You Can’t Binge-Watch Jesus

I got an email the other day from a reader friend who wondered when all the books in my current romance series would be out. She said she only started a series when she could read through all its volumes without having to wait for the next one to be available. Since right now I’m planning to have at least six books in that series (possibly more; I never know if new characters will show up and need their own book!), I had to tell her it would probably be a year. Maybe eighteen months. She told me she’d wait.

I wish I could say this was a unique occurrence, but it seems to be a reality in the world today. People have become used to spending an evening (or weekend) immersing themselves in whatever they’re interested in, such as a streamed TV series, and then being finished with it. But not everything in life works this way. And our Christian walk, in particular, isn’t a “one and done” situation.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we’re doing more than guaranteeing our place in heaven when we die; we’re embarking on a lifetime of transformation. The apostle Paul didn’t pull punches. He equated the Christian life to a race and encouraged us to press on with endurance (Hebrews 12:1–2). I don’t run, but I have friends who do. I know no one wakes up one morning, decides to run a marathon that day, and then checks it off their list. Running a long-distance race takes training. Daily training. So does the Christian life. Holiness doesn’t come from a weekend on the couch reading my Bible from cover to cover. It comes from making time every day to walk through the pages again and again and listen while Jesus gently whispers, asking me to let go of my grip on my sin.

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I’ll admit I wish this was easier. I wish I could say I’ve completed the transformation Paul urges us to in Romans 12:2. I wish the sins I thought I relinquished didn’t show up, waiting for me to let them go once again, but the reality is those sins are familiar and comfortable. Letting them go is scary and hard, and yet oh so necessary. Consider these words from Paul:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1–2 ESV).

When we’re living for Jesus, we need to be constantly allowing the Holy Spirit to shape and change us. Even if the culture around us says what is in our lives contrary to the Bible isn’t really wrong. Maybe especially then.

After I got the email from my reader letting me know she’d wait, I wasn’t sure what to do. In the end I wrote her back one more time and encouraged her to go ahead and get started on the series because I knew she’d enjoy the two already available. I think that’s just what Paul would tell us today. You want to be holy? You want to walk with Jesus? Get started today. Right now. Take one step. Then another. And another. The Christian life is harder than thirteen hours on your sofa, but it’s also so much more rewarding.

Elizabeth Maddrey is an author of several contemporary Christian romance novels. She is also a wife, mother of two amazing boys, Awana Commander, and beloved daughter of the King. Though her PhD in Computer Science does little to help her succeed in any of those tasks, she owns her nerddom just the same. She blogs at elizabethmaddrey.com.

Photograph © Dan Gold, used with permission