The Great Struggle

As a pastor, as well as husband, father, uncle, brother, cousin, nephew, etc...no matter what role I play, I always figured the older I got the easier life would be.  There would be more money, less temptations, easier decisions and less struggles than I had in my teens, twenties and even thirties.  But I'm finding that it isn't really easier, just different.  Those things that once tempted me in my youth don't offer the same appeal, (partly because I'm now smarter having learned from painful experiences, and partly because they take too much energy) yet, it would seem that the devil always puts forth something that is enticing no matter what age I become.

I strive to be a decent person, a kind person and a positive person, but that isn't what God is looking for.  He's looking simply for a friend.  He's looking for someone who is totally yielded to Him, someone He can live out His life in.  Unfortunately, as long as I seek to retain control over me, I will be unable to see Him living in and through me, because He can't.  And therein lies the struggle, no matter what age.

I've been reading the Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, and they have an interesting concept in there.  Their premise is that the reason so many Christians have such a hard time succeeding at being followers of Christ is because they fail at this struggle.  And the reason they fail at this struggle is because they are trying to live the Christian life from the perspective of the wrong tree.

In the Garden of Eden there were two trees.  One was the Tree of Life.  If Adam and Eve ate from this tree, life would flow through them and they could continue to live for eternity.  But there was another tree: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.   God desired that they should only know good.  They were created knowing nothing of evil.  But Satan convinced them that if they wanted to be like God, they should eat of this tree, because then their eyes would be open and they would know both good and evil.  Since they had no idea what evil was, we can only presume that what really caught their attention was wanting to be like God.  They suddenly felt as if God were holding out on them and they desired to find out what it was.  They wanted to be in control of their own knowledge.

Up to that point, all they had to do was eat from the Tree of Life and it was effortless to live.  The life-giving quality of the fruit coursed through their veins and sustained their very lives.  When Jesus was here, He showed us the way to life.  "I am THE Way, THE Truth and THE LIFE.  No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)   He also said,  "I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty." (John 6:35)  And in John 15:5 He said, " I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me."

Do you see it?  The great struggle is not resisting sin or fighting off secular humanist or atheists or even trying to be good.  It's about partaking of the Bread of Life- Jesus- and allowing His life to course through your veins.  The reason we fail so often in the Christian Life is because we are trying to serve Christ from the other Tree--the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Notice there is still good there.  And it is often out of our knowledge of the Good that we seek to serve.  It is often from our wanting to retain control of how we do things and when we do things instead of letting Jesus simply live and reign in us that we are overcome by our own weaknesses.  The Struggle then, is to choose to let go of my way and choose to simply stay connected to the right Tree.  Let Jesus be your Tree of Life.  Partake of Him often, and let Him live out His life within you, and you will find that the struggle, the temptations, the burnout, the discouragement and the desire to quit will melt away.

But there will always be The Great Struggle.  Only your choice will make the difference.  Which Tree will you choose to live by?