"I feel like we do things backwards in the Christian church. A lot of times we do these radical, amazing things for Jesus when we're eighteen to twenty-five, and then we start to mellow out. We get more and more comfortable and there are fewer and fewer things we do by faith. I think that's so backwards, because I'm turning forty-seven this year and I'm getting closer to that moment when I'm going to see him, when I'm going to stand in his presence and there's nothing left. If you know you're getting closer and closer to the end, wouldn't you get more urgent.
That's the way I've been trying to live my life because let me take the number sixty, for example. I started thinking as if I only have thirteen years left. Then I started looking at my schedule...and if I only have thirteen years left on this earth before I stand before God, I ask myself, "Is this a good use of my time?"
I get it. I get why we live life backwards. When you're eighteen what have you got to lose. Right? You don't have a lot of money. You don't have anyone that depends on you. You're on your own and you think, 'Man, I'm going to do something radical for the Lord.' You're only dealing with your own life. Then you get married and now you have a wife to take care of. You get a job and then after a while you got some kids, and soon you realize you've got a lot to lose now.
I've been in this mindset, where I say, "God, I don't want to live my life that way. I don't want to get more comfortable every year." I am trying to take a bigger and bigger step of faith every year because I'm thinking I'm getting closer and closer to the finish. If I've got just so many years left, maybe only thirteen, then I want to go a hundred percent because I want to end well."
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excerpt from a sermon preached by Francis Chan, speaker, pastor and author of 'Crazy Love'
