RISK IT ALL

Have you ever had the thought "perhaps there’s more to life than meets the eye?" Maybe you’ve wondered about your 'Final Destination' or your 'Purpose' in life. As a Christian, the Word of God tells us we are individually created and fashioned for the sole purpose of connecting with God - Colosssians 1:16, Revelation 4:11. The very thought that God invites us to love, and be in love with Him is simply amazing. When I think of not observing this walk as God intended, a restless feeling in the pit of my stomach begins to propel me forward, knowing there is more to be done, more to accomplish, and more to experience in Jesus Christ. In reality, "God Himself is our Final Destination." Ironically, no sooner that we begin to press forward in our walk with Christ, thoughts of pending obstacles, personal insecurities, past failures, and proven disappointments begin to flood our hearts and minds as we struggle with a barrage of haunting questions - “How do I live to please God?”, “How do I stay faithful?”, “What if I fail?”, “Can God love me with all the junk in my life?”, “I’m too deep in my sin for God to rescue me.” In all honesty, I've worn those shoes before, and I can say it’s very easy to sabotage ourselves out of the call of God for our lives. However, if you are determined and relentless in your pursuit of your destiny with God, you will only be able to find it through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and having a willing heart that allows the Holy Spirit to lead you through this dance of life. Regardless of where you are in your walk with God, you are always in need of His mercy, grace and forgiveness. God is always ready and willing to pour out without measure to heal our brokeness. Understanding our need for Him is what keep us walking towards the finish line. "We come to God to lose our lives, as He comes to us to be found."

My walk with God started as a little devout Hindu girl. I didn’t know it at the time, but as God was pulling every string in my heart, I was falling deeper and deeper in love with Him. Since my upbringing and background was different from the Christian faith, it quickly became a confusing time for me. After a few soul searching years, I finally opened the door and said “Yes” to His invitation. As a child, my encounters with God were nothing short of supernatural. His presence would fill my bedroom beckoning me to worship and commune with Him for hours during the night. As time went by, His presence became increasingly frequent and stronger into my teenage and adult years. It was an exciting, perplexing and very solitary process. Overtime, it was also an incredibly humbling process. I needed to consciously and actively let go of hand-me-down traditions, inherent belief systems, cultural dogmas and outside voices that would bring shame and guilt for making the decision to follow Christ. I needed to be a willing and active participant in denouncing and renouncing parts of my life that were very dear to me. There were areas in my life I didn’t quite understand but concluded God was ultimately in control. Needless to say, there are still pieces to my life that I’m clueless about, but I’ve come to terms that I may never have all the answers. The one “constant” in the life of a Christian is “change” simply because God desire to take us deeper and higher at every stage. Over the years, relationships were severed, friendships reevaluated, and personal loyalties diverted. Dreams were relinquished, desires overhauled and wants abated. My faith was tested, patience stretched, and endurance challenged. In the end, it seemed others were finding their lives while I was losing mine. I've learnt that through pain, setbacks and victories, God is always willing to reach into our lives and rescue us from the deep, dark abyss of disappointments, mistakes, regrets, disillusionment, rejection and the endless list of pressures that quickly derail our focus. I've also learnt that through the refining process, I can either stay on the sideline of defeat, or get in the fight for deliverance - "we are part of the process." God expects us to be involved as much as He is in seeking freedom from all things that strip our destiny with Him. God expects us to quickly put to death our ways of sin and self indulgence. He invites us to strip away the weight that easily hinders, and come face to face with Him as He asks us that pivotal question as He did the disciples “Who do you say I am?” - Matthew 16:13-20. I can’t think of another critical question to ask ourselves in this sphere of life, for it’s just the prelude for when we truly stand before Him on that faithful day. 

The truth is, “Life in Christ” not only brings us to the recognition of Jesus as Savior, it in fact requires a relinquishing of control of our lives, and an internalization that He be Lord as well. Until we come face to face with a Holy God, our ways of compromise, mediocrity and selfishness will permeate every single decision we make. Cheap grace will step in, self-deception will overtake us, and sin as a lifestyle will quickly become the norm. Living for God often involves death to ourselves, our wants, our desires, our personal comfort, and sometimes strangely enough, death to some ideas of what we think "our ministries" will look like. It requires a lifestyle of holiness, brokenness, and separation unto God. Christianity is a deeply personal, private and sacrificial journey one must be willing to take in faith, all the while considering God's command to share our life with the world. "Society is not just looking for our support checks, but is deeply in need of an “all hand on board” investment from our lives." We must be willing to lay our lives down and allow God to use us as He pleases. The truth is, God desires to love and give us so much of Himself, it requires an emptying of our entire life to hold it all. God doesn’t 'take away' to leave us empty handed – He takes away that He may fill us to completion, with overflowing fulfillment and purpose.

Do you have the courage to let go and let God? Do you have the faith to jump off the cliff and trust His direction? Are you just living life on the sidelines, and in the safe zones as a spectator? Where's the fun in that? God loves a risk-taker – He loves it when we challenge Him to demonstrate who He is. He is moved by our frailty in risking it all even when it costs us everything. Sometimes, we fail in our best efforts and that's ok - hold unto God. I've failed many times and it's a struggle to get back up again, but God is looking for abandoned vessels willing to stretch their faith and expect the miraculous. "God is not looking for the 'perfect' one, but for the imperfect one willing to be obedient." Above all, His eye is seeking and longing with love to find the "Hopeless Romantic" and His "Warrior Bride." God is willing to demonstrate to us how majestic and divine His love for us really is, and in fact has done so already through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “The Cross is the most radical Statement of Love History has ever seen” and whether we are aware of it or not - it's the romance we've all been looking and waiting for.

What would you risk to taste and experience love that is all encompassing, magnificent and eternal? If it's the only love that will last into eternity, what would it take for you to trust it? If you are willing to lay aside your personal prejudices, traditions and hand-me-down belief systems, and come to God with honesty and humility, the Holy Spirit will show you His heart. He did it for me and can do it for you. He is not intimated by your questions - go ahead and ask as many as you can. Just ensure you're listening for His answers. He will speak. With life being so short and fragile, let me encourage you to find out what you are destined for, and who you were designed to be. It's more that you can ever perceive - 1st Corinthians 2:9-10 "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit."

“The greatest tragedy in life is to come to end of it all only to realize that you’ve completely missed the mark"

Apart from sharing my personal encounters with God, BSWG seeks to bring to the table an open, raw and honest conversation about life as a Christian, and what it means to live unapologetically abandoned to Jesus Christ. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but through our dialogue, I’m looking forward to journeying with you through the high and low points of life and learning what God has to say about Himself and Us.

BSWG, The Gospel Square and The X-Change Square will host several contributors opening the floor on the conversation of God, Faith, Life and Culture. It’s my hope that through the many contributors posted here, there will be thoughtful reflection of our lives enough to ask the questions “How do we fall deeper in love with God?” and “How do we maintain our intimacy with Christ?” In the end, it's the only thing that will remain.

Thank you for journeying with us.

Cavita Dat