A Call for Coronary Christians

I wasn't falling asleep very quickly last night so I read an article by John Piper that I had read a while back but forgotten about. It is called A Call for Coronary Christians and begins like this:

Having recently celebrated back-to-back days that cry for justice, I summon Bethlehem to be coronary, not adrenal, Christians in the cause of racial harmony and human life. I have in mind National Sanctity of Human Life Day (as President Bush proclaimed Sunday, January 20), and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 21.

I am glad for adrenaline; I suspect it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it doesn't do much for Mondays. I am more thankful for my heart. It just keeps on serving – during good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never lets me down. It never says, "I don't like your attitude, Piper, I'm taking a day off." It just keeps humbly lubb-dubbing along.

Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline – a spurt of energy and then fatigue. What we need in the cause of racial justice and justice for the unborn is coronary Christians. Marathoners, not just sprinters. People who find the pace to finish the (life-long) race.

O, for coronary Christians! Christians committed to great Causes, not great comforts. I pleaded with you to dream a dream bigger than you and your families and your churches. I tried to un-deify the American family and say that our children are not our cause; they are given to us to train for the great causes of mercy and justice in a prejudiced, pain-filled, and perishing world.

You can read the whole article online right here.