Finding Jesus in the Scrambled Eggs

Today was the Men's Prayer Breakfast. It started at 7am. But the food doesn't cook itself. So to say it started at 7am is a little misleading. I really started around 5:15am when I got out of bed.

Folks here at Boulevard have heard me say that there is very little in life that cannot wait until 9am. It is not so much a personal rule but a guideline. I, as you may have already picked up, am a reluctant morning person. I am highly functional, articulate and require no assistance from coffee, but I am those things only when duty and service to humanity calls. For the great guys that make up the Men's Prayer Breakfast here at Boulevard I will gladly wake up early and do what I can to make a tasty breakfast. It is my pleasure. The same holds true for the other times in life when early rising & productivity is helpful to those folks I care about like my wife who will need to be at the airport on a chilly Sunday in November for her 6am flight to Denver. I am glad to do it. But I have to wonder... would I get up at 4am make breakfast, drive to the airport, or wait in line for concert tickets for a total stranger? Would I sacrifice my sleep, my routine for you, unknown blog reader? The honest answer is probably not.

Jesus always seemed to have something to say about loving and respecting your neighbors. Love them as you love yourself was one of his greatest hits & a personal favorite of mine but the rub is this: 4am. I am ready to wrestle bears for the Lord or neighbor at 10:30am, but 4am seems like a deal breaker. It is a bit more than I am willing to commit, which is personally convicting in light of the passage from Romans that we read together at this morning's Men's Prayer Breakfast. Paul writes, "present yourselves as a living sacrifice...", which as James pointed out, meant that like the saricifces of old, what you brought to the Temple you were not bringing back. To put it bluntly: what we give to God isn't ours anymore.

We all have growing edges when it comes to understanding the personal side of faith. The work of God in Christ isn't available for personal compartmentalization in the same way that many of us can distinguish and separate between the pulls of life (ex. work life vs. personal life). We will all need help seeing that the love Christ speaks of when it comes to our neighbors is bigger, more expansive than our limited understanding, and one that will provide constant opportunity to be stretched and moved to a more inclusive faith - one that compels us to serve without limitations and barriers.

So 4am it is.