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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – In college, my roommate’s father was an evangelical minister. He was from India.
And my roommate said a few times a year he’d come home and find someone sleeping in his bedroom. When a foreign exchange student from India converted to Christianity, they were often disowned by their family back home. Soon their college tuition wouldn’t be paid, their meal plan would be shut off, and they’d be kicked out of their dorm room. The minister would take them in until their lives were back on-track.
I was a much less-mature Christian then. I thought these students from India must have been stupid. Lose your family? Put your college education in jeopardy? Not have a place to sleep? I thought that was too big a sacrifice for religion.
In hindsight I’ve come to admire these new Christians. They were so convinced that their new-found faith was the way, that they were willing to give up everything. Other things became small and meaningless once they gave their lives to Jesus Christ. And they are even more exceptional considering that their faith traditions back home, most were Hindu, were so different. They’d turned their backs on everything they’d known for eternal salvation.
I’ve also come to realize that their walk with God, right from the beginning, is more difficult than mine. I’ve never been asked to give up the things that my secular life is built upon. And that’s just it – for a true believer – there is no difference between a secular and spiritual life. And Jesus did not promise us that following him would be easy. If we believe what we claim, our answer must be “everything for you, Lord… everything.”
Chris Conley
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