MAN-day Mondays: First and foremost

Friends, today I'd like to ask two very important questions.

1. Who are we first and foremost?
2. What else are we waiting for?

These are two questions that have been weighing heavily on my heart in the last few weeks and it's been a very revealing pit stop on this road called life. As a human I've fallen into the trap of distraction, getting so caught up in where I am right now that I forget who I am and who I've been called to be. And after being shown the trap of distraction, there is that part of me that suffers from a second infirmity of the soul, procrastination.

I believe that first and foremost, we are called to be Christians, that is, those who believe in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our redemption, and a commitment to His ways. Being raised in a Christian family, that phrased rolled right off my tongue, but understanding the full weight of that description is something that I have to constantly work on.

You see, so often we're forced to wear multiple hats in our day-to-day activities. Daughter, son, sister, brother, student, Asian, cashier, advisor, guitarist, small group leader, driver, the list is endless and so often we forget that on top of any of these positions, we are Christian. The name that we call ourselves should cover (and drip over) our lives in a way that reflects His love.

But it's not just a prefix to the hat, it's a submission of our role to God.

If our primary calling is simply to be a Christian, then our secondary calling is what we can call our mission field. On a mission trip we aim to bring a bit of God into the lives of those we encounter, through our words and through our acts of love, and there is really no reason why our daily lives shouldn't be any different. To bring a bit of God into the lives of those around us by living lives in the context of grace.

To use a very personal example, being a Christian Student can bring many things into light which may not have had much impact in the past.

As a student we're living the life of lectures, tutorials, assignments, exams, all-nighters, the wonders of caffeine and the unending social scene.

As Christians we're called to integrity, we're called to live lives which honour His name and we're meant to treat our bodies with the respect they deserve.

So as Christian students, where do we draw the line with all-nighters, how much caffeine is too much caffeine? Or how long can we go on a mi-goreng/chilliz diet?

Or on the flip-side, how easy is it to wake up three hours before an exam, and how difficult is it to wake up half an hour earlier to be on time to Church on a Sunday morning?

It all comes down to a recognition of who we are first: Christians or Students.

And the only way I know to work through this is a daily submission to God and a deeper understanding of His grace, having given us everything in our lives.

To leave the second question largely undeveloped, if we know that we are Christians first and foremost, what on earth are we waiting for?