Life is meant to be vital. It's like hooking a marlin, following it with your rod, letting out your line so it can jump without breaking the line, reeling it in slowly so you don't lose it as it dives. All so that you bring it along side the boat, lift it up, and hold it in your hand. It is bigger than you, stronger than you, and has gone places you have never been, but you can take hold of it if you put the effort in. The Christian life is like that.
In Philippians chapter three, Paul talks about his life in Christ. He desires to experience Christ's fulness, to be found sharing life and the vitality of life, and to experience the rightness and life-giving health that Jesus offers. Then he reminds us that he hasn't yet experienced all this.
What? Paul is a disciple of Christ. He is an apostle for goodness sake. He's prayed the believer's prayer, received the free gift of salvation. Doesn't he have it all? Paul says, "no. There's more." he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)
Jesus promises us a lot, but it is not automatic. The believer's prayer is not enough. We are called to a believer's life. This means that we are called to actively take hold of Christ, to pursue him, to become a purposeful disciple. If we do that, we will find our world will expand in ways we haven't yet imagined. If we don't life will shrink.
It is important to note that Jesus didn't call people to mere intellectual acceptance. He called them to follow. The rich young ruler believed in Jesus, but would not follow. He lost out. Others had belief, but wanted to follow something other Jesus (family, lifestyle, past loyalties). They lost out. Jesus calls us to actively pursue him, to take hold of him.
The option is to try to grab cheap grace and then relax. If we believe that intellectual belief is enough, that all we need is a believer's prayer (something never mentioned in Scripture), then we will miss out.
Jesus calls us into a new life. That new life is not an on/off switch but a journey. As we follow Christ our life is transformed. We travel from the mundane to the exotic. A slothful person sits in front of their TV all day watching other people. That is not the same as living. A travel show on France may supply you with a few facts (you will believe things about France), but it will not change your life. A trip to France will. Life is to be lived, not watched from an armchair.
I'll go a step further. You can only know Jesus by living with him, going where he goes, sharing life. You don't get to know a person by reading about them or watching them on TV. You get to know about them that way. Good fiction or history can get us a bit closer, and that's a good thing. But you get to know someone by sharing your life with them. You can only know about George Washington, but you can actually get to know a friend or lover.
Sloth leads to a shallow, toneless life of missed opportunities. Life needs to be embraced to be experienced. You need to push off in your boat, bait your hook, and cast. When the nibble comes, you need to play the catch for all your worth. The same is true for Christ. Jesus promises a lot but you won't see if if you don't follow him into the deep water.
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