“Committing Your Life to Adventure”

Religion in Daily Life

By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org <http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org/>

If our lives only had the dimension of the past, then memory would be enough to cope with life. If life had only the additional dimension of the present, memory and reason would be enough. However, our lives also have the dimension of the future. Therefore, we need more than memory and reason to face life; we need faith to commit our lives to the adventure of the unknown tomorrows. For Christians, this adventure into the unknown involves a three-fold commitment: a commitment to a person; a commitment to pray; and a commitment to people.

First, there is the adventure of committing your life to a person. For the Christian, the commitment is to the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims often speak of Christians (and Jews) as the “People of the Book.” By the Book, they mean the Bible (which is actually a library). The central fact of Christianity is not a Book, but a Person-Jesus of Nazareth who is described as The Word of God. “Christians are people who see the decisive disclosure of God in Jesus, just as Muslims are people who see the decisive disclosure of God in the Koran, and Jewish people see the decisive disclosure of God in the Torah (Marcus Borg).

Second, there is the adventure of committing your life to pray. When I use the word “pray,” I mean more than saying prayers or asking God to give us what we want. I mean that as we pray, we open ourselves to the Spirit and make ourselves available to fulfill what God wants. Have you ever thought about the fact that God has his own list of things he wants, too? The prophet Micah has told us what God wants. Micah wrote: “He has told you what he wants from you: to do what is right to other people, love being kind to others, and live humbly, obeying your God” (Micah 6:8, New Century Version).

Third, there is the adventure of committing your life to people. On the day of Marie Antoinette’s coronation (1774), the French officials tried to keep the cripples and beggars off the streets and out of her sight. In contrast to that, the follower of Jesus of Nazareth commits himself or herself to the well-being of people. Jesus identified himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless and the unclothed, the sick and the imprisoned (Matthew 25:35-36). Rita Ungaro-Schiavone, founder of Aid for Friends, exemplifies this commitment to people as the organization she started now provides free, home-cooked dinners to 2,100 needy and isolated shut-ins in our Philadelphia area.