Though I do not own a fiddle, there are times I enjoy just “fiddlin’ around.” In fact, I’m hoping that they introduce fiddlin’ as a new Olympic sport – I think I could compete in the heavy-weight division. But then I also wonder if my efforts to become an Olympic-class fiddlin’ champ are damaging my ability to present Christ as my greatest Treasure.
I loved the dialogue in a movie between a professor and student, where the professor is encouraging his brightest student to quit wasting his talents and creativity on just trying to please himself:
Student: “What is wrong with me wanting to live the good life, if I am smart enough to do so? What is wrong with me chasing the American dream of a tremendous salary, a beautiful mansion to live in, and the finest cars to drive?”
Professor: “Todd, what good is a $90,000 Mercedes-Benz if…the nation is falling apart? Rome is burning son – What good is a $90,000 Benz when [our faithful men & women of the military] are giving their lives for your freedom? How can you use your liberty and freedom to enjoy the good life when you are fully aware of what it is costing someone else to secure your liberty & freedom? We are the problem – we are just fiddlin’, trying to maneuver around the edges of the flames.”
Wow! What an excellent discussion of what I often do with my freedom in Christ. I often present the argument of Todd to both God and to myself. Am I at all aware of what Jesus willingly gave up for me to have freedom from sin, death, & hell? What about what others are doing to continue to tell the message of Christ around the world – giving up their comfort, their safety, their finances, their security, their health, their very lives for the sake of the gospel. How can I put on blinders to chase the American Dream of comfort and safety and ease when I know of the darkness… the spiritual poverty, the spiritual hunger and thirst people are trying to quench, the persecution of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters around the world?
Rome is burning! And I am still practicing my “fiddlin’ around.” I have taken my liberty in Christ, and I have just been fiddling, staying on the edges of the flames of actual sacrificial commitment and radical obedience to Christ.
But there are people out there, day after day, all over the world – fighting to take the gospel to this world, to shine the light of Christ into dark places. When will I stop fiddling and join them in the battle? God, wake me up from the tragic dream that the Christian life should be safe and that you are okay with me fiddlin’.
“Time is too short; and the weather is too turbulent for business as usual in our Christian community.”
— brian rushing