Hi, My name is Erica and I serve an American Jesus

We live in a transient society. More, more, more is better, better, better. Much of our identity is found in the tag on our necks, the clickers we have for our cars and the paycheck we bring home every month.

Even the Christ-follower who desires to know the Lord, still lives in America. America- where food is not scarce, transportation is easy and pursuing the Lord does not have to be done in hiding.The American dream is to have a good paying job, a running car and hopefully a family or friends to love. Radicality is replaced with security.

My name is Erica, and I serve an America, white, middle-class Jesus.

My desires are to know the Lord. I want to advance his kingdom, and I want to spread his word and be faithful to Him, but somewhere along the way, I lost it. I was reading Radical by David Platt--only a little bit of it--at the gym yesterday, but I was extremely convicted. In the first chapter of the book, he explains how his mega-church in the south was a wonderful thing, a gift truly, but was more about the dimmed lights, good sermon and nice parking attendants. He makes a reference to Jesus in light of his mission here on earth and states " If anything, Jesus had a mini-church. 12 disciples, that was it." Jesus did not care about making people feel weird, nor did he care about seeming like the outcast. He had one mission, and it was to go to the ends of the earth and show the world his Father.

As I heavily contemplate, pray and seek to discern if Boston is where the Lord would have me this fall, I keep going back to one thought. Since when is it about me? I am in no means trying to be the heroine in this post, not at all, but my soul defaults to that one thought, over and over and over again. I am not destined to live a life of comfort. My life is to be on mission for the Lord. I am to do his will. I might be scared of Boston, but if the Lord needs me there, I have to be faithful to him. Colorado would be comfortable, California would be even more comfortable. I want nothing more than to be where life is known. I want nothing more than to drive and not have to look at the GPS because I have no idea what freeways intersect and when. I want nothing more than to be within a few hours car drive to my family. But: I am not called to follow Mr. American Jesus. He wants me to succeed and to be provided for, but there is work to be done.

Read this post. I wasn't making it up. People here in America need Jesus more than ever. I just pray I desire Jesus who is in heaven, not white-middleclass-american-bigbusinessman Jesus.