DAY 19

IN CHRIST

DR. MIKE KITSKO, EMD DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT

Everything in our world feels like it is speeding up. Hartmout Rosa, a German social theorist, writes about why we feel like the world seems to go so fast. He calls it the acceleration of time and goes on to explain why the acceleration of time will not be slowing down unless we consciously choose an alternative. Each year feels much faster than the previous. We feel like every task must be done faster. We feel like each year requires us to be more innovative. It is harder and harder to keep up.

The result: we feel like each year we must do and accomplish more in what feels like significantly less time. If you produced 5% last year, then next year better be at least 6%. Each year, the refrain is: do more, do it better, and do it faster. We are stuck on a perpetual treadmill. The treadmill is speeding up. The treadmill’s angle is increasing. There does not seem to be an end or rest in sight. The treadmill is wearing us out. We are tired. We are exhausted.

The warp speed of modernity undermines the sense of a core identity and forces persons into places and spaces where they juggle and manage multiple identities: a work identity, a school identity, an online/social media identity, a family identity, a church identity, and others. It is a complex phenomenon. However, it is my contention that the more we feel forced to juggle and manage, without space and time for reflection, the less and less we reflect Jesus. With all my heart, I want us to reflect Jesus as the core of who we are. WE ARE IN CHRIST.

Desires form the core of our identity—as persons, families, and churches. Phrased differently, the core of an identity is explicitly reflected by how we express our desires. Why do we have to juggle and manage multiple identities? Our world demands it. To keep up with the warp speed, we are forced to present multiple identities. Furthermore, when we don’t present fast enough, we feel like we are falling behind. When we feel behind, it will not be long before we also carry with us a deep sense of dissatisfaction, a just-under-the- surface anxious spirit, and even a sense of depression and hollowness. It is the angst of the age. (For clarification: the reference here is not about clinical/medical anxiety and/or depression for which medical help is available.)

In John’s Gospel, chapter 1, two of John the Baptist’s disciples begin to trail Jesus. Jesus then turns to them and probingly asks each of them to express their core desire, “What do you want?” Furthermore, how those followers answer Jesus’s question allows each of them the opportunity to name and model—concretely and specifically— their desire. They answer with words, “Where are you staying?” They also answer with their bodies. They embody following Jesus, ‘they went... they saw... they remained.’ We live out, reflect the desires of our heart, by the ways we use our bodies. What does your body usage reflect about your desires? Does it reflect your followership of Jesus? Does your body reflect Christ’s Lordship?

Notice what Jesus did not ask. Jesus did not probingly ask about their knowledge or beliefs. It would have been easy, simple, linear to simply ask John’s disciples, “Do you believe in me?” They could have answered, “Yes” and gone their own way. Jesus was more concerned with who those disciples could become when their desires aligned with Jesus’s desires for them. Jesus wants disciples who are all in, surrendered, and ready to go wherever He leads. He wants followers who will remain with Him. Those who go where He goes and remain where He stays will have their desires shaped by Him. They will begin to reflect Him into the dark and broken places of the world.

Many of Jesus’s questions in scripture are variations of “What do you desire?” Jesus often probes, examines, and searches for a person’s core desire by using questions like, “Do you want to get well?” or

“What does that have to do with me?” or Do you love me?” Jesus, the One who knows the number of hairs on our head, is more concerned with who we are becoming. Theologian, James K.A. Smith, says that Jesus’s ‘what do you want’ question is the central and fundamental question of Christian discipleship. Because the answer shapes and forms our priorities, agendas, practices, use of time, habits, and more. The answer reflects our character.

In our warp speed world, Jesus still asks each of us, “What do you want?” May your answer reflect the purpose, power, and presence of Jesus in your life.

PRAYER

Dear Heavenly Father, today I praise You for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I want more of Him. Father, would You reveal to me any area of my life that I have not given Jesus full Lordship over. Give me the heart to lay it all at Your feet, fully surrendered to the purpose, power, and the presence of Jesus. Every day of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.