The Christian Life

Jude 1:20
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.


I had the opportunity this last summer to spend a short time on a ranch in north-eastern Wyoming. A gorgeous spread of land, with a lot of livestock, and a few fun and interesting characters. I had quite an adventure.

I think the part that caught my attention most was the house that we stayed in. It was 120 years old! On the outside, at least from a distance, it seemed very well maintained, with good paint, some beautiful flower beds, and a nice green lawn. I think I have several pictures that might even be worth framing. But once you start to get a little closer, you really start to notice its age, and the fact that it wasn’t taken care of for a LONG time.

There’s clutter on the porch – some new carpet that needs to be installed, a few items worth using, a few more that just haven’t been thrown out, and an old beer keg being used as a stool (how like us to keep our nasty old habits around to "rest" on, because we think they’re so comfortable). The doors creak, and don’t fit quite right. The inside is cluttered with so many things from days past, there isn’t room for much. The walls are cracking, the paint is peeling, and the floors creak and moan with the slightest bit of weight. And the most interesting part is that it had been cleaned – it was looking so much better than it had looked when it was being left to its own.

How easy is it to let our Christian lives begin to grow, and age into looking like this house? On the outside, it looks nice – we attend church every Sunday, say all the right things, have all the right friends, and attend all the right events. While on the inside, it’s growing old and musty – the walls are cracked, the paint is chipping, and it’s filled with so much old stuff that there really isn’t room for anything new. If we let it go for too long, the foundation may still be sturdy (as Christ will never fail), but the walls and everything else could come crumbling down, bringing with it even the beautiful, nice exterior. If that happens, we won’t have any sort of legacy to leave behind, except rubble.

The longer we let it go, the longer it takes and more difficult it becomes to fix and freshen up. It becomes so much easier to just keep all the old stuff, and rearrange it, instead of letting the new come in and bring with it life and refreshment. We must continually maintain our Christian lives, friends, it is a constant process and takes "up-keep," so to speak. If we do it daily, like housework, it is so much easier, and we are more carefree because of it. But if we let it grow stale and dusty, each passing day will bring with it more work and struggle. So, what shall it be? I pray that we will each have aged-faiths that will be considered antiques, worth much, rather than just old junk, worth a few garage-sale dollars.