You can’t live with someone without experiencing, at times, conflicting values, incompatible habits and irreconcilable viewpoints. Sometimes, that’s the reason people might choose to avoid having children, or divorce their spouse, or live alone , or run away from home. Because, if you live with someone, you will be forced to make some changes in your lifestyle—to live differently than you would choose to live if it were simply up to you—to sacrifice some of your preferences and desires due to the influence of your companion.
That is precisely why living together is so good for you! Living with someone else wrenches us out of our natural tendency toward self-centeredness and compels us to recognize the existence, desires and personality of another being. When we live with someone, our own selfishness is exposed and highlighted like bright florescent colors under a black light. In that way, co-habitation is a kind of spiritual discipline, one of God’s tools for our growth and development that challenges us to become more like Jesus. I wonder if that’s the real reason God said in the Garden, “It is not good for man to be alone”.
You’re familiar with the challenges of living with another human being. Can you imagine, then, what it would be like to have Jesus as your roommate? You can be sure that you’d have to make some changes in your lifestyle—you’d end up living differently than you would choose to live if it were simply up to you—you’d be forced to sacrifice some of your preferences and desires because of his influence. And, be honest, now. Don’t you think it would bug you to live with someone who never did anything wrong? Someone whose choices and activities were always 100% righteous? Someone you could never fully understand because he is so much smarter than you are? And yet someone who frequently disagreed with you? Talk about your clashes! There wouldn’t be much comfortable space for selfishness if Jesus was your roommate.
Well, guess what? Jesus is your roommate. At least, he wants to be. He wants you and him to live together. But he’s a demanding roommate. Not content simply to move into your place, he also wants you to hand over the keys and sign the deed over to him, give him everything you own, and even give him yourself. So, he does want to be your roommate. But at the same time he also wants to be your land-LORD. He wants you to acknowledge that he is the owner, the master of the house, the Lord. But not some distant, absent manager. He desires the intimacy of a relationship with you that is so close that it’s actually more than just living together. As he says it, “It’s you living in me and I living in you.”
The wise, all-powerful, King of the universe wants to live with you. It will be a roommate experience more challenging than any other you’ve ever had. Yes, you’re certainly going to clash. And, afterwards, you’ll never be the same. You simply won’t be able to live that way any more. And you’ll love it.
To learn more about living day-to-day with your land-LORD, look here.
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