The meaning of conversion can be easily lost to us in the Western World. Though following Christ still requires that the whole man be offered up no matter where you live, it is not as markedly expressed as in a place like China. The moment you are submerged under water to signify your death and rebirth, you are painfully aware that you are being reborn into a world that might very well require your life, and in much more than just a symbolic sense. The weight of that in the moment of decision probably feels like a twenty-ton anchor on the heart. It’s one in which I often ponder the motivation that consciously seeks it and continues to seek it day after day in the face of such grave odds. I could scarcely know what those motivations are like in it’s entirety, nor would I dare yet say that I share in that experience.

A pastor who went over there recently confessed that after his visit, he felt like the Western Church is missing something. With our love of prosperity preachers, healers and self-help gurus posing as pastors, I too wonder whether we are missing a huge compenent of Christianity, namely embracing suffering. Jesus suffered, all of the saints of old suffered, all of the admorable historic figures in chuch history suffered, and with much joy. Do we in the west embrace suffering like they did? Do we accept suffering as from the Lord and walk in it with joy?

As I reflect on the many lives lived under the shadow of death, my thoughts lead me to the meditations of a man who did indeed walked that road. The following is an excerpt from the first chapter of The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Though he was a rising star in Christendom as well as in academia, and was soon to be married, Bonhoeffer exchanged his promising future for a cross and left his life to find that which is life indeed. Beware, these are hard words, but may they turn us into soft people.

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sins, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace without price; grace without cost!

Let me ask. Are you a follower of Jesus who would go to the depths just because He asked? And what do you think about the Western Church? Am I being to hard on us? Please leave your comments here.