You’re a Little Too Serious

At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Exodus 4:24

I get the feeling sometimes, that some people think I take my faith and recovery too seriously. I understand that not everyone has struggled as I have, and I get that my personal addiction, faith, and recovery speak can make people uncomfortable. Here’s the thing though – I have a lot of experience at relapse, and I’ve never relapsed because I was taking my faith and recovery too seriously. I’ve never fallen back into the old life because I was working too hard at the new one. I’ve relapsed rather because I became complacent and just naturally drifted back to my old ways. So, yes, I work hard every day at abandoning myself and seeking God’s will. And yes, it’s hard for me not to talk about that. I understand that some may think I take my faith and recovery too seriously, but I know what’s at stake and I seriously doubt that such things can be overemphasized. I can take myself too seriously. I must be able to laugh at my own flaws. I doubt however, that I’m capable of taking God too seriously.

Moses discovered this in today’s passage. In it, he was on his way to Egypt, leading God’s mission to free his people, when suddenly, God decided he was going to execute Moses. What? Why? Apparently, Moses had failed to circumcise his own son according to God’s law. To understand this, we’ve got to recognize that Moses was already on thin ice with God. God had told him to go to Egypt and Moses argued repeatedly before flat out refusing. Send someone else. God became angry and Moses finally went, but he dragged his feet, failing to fully obey God. Finally, God had Enough. You’re done. I’ll find someone else. Moses’ wife intervened and performed the circumcision, saving his life. Moses’ obedience up to this point had been lackadaisical at best, and God needed Moses to start taking his faith seriously.

I think a lot of us have found ourselves here. Sure, we believe in God, but we don’t want to get too fanatical about it. We all know those religious weirdos who look like they belong in a cult, and we don’t want to be one of them. So, we don’t take our faith too seriously. The Christian life as Christ prescribed though, is profoundly radical. Daily die to yourself and follow me (my paraphrase of Luke 9:23). We’re in a war with our own nature for our souls (1 Peter 2:11) and our future hangs in the balance. We can wallow in the old life, or we can flourish in the new one and daily, the choice is up to us. That, I think, is the kind of thing that you cannot take too seriously.