There Must Be More

A great conversation yesterday awakened a long-simmering longing for a Christ-following lifestyle that goes beyond Sunday mornings. And in the midst of it, realizing how easy it is to get sucked into living from Sunday to Sunday—everything that matters happens there and then, and then everything in between is to be endured until Sunday rolls around once more.

Somehow, I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind in building His Church—that how I live “out there” Monday through Saturday is somehow inferior to or less sacred than how I live on Sundays. What kind of “light” is that?

Of course, Sunday and all of its goodness does matter. It means refueling and refreshing and repentance and encouragement and hope. It just doesn’t end there. And that’s an against-the-current swim that is easy to quit on because the cultural-traditional pull is so strong. But it’s one that must be pursued nevertheless, day by day, little by little, until the fullness of being fully alive in Christ begins to come out your pores wherever you go, whatever you’re doing, with whomever you encounter. Naturally, yet somehow supernaturally...

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him…”—Romans 12:1, Message

Boxing Christianity into an all-out Sunday package is not unlike reading the passages about Jesus’ birth only in December. His birth, His life, His victory are so much bigger than one season. Consider:

“For unto you is born this day…” (Luke 2:11, ESV)

Unto you.

A reminder that, like living from Sunday to Sunday, the Jesus you know, love, and follow is much more than a season, more than a warm, feel-good, traditional story, more than a moment in history that is nodded at and then closed until it’s nodded at again next December.

Instead, it’s an astounding invitation to you to love Christmas, to love Sundays, but to not camp out there and to instead launch out all over again every Monday morning to seek to live life to the fullest, in the unique way that he has made you.

To receive the Good News, to Believe it, to serve others, to give yourself away with all of Heaven’s Love that is within you.

It is never too late, or only for the young and strong. It is always on time and for every generation who hungers and thirsts. For every Christmas story that invites you to more than a Christmas story, and for those who have that mysterious, never-ending, deep-seated longing this Sunday within that says “there must be more than this,” ancient words from Martin Luther cheer us on:

“What more do you need if indeed you know Christ, if you walk by faith in God, and by Love to your neighbor, doing to him as Christ has done to you? This is, indeed, the whole Scripture in its briefest form: That no more words or books are necessary, but only life and action.”