’s relatively safe to be passionate about lessor things. Good things. Even Biblical things. But it’s dangerous safety because it’s a passion that is not ultimate. However, pursuing Christ is safely dangerous. Knowing Christ - His ressurection power, His righteousness and fellowship with Him in suffering - is to be the Christian’s passion. I suppose it’s the fellowship in suffering part which kicks this one into the realms of “dangerous.” It's not going to be easy. It will require laying down treasures, pleasures and personal preferences. But this pursuit is the only safe pursuit. This passion is the only safe passion. It’s eternal. It's ultimate. It satisfies in this life and in the life to come.
Being in the US is dangerous. Being in Franklin, TN is particularly dangerous. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. It’s safe. I have much here that is to be counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ. It all must be held loosely.
“
Well, I’m Back”.
But I am realizing it isn’t really as safe as it seems. I will proceed with caution.