Coach's Corner

Morality and Following Jesus…

It’s been said that all of life’s important lessons are learned, in some shape or form, before the age of 10 and I don’t think that’s too far-fetched. Now, I’m not saying that we stop learning when a certain hormone flush is introduced to our pre-pubescent selves, but I am saying that, as a child, I was taught that it’s important for me to eat everything on my plate. Everything. Even squash.

The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t hear my parents’ words. “Dave, it’s good for you, buddy. Here, let me ‘doctor it up’ for you a bit.” (...which just meant there would be more butter and salt added and squished around in the same hard-to-swallow veggie-mush.)

No, the problem wasn’t that my parents neglected to inform me of its goodness, the problem was … well, I didn’t want to. I didn’t care if it was good for me! It was a vegetable! Blech!

Okay, let’s be honest here. We’ve all had moments in our lives when preference has interfered with our health. Can you imagine if my parents just said, “Alright bud, that’s fine. If you don’t like vegetables, you can just eat what you like best. Hmm, my very strong preference for Macaroni and Cheese would have seen me grow into a very malnourished, very orange young man. Thankfully, my parents understood that long-term health (and avoidance of potential pigment-alteration), is the result of healthy short-term eating decisions.

As a follower of Christ, healthy short-term decisions involve more than just my body. And, more importantly, these decisions are either for or against Christ. (This may seem very black-and-white at this point, but follow me here and we’ll talk about the ‘grey’ in a second.) The life of a Christ follower is not something fragmented that I can pick and choose at; buffet style. It’s something I swallow whole, I deny my self, take up my cross and follow him (Mark 8:34).

There’s no space for preference here. If I select which parts of scripture I adhere to and practice and neglect others, I’m not denying myself and I’m certainly not picking up my cross. Notice, it’s ‘my’ cross – there are going to be things that I struggle with doing, that my friend does not, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re both called to participate fully in a lifestyle of complete devotion to our Savior and the shedding of all that would hinder following him. When we decide to live our lives for Christ, we decide to become walking, talking sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). We willfully give up the right to buy into cultural relativism and just ‘opt in and out’ as we see fit. That’s the way ‘everyone’ does it. But as Christians, we don’t have it better, we have it ‘more’ – a full and whole life (John 10:10). We give ourselves over to the only one that we can trust ourselves fully to – a God who will do nothing but watch out for our best interests.

Now, here’s the ‘grey’ area, and I’m going to use food as an example again … (can you tell I haven’t eaten dinner yet?). Morally, I may not take issue with eating meat. But if I’m having a vegetarian friend over for dinner, and they believe that killing animals for our consumption is a direct affront to God, well … I’ll serve a delicious salad so that I don’t put my buddy in an awkward position. It’s not that I share his sentiment regarding animals, but I do share in his intentions to honor Christ. So I honor God by honoring my friend. (If you’re looking for more on this topic, the apostle Paul expands on this in chapter 14 of his letter to the Romans.) It’s the full and whole life, where morality and ethics are beautifully tangled up in how we treat those around us and how we live for God.

Now, I think it’s time for some food! And I don’t know exactly what I’ll have just yet, but something feels very right about having some vegetables in the mix.

Posted March 01, 2010