Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. I

t knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a Lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

When you trust Christ and begin a life following Him, the craving you have for impact, for a happy ending, for something more does not go away. In fact, it will likely intensify. After all, God gave you that. I have a greater drive to make an impact with my life at 52 than I did at 22. But the more you understand what it means to follow Christ, the more that craving receives focus, and becomes less like a gnawing hunger and more like a satisfying meal.

The life of a follower of Christ has a variety of descriptions in the New Testament. For example:

Hebrews 12:1-2 refers to following Christ as a race to be run.

Philippians 3:14 refers to a marathon, pressing toward a mark.

We do nothing to earn our relationship with God. When we are changed by His grace, we begin a chase—a chase to be more like Jesus. But we must be careful, or we will shift from receiving salvation by grace to living for Christ by our works.  We do want to produce good works, but not to earn either our salvation or our growth in Christ.  We produce good works to glorify God and to show others how He has changed us.

This growth that comes after salvation is called sanctification, which comes from a word meaning “to be holy,” or “separate.”  We gradually, over time, love Jesus even more and hate sin more as well.

Two things happen in this process of sanctification. The first has both a positive and a negative element.  As we grow in our knowledge of the gospel and all God has done for us in Christ through Bible study, prayer, and learning from other believers in community, we confront the idols in our hearts that distract us from Him. When we come to Christ we do not become sinless. But we do attack idols with the gospel. That is the negative side of sanctification, as we continually put to death the things in our lives that keep us from being like Christ. Ironically the negative is actually a positive because the more we hate sin the more we will seek Christ.

Suppose you struggle with jealousy. As a follower of Christ you can see jealousy not as an excuse for a bad attitude but as an idol that will rob you of your joy. So, as you reflect on the gospel and God’s grace, how He has made you His child when He should have judged you, you can increasingly find your security not in others but in Him.

There are some idols I have never really had to deal with; others I cast away years ago. I am never worried about becoming an alcoholic or a heroin addict, or a bank robber.  But I still struggle with pride, and I consistently seek to confront my pride with the truth of the gospel, reminding myself that anything I accomplish, any talent or gift or influence I have, comes because God granted that to me by His grace.

What is an area you struggle with? Lust? Anger? Fear? Lack of discipline? Worry? What if you saw these as idols that hinder your love for Christ instead of habits?  What if you made it a priority to study the Scriptures to see how you can through the gospel confront these?

Do you want to be a great husband? Here is how: Ephesians 5:25. Start by loving your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. In other words, you forgive more, you serve more, you sacrifice more, because your motivation is not to be selfish and get your way, but to be like Christ.

Do you have a habit of bearing a grudge, or gossiping about others? Read Ephesians 4, and see how we are told to replace negative speech with edifying words and with a forgiving spirit, because God in Christ forgave us?

There is also a positive side of this aspect of sanctification: we separate ourselves to Christ, consecrating daily to live a life with a goal of becoming who He made us to be. We submit to the author of our salvation (Hebrews 12:2) to write with permanent ink the story of our lives and the purpose for which we were created. This is in fact that greatest adventure one could ever live. We do not pursue position, possessions, or power. We pursue humility, surrender, and service.

Recently I asked the Young Professionals I lead at my church to think about what they would do if money were no object and if they could be anywhere on earth. I wanted them to dream a bit about what God might do if they followed Him.

The next day I had coffee with one who was there, a young man named Stephen. He asked me, “Doc, what would you do if money or geography were unlimited?”

I told him, “I would do exactly what I am doing and be exactly where I am.”  The point I was making to the group is this: if you follow Christ, and relentlessly pursue sanctification, or breaking away from sin and drawing closer to Christ daily, you will in fact find yourself in a place where you are doing what you always hoped. Now, I did not think in my early 20s I wanted to be a seminary prof. But the passions God gave me then, the craving for something more, are being more than fulfilled in the role I have: I am a husband and a dad (the best part of all!), I travel the world, I write books, I speak to thousands, I teach remarkable young leaders. I have more friends than I can count. Why? Because I am all that?

