All over the Americas today, it is Columbus Day. Some countries call it Discovery Day, the latter making me think Columbus’ death-defying passage was also a journey of
self-discovery. Every healthy human travels this road called finding oneself, also known as individuation, or coincidentally, passages.
If you are over 18, you are already consciously aware of the journey. But if you
are over 40, you are also watching younger adults—the millennial generation—make these perilous,
but necessary passages. And what makes this journey particularly hazardous for the Millennials
is the fast-changing, constant redefining of cultural norms and values.
On this day, let us pray for our Millennials to discover sooner than
later the paradox their older generation has already learned (hopefully), “Whoever finds his life
will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt.
10:39). No one can find oneself apart from God: Happy Discovery Day!
I have been reading a recently published book “Jesus Manifesto—Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ” by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. I highly recommend it to you.
The authors’ objective is to counter a spirit of narcissism that has crept into the church, where ‘conversion’ is less a turning to Jesus than a turning to success and self-discovery. Of the top 100 best selling Christian books on the market in 2009, they point out, just 4 were about Jesus.
They ask “what is it that will change the course of Christianity, putting it back on course? What will emancipate God’s people from all the things that Jesus nailed to His cross? What will create a spiritual revolution in the world today?" The answer: a total occupation with Jesus. Many Christians are not occupied with spiritual things at all. And others are errantly occupied with good things like evangelism, or worship and praise, missions, or end times, or church growth or city-wide prayer. All good things, but may keep us otherwise occupied. Jesus must be our 'only' occupation. We must pray for an inward revelation of Christ to our hearts by the Holy Spirit—a progressive unveiling of the Person who is seen on every page of the Word and occupies all things. Have we become so self-occupied, so preoccupied that we have forgotten it’s all about Jesus?
