I’m currently reading Journey of Desire by John Eldredge. Desire is a major theme of the season I’m in–thus, last post’s reference to John Piper’s wellspring of resources related to Desiring God.
On page 64 of Eldredge’s work, he highlights an interesting slant on 1 Peter 3:15, which reads, in part:
…always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…
He then goes off. And, oh, how it rings true:
Now, what’s strange about that passage is this: no one ever asks. When was the last time someone stopped you to inquire about the reason for the hope that lies within you? …
Yet God tells us to be ready, so what’s wrong? To be blunt, nothing about our lives is worth asking about. There’s nothing intriguing about our hopes, nothing to make anyone curious. Not that we don’t have hopes; we do. We hope we’ll have enough after taxes this year to take a summer vacation. We hope our kids don’t wreck the car. We hope our favorite team goes to the World Series. We hope our health doesn’t give out, and so on. Nothing wrong with any of those hopes; nothing unusual, either. Everyone has hopes like that, so why bother asking us? It’s life as usual.
And now for the payoff:
Sanctified resignation has become the new abiding place of contemporary Christians…
Are you resigning to “life as usual”?
4 replies on “RE: Desire and 1 Peter 3:15”
Just for the record, the title of my blog is meant to be ironic…
The thought did cross my mind that you may find this particularly interesting because of your blog’s name.
I probably should have put this disclaimer: Nathan Randall, though your blog is titled “Life as usual,” this post is not a personal attack on you :)
Also, I somehow managed to not put a smiley in there, even though I meant to. :oops:
We are quite willingly wasting our life. Oh the bliss of a wealthy western life. Oh, yeh! what did Jesus say about rich people (myself included) and the eye of a needle. Oh, but wait, rich people are those who are worth more than 10 million, not us with our multiple cars, big houses, cable/sat tv, etc. etc…….