Altrogge Family

As I write this Preface I have just preached to my people several messages in which I pleaded with them to be ‘coronary Christians,’ not ‘adrenal Christians.’ Not that adrenaline is bad, I said; it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it lets you down on Mondays. The heart is another kind of friend. It just keeps on serving—very quietly, through good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never says, ‘I don’t like your attitude, Piper, I’m taking a day off.’ It just keeps humbly lub-dubbing along. It endures the way adrenaline doesn’t.

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 is not spurts of energy, but people who endure for the long haul. Marathoners, not sprinters. (The Roots of Endurance, John Piper)

The heart is a good picture of God's call for His children in service. "It just keeps on serving—very quietly, through good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated." What does this look like in my day? It means going to Wal-Mart every Thursday to buy groceries, or doing the laundry each week, or scrubbing the poop stains from Charis' onesies, or continually seeking God in prayer for strength.

The bottom line is that I am not naturally a "coronary Christian." There are many times when Wal-Mart is the last place on earth I want to be or I wish I could open my oven and dinner would be ready-to-serve. My flesh does not desire to serve consistently and "endure for the long haul." This is why I must cry out to the Lord to strengthen me to serve. I cannot do it on my own. I am weak and frail, but He is mighty to help.

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)