He asks, “Are you saved?”
I will guess that you have been the subject of this query at some time in your life. It certainly has been asked of me on multiple occasions. Come to think of it, maybe I should spend less time on the question itself and more time on why I am asked so often. Perhaps another day. I'm on a roll.
My reaction to this question depends on the source of the inquiry. I list a few below in no specific order.
- I’m listening to a sermon and at the end, the speaker talks about how Jesus will bring life to my brokenness. Most often, I’ll hear a plea to sign-up, take a class, and get baptized. I usually feel that the question itself is more likely a recruitment tool to join and support some church than to take on the actual meaning of the word which titles this editorial.
- I’m talking to someone out in the world and our conversation somehow wraps around to this question. I sometimes think that I see a glint of victory in the eyes of the inquirer, or maybe a better word would be, ‘prosecutor’. I wonder if the entire conversation has been circling around the opportunity to ask this very question. The apparent eyes-of-the-soul-victory is perhaps, no more than the sense of goal-defining accomplishment.
- I’m reading an “About Us” webpage for some church or religious organization and that word shows up in large bold letters. Attached to the concept of “Saved”, I sometimes find great promises as I continue reading the paragraphs below the ‘headline’. Sometimes, there are great threats associated as well. You know, things like, “Be saved or else!”
I guess it is evident that I’m not very receptive to being asked this question. I always feel that there is an agenda having nothing to do with the actual query. Maybe that’s just me. You know, that jaded guy that might be familiar to you.
I hear things like this quote from Marc Blucas while playing Russell Berke in The City That Never Sleeps episode of Blue Bloods.
"Look, Danny. Everybody has three lives. Public, private, and secret."
I think a great many people would agree with this division of labor if you will. But when I heard that statement, I realized that it only scratches the surface of life in Western society.
We can subdivide “Public, private, and secret” in many ways. For instance, "public" could be segmented into social media lives, employment lives, church-going lives, vacation lives, neighborhood lives, and well, you get the idea.
Which one of those lives do I want to be saved?
Because it wasn’t so very long ago that I was last asked the question, I’ve spent time in mind-heart-soul ruminations.
The result of this intense deliberation indicates that I should want to be saved, all lives included. In fact, I should want only one life – that is the life that follows Jesus. There should be no categories.
How can I possibly do that!?
Well, it starts with answering our question-of-the-moment with affirmation and a desire to change immediately followed by a lot of prayers. I cannot change myself without the help that this ‘Savior’ provides.
When Jesus died on the Cross and rose again, when He saved me, the sinner, He opened His arms and declared, “You are Mine; I am adopting YOU.”
When I start to doubt, when I start to question, when my jadedness shows its green head, when I wonder if I’m good enough, when I notice my life's sub-categories in play, when I’m overwhelmed beyond the pale, I will remember the little girl in this video.
And the next time I am asked if I am saved, I will reply, "Yes. I have been adopted."
“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18
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