No. Because He is enough.  And there is more, a second vital part of our sanctification. But that is for tomorrow.

Yesterday I wrote about the craving we all have, a yearning for more, for a happy ending, for a life that matters. We have this craving because God created us to worship Him, but because of sin we chose to worship idols of our own making instead.

We need Jesus. He is Who we crave, because He is the one Who will fix the brokenness in our lives.  What then must happen?

We believe. We trust Jesus to do what He said He would do and to be what He said He would be.

Believe. Last night I watched a young lady named Rachel believe. She stopped trusting in her own ability to fix herself. She trusted Christ.

Look at how the Bible describes this. After noting how all of us are spiritually dead because of sin and in need of a resurrection (note: Jesus did not die on the cross to make bad people become good; He died to make spiritually dead people become alive), we read these words:

“By grace (God giving us what we do not deserve) we are saved through faith; it is the gift of God, not of works, so no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.

It is a gift. The reason this is so hard for so many Americans I meet is because we think we have to earn everything. And, in most cases we do.  But we could never earn the favor of a perfect God. That is why grace is so amazing. In spite of us, God loves us.

Here is another:  “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (i.e. “master” or totally in control) and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9.  And just after that in verse 13 it says, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

A long time ago I realized I craved more. I realized things were not right inside me. I realized I wanted my life to matter. I began to see God change young men and women. In particular I saw some hippie types changed (this was during a season called the Jesus Movement).  And God changed me.  I simply trusted Him, I surrendered my life totally. I did not want to spend my life chasing idols of money or fame, people or my own intellect. I needed Jesus, and He changed me.

I have never regretted the day I trusted Jesus Christ. I have sometimes wondered why God would love the likes of me, but I have never regretted Him changing me.

The Bible describes this change by faith in many ways:

-We had lost our way, heading for great danger, and Jesus saved us.

-We were slaves to sin, and Jesus redeemed us: He bought our freedom with His own blood on the cross.

-We were orphans from God, and He adopted us.

-We were legally guilty before a holy God, and Jesus justified us, declaring us “not guilty.”

-We owed a debt because of our sin we could never pay, but Jesus not only forgave the debt, He gave us a new and eternal inheritance called heaven.

-We were spiritually dead, and He gave us a new birth.

Now at 11 years of age I did not understand all this. The reason some hesitate to trust Jesus is because we want Him first to give us a Divine GPS, which shows us how this change will affect the rest of our lives. That too is idolatry, for we still cling to our own plans.  We must trust that He has a better idea than we do about our lives, and like Abraham who simply went west when God called him (Genesis 12), we simply start walking by faith in His paths.

But we do not do it alone. That is why God gave us His church, other believers, a family to walk with us. I had a lot to figure out when I first trusted Jesus. I still do. And God has given me so many people to help me. But mostly He has given me Himself and His Word.

So many people are working very hard to write their own story, to craft a life of meaning with a happy ending. But the pencil lead keeps breaking as the story is being written, because of brokenness caused by sin. Faith in Jesus Christ means I am letting the One who wrote the Story from the beginning write the rest of my story, because He created me for that ending, not one of my own choosing. That is what it means to confess Him as Lord.

Here is the Story of the Journey in a nutshell:

God created a beautiful world that is in perfect harmony, and put us in the middle of it to worship Him.

Sin came and we fell from our intimate worship of God, and now everything, including our own souls, is broken.

Jesus, Who is God, came to become a man, to walk among us, to bear our sin by dying on a cross, substituting His life for ours. He rose from the dead to defeat our most deadly enemy, death itself.

When we trust Him, He rescues us and begins a new and marvelous work in our lives (more on that tomorrow).

One day He will restore this broken world totally with a new heaven and a new earth. In the meantime He is changing those of us who follow Him daily to be more like Him and to be His ambassadors in this life. (more on that the next day).

