He stared at me from across the table, his eyes cold, his face expressionless. “Your mission,” he said, “should you choose to accept it, is to help the four of us eat this entire Black Forest cake.” The challenge was made, and four sets of eyes eagerly watched for my reaction. The suspense hung in the air like a cloud. “Waitress,” I called, “would you be so kind as to bring us five forks?” Five Friends…one cake…so it begins.
At first we ate with speed, driven by an inner force awakened in every man when food is involved. A crowd gathered as the continuous action of fork-to-cake-to-mouth whirled into a blur. With grim determination we ate; each of us focused only on the bite ahead. However, as time wore on, our original dreams of glory turned into questions of survival. One friend (apparently aided by the quadrupled sugar level in his blood stream) stood to his feet and shouted, “I can’t take it anymore! I qui…” He was cut short as a hand cracked across his head. “Pull yourself together man!” urged Jeff, the oldest of the group. Finally we came within sight of our goal as one piece remained on the plate. There it sat, staring at us in disdainful mockery. The sound of Jeff’s voice rang out, “Brothers, today we are faced with a choice. We can choose to let shame rule over our lives and be left wondering what could have been. Or, we can choose this day to look disgrace in the eye and defeat it. SO WHAT WILL IT BE?!” With a great battle cry we lifted our forks into the air and plunged them into our enemy. A thunderous applause shook the restaurant as the last bite of icing disappeared behind my victorious maw.
This goofy story illustrates what often happens in the Christian life. When we start our spiritual journey, the excitement is so great it seems like we can never get enough of God! Our friends are there to feed our excitement and we jump in with both feet, enjoying the bounty of our faith. However, as time passes, we experience hardships that shake our foundations. We allow ourselves to be separated from God. I have seen many Christians who come to a crossroad in their faith and choose to leave it all behind. Jesus never said the Christian life would be easy, but asks that we persevere until the end. In the book of Revelation (3:7-22), there is an interesting contrast between the church of Philadelphia and the church of Laodicea. The first church stayed faithful to God through the hard times while the latter sat on the fence and became lukewarm. God promised to bless the first church and carry them through the trials, but the second He would vomit out of His mouth. I find myself asking, “What church am I?” Which church best describes you? Will you keep going until the end or choose to quit when the going gets tough? Choose today to persevere.
Mike Blackaby is 25 years old and is the college and young adult pastor at First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, GA. Mike loves to play music, loves to snowboard, play hockey, and cheers for the Colorado Avalanche. He is terrified of spiders, but loves reading fantasy novels, watching movies, taking road trips, building camp fires, and will do any roller coaster if someone goes with him. You can contact him via Facebook.