Focused and Fanatical Followers

I love Kyle Idelman’s Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus. It convinced me that we are called to be more than fans of Jesus. It lead me to stop being satisfied calling myself a Christian, a term which has lost real meaning. Folks call themselves “Christian” if:

• Their mom was a Christian.
• They go to church.
• They’ve been baptized.
• They live in a “Christian” country.
• They are a good person.
• They believe in Jesus.

I can claim all of those criteria (well maybe not the Christian country), so what? That doesn’t define who I am in Christ. I’m a follower of Jesus. The problem is I’m not always a “Completely Committed Follower of Jesus.”

A Completely Committed Follower of Jesus, it seems to me, needs to be focused and fanatical.  Isn’t that what it means to be “Completely Committed?” I am sometimes unfocused, sometimes unenthusiastic, and sometimes drift. Sometimes I’m all three simultaneously.  I don’t think I’m the only one.

We should be called “fanatical.”  I agree with Idelman that it’s not enough just to be a fan, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be fanatical. That means we are zealous, extremist, extreme, militant, dogmatic, radical, diehard,single-minded, blinkered, inflexible, uncompromising, hardcore. It means the same as enthusiastic, eager, keen, overkeen, fervent, ardent, passionate; obsessive, obsessed, fixated, compulsive, wild, gung-ho, nuts,crazy, hog-wild. Okay, so some of those words might be a bit over the top but they capture the truth of what we should be.  We can’t be fanatical and expect to live a “normal” life.

A fanatical focused follower doesn’t rely on the rightness of his beliefs or the goodness of actions. His reliance is completely on Jesus. He is, however, identified by how he lives, loves and looks like Jesus. His walk is minute-by-minute and impacts every thing he does.

That brings me to the 7 Habits. They are practical guides on what we do, how we act, how we relate. Our habits are what we do every day. They are the practical elements of our focused fanatical following. We are guided by proper principles, but not just what we determined are proper, but the principles Jesus taught and lived. We are focused on success but we don’t measure it by what we have or achieve but by how closely we follow and mirror our leader.

That’s why I am excited about 6 pm on Sunday nights at Amana. That’s why I’m pumped.

Are you?