Christians Living in America

As Christians living in America, every day when we wake up we are faced with the decision to either die to our selves and actively enter into God's mission to redeem all of humanity or choose to embrace the idolatry that is all around us serving as a constant temptation.  We can so easily deviate from God's path for our lives, which leads to life.  Instead we often choose death, and we destroy ourselves by trying to be upwardly mobile and achieve the American Dream.  The American Dream is all about us, as individuals, advancing ourselves.  God's plan for our lives is all about him, and we give up control of our lives.  The idols in America are right there, all the time, waiting to numb us, or help us escape and distance ourselves from the hard realities of life.  God's path, the narrow path, can be difficult to find and it involves unbridled release of control and giving ourselves away to others on a daily basis.  The great irony of all of this is, the very things that we think will actually bring is life in the American Dream actually lead us down a path to self destruction.  The very things that look like they could bring us struggle and pain through following Christ at all costs are actually the things that will bring us life.  This is why life can be so difficult living in an American society with seemingly unlimited individual opportunities, resources, and idols masked as the latest and greatest thing that might help to improve our lives.

The path to finding life is through downward mobility, by dying to our selves because Christ died for us.  The great joy is found in entering God's mission, through giving ourselves away to others... especially including the people in this world who are struggling like orphans, widows, and the poor.  Alan Doswald writes, "James 1:27 is interesting. If you asked most people what true religion is, they would not give this answer. 'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.'  If we're not caring for widows and orphans, we're already polluted by the world, because the world doesn't care either.  The church's very nature, though, is to care.  The church has demonstrated this many times over.  The vital role of the church is to love our neighbors the way Jesus loved them."

We cannot look after orphans or widows in their distress if we have intentionally distanced ourselves from them while desperately trying to pursue the American Dream.  Caring for the poor and marginalized people in this world is all about relationships, and we cannot be in relationships with people when we are afraid to go where they are and spend time with them.  That is the great harm of upward mobility that is encouraged by the world: the more upwardly mobile we are, the farther we get from living out Christ's call to be downwardly mobile.  The more we elevate ourselves, the more we distance ourselves from people in need.  The more we spend hours watching television obsessing over Charlie Sheen's celebrity meltdown or worshipping Ameican Idol contestants, the more the work of the Church to reach hurting people in this world goes undone.  The more our hobbies and habits become consuming addictions, the farther we go from being able to give ourselves away to others.  The more we choose to comfort ourselves and arrange for a better life for ourselves, that's just all the more that we distance ourselves from the life that is found in giving control over to Christ.