On my recent plane flight to Nashville, I did something I often do in an airport as I walk through the terminal—I scanned the empty seats for a paper. Sure enough, I found the Seattle Times which provided some distraction as I awaited my flight.
One article that was of particular interest to me was an editorial by a self-proclaimed liberal. In the editorial, he referenced a conversation with a local pastor about the not-so-conservative results of the recent election and the sense that U.S. culture has turned a corner in its embrace of anti-Biblical values.
Even while I was still chewing on these thoughts, I began reading the book for our next pastor’s discussion entitled Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day. Even though the book was published in 2004, it may as well have been written in response to this recent election, or even in response to the very space I was inhabiting after reading that Seattle Times editorial. For this book is a powerful, timely call to arms. However, it isn’t a call to arms of liberal against conservative, or a call to arms of Christian against non-Christian—it is a call to arms of a life-giving faith in Christ against a life-destroying antipathy.
Just after the election, I offered the challenge to let these results remind us that our hope is not in the kingdoms of men. However, I want to add a counter-balance to that message. For it could be easy for us to think that we just need to hunker down and wait for Jesus to return. But although we hope in Christ’s return, we are also driven by this hope to share His life in our culture.
James Emery White, a pastor and the author of the aforementioned book, makes reference to the story of William Borden, a missionary to China, who had a powerful impact on the culture in which he lived at Yale University in the early 1900s. He may have thought that his greatest impact would be on China. Sadly, he died at age 26, while on his way to China, after contracting cerebrospinal meningitis in Egypt. However, on the inside cover of his Bible he had written the words of our title above, “No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets.” And because he lived his life according to these principles at Yale, by his senior year, more than 1,000 of the 1,300 students at Yale were attending the Bible studies he had started. A waste of a life? Some might say so. But Borden is a wonderful illustration of the John Lennon quote, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” Borden was busy making plans to go to China, but God was using him right where he was.
I don’t know that any of us will be a William Borden, in terms of our impact. However, we can and should model ourselves after his desire to live life without retreat. Life can make us want to retreat into ourselves, or to retreat into our homes, or to retreat into our churches. But we have been given a call to make an impact in our world. And as much as we may be discouraged over elections and the unthinkable realities of the evening news, the truth is, our greatest impact will not be found in a ballot box, or in civic duty, or in public opinion polls. If we would impact our world for Jesus, we must be Jesus to our world.
Years ago, a theologian asked the question of how Christ relates to culture. He offered a few different possible responses: a Christ against culture or a Christ of culture. But he settled on a third alternative: Christ the transformer of culture. You might ask: How does Christ transform culture if he no longer walks this earth? The answer is simple: Christ transforms culture through those of us who bear His name and His image. As we walk in Christ, we become Christ to this world.
Believers, this is not a time for us to retreat. For, as we read in Hebrews 10:39, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39). It is telling that this is the last verse before the great Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. It is as if to say, “Believers, don’t shrink back, but live your faith fully, exuberantly, whole-heartedly, just like the examples of the saints of old.”
The latest crisis tells us that we are on the precipice of a fiscal cliff. And there will be ten more such crises by the time this blog is posted. But let us not be afraid, let us not be swayed—let us be moved to live all the more to make an impact for the Kingdom that cannot be moved. No reserves, no retreats, no regrets.
In Christ, Pastor Dan