Disposable Options

As a young man, I heard Richard Wurmbrand speak.  I sat in awe as I listened to his testimony.  Richard was held captive in horrible prison conditions in Romania because of his faith during the time of Communist rule. He was separated from his wife and family and everything familiar.  He was tortured in mind and body. In one particular moment of deep despair he could only process two realities – there is a God and love was a better way - nothing more, just those two concepts remained in his mind.  All else had been stripped away. Richard Wurmbrand had discovered his bottom line.

In our Western culture we have many options and little understanding of what it means to possess a bottom line.  Even the very poor in our nation have the option of receiving some form of assistance for their basic needs.  In Romania those options were not available if you openly professed Christ.  In the West we have options because most of us possess disposable income, disposable time and disposable relationships where we can discard people because they fail to live within our narrow definition of reality.

We are entering a time in human history where coming events will take us to our bottom line.  What is yours? It cannot be found in the disposable things where we seem to be the most critical and self-confident because we still think we are in control of our lives.  The bottom line of spiritual things is only found when everything is stripped away and we finally find out we can bring nothing more to the table. This is a desperate and lonely place without the options we previously used to make life work without a deep an abiding trust in God alone. This is the place where we can make our most profound discoveries about God and life. This is the place where we begin to discover our greatest freedom.