Thoughts on the Christian life

I have begun this post five times at least. I write a sentence, erase it, write another, erase it, and the cycle continues. There are thoughts swarming in my head, and in my pride, I find myself wanting to communicate them in the most eloquent, compelling way possible. And my words fall short.

What I want to talk about is the radical nature of the Christian life. It’s a theme God has woven into the tapestry of my life this week -- into conversations I’ve had, books I’ve read, struggles we’ve encountered. I’m captured by the thought of it, convicted by the reality of it: God has not called us to a wimpy faith; he has called us to a radical one.

It’s radical to lie prostrate on the floor before God – but twice this week I’ve encountered passionate believers who challenged me to this practice. One was Beth Moore, via Shirley Wolfe’s Wednesday night Bible study; she challenged the viewers of her latest video series to begin each day in a humble, prostrate position before the Lord. The other was the late theologian A.W. Tozer, whose “regular habit was to sprawl on his study floor, facedown, and worship God.” (Tozer, I read, even read Shakespeare on his knees because he believed all efforts toward knowledge and understanding to be spiritual pursuits.)

It’s radical to fast – but this week I encountered passionate believers who celebrate the practice of fasting. Doctor William McKenzie, my believing doctor, challenged me months ago to fast over an issue in my life. I had no biblical understanding of the practice, so Steven photocopied a chapter of a book he’d been reading and brought it home to me. This week I found the chapter, was reminded of Dr. McKenzie’s exhortation (which was still valid, by the way), and so finally read “The Discipline of Fasting” (by Richard Foster). What I discovered was a moving biblical argument toward the practice of fasting, solid Biblical instruction on the purposes of fasting, and practical information on the physical aspects of fasting. It was startling, yes, but also compelling. “You will be engaging in spiritual warfare that will necessitate using all the weapons of Ephesians 6,” Foster writes. “… But I do not want to leave the impression that all fasting is a heavy spiritual struggle – I have not found it so. It is also ‘righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 14:17).”

Tozer, whom I've also been reading this week, fondly referred to radical believers – the ones whose souls follow hard after God -- as the “fellowship of the burning heart.” The analogy is vivid, brilliant, alive: the fellowship – believers – whose one commonality is a flaming passion for Jesus.

I have never lain prostrate before my Lord, and I don’t think I’ve ever fasted. The best I do is to occasionally lift my hands in worship. Sadly, my own life too often is characterized by a lack of radical living. Tozer speaks of this, too: “The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire.”

Oh, to have holy desire. The kind of desire that allows me to fall prostrate before my father, without feeling self-conscious. The kind of desire that compels me to fast, sacrificing the thing most necessary physically for the gain of a thing most necessary spiritually. The kind of desire (flaming!) that initiates me, even me, into the Fellowship of the Burning Heart. Now that would be RADICAL!