When We Really Live

When do we really live?  To live is Christ, but what does this look like in everyday life? 

While studying the book of James along with a small group study of Beth Moore’s Mercy Triumphs, I am convicted to ensure that I am not living a half-hearted faith but a faith that is fruitful, one that actually demonstrates what I know and believe. 

I randomly pulled a book off my shelf that caught my eye this morning – Everyday Religion. It belonged to my great-grandmother.  I hate the word ‘religion’ because of the negative connotations that go with it.  The word “relationship” is more palatable when describing my faith – a relationship with Jesus. 

But devotion and dedication are part of that relationship, so I tried to read the first few pages through the lens of what “religion” meant in 1950 with an eye focused on living out that relationship.  Here are my top five ways of how we know we really live in Christ:

We really live in Christ when….

1)   When we know how to throw off things, and not let them stick like burs and sting like bees, and how to forget our regrets.

2)   When we know how to get out of our little selves into the lives of others, putting ourselves in their place, sharing life in fellowship, changing mirrors into windows.

3)   When we can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of a forlorn mortal and see something beyond sin.

4)   When we are ruled by our admirations, not by our disgusts, seeking the best in people, giving every soul the benefit of the doubt.

5)   When we know how to love, how to pray, how to laugh, how to live with God, how to serve Him, glad to live but not afraid to die.

From Joseph Fort Newton’s Everyday Religion, 1950, (selected from pages 13-16).