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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Call for "Coronary Christians"

More memorable words from John Piper, in another of his devotionals, Life As a Vapor:

I am glad for adrenaline; I suspect it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it doesn't do much for Mondays. I am even more thankful for my heart. It just keeps on being a humble, quiet servant - during good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never lets me down... It just keeps humbly lubb-dubbing along.

Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline - a spurt of energy, and then fatigue. What the church and the world need today is marathoners, not just sprinters. People who find the pace to finish the (lifelong) race.

Oh, for coronary Christians! Christians committed to great causes, not great comforts. I plead with you to dream a dream that is bigger than you and your families and your churches. Un-deify the American family, and say boldly that our children are not our cause; they are given to us to train for a cause. They are given to us for a short season so that we can train them for the great causes of truth and mercy and justice in a prejudiced, pain-filled, and perishing world.

Oh, Lord, this is our heart's desire.
Forgive us for adrenaline spurts of righteouness.
Forgive us for little sprints of holiness.
Forgive us for short flashes of noble-minded sacrifice.
And build into the fiber of our faith a rugged, resilient,
never-say-die perseverance in the cause of truth and love!
Make us coronary Christians!

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