A Relationship with Jesus? (Part 2)

THE ROOMMATE
There’s an old saying here in Texas that goes, “Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.” Everyone wants the benefits without the sacrifice. Everyone wants to have the fruit without taking time to nurture and care for the tree. It’s the reason why people go broke trying to get rich quick. It’s the reason why so many people find themselves up to their eye-balls in credit card debt. It’s the reason why sexual impurity runs so rampant in our culture.

In his book, Sexual Integrity, Dr. Edwin Louis Cole writes of relationships, “Living together is involvement; being married is commitment”. He was speaking to the epidemic of men allowing not only themselves, but the woman they live with to partake in what I call the sin of cohabitation - wanting the benefits of being married without the sacred commitment of being married.

If we aren’t careful with the way we approach our relationship with our Lord and Savior, we merely allow Him to cohabitate rather than allow Him to take His place as the supreme authority, head-priest, and chief decision-maker in our lives. Without understanding that God has called us to submit to his authority, we will make the mistake of thinking we are simply partners in life; that we have an angelic roommate in Jesus.

When I was 20-years old, a good friend and I went out and bought our independence at the price of a shared apartment. It was a good time in my life. We had a great living relationship. We never had any real roommate issues with each other. But there were certainly times when each of us felt that the other could be pulling a little more weight around the apartment in the area of grocery shopping. The only problem with bringing up the point was that because we were both only friends and roommates, neither one of us could expect the other to do those extra things that we thought he should do.

There was no commitment to food inventory in our relationship. Our agreement of cohabitation ran as deep as “have your half of the rent together by the first of the month.” That was it. Yet we both had expectations of each other that exceeded our level of commitment. So consequently, we faced the occasional arguement over who was to blame for seasons of cereal with no milk, bologna with no bread. I spent more money and time on Jack in the Box in that period in my life than at any other. There were definite times of frustration for the both of us when it came time to eat around our apartment.

Christians spend a lot of time frustrated with a Christ who doesn’t bless them with the job they wanted or the car they thought they needed. Christians lose faith when loved-ones die of cancer and their spouses divorce them to be with another person; Christians who had a close and personal relationship with Jesus. The problem is that we have a higher expectation of who it is God should be than level of commitment to allowing God to be who it is He needs to be. God is not a roommate or chum. We are to live in complete surrender to who He is and accept the grace and mercy He sheds on our lives as our protector, provider, and master. We must believe that His role in our lives is to be one of sovereign authority. It’s in appropriation of God being seated on the high throne of our lives that we will see every circumstance, no matter how desperate, as nothing less than an opportunity for Christ to be revealed. It’s in the application of this truth that we will begin to see Jesus manifest Himself as our provider, counselor, and friend.