Becoming

Sarah and Kara were long time friends. One day the two were eating lunch in the park and were just making small talk. Soon Kara asked, “Sarah, your husband is so loyal and good and you guys seem so happy. Where did you find a man who is so committed? They’re so hard to find these days.”
Sarah replied, “I found him in the only place you can find a committed man; a mental hospital.”

            What I want to talk about today are two simple yet very powerful words. Decision and Devotion. My hope is that as a body of believers we will all understand that these words are in no way similar. Sometimes as a society we confuse them or interchange them with each other. And I can honestly say that in a day to day sense, it probably wouldn’t hurt anything. But, in our spiritual walk with Jesus Christ, this would be a mistake. Yes, they both can lead to positive, uplifting things and yes, one most certainly can lead to the other, but I say again, they are not the same.
            First, let’s talk definition. By definition, what is the difference between these two words? We’ll look at decision first.
            Decision: The act of or need for making up ones mind.
            Ok, so it’s basically making a choice. Deciding to do something. This is something that we all do thousands of times a day. From the biggest, most important decisions like, “should I get up and go to work today so I can feed my family and keep a roof over their heads?” to the smallest decisions like, “should I have raisin bran or cocoa puffs for breakfast?”  Sure we may not consciously make these choices because they are part of our everyday life. But, at the core of pretty much everything we do, there is a choice that needs to be made.
            Many times throughout the day we make these decisions, some good, and some bad. Hopefully mostly good. But, of those thousand decisions that we make in a day, how many of them are we completely devoted to? Me personally, I decide to get up and go to work in the morning because it’s necessary and beneficial to my life but, I’m not devoted to my job. Just ask my boss, it’s like pulling teeth to get me to work overtime because I love my time off. I decide to keep pumping money I don’t have into a car I don’t even like because I need it for work and whatever other adventures I want to do around here in the busy town of Bluffton. But, I’m not devoted to my car. I decided to give up my wicked ways and give my life to Christ, but I’m not… you totally thought I was going to say it didn’t you. I can just envision some of the looks on your faces like, “oh my gosh, I can’t believe he’s going to say what I think he’s going to, oh.” Got you. But, in all seriousness though, just because I didn’t say it today doesn’t mean there haven’t been times in my life that I actually could’ve said it. I’m sure there have been plenty I’m just deciding not to share them with you.
            Actually there was this one time where a group of friends and I confused decision with devotion. Back when I was in the military, I was living in the dorms and the dorms are usually about three floors with windows looking out to some sort of courtyard. Well, one weekend, when the instructors weren’t around we decided that it would be a fun idea to gather up as many mattresses as we could and put them in and organized pile and then jump off the roof and land on them. We got them all piled up and realized that the jump was entirely too high and dangerous and that the whole idea was relatively dumb. What we forgot to factor in was the fact that one of our friends had a strong devotion to…well…doing dumb stuff. So as we’re standing there getting ready to take all the mattresses back, we hear this like crazy war cry and look up and John, I’ve changed his name for this story, John is running across the roof yelling like a madman and one of my other friends just goes, “oh nooo.” He then proceeds to quickly tap me on the shoulder and said, “dude, here goes John.” And just as he said that, John was already mid-air, the point of no return. So all we could do is watch this train wreck and hope we didn’t have to explain why this kid had six broken ribs and a torn mattress. Miraculously, he bounced off the mattresses and landed on his, softer side, and walked away with nothing but a couple of bruises and a story. We had all made the decision to do it but apparently he was the only one devoted to it. I had some really crazy friends. (Disclaimer to the youth: DON’T DO THAT IT’S NOT A GOOD IDEA) Ok so that's not a true story but I did have some crazy friends and it's a more family friendly story than the actual stupid things I really did. I digress...

            Ok, so we defined and looked at Decision. Now let’s take a look at Devotion.
            Devotion: Profound dedication or consecration; earnest attachment to a cause, person etc.
            1 Kings 8:61 says this about devotion to Christ.

61 But your hearts must be fully committed to the LORD our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time."

            Earnest attachment, profound dedication. Devotion is where the work comes in. It’s also where the pain comes in. Pain? Isn’t that a bad thing? No, if we are completely devoted to Christ, that pain becomes a tool for strength and perseverance. If we never got hurt by anything how would we ever learn anything? There is always going to be people who try to knock us down when they find out that we’ve devoted our lives to Christ. And why is that? It’s because our lives now have meaning, purpose, and we’re driven like never before. We are no longer like them, empty. They haven’t even made the decision to give their lives to Christ and begin filling the void that dwells within them. Where it can become painful is some of those people might be our family and friends. And that can hurt when we’re excited about something and someone else is being a downer. But that’s the nature of people; they fear what they don’t understand. What they fear they lash out at and they test. Since we have found the one thing that can fill the void, they become jealous. Their insecurities instantly lead them to believe that we think we are better than they are. So they get defensive and lash out.
            It’s our devotion to Christ that gives us the strength to overcome. It’s our devotion that tells God that we’re for real, that we’re not messing around anymore. That same devotion is what allows us to finally say, “God, I truly belong to you, use me as you see fit”. And it’s our devotion that helps us to obliterate the tests man tries to put us through. And to God those tests are petty, but useful. For we know that God will use the tests of man to judge the character and strength of our spirit.
            I was reading an interview with Rick Warren and they were asking questions about his life and hardships and what he thought about it. And one thing that stuck in my mind that he said was, and I’m paraphrasing here, “God isn’t concerned with our comfort level so much as our character during our struggles.” Because this isn’t some algebra exam, as people of Christ we’re working toward making the grade with God, and by God, (I do mean by God) we’re going to pass. And to Satan and his little entourage I say Bring It! Because my guns are bigger than yours. And we can say that with certainty today and every day as long as we are completely devoted to our Lord and Savior.
            So, where does that leave us? We know the difference between the two, now what? How does one lead to the other? I’m glad you asked.
Luke 14:28-33.
28"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
31"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
            Making the decision to follow Christ is an amazing step, but it’s just the first step. For what the bible is saying here starting in verse 29, (repeat reading) if we lay a foundation but don’t build the house, then what really have we accomplished? So now the decision has been made for Christ, now what? Well, taking that leap and deciding to serve God is a lot like winning a championship.     
            A football team was in their locker room celebrating after they had just won the state championship. The coach came in and calmed everyone down so he could talk to them and this is what he told them. He said, “I’m proud of all of you, you’ve worked very hard this season and it paid off. Now, get ready to play some football.” You can imagine the looks on the players’ faces. They’ve just knocked off the king of the mountain, they defeated the defending champs and now they’re being told that’s as easy as it’s going to get. He went on to say, “I tell you this because it’s much easier to beat the champ than it is to be the champ.”
             Beating the champ is the decision, being the champ is staying devoted. We will have targets on our backs and people will always question us. We must stand devoted and continue to depend on God and have faith that He will see us through....Let's get ready to play some football.