If you are reading this and have never begun a life of following Jesus by faith, today is the day. Email me here to let me know this or if you have questions.  If you have trusted Christ, tell someone else, won’t you?

And here is the amazing part: when we trust Jesus, He forgives. He changes us. But that is only the start of a new and remarkable journey. I know. I have been on it for over 40 years now.  But we will talk about that tomorrow.

Today you will crave many things. You will at some point crave food because your stomach growls (mine just did). You may crave for the person in front of you on the one lane road to speed up, turn, or vaporize (maybe not the last option). You will crave going to the bathroom (just keeping it real). You may crave any or all of the following: rest, encouragement, to be understood, to be left alone, to feel like your day was not wasted.

Why do we crave?  And why do we crave more than the physical appetites we have? We crave emotionally, relationally, and yes, we crave spiritually. We have this yearning for more.  We want a happy ending to life, some sort of fulfillment.

We want to matter. In fact, we crave that.  But why?

As you go through your day today take a little time to look around. Notice the natural world around you. It is amazing is it not? Soak in the wonder of our world—the plants, the animals, the fact that as you drive your car does not suddenly fly off into the air like a missile, that you have eyes to see, and a mind to think.

This is a wonderful world, filled with life and vitality. And harmony. Plants, animals, the ocean and the shore, the sun and moon, the earth’s rotation, so many things we do not think of unless something goes wrong (like sitting in a hurricane) flow with such consistency.

And yet, though we people fit well in this world, we are different. Look at the trees—they do not fret over the amount of their retirement funds. The hummingbird in my backyard does not wonder why evil exists. But we do.  A groundhog makes a home in the dirt, but we make entire civilizations.

We are different. We do more than the rest of creation. We think more.  We crave more.  But why?

You and I were created in the imago dei (the image of God) because of the missio dei (the mission of God). In Genesis the Bible says we, unlike anything else in reality, were made by God, like God, and like God—we are rational, spiritual, and we crave more than survival. God made us to crave. And what we crave above all else is to worship. Every person worships….something.

St. Augustine said it like this in a prayer: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until we find rest in Thee.”

Pascal observed that there is in every person a God-shaped hole, a vacuum only He can fill.

We were created to be a part of a bigger plan, a bigger Story.

Okay, but if that is so, you may ask, why is so much in my life and in others so screwed up?

This world is amazing. And it has been broken. God made us to know Him and worship Him. But we have chosen to craft idols of our own making so we have (we think) a greater control over our destiny.

Sin is more than bad stuff we do or bad choices we make. Sin is in our nature, a cancer that affects everything, including our judgment. And thus we have regret, because we really do not always make sound judgments, do we? We create our own idols to worship to replace the God who made us—how silly is that, really?  Do we really think we can fill our lives with true joy and fulfillment with material things and stuff we control, when in our hearts we crave so much more?

You see, God made an amazing world, and put us in it to worship Him. But this world has been broken by sin. Unlike anything else in reality, you and I yearn—we yearn for a happy ending. We crave a life that matters. We go to Starbucks and hang out there because we want to be part of something bigger, a part of community, something more. Yet God made us for something so much more than sitting in a coffee shop or staring at a TV watching Jersey Shore.

Let me put it this way: the thing we really crave is not a thing. It is a person. Relationships matter to us because of the ultimate relationship we need. What we need is Someone to rescue us, to replace the idols of our own making with what we really seek.

Sometimes we think the Bible is mainly a book of morality, a list of does and don’ts. No, the Bible is a book of reality, a mirror to show you who you are and who you were created to be.

Bottom line: we need Jesus. We need a Rescuer to save us from our sin and to save us from ourselves. And in some cases to save us from religion we use to keep us from Him. We do not need a religious ritual, a moral code, or a spiritual fix. We need to see reality as God intended.

Jesus Christ is not simply a moral policeman . He is God. He became a man, to identify with us, to do for us what we could not do. HE CAME TO FIX WHAT HAS BEEN BROKEN. And truth is, you are broken. So am I.

