Scott Freeman

Living on the Glorious Edge

I recently encountered an individual who disparaged the pursuit of holiness. This person made the statement that the Christian life is too safe, too easy.
What is the point to living if all you do is take the easy way?
Where is the excitement, the rush when all you hope to do is the right thing?
The thought possessed behind these questions is the false assumption that living can only truly be experienced through sin.
Through chasing after the lures and desires of the flesh.
People who reject living the Christian lifestyle on this basis believe that yielding to Jesus means that you will forever abandon the thrills and exultation of an unrestrained life.
Au Contraire.
The Christian life is replete with excitement.
It is fraught with risk.
It is overburdened with moments that shake the core, rock the soul and awake the spirit.
Christian living is life on the glorious edge.
It is life totally set free from the temporal restraints of this life.
It is eternal awareness in a secular world.
For example:

• There is great risk when I sit with a couple on the edge of divorce and share with them the glory and fulfillment of a Christ-centered message.
• There is excitement when I talk with the young soul about the peace and comfort of giving of one’s life to Christ.
• There is palpable exhilaration that comes with confronting the wandering soul with the good news of God’s grace.
• There is risk in standing for absolute truth in a world that seems dead set on absolute uncertainty. People may reject you but they will not doubt who you belong to.
• There is reckless disregard for the flesh when we abandon the desires of this life in exchange of the relentless pursuit of heaven.
• There is risk in loving unconditionally
• There is risk in faith. Of launching out with the full expectancy that our steps are not guided by our own might or reasoning ability but by the ever-present Hand of God.
• There is risk in sharing. We know that only some will believe. And we accept the danger of rejection with glad and sincere hearts. Because some will believe.

Every week as I prepare my thoughts for Sunday I am struck by the risk. When I pore through the Scriptures in an attempt at understanding I am seized by delight.
As I consider how to best present the gospel I am overwhelmed, humbled and excited at the enormous responsibility that has been thrust upon me.
I am calling people weekly to surrender all that they have.
All of their meager attempts to get ahead.
All of their futile efforts to procure sense in this life through their own reason.
To lay down their life in exchange for the life God longs for you to have.
In so doing, I see all that I still have left undone. All that God still needs to transform within me.
It is not safe.
It is definitely not easy.
There is risk in giving your life over.
There is excitement at giving God control
There is exhilaration in living for something greater than yourself.

The Christian life is the life of true risk-takers. It is the journey of the joyous.
The manner of the magnificent.
The glory of God.
To live the Christian life is to live in joyous expectancy of Heaven.
To live the Christian life is to boldly risk all for another world.
To live the Christian life is to be willing to die to self and live for Christ.
To live the Christian life is to count all but loss compared to the unsurpassing joy of knowing Him.
To live the Christian life is to experience the excitement of seeing others lay down their burdens, their sins, their hurts, their pains and embrace the Gentle Healer.
It is a life on the tight-rope of living trapped between two worlds: the world we inhabit and the world for which we eagerly await.
It is a life in the lion’s den of those who despise the message armed only with the love of Jesus.

The Christian life is not easy. It is not boring.
It is not the coward’s way out.
It is life.
True life.
Life on the Glorious Edge.
Try it.