Convenient Christian

..."so I replied by sending this message to them, "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why shall the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" -Nehemiah 6:3

How would you define "Convenient Christian?"

I guess we could break down the words first. My trusty dictionary, Google, defines convenient as;

Convenient: Adj, 1. Fitting in well with a person's needs, activities, and plans. 2. Involving little trouble or effort.

The first thing that pops into my head is convenient stores or drive thru's. Those require little effort. They are quick, easy answers to a need. "I need a soda and gas and a gallon of milk and it's 2:30 in the morning. Oh what shall I do?!" Most people head to the nearest QT.


Now let's define the next word; Christian.

I'm not going to Google here, that would be too convenient of me. I'm going to choose the inconvenient path and define it myself. We'll call this the Meganary, not Meganary, that contains different meanings of words all together.

Christian: Noun, Adj, Verb, Pronoun, 1. Not fitting in well with some people's needs, activities, and plans. 2. Involving all your life, heart, emotions, thoughts and can be effortless because of Love. 3. Changing the world. 4. The belief that Jesus, born of a virgin, took my convenient life to the cross, died and then rose three days later all so that I can live.

This morning when a commenter on my blog called me, and I'm semi quoting here, a 'convenient Christian' I didn't get angry. When he or she used the word diatribe, that raised my blood pressure. What's a diatribe?! I'm too lazy to Google that one and I can't find it in the Meganary. When he or she basically called me an Edmondite! Now thems fightin' words!!

I decided to write this post not as a 'comeback' or a 'let me show you how I really am a Christian.' I'm not really sure what this is. I'd call it a diatribe but I still don't know what that means.

My angry friend, I am sorry you might have had a bad experience with a 'member' of LifeChurch. I am truly sorry, I am. Please don't conveniently paint all Christians with the same brush. I would agree some are convenient, but this Christian is not.

I am inconveniently in love with Jesus.

Nehemiah Type Burden

"So on October 2 the wall was finished- just fifty-two days after we had begun." -Nehemiah 6:15

(Yes, it's Monday and I normally do my "Weekly I Am," but I need to get something off my heart.)

The sermon series at church is titled "Change Your World In 52 Days." It's over Nehemiah, upon hearing the wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, his actions from that point and his work getting the wall rebuilt in 52 days. OH, it's also important to point out the wall has been destroyed for 140 years.

When Nehemiah learned the wall had been destroyed, it crushed him. He fell to his knees and wept and then he prayed and then he began his steps at getting to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall.

These past few weeks, while going through this story at church, I have felt challenged. I've always known and have had a feeling for quite some time that there's just something I need to be doing, I just don't know what. The question was poised, "What issue brings you to your knees weeping because it breaks your heart so much?"

Well, that's an easy one; starving children. 

There are millions, MILLIONS! of babies literally withering away because they have no food, MILLIONS! Disgusting.

Flip that around and there MILLIONS of babies dying and I am just me. Then I think about Nehemiah. He did something no one dared do for 140 years and he completed it in 52 days. It sounds impossible, but all the babies in Africa could be saved in 52 days. You scoff, but I serve a God who can do it. He made the sun stand still didn't he?

My first job is my family, but it is becoming clear my heart's desire is to be a voice for these babies, these moms watching their children die. Sound harsh? Good. It's harsh stuff.

Want to help?

There is one great way. We support Compassion International You can sponsor a child, make a one time donation, meander their site, check out their color of choice, blue, or look at their Child Survival Program. They do great great work and they truly want to release children from poverty in Jesus' name.

Another site I stumbled upon last week is Sevenly.org Each week they sell special Tshirts and $7 from each T goes to the 'organization of the week.' This week it's Compassion! Yah! Since I only wear Tshirts and this helps an organization I love, I bought one. Go check out their site and watch the video.

PS. My heart spewed these thoughts, which includes the mispellings and improper English.