The newsroom mantra is,
”
if it bleeds, it leads.
”
The captains of industry more and more remind me of Gordon Gecko
and his
”
greed is good
”
philosophy. Movie moguls continually