Consumed

This week at HS camp, our students will be challenged to be “Consumed”. In a time when so many things pull us in so many different directions, the idea of being consumed by any one thing may seem a little off. Aren’t we supposed to strive for ‘balance’ so we don’t suffer ‘burn-out’?

You can read a lot of modern thought about achieving balance in your life. Certainly there are areas of life where a proper balance is important. But can we really have a spiritual balance? Or a balance of spiritual life and physical life?

I think the answer is “No”.
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus doesn’t present a balanced picture here (in Matthew 10:37-39). It sounds like all or nothing to me.

Too many Christians have concerned themselves with the prim and the proper and the well ordered life at the expense of being consumed by the mission of Christ. When you’re on a mission, everything must succumb to the import of that mission (or you’re not really ‘on’ that mission are you?). Our students are being called to pick up their crosses and follow an imbalanced, all consuming Way. In doing so, they will find life and take that life with them everywhere they go!

The well balanced man has never changed the world but one who is consumed will set it ablaze.