There is no harder job than public service in any capacity, but especially the healthcare profession. As a nurse, I live in a problematic place daily. In my position, I am in between management, government, doctors, patients, and families. I live in the middle of every single statute, and here is where I have to serve people and bring them excellent care. It is so easy to lose yourself in the demands that everyone is making on you, to lose your identity in trying to please every single power that is telling you what you can and can't do, but I have learned how to shift my perspective in the midst of every single power telling me what I have to do. I am still Cassie as I follow JHACO policies, I am still Cassie as I am filling out government-mandated documentation, I am still Cassie when I am meeting my management productivity standards, and I am still Cassie when I am dealing with patients and families. Who I am does not change because my who isn't defined by my do.
In the same ways, I think we as Christians lose our identity as Christ-followers because of every single voice telling us why we shouldn't follow Jesus. We can get lost in the present shuffle of opinions, but the reality is our faith is radical, our PR, while many times is warranted is also skewed in making us look like bigots, angry, hateful people. Add to it a group of people that is so scared of losing their ideals of what our country should and shouldn't look like, and we are losing our identity because we are too focused on voices that don't define us. I really don't believe God has left. I think we have lost our perspective on where God is in this place that we are. We are trying to argue rather than just living our lives in purpose. So today, I want to give you three ways to shift your perspective and live more purposeful as a Christian in God's Kingdom.
One of my favorite portions of scripture is in the book of John when Jesus is praying right before He is taken away to be crucified. Amid fear of the unknown, pain, and sorrow, I lean in more to see what Jesus said. In John 17, Jesus prays, and he prays for himself, but he also prays for his disciples. I find this so interesting because I think we have shifted our eyes to the World and it doesn't match how our scripture says we should live, and it definitely doesn't match the way it used to be fifty years ago. We can lose our faith in Christ because the world is a hot mess, but the reality is Jesus lived in a pagan society and a religious system that focused on the wrong things. In John 17:15 says: I am not praying that You take them out of the world, but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world as I am not of the world." Let that sit with you. Jesus didn't pray for you to have a perfect life, he prayed that you would be protected while you are in the world. We live in the world, in the middle of different opinions, religious ideas, jobs, relationships, expectations, and responsibilities. I have seen many people want to run and hide in the church rather than work in the world. Jesus isn't calling us to hide in a church begging him to come back, He has already prayed for us that we would be protected. If we want to stay in purpose, that we have to shift from our fear of the world to know that our Savior already prayed we would be protected. What would it look like if you lived in that truth, rather than your fear of the world? Many people won't stay in their purpose because it is safer in the church. Jesus didn't call you to secure, he called you to the kingdom.
It has to start in me.
There is a song I loved to sing as a child, and it was: Lord send a revival and let it begin in me. It is easy to see the speck in our brother's eyes, but we have to be willing to turn and look at what is blocking our perspective and our purpose. We get distracted when we compare what's in our hands to what is in everyone else's. How we don't match the world, but being a Christian has always been counter-cultural. Even since the beginning of the Israelites with the Ten Commandments, it was counter-cultural. The laws were for the people to live by, and when we read our Bible, we know that Jesus made way for us but that he also gave us commandments and directions to follow Him. The Ten commandments were countercultural, there were boundaries that those who followed Yahweh lived in, and raising children, there are boundaries our children live in as well. Christianity has survived paganism and legalism, and we are going to survive them too. Let us first ask God to reveal the areas where our heart doesn't line up with Him. Where we are trying to cover our wounds and nakedness with things that remove God from our perspective. We have to be willing to be uncomfortable and rest in the knowledge that Jesus will meet us right where we are. We have to be ready to align ourselves
The world is a mess, God's people shouldn't be
I am a nurse by vocation, which means that I live in the world and deal with lots of messy things. I am trusted to give powerful medications, ones that can bring life and death, literally. I have an ethical framework that allows me to work in one of the most trusted professions. The problem that I have found is that Christians think grace is a pass from ethical standards. In nursing, we do not change our ethics because it is hard, or that it is messy, we expect our nurses to adhere to the standards that allow us the privilege to bring healing to people. This leads me to the next perspective, it is that the world is messy, God's people shouldn't be. I am not saying that we are not allowed to mess up or make mistakes, but I am saying that there is a standard that we are called to live too as Christians, there are mandates Jesus has stated, and we use grace as a cop-out. When there are more ethical nurses than there are Christian leaders, there is a problem. If we want to live in purpose, we need to shift our perspective from being victims to being the standard. I am so thankful for my backwoods church rearing because they made sure I understood what it meant to be a Christ-follower, that if none go with me, still I will follow. The problem is we have traded performance and accolades for anointing and purpose. We need some humble leaders to rise up and say 'we are going to do better, we are going to live our lives to the standards of our Lord and Savior." What would it look like if we actually looked different than the world? My biggest concern is that people have been neglected in the name of progress. Those neglected people are then following voices that aren't preaching the truth, and here we are. If you are a Christian leader or an aspiring one, it is time we turn from sticks, stones, and Sunday clothes and seek God.
To wrap this up I hope you begin to shift your perspective off of what the world looks like and our fear of the unknown to knowing that Jesus has already prayed a prayer of protection, sent the Holy Spirit, and that we have access to God at all times because the Triune God wants relationship with us and has called us to live in his purpose. It is time we look at ourselves first, remove the log from our eye and unified through Christ. We seek righteousness. With humility and reverence, we fix our eyes on Christ and not worry about what others are doing. Turn our eyes up, turn our eyes in, and turn our eyes on our sin. -Selah
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