Red Bull Christianity

By Jon Acuff

Published: July 11, 2008

Have you ever wondered what the prodigal son did the day after the welcome home party? I mean honestly, once the welcome home banners were down and the floor was swept and the sun came back up after a long night of celebrating, what did he do? How did he spend that day?

I don't know, but I do know how I spent the first few months after my most significant prodigal chapter. I spent them sprinting. I spent them running as hard as I could for the Lord. I was overwhelmed by this sense that I had to make up for all the lost time. Sin had swallowed so many years of my life and I felt guilty for the wasted time. It was now my job to fix 30 years of sin with a few months of intense holiness.

So I got drunk on Red Bull Christianity.

I really thought that was how God worked. Like returning from a long vacation at work and trying to read and respond to all your emails in the first hour you are back, I believed that I had to express my faith in hyperspeed. The other years were gone. They were black and dead, but maybe, just maybe, I could make up for them by being super holy Godly Jon.

It didn't work. Despite my best attempts to read the entire Bible in 40 days, 40 being a very spiritual number, and my desire to only listen to Christian music and have Christian conversations, I couldn't do it. I failed, again. Do you know why? Because that's not what God wants.

I'm always a little hesitant to go serious on this site. My fear is that you see the title "Red Bull Christianity" and think to yourself, "Yay! Finally a funny post about energy drinks." And then I say something serious. But regardless of that hesitation on my part, I want to tell you one of the reasons I am a huge fan of God.

In Isaiah 30:15 He lays out a pretty simple formula for life and in it, He expresses something really powerful. Here is the verse:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation,in quietness and trust is your strength,but you would have none of it."

I love that our God is a fan of rest. I love that in His mind, rest is important. I love that our God demands we take naps. But I ignore that demand all too often.

Christian culture has done a really big disservice when it comes to this verse. In some ways, we've deleted the phrase "and rest." It's too soft, too comforting, too universally true. It doesn't do a very good job separating the good from the bad or the "us" from the "them." It's hard to judge someone when it comes to rest. Can you imagine how loving it would be to see someone at a protest saying "Repent and rest for the end is near!" or "Sinner, please enjoy a nap." We can't scream it, so all too often we laser focus on the repent part and leave out the rest part.

But here's the thing, I don't think it's accidental that God paired them together. I think He knows how exhausting it is to repent. I think He knows that at the end of a prodigal journey, when we have repented by walking home, the last thing we need is to run around as fast as we can and make up for lost time. No not that, never that. What we need is rest. What we need is quietness and trust.

I'm writing a book about the prodigal son because I think I might know what he did the day after the welcome home party. If he listened to his father. If he took the advice of God, it's not too hard to imagine.

I think the first thing he did was sleep in.

Jon Acuff is the author of the incredibly popular blog, Stuff That Christians Like. A 32-year old Atlanta copywriter, Jon can be found blogging at http://www.stuffchristianslike.net or http://www.97secondswithgod.com.