Enlisting
I’ve said for many years that although, of course, I know Jesus saves my soul, in many ways becoming a mother saved me, too. As a young woman, I was drawn in by the world. Interested in vain and empty things, I was a vain and empty person for years. I made important life decisions during that time - marriage to an unbeliever being among them - and I set the path of my life - headed resolutely in the wrong direction. Most of those years, I went to church. I taught children’s classes, helped with showers, and I took food when people were sick. And the rest of the week, I thought absolutely nothing about God. I did as I pleased.
Until I had a baby. At first, nothing really changed, but as John grew and became more aware, I realized that if he was going to know anything at all about God, it would be me who taught him. In reality, I was already teaching him. I just hadn’t realized it. When it dawned on me that what my son knew and saw of God would come from my life, I decided to get myself together...fast!
Whether we determine to teach our children about God or not, we do...by either determination or default. The messages of John’s early life were not consistent. I’m grateful that he doesn’t remember them, frankly.
Whatever it is in life that gets our attention, we all answer the question “What will you do with Jesus?” It’s like that old song: “What will it be? What will it be? Where will you spend your eternity?”
The world seems to offer so many options, when in reality, there are only two. Either we serve God, or we serve man.
Consider the final discussion of the Sermon on the Mount beginning in Matthew 7:13. Jesus says there are two gates, two roads, two trees, and two houses. In all of the images, there are not a variety of choices; there are only two.
You are already on a road headed toward a gate. You are already a tree bearing fruit, and you are already building a house…it’s just a question of the foundation you’ve chosen.
You’ve chosen. And those around you know what your choice is even if you don’t. It’s not difficult to know what matters to people. You just have to watch them. Actions show who people really are. The content of their conversation tells us what a person thinks about. What message do your actions and words send to those around you?
We need to scrutinize ourselves in order to see who we are…who we really are. If we can’t do that, then we’re on the wrong road. It won’t lead us to heaven.
Having a child made me finally take a good, hard look at my life. I did not want my words and my actions to contradict and confuse my son; therefore, my only option was to make a U-turn and head down a new path.
What a gracious God we have that He allows us the opportunity to take a new path - to change the foundation of our lives. Spiritually, we can be reborn, transformed into something better than we ever imagine. We just have to decide that’s what we are going to do.
My father used to say that people do exactly what they want to do. There are situations and circumstances we all face that are beyond our control, but to a great extent, our lives are exactly what we’ve made them. We do exactly what we want to do; we choose.
Making the choice to enlist in God’s army is the easy part. Dealing with what that means in the reality of our lives is trickier. The focus of our lives changes as we transform, but the reality of our circumstances may not change, at least not immediately.
When we look at the conversions in the New Testament, we don’t see situations changing necessarily; we see people changing. The Philippian jailer is still a jailer, Saul has to overcome his reputation, and Onesimus is still a slave. Those things don’t change.
Enlisting isn’t about changing our lives, it’s about changing ourselves. Most of the time, our lives will change as a result, but we may have hard situations that still must be dealt with. However, now we have perspective on the situations of this world. This world is temporary, our God is eternal, and the battle we fight ends in victory.