Without a doubt, I think this is one of the most important questions I’ve ever asked myself in life, what is the life God wants for me?
It’s a question that can change your life wonderfully.
If you’re asking this yourself, I congratulate you.
To answer that question, I invite you to read with me this text of the Bible.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
| Romans 12:1-2
Chapter twelve of Romans is certainly one of those portions of scripture that those of us who love it should know by heart.
Its beauty and relevance are, at least for me, overwhelming and move me deeply.
The apostle Paul makes a proposal that I believe corresponds to the life God wants for us.
The proposal that the Apostle Paul makes in this text is particularly transcendental to me for eternal life, and a spiritually ambitious challenge for the world in which we live today.
It’s inviting us to be radical and completely different from what most of us have been.
It is inviting us to be Christians of a higher standard, to be more like Jesus, and to live a Christian life more worthy of the gospel that was privilegedly bestowed upon us.
That is the life God wants us to live.
I once heard a monologue called “God’s little special creature”, its title is a rather acidic sarcasm and its contents can hurt susceptibilities.
Although I thought about editing it a little, I decided to leave it as it is.
I dare to use it because it portrays the human being of today quite well and above all reveals a trap that many of us are living.
Eddie Barzoon! Eddie Barzoon! Ha!
I nursed him through two divorces, a cocaine rehab, and a pregnant receptionist.
God’s creature, right?
God’s special creature? Ha!
And I’ve warned him, Kevin, I’ve warned him every step of the way.
Watching him bounce around like a **** game, like a wind-up toy!
Like 250 pounds of self-serving greed on wheels!
The next thousand years is right around the corner, Kevin, and Eddie Barzoon–take a good look.
Because he’s the poster child for the next millennium!
These people, it’s no mystery where they come from.
You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it could split atoms with its desire, you build egos the size of cathedrals, fiberopticly connect the world to every-eager-impulse, grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green gold-played fantasies until every human becomes an aspiring emperor!
Becomes his own God!
Where can you go from there?
And as for scrambling from one deal to the next, who’s got his eye on the planet?
As the air thickens, the water sours, even the bees honey takes on the metallic taste of radioactivity–and it just keeps coming!
And it just keeps coming! Faster and faster!
There’s no chance to think, to prepare, it’s `buy futures, sell futures’ when there is no future!!
We’ve got a runaway train, boy!!
We’ve got a billion Eddie Barzoons all jogging into the future.
Every one of them reading to fist-*** God’s ex-planet, lick their fingers clean as they reach out with their pristine cybernetic keyboards to total up their billable hours!!
And then it hits home!
It’s a little late in the game to buy out now!!
Your belly’s too full, your *** is sore, your eyes are bloodshot, and you’re screaming for someone to help!!
But guess what?
There’s no one there!!
You’re all alone, Eddie!!
[mocking] You’re God’s special little creature!!
I don’t know what you’re thinking, but unlike what the monologue says, someone helped me and told me you’re not alone.
At one point in my life, the Lord in his mercy called me and rescued me from still being someone very much like Eddie Barzoon.
He showed me the path to the life that He wants me to live.
He rescued me from continuing to live the trap of the world and remain one more Eddie Barzoon of the bunch.
And it is that many of us, to a greater or lesser degree, are like that.
It is enigmatic that this monologue appears in a controversial film where one of the characters is Satan, and he recites it himself.
Sometimes I think that human beings are deceived on television, but from time to time they tell us the truth in movies.
I propose that they are telling us the truth, that there is a cosmic conflict where we are being manipulated by Satan, and we prefer to turn a blind eye and continue to waste time living according to this century.
The truth is that here we are now, and we have the choice of continuing to be what the monologue sarcastically calls “God’s special creature” or begin to be the “living sacrifices” of which the entire chapter twelve of Romans speaks.
We can live the life God wants for us, or we can live the life the world proposes is better for us.
We can be people who forever turn their backs on the evil and look to Christ.
People of love, people of peace, people of service, people who renounce selfishness for the sake of the cross of Jesus.
You’d have to read it yourself to know what it’s all about being a living sacrifice.
What decision are you going to make?
Where do you want to continue directing your steps?
Be careful if you might be in the trap.
How beautiful and wonderful is the gospel that has been entrusted to us, and how much joy and gladness it would bring us to truly live it.
What do you think about the life God wants for you? What is your experience? Share it with us in the comments to grow together.
