The Joy of Sam!

I’m not sure what the connection is that two amazing guest speakers at Promise Church recently would share the same name – “Sam.”

Sam Thomas, president of Hopegivers Intl, challenged us three weeks ago to include ministry to the world as an integral component of our missionary vision. Sharing stories of Christians in India who face what must seem like insurmountable opposition to talk about Jesus, Dr. Thomas indicated that the Western version of armchair religion comes off sometimes as trite and without real substance. “The blood of martyrs is the seed through which Jesus becomes proclaimed.” Indeed, Dr. Thomas has met and ministered with real life martyrs.

Sam Da Silva, a professional psycho-therapist and counselor from Ontario, presented a very similar challenge – but from the standpoint of experiencing authenticity. “Too often as we worship, we want to move from one element to the next as quickly as we can. Imagine what happens when we just sit with a chorus for a while allowing the Spirit to do its work.” The message? Worship with all the senses as God’s spirit ministers to all three parts of the self – Body (Soma), Soul (Psyche), and Spirit (Pneuma) – all three Greek words appearing significantly in the New Testament. Risk our need for “clean” and “controlled” and allow God to do a new and unexpected thing!

Their experience is confirmed by my own. In conversations with countless people in Jackson/Madison County – churched and “unchurched” alike – I’ve come away hearing described a thirst for authenticity. People are leaving “church as usual” in droves. Some are dropping out of church altogether. Many hop from church to church, looking for some optimal and heightened form of religious experience. The challenge of “the Sam’s” to all of us is this. Authenticity begins with the deep longing to live as a servant of God no matter what the cost. In fact, what we know is that once God has “pricked” the heart of a person, there’s no going back. Either the longing is satisfied with authentic expression of faith or the person spends a life-time trying to meet the longing through a myriad of inadequate resources.

James writes, “Consider it all joy (emphasis mine), my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2 NASB)

So here’s the test. What are we doing to push the envelope of our faith? Faith isn’t being tested unless something is risked – usually some notion of our comfort and security. Notice that James observes that such risks can be experienced with “all joy” or “pure joy” as the NIV translates. This risk, when it finishes it work, makes us perfect and complete. The longing is filled. We know God as we were designed to know and relate to Him.

There are so many opportunities for us to step out of the comfortable and into the “pure joy.” So many opportunities for risk. So many opportunities for deep growth and relationship. What are we willing to risk to know that pure joy with God? What are we willing to test to have a truly authentic experience of Jesus-like servanthood? How would you answer that question in your own life?