Soft as a Marshmallow

 One day at football practice for the Trinity Christian Academy Eagles, I asked one of the players if he had any marshmallows. He did not and had no idea what I was getting at. Over the weeks I continued to ask different players if they had marshmallows. Finally one guy asked me, "Coach, why are you always asking us if we have marshmallows?" I replied, "Because you are soft."

We live in a soft Christian age. Think about it. On one side of the world, people are risking their lives to worship Jesus. They bravely gather to sing and study the scriptures at great peril. On our side of the world, people contemplate whether they should allow their child to play soccer or baseball on Sunday. There are some who face torture for sharing Christ with family and neighbors. In America, people remain silent for fear of offending someone. 

The church in America caters to the soft. Worship is entertainment driven. There is little emphasis on doctrinal purity in what we sing so long as it has a good beat and feels good. Sermons have downgraded into sermonettes of pop psychology. The weighty matters of truth are often avoided. People are seldom challenged to live lives of risk. Themes of comfort, security, and prosperity are preferred over the themes of sacrifice, obedience by faith,  the crucified life, taking the gospel to the hard places, total surrender, and dying to the American dream are avoided. Such themes can thin out a crowd. We are soft. We prefer soft messages. 

Jesus did not call us to be soft. He called us to follow Him. [Matt 16:24] That means a life of self denial. Denying self is hard. We gratify self and selfish desires. Jesus calls us to reject self. To do just the opposite of what self wants in favor of what He wants. He also calls us take up our cross. That means to be willing to suffer. To endure some hardship for His sake. Soft people want a soft life. They want to avoid suffering, risk, and discomfort. A cushy comfortable life is the American dream. Hard people know how to endure adversity. They do not shrink back in tough times. They have a never quit mentality. Lastly, Jesus calls us to follow Him. It does not matter where. He has the authority to demand us to follow Him anywhere, at anytime, to do anything. That is hard truth but it still truth. 

I say it again. Jesus never called us to live a soft life. Are you soft like a marshmallow? Or have the muscles of your faith been strengthened and toughened through hard rigorous following Jesus? May God raise up hard people who will embrace the hard assignments, in the hard places, among gospel hardened people.