A portion of the reading from last night’s Ash Wednesday service stuck in my head. It smacked me a bit and rattled around in my head. I came back to it this morning and it had more to say.

But before I get to that, an aside. I don’t often like to quote the Bible or put these kind of devotional thoughts here. I don’t like to do that so publicly because no matter what I say it feels like I’m trying to be some holy-roller. And it should be clear I’m not. The fact that I do this infrequently speaks more to how infrequently I do it privately.

I also recognize not everyone reading this agrees with the words. Quoting the Bible can be a turnoff. I understand that (and have felt that way when blogs I read do it). Sometimes it’s just uncomfortable. And sometimes that’s exactly the point.

But I’m doing it because sometimes we need something uncomfortable. Sometimes the words of the Bible get so old and stale that we need to hear them with fresh ears. And whenever that happens to me I get excited and feel a desperate urge to share it. So here’s to being uncomfortable and excited (after the jump, so can stay comfy if you like).

Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,

I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated–or not–in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly … in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
(2 Corinthians 6:1-13, The Message)

I love the litany of things Paul has gone through. And it’s another smack in the face to Christians today. When have I faced jail or been beaten up? When have I had to work late or work without eating? And not for the sake of a job or a school assignment, but for my faith?

Modern American Christianity would say we’re not called to such sacrifice. It seems so hard! But is it really? Pulling an all-nighter doesn’t exactly break a college student, and that’s just scratching the surface of what Paul’s talking about.

And then he just nails it–“Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. … Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”

In the NIV he accuses them of withholding their affection. That’s like loving with reservation, loving just a little bit–and can you even call that love? That sounds like the Christianity I see today (and I’m talking about my own life here), where our love has limits. It’s risky and scary to love with abandon, because then we have to act on it. We might have to love the homeless guy on the corner or orphans dying a continent away or the weird creepy guy who talks to himself. And that might interrupt my schedule or inconvenience me. God forbid.

If you go back to chapter 5, verse 15 in the Message it says, “[Christ’s] love has the first and last word in everything we do.” If only that were true.