Purchased

You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price.


1 Corinthians 6:19-20.




I will be the first to admit that I do not fully comprehend what God wants from us.  Yes, I understand that we are no longer to live for our earthly, sinful desires, but instead are to pursue the will of God.  1 Peter 4:2  And, yes, I understand that we are to stop living for ourselves and instead live for the one who died for us.  2 Corinthians 5:15  I understand these things intellectually.  But, I don't yet understand them practically.  Maybe the reason for this is that I personally don't know many -- maybe any -- Christians who I can point to as the model.


This is not a criticism of my brothers and sisters in Christ, mind you.  I fall very neatly in the middle of the pack myself.


The truth is that I waste a lot of time on pursuits that are really for me and not the Kingdom.  I don't know that they are necessarily sinful things, they are just sort of idle things.  Like tonight, I really didn't want to write this blog.  Really!  I promise you I would have been more than content just to unwind a little -- maybe an hour of playing Hearts on the internet.


Then again, there are other things I do that don't directly further the Kingdom, but are certainly necessary.  For example, I have been trying to go to the gym more often, which I know is increasingly important as I grow older.  I need to take better care of my body, to eat better, to take time to relax, to get enough sleep and so forth.  If I don't, I will soon be of little use to God.


The point is I certainly understand that as humans a relentless pursuit of God and of service with no thought of ourselves can lead to burn out.  We can get so focused on doing for the Kingdom that we risk becoming disillusioned or even feel used.  We can quickly find ourselves at a point where we feel like we have nothing left to give.


At this point, you might think I am talking about balance -- but I am not.  In fact, the goal, at the end of the day, is to be completely out of balance.  The goal is for everything we do to bring glory to God.   That doesn't mean we can't have fun.  It just means that when we have fun it should bring glory to God.  It doesn't mean we can't relax.  It just means that when we relax it should bring glory to God.  It doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of ourselves -- our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit!


My fear, though, is that most of us lean toward the other extreme.  For most of us pursuing God is more of a hobby -- something we do in our spare time.  For many of us, our "idle" time is spent on things that, if we are honest, are the things we really value in life.  In other words, we spend our idle time essentially worshiping idols.


It may be a golf game, a spectator sport, or a fondness for cooking or art.  It might be our careers.  It might be family or other relationships.  It might be a cause -- even a good cause like providing clean water to people, or feeding the homeless, or fundraising to fight cancer or AIDS.  It might even be the church!!  Yep, I think that serving at church can sometimes become our idol.


I am really not trying to give anyone a guilt trip today.  But, I do think that it is important to periodically check our priorities.  I think every now and then we need to ask ourselves whether God is really important in our life.  And, here is where it gets hard.  If our answer is that God is important to us, we need to honestly compare that declaration with how we live our lives.  We need to judge how important God really is to us in light of how we choose to spend our time, in light of our attitudes and in light of our priorities.  


Sometimes, as we examine our priorities I think we just need to meditate on the fact that we were bought at a price.  The word says that as followers of Jesus we are not our own.  But, too often, it just doesn't feel that way.  At least for me, too often it feels like I am just living for myself.  At the end of the day, its a heart thing.


²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21