We all have unique features. Some of us are rich, some poor. Some socially awkward, while others are socially adroit. Some of us use rare words like adroit, others look up those words on google. But we have something in common, all of us.

We crave more.  And tomorrow I will talk about this a little more. Come with me on this journey, won’t you?

Copyright 2001 Alvin Reid

Last night I went on a dinner date with a beautiful young lady. She reminds me of the most important beautiful woman in my life, my bride Michelle. But this night I went to dinner with our daughter Hannah. I do not see her a lot any more, nor do I see our son Josh as much as I once did, so the times like last night to sit down with one of our children to catch up and to talk about life and godliness are precious indeed.

As both an author and a follower of Jesus I have always thought of life as a series of chapters in a story written by God as we follow Him. Our individual stories make a lot more sense as we see them in the light of His Great Story. We live our lives less by years and more in chapters. A full life of 70-plus years would consist of a few sections and anywhere from 15-25 chapters.

I saw the new chapter of adulthood coming and prepared for that. Also marriage, and the dramatic shift called parenthood. Watching our children grow has been a major era of life, and a wonderful one at that.

But I was not so prepared for the stage Michelle and I just entered: the empty nest. Our children have grown up, moved out, and now, though still with much to learn, have embraced the adult world head on. I am happy for them, and extremely proud. A bit sad also, but mostly extremely proud and very grateful our children love Jesus and seek to honor Him with their lives.

I have to fight against the urge of being that parent–you know, the one who won’t let their children go, who want to guilt trip them into calling or visiting or planning their schedules around mine. Not attractive.  (Hint: parents whose children are grown, do not do that). They have their lives to live, and I want them to spend time with us because they want to and because they value the time, not because it is something they must do.  Gratefully, our children love us and enjoy time with us.

The goal of parenting is to help our children to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to give their lives for His glory and for the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).  We also seek to model the gospel and its effect in our lives. After all, one of the great testimonies to the gospel is a marriage centered on Christ.

Last year I got off the road, traveling less to have more time with our children as both finished high school and college. I am so glad I did that.  Now, as an empty nester, I realize part of my calling as a minister of the gospel and a prof includes traveling to speak God’s Word to others. God has given me a great passion to challenge the status quo of Americanized, subcultural Christianity. He has put a fire in my heart to equip a new generation of leaders both on our campus and throughout the world. Ministers should both comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and God has given me a burden for the latter. Let’s face it, we have become far too comfortable in a world racing toward hell. I actually love travelling and in particular am loving speaking to leaders, teaching The Story, and challenging the Millennial generation to run hard after Christ.

My wife Michelle is amazing. She is the consummate mother, setting aside so much for our children for so many years, not as a sacrifice but with great joy.  She also loves me so much and the call God has put on both of our lives. So she both understands and encourages me. I could never fulfill God’s calling on my life without her understanding.

So, a practical result of becoming an empty nester is that I am traveling more. The next few weeks will be particularly hectic. I still do not preach on Sunday mornings a lot as I LOVE being a part of our young professionals ministry, and I love investing in young adults both inside and outside our church. But God is stirring in our time. A growing hunger for a great gospel in the church and outside compels me to be busy in the Master’s work.

I am excited about this new section of life and the new chapter I am entering. I am in better shape physically today than I was a decade ago, more understanding of the ebb and flow of life and how to manage time in such a way both to be busy for Jesus but also to rest. At the end of the hectic days ahead of me I have a nice weekend away planned with Michelle for our 30^th.  When we work, we work hard, when we rest, we rest well.

In what chapter do you find yourself currently? What section or season of life? Rest well, but run hard the race set before you. Press toward the mark of the calling God has burned in your soul. We have too many who have embraced laziness on the one hand or an obsession with just being busy without accomplishing much on the other.  Let us not dread the next chapter of life; let us embrace it with all the passion of a follower of Christ ready to lay down our lives for Christ’s sake.