You tree!

In his book ‘The Vision and the Vow’ Pete Grieg looks at what it means to follow Christ. Here is a small excerpt that really impacted me as I read it:
“I was admiring a friend’s cute little bonsai tree when I noticed a storm gathering outside. As the first flurry of rain crackled against the window, I found myself gazing out at an old, gnarled oak tree standing silhouetted against the darkening sky. Sometimes I feel like the bonsai – a pruned and pampered indoor miniature, a cartoon of those great, wizened giants of another age, weathering storms, defying the lightening, standing strong because they were rooted deep. Where, we wonder, is the cause worth braving the elements of our time?
Perhaps it’s time to make a simple decision: that we will believe the things we believe and therefore allow them to overwhelm us and to doubt the things that we doubt and therefore deny them their power. Perhaps it’s time for the shy kid to raise her hand in class and dare to be wrong, dare to incur a little ridicule for seeming too keen.
Have we the courage to radiate our passion in such a cynical age, to live for Jesus ‘dangerously, obsessively and undeniably’? Not for money, not for fame, not for career, not for popularity? To live our lives for Jesus Christ alone? It seems to me that to do less is to be less than human. It is to cast off restraint. It is to perish. But to live that dream is eternal.”

Reflecting on this I was reminded of a track from the new Delirious? CD which echoes this desire to live for Christ, to shine for Him.

Now Is The Time
The winds are blowing through again,
So we must follow.
A people daring to believe
We can change tomorrow,
And be the miracle of light,
And we won't give up the fight.

Now is the time for us to shine,
Shine with the face of Christ divine.
No compromise, for all heaven cries,
Now is the time.

The river's running through again rejuvenating,
For everything you touch you change,
And we've all been changing.
We're a city shining on a hill,
Tell this world you're shining still,
Tell this world you always will.

Now is the time...

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, King of lights.
Jesus, Jesus, raise a church that's shining bright

I want to follow but what does it mean,
To live in this world and keep everything clean.
Nothing I own here is ever my own,
When I live in the mercy and blessing you've shown.
I lay down my rights; see the world through your eyes,
And fight for the hungry who pay for our lives,
I want to have you in all of my world.
So Jesus consume me, flow through me, cos now is the time...