Servant of God

One of the arguments you'll often hear about Christianity is that it's foolishness. Why would I willingly enslave myself to some God when I can live a good, decent, generous life on my own and reap the benefits of my own good works? In other words, "I don't need God to be good."

And it's true. Plenty of good and decent and even wonderful persons are making this argument right now. They don't need God to be good; they're being good. What they're not being, of course, is saved...and a whole lot of other things that go along with that. 

It doesn't seem savvy in our world to become a servant. In fact, I'm not sure it has ever been the thing to do. There aren't many persons on earth who have ever said, you know, what I want to do with my life is live in someone else's house and do all of their hardest, dirtiest, most troubling labor in exchange for never being able to provide for myself or have my own family or build my own house. 

Yet, that's exactly it. It's that last part. It's that last bit that actually makes is so appealing, when you really stop to think about it. 

When you become a servant of God, you get to live in His house. He becomes the One who provides for your every need. You eat food out of His pantry. You do laundry in His river. You sleep under His roof. 

Not only that, but His family becomes your family. You get it all. You get everything. His sons and daughters are your brothers and sisters because you become His son or daughter. 

This is the thought that strikes me when I read Isaiah 65. And after all of that, just look at it. 

Here's what I'm telling you: you get to live in God's house and have all the benefits of the blessings of God and be provided for and cared for and sheltered and welcomed and have all of these brothers and sisters...and all you have to do is commit yourself to being God's servant, to doing His hardest, dirtiest, most troubling labor, which is...by the way...just love. 

All this can be yours if you're willing to just...love others. That's a pretty sweet deal. 

Throw in on top of that by committing to being God's servant and living in His house, you also get the one thing your "good" life can't give you; you are also being saved. Who wouldn't take that deal?

It sounds nice, being all independent and obstinate and not in need of anything from anyone, declaring yourself to be a free agent and "getting" to live solely for yourself and at your own discretion, but when you really dig down under the surface of it, I'd take God's deal any day. 

How about you?