Go Hard!

            Mediocrity is the great malaise of our modern culture.  Whether man twiddles his thumbs or scurries about, the great potential of his intellect often lies dormant.  We embrace "hustle and bustle," equating busyness with importance, but busyness is quite often the product of laziness.  As Eugene Peterson says, rather than taking the time to decide and direct our lives in accordance with God's will and plan for us, we let other people do it for us.  "Then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which are essential, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone."  The solution to our problem lies not in doing more but in slowing down.  Moving is easy.  Being still is difficult. 

Look around.  The world is teeming with half-hearted people.  Romantics boast of their willingness to die, but few are willing to live.  It's easy to speak of dying when it's hypothetical.  That is, no one really expects to die. It just sounds good. But the true test of devotion is what we're willing to live for.  Find a man who will really die for a cause and he'll undoubtedly be living for it with singleness of purpose.  In Revelation 3, Jesus rebuked the Laodicean Christians for their lukewarm, middle-ground living.  These people had no shocking secrets, no scandalous sins, nothing that would make the news or embarrass the religious community.  No, they were only guilty of the greatest sin of all – mediocrity -  and God reveals a critical piece of his character when he threatens to spit them out of his mouth.  It seems that a Holy God takes more delight in sinful, wicked people then in those who shuffle along in the middle ground of mediocrity, faking their way through life. 

My little brother recently gave me a Lecrae CD, and I have to admit that I had long ago ruled out the possibility of "good rap."  But I must say that this stuff is dynamite!  I've never heard music with such clear gospel teaching and persistent calls to passionate, Christ-centered living.  Each song runs like a sermon, all at once pulling at my heart, kicking me in the butt, and wrapping me up with arms of grace.  Their song "Go Hard" really hit home for me:

"Aw man, we ain't focused on the war, we're just kickin' it.

Worried 'bout our image and our space up on the internet.

Take me outta the game coach, I don't wanna play no more

If can't give it all I got and leave it out there on the court.

Thank you for the Grace, for the will and the desire,

Got me living for your glory instead of living to retire."

So what are we waiting for? The seconds of our lives tick away like a tragedy when they’re meant to be seized in a romantic adventure.  It won't do to surrender some to Jesus, or even most. No, we must "Go Hard" after Christ and live with all we've got.  This is not some new idea.  No, it's the song that God-followers have been singing for hundreds of years. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5).  Lord, may it be!