Enough

Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.” Luke 19:8-9

So you become a Christian. Simple process. Pray to Jesus, accept him into your heart, open the floodgates, your cup runneth over, etc, etc… There’s that initial little prayer that you hurl out to get the whole thing started. And, just like that, you’re a Christian. Found the Lord, or whatever.

Then what?

You start by ridding your life of the trash. Toss out your smokes, your porn, maybe your booze – cut ties with some friends who’d drag you down. Replace them with a Bible, a pastor, The Purpose Driven Life. Maybe you try to pray.

Not enough.

Then you start cutting out old habits. Friday night binge drinking turns into Wednesday night prayer group. No more sleeping in on Sunday – not when there’s church to be had. No more behind-the-back chitchat about the boss. No more peeking down the waitress’s shirt. Toss out some music.

Still not enough.

So you volunteer at church. You start financially supporting missions and African children. You paint a school. You witness to your neighbors. You plant trees, memorize verses, pray five times a day, and try to muster up some sort of emotion, some sort of feeling, any sense that this is perfect and that life right now is the best of any possible world and that things are better now than they’ve ever been.

But you’re running out decisions to make, and you know that it’s not enough.

You’re angry now. Because you had sort of hoped that you’d give your life to Jesus, let him clean it, and he’d just give it back. Shiny and new, trouble-free, and under your control.

Then you come across the story of Zacchaeus, the wee little man who – after one dinner with Jesus – couldn’t get rid of his money fast enough. Jesus tells him that “salvation has come.” And he wonders.

And then you wonder if that’s what it takes – if it just takes throwing off everything you have and are and want to be and burning every penny for the sake of Jesus Christ. And you remember hearing, in the beginning, that being a Christian meant giving your heart to Jesus – and you find out now, only now, that it’s True.