The main difference between Christians and others.

It comes down to one thing. But here's the question: Do you believe it? Do you even act like it?

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What does it mean to be a Christian? There are a lot of ways you can answer that question, some simple and some complex. But I prefer the simple for a lot of reasons. And the simple answer I found this morning may be the best explanation I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the question, though: Do you believe it?

I’m continuing to work through Eugene Peterson’s, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.” This morning, we were examining Psalm 127, the classic that begins, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” That’s a gem in an of itself, and there’s plenty you could unpack there. But that’s not what hit me.

What hit me is a paragraph that Peterson used in support of one of his points. That point is this: God works. From the beginning of time, he has worked. The Psalm makes that clear. To underscore that, Peterson writes this:

The main difference between Christians and others is that we take God seriously and they do not. We really do believe that he is the central reality of all existence. We really do pay attention to what he is and what he does. We really do order our lives in response to that reality and not some other.

Let’s reflect on that for a second.

If you think about it, all of that is really a great summation of what it means to be a Christian. We believe God, we take him at his word, and we act like it and on it. Now, Peterson doesn’t mention Jesus in this lifted passage, but I’ll say that as a Christian, taking God seriously (and truly and fully) involves the New Testament, not just the Old Testament.

In other words, we Christians believe that “taking God seriously” means taking Jesus seriously, too.

That’s so simple. Yet, it is so hard. Here’s what I mean: How many of us say we take God seriously, and yet live like we don’t? Honestly, we should all have our hands up right now. I think that’s the central explanation for sin. Sin is a failure, in some way or another, to trust God — to believe that what he says is true and that he is enough.

Sin takes God off the throne and puts ourselves on it — our wants, our desires, our perversions. So we say we take God seriously, and yet we often don’t.

Friend, how different would your life look if you actually took God seriously more? What would happen if you actually ordered your life in response to that reality and not some other?

I can tell you, it would make a drastic difference. I know because this last year, more than ever, I started actually taking God seriously. I’m not saying I do it perfectly. I still have strides to make in that department. But even just taking him seriously a little bit more has completely changed my daily life and the trajectory of my life.

Case in point: I’m writing this to you now. Friend, there’s no way this blog, this community, would have happened without me taking God more seriously. There’s absolutely no way you would be reading this words had I not started taking him more seriously.

There’s just no way.

That doesn’t mean it’s been easy. Oh no. In fact, it’s been one of the hardest years of my life. But it’s also been the most rewarding and fulfilling. Things that don’t make sense like that tend to happen when you’re following Jesus closely.

So here’s my question: Are you willing to actually act like you believe what you say you believe? Are you willing to actually take God seriously and order your life around that reality?

If you are, I think a more glorious reality awaits you than you ever imagined. I know from experience.

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(Pic: My friend Phillip Slaughter is an incredible photographer here in the Dallas area. He took this photo of some of the recent storms rolling in. It felt appropriate to include, because when I look at nature, there’s something that screams out inside of me that it couldn’t have been created by accident. Please check out Phillip’s other photography here.)

Photo Credit: Phillip Slaughter / Oath Photography (used with permission)