Overwhelmed…
Chris Coles on God, humility and trying to get things right
Let me try to convey to you just something of what is going on in my head. “Football, girls and beer”… No, that’s not it. “God, girls and beer” is a bit closer. You see, I’ve been brought up as a Christian and I’m at least third generation. It’s now time for me to rediscover God, just as Jacob had to. I a way I feel like I’m wrestling with God: “Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and win men and have overcome.’” (Genesis 32:28).
God is real to me, but I’ve not yet met with God face to face. That is what I’m striving for, yet finding so hard to do. I ask myself, “why did the Apostle Pail get such a revelation and here I am walking with God but not getting the same level on intimacy.” I find consolation in verses such as John 20:29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and let have believed”, and Luke 12:48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” What’s more, Jesus didn’t even start his ministry until he was thirty. There’s still hope for me then.
I suspect that many Christian students are in a similar situation. You’ve come up through the British education system, managed to achieve high grades and made it to one of the best universities in the country. Inherent in the whole education system is the idea that with a bit of work and ingenuity then the world can be your oyster; you can achieve your dreams. There’s probably some truth in that, but how can it be reconciled with Mark 8:36, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” It seems that I need to put to death my worldly thinking in order to ‘love the Lord my God with all my heard, soul, mind and strength’. IF that is the most important commandment, then I’m going to work extra hard at it so that I can be the best…
It seems God had thought about this as well: “For he who is least among you all — he is the greatest” (Luke 9:48). Humility and a servant heart are the key. I realise now that you can’t work at being the greatest, or even the least, you must just accept what God gives you to do with humility whilst remembering that, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).
With all that in mind, how should Christians respond when presented with positions of authority or with opportunities to work outside of the limelight? You may have the opportunity to become a small group leader within the Christian Union, or maybe you’re elected as a leader of another Christian society. Obviously I’d say pray about it first and foremost, but also bear in mind that even less now than previously can you go out and get drunk, pursue those of the opposite sex or just become apathetic in your faith. Now, more than before, you are a role model and someone who is responsible for the well-being of others. Simply by being a little apathetic, you may fail to spur them on into the calling God has for them. Opportunities to show your faith occur all the time: how much you drink at the bar, how often you give to beggars, how you respond to the friend who is annoying you. And then there are the private displays of how much you offer to the Church or Christian organisations via standing order, how often you pray or read your Bible. It is important that we are always seen to do what is right, because whether in public or in private God sees all things and rewards us accordingly. The more I think about doing what is right, the more I realise that nod doing something can also be wrong. In fact, I realise that I have become apathetic. Jesus didn’t just come to do what is right but to undo what is wrong; surely Christians everywhere should be doing the same:
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that though bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee: the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.
Isaiah 58:6–8
It’s time to move forward and seek to restore justice to this unjust world.
I’m less overwhelmed now than when I started this article. I feel that there is so much to do, so many requirements to fulfil… not for salvation but for sanctification. With some things I don’t even know what’s right and what’s wrong. However, it’s my responsibility to go with my convictions and if I don’t have any, to get some. I don’t want to be legalistic, it doesn’t matter if I get things wrong, but I should at least try to get things right.