Tasked

I love ice cream. I always have. Maybe it is because ice cream was my family’s answer to just about anything. Need to celebrate? Ice cream. Need a bite of something sweet? Ice cream. Feeling down? Ice cream. Feeling a bit under the weather? Ice cream. Having an average day? Ice cream! In my family, ice cream was the be-all and end-all of everything. If ice cream couldn’t fix it. . .well. . .it  couldn’t be fixed.

Most of the time, our ice cream consisted of an assortment of store brands: Neapolitan, vanilla, chocolate, French vanilla, rocky road with the occasional sherbet thrown in. Every now and again we splurged and went all out. We piled in the car and headed to Baskin Robbins®. Baskin Robbins® was an ice cream lover’s paradise. At any given time they displayed thirty-one heavenly flavors, all for the choosing. I was allowed a scoop of anything I wanted. Anything was possible. I would wander from display case to display case, my eyes feasting on the assortment of five gallon drums filled with creamy deliciousness. It was so hard to choose, but choose I did. We each would choose the flavor that fit our individual styles and personalities. My brother always seemed to end up with some sort of blue concoction laced with bubble gum. My mom, chocolate. Dad? He always got something with nuts in it. Me, I never got the same thing twice. I wanted to try it all.

What made Baskin Robbins® so great was the number of choices. Everyone could walk away happy because we got to choose. Choosing is so satisfying, so fulfilling, so part of how we live every day. Somehow choices seem to be important. The more we have the better. We like choices so much that it is easy to see how choices have become part of everything we do, how we have developed a Baskin Robbins® approach to life. It seems that one of our greatest desires is to multiple choices. . .in everything. We don’t want just one cut of jeans. We want five from which to choose. We don’t want just one type of ketchup. We want ten from which to choose, and we would prefer that two be an organic variety. We don’t want just one sedan, we want three sedans from each of multiple companies, and don’t forget that we want loads of options about their equipment.

We love choices. It should not surprise us that our penchant for developing choices has worked its way into the faith journey. We want choices when it comes to worship styles. We want choices when it comes to preaching styles. We want choices when it comes to translations of the Bible. By and large these choices are relatively innocuous. They don’t amount to great shifts in the journey of faith. However, there is a choice that has worked its way in that cuts much deeper, a choice about the version of faith you choose to hold.

I am not talking about choosing to be Baptist, Methodist, Anglican, or Pentecostal, though at times the choice I am talking about has been equated with denominational strains. The choice I am talking about is the choice between a faith that engages the world and a faith that holds back. It seems that there has developed the idea that there exists a choice between the brands of faith you can hold. One faith reaches out and seeks to make something of this world. It engages in justice. It offers mercy. It brings freedom and healing. The other brand, of equal merit, mind you, is a brand that sits back waiting for God to bring justice, to offer mercy, to bring freedom and healing. This brand of faith posits that all that is really necessary to be a follower of Christ is to pray a prayer of repentance leading to forgiveness. Anything after that is optional.

I grew up in this second brand of faith. I was steeped in a deep tradition that what mattered most was the forgiveness of my sin. Anything after that was optional. It felt right. It seemed good. After all, wasn’t this a choice? It is a choice, but according to Jesus it is a choice we don’t get to make. Somewhere in my faith journey I actually began to read the words of Jesus and I began to realize that there are some choices we just don’t get to make. Engagement with the world happens to be one of them.

It is not easy to release this choice. I want to remain in control. I want to choose my destiny. I want to decide what I do and what I don’t do. It feels wrong to have someone push me beyond my comfort zone, out into a world that is filled with more need than I feel I could ever possibly meet. Then again, was my choice ever really taken from me? After all, didn’t I choose to be like Jesus? Didn’t I say I wanted to follow him? Perhaps I did choose, but the choice I made wasn’t between brands of faith in Christ. There is just one brand of faith in Christ. My choice was that I chose faith at all.

A fellow traveler,

Blake

What’s my next step?

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of handing off faith in your family.

Plan a service activity: God made us to make something of our world. As a family, consider planning an activity in which you might act upon this truth. This activity could be as simple as planting a tree, cleaning a neighbor’s yard, or it might be more complex like engaging in a short-term volunteer project. Be sure to chat before and after your family activity about the reasons behind your service. You are serving because God has called us to engage our world in positive, redemptive ways (Ephesians 2.10).  

We encourage you to consider engaging in the following as a way of deepening your own faith.

Consecrate yourself and your place of service to God: God made you to make something of your world. He made you who you are and placed you where you are because he knew what was needed most. You don’t have to fit any mold or be anyone other than who you are to make something of your world. This week, we encourage you to spend some time consecrating yourself and your place of service to God. You might do this by imagining where you live and work, or you might physically go to the place where you live and work. In your mind, or physically, let your eyes roll over the items and people that make up your world and place of service. Give yourself to God, offering yourself to him as an instrument grace made to make something of your world. Thank him for making you who you are. Thank him that he knew best when he made you. Ask that he be glorified and his kingdom grown through you.