“Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.” Romans 12:9-10 MSG
Sunflowers resemble the sun and by the phenomenon of heliotropism, they follow the sun as it moves throughout the day. In an Upper Room devotional, Julie Sipe wrote about the breathtaking sight of a field filled with row after row of sunflowers during her morning runs. One overcast morning she noticed that every sunflower was facing downward as the sun was not shining that day. This led her to the truth that it is easy to look to God when we see God’s wonders around us. However, when life gets messy, it can be difficult to see God working. At such times, we may hang down our heads and turn our hearts away from God.
At another time, she found a few sporadic sunflowers that are turned away from the sun. These flowers did not change the direction of the others. This gave her the insight that she need to keep her focus on God even if others are turning away from God. Although all the sunflowers are filled with heliotropism, some of the sunflowers did not follow the sun. Likewise, Christians may be filled with the Holy Spirit but we may not all be walking with the Spirit. It was not being a sunflower but the sight of a field of sunflowers following the sun together that glorified God. In the same way, it is when Christians are shining together as the Body of Christ that God is glorified.
The journey of our Christian faith is a journey of discovery - from being a “Christian sunflower” worshipping God to being a disciple of Christ who is Son follower - seeing Christ in others and letting others see Christ in us. To follow Christ is to be a “Son-follower” who loves from the center of our being. Discipleship is not a training program to develop spiritual powers - it is the journey to the cross - a journey Jesus described three times to the disciples in the gospel of Mark. But before the crucifixion, the disciples were unable to understand what Jesus was telling them about his death and resurrection:
“Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.” They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.” Mark 9:30-32 NLT
Instead of trying to understand what Jesus was telling them as they were travelling to Capernaum, the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest amongst them. They had forgotten what Jesus had taught them in the Beatitudes. Jesus had to remind them that “whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else” (Mark 9:35 NLT). Jesus told them that they need to be childlike to enter the Kingdom of God:
“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Mark 10:14-15 NLT
In fact, to enter the Kingdom of God we need to be reborn again as a child of God. Jesus told Nicodemus:
“Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’” John 3:5-7 NET
And as a child of God we cannot remain an infant. We have to grow up and to embark on the journey to the cross. When we follow Christ we will be tempted like Jesus in the wilderness. To follow Christ, we will be “salted with fire” (Mark 9:49). We need to run for dear life from sin for sin separates us from God and drives us to hide from God. Jesus warns us in graphic terms of the consequences of sin:
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’” Mark 9:43-48 NLT
God’s will is not for us to be in hell but for us to be with Him in the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus died on the cross to rescue us from sin and to purify us from pride, lust and greed with the fire of love. With Christ we can hold on for dear life to good and to be the salt to preserve the world from sin as we bear the fruit of love, joy and peace.
Just as the sunflower is heliotropic, as disciples of Christ, we are to be Cross-tropic - to see opportunities for spiritual growth in the challenges and trials of life. We will be tempted to be hedontropic - seeking worldly pleasures to quench our spiritual hunger and thirst. But when we are Cross-tropic we will be drawn to the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation as well as to feed on God’s Word. The bible is not a book of instruction for us to master but the spiritual manna to nourish our souls:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT
The stories in the bible are not fairy or mythic tales but sacred stories to transform our minds and to warm our hearts as we listen for the lessons that God wants to teach us through them. For example, the Kingdom of God is inclusive and not exclusive for Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven.” When the disciples tried to stop someone outside their group casting out demons in Jesus’ name, they tried to stop him. But Jesus told them:
“Do not stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” Mark 9:38-40 NET
We need to be careful that we do not use the bible to make ourselves look good or to use it to shame others. We are to feed on God’s Word so that we can share the love of God from the bottom of our hearts. When we do so, we will not only be spiritual sunflowers but we will be Son-followers lifting high the cross of Christ to draw our fellow human beings back to God.
SDG
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