About the self

I often talk about and think and critique the non Christian worldview and the terrible lack of recognition of what it even means to live like a Christian.  But, as of late, I am fearing that the problem goes much further than I realize.  Its fairly easy to draw a line in the sand and say one side is of those who are part of the church and the other side is those who are not.  And practically speaking, this is correct.  But there are so many nuances to this that a simple black and white is really not practical.
I am beginning to realize just how influenced we are by the modern mentality and how far we are from the historic faith.  Most of this is centered on the concept and importance of self.  Stepping back and looking at our lives objectively, we should come to the realization that most of what we do is centered on making ourselves comfortable and safe.  But is this right?
Is it right to expend the high majority of our time, energy and money on ourselves?  When we read through the lives of the saints, over the past 2000 years, this is not what we see.  We see people giving away everything they own, to take care of the needs of others.  There is so much need and yet we focus on our own comfort and physical well being.  Where does faith fit into this?
When we read through the Scriptures, we see, over and over, that if we do not do to the least of these, we do not do it unto God. In other words, we express our love and faith for God by loving our neighbor.  Nowhere do we read about the importance of building a comfortable home and a fat retirement cushion.
Honestly, I am so influenced by and immersed in 21st century American culture that I do not even know where to begin or if my thoughts are even realistic or accurate.
But I have to ask the questions.

The goal

Why do we think that life should be comfortable and entertaining?  We go to school/university in order to get a job that we enjoy so that we can have enough money to be comfortable and entertained so that we can retire comfortably (i.e., stop being productive) and entertain ourselves.
It seems that most people (the culture in the USA) is built around comfort and entertainment.  But this is not a Christian attitude.  When one works through the New Testament and hears the words of the saints throughout church history, we do not hear a promotion of comfort and entertainment.  In fact, we hear the opposite.  Our lives should be formed in a way that our first thought should be how to love God and love neighbor.
Would we consider giving up our comfort if we could use our time, money and energy to provide for the needs of others?  Would we lower our standard of living so that someone else could actually eat today, so that someone else may have a place to sleep, so that someone else could learn a skill in order to provide for their own needs?
We have become so accustomed to our present way of life that, unfortunately, we cannot even conceive of living with less comfort, so that someone else can simply have their foundational needs met.  Think of the story of Jesus and one of his disciples watching people give money at the temple.  Jesus praised the old woman who gave out of her need and criticized the rich man who gave out of his abundance.  In other words, the giving of the rich man, though objectively a large sum of money, was nothing to him, as he was still fat and comfortable.
This is a topic I am really struggling with and thinking about.  How do I live in a way that is consistent with the faith I claim as my own?  We should not be idealistic, as it typically fails, but instead, we should be realistic and faithful.  We need to understand what the church means, what the church has historically taught and practiced and strive to emulate this.
We cannot allow mediocrity and ease to control and direct our lives.

Choosing our culture

There are two events/circumstances in history that I find particularly interesting. First, during the 4^th century, when Constantine came to power and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the response of many Christians, was to flee into the desert. An odd response?  Not really.  They did so because the Christian faith, now no longer illegal and frowned upon, became, the opposite.  It was not merely acceptable, but presumed.  It became easy.

The second is the time immediately after the fall of Constantinople.  The fall of Constantinople came by the hand of militant Islam.  The Christians in Constantinople responded with, “We would rather live under the domination of the Muslims than the heresy of papal Rome.”

The Christian faith is anything but easy.  This time we have on earth is not for our comfort, for our entertainment, or for our distraction.  We have been given this life so we have time to repent.  The world around us wants us to buy their story, their interpretation of things.  But the world is lying to us.  It is not proper for Christians to build their lives around comfort and play.  Our life is a battle.  We are fighting against the world, the flesh and the devil.  So much of our time and money is spent on gratifying our whims and passions. 

These two events make we wonder.  Is it right to live in easy, comfortable America, when doing so only seems to water down our faith and blind us to the battle that we ought to be engaged in?  It is interesting to me that the Christians that live in poor or dangerous cultures are the Christians whose faith is the strongest.