How often have you asked Christ to illuminate a path or provide an answer to guide you? I've found I do this so often it becomes subconscious, a kind of quiet interior dialogue. And I don't mean the clear and panicked, "Christ, help me, guide me, walk with me." Or even the plea for help that sometimes can rise up from where we stand at rock bottom. I mean that voice in your head, in your heart, in somewhere deeper, that whispers and asks and answers, to. The small and serious, "Should I? Can I? What's the first step?" Or even sometimes, "Dear Christ, why did I?!"
I have never been a passive Christian. When I preach, I preach in the middle of the established hypocrisy, in the face of the street-corner barker, in the places where I am most likely to be ridiculed, misunderstood, and disputed. I have no interest in being a martyr; I just I want the challenge, I want the adversity, I want to feel the world pushing back; I like to move things, shake things, and yes, be shaken.
Because if you rock my world? It just proves the strength of my foundation.
And when I running away? I'm not passive there either. Not even when I'm hiding from my faith, from my spiritual responsibilities, from everything else under Christ's open sky. If I'm hiding? I hide actively. I make a real go of it. I don't just step behind a rock, I dig a hole, crawl into it, and drop the rock over my own head. I make my eyes so blind that I don't see angels even when they're trying to slap some sense into me.
And trust me, it takes one heck of a slap to get me out of my hole.
Being active, living an active life -- or maybe I should say, an Active Life -- has a feeling that lives in my bones and muscles and informs the way that interior voice speaks to me. Whether I'm running into the light, running with the light,or running away from the light, I thrum with the act of doing, choosing, being aware of and active in every choice-and-response.
So when I ask my questions, like we all ask of Christ, I'm not passive. I don't wait. I don't sit back. I don't seek-and-find. I cast.
Mark shares Christ saying, "I will make you fishers of men." Every great fisherman knows the importance of casting. Are you aggressive, are you in or against the wind, the current, the tide? Are you patient? Are you passive or are you active? I like to cast out my question with hard work as my bait. I don't want to cast an empty hook and expect Christ to flip my answer up on my deck, already cleaned, cooked, and seasoned.
I'm willing to fight for my answer even when I have to fight myself.
I cast my question and then seek to find my catch. I don't cast and sit back. Fishing for answers is not a relaxing, soothed by the waves experience for me. If I ask, if I cast, I want Christ to know I'm willing to wrestle and land any marlin He gives me.
Even if I have no idea what I'll do with an answer that big.
I only know I can't meet that type of size with passive faith. Passive faith never did anything for anyone except put butts in pews... and there are no pews in my active life.
