Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. – Hebrews 12:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 11, 2018): Hebrews 12

“What has mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises—no matter the mood! Mood's a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It's not for fighting.” Science Fiction Master Frank Herbert places these words into the mouth of his warrior Gurney Halleck as Halleck tries to persuade his young charge, Paul Atreides, that training must continue in Herbert’s epic work “Dune.” We must be ready for whatever the future holds. The future does not wait for us to be ready, it simply comes. Whether we are ready or not is up to us, and up to the effort that we have placed in our training. This is a fact that the elder Halleck understands all too well, but it is still something of which the young Atreides needs to be convinced.

Life requires that we are willing to get ready to meet it. No matter what stage of life you might be in, living requires a fight. And that means that we must train. Feeble arms will only get weaker and weak knees will only cause us more problems if we are unwilling to put the work into it to make them stronger. Tomorrow comes for all of us, but it is only those who have trained for it that will survive the coming onslaught.

And faith requires the same effort as life. It amazes how often people seem to think that Christianity is the fix all for life, a fix that requires no work. Christianity, at its heart, is defined by those who are willing to strengthen their spiritual arms and knees to be able to follow Jesus into some very tough situations. Christianity demands that we love, even when love is inconvenient. And that kind of love can never be accomplished if we have not trained ourselves properly. There is nothing that is automatic about Christianity. To live as Christians requires focus and strength, and the willingness to try to see this world the way that God sees it, and love this world the way that God loves it. Nothing less is appropriate.

And that is why most Christians often seem to be, at best, cultural Christians. They have never strengthened themselves to be able to love in the midst of hate. They have allowed too many excuses to remove them from their intended path. Living a Christian life and truly loving those who we would rather walk away from is not a job for the weak or for those who have shirked their training. More is required to love than simply living, and often when people realize that they fall away.

And yet, I am convinced that the world needs that kind of love, and needs every person who is willing to strengthen their arms and knees so that they can take this message of love into every place that they enter. We need an army of Christians willing to love no matter what. People willing to love even when all that is returned is hate.

God, give us that kind of strength.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hebrews 13

Happy Birthday wishes to my sister, Cheri. I  hope you are having a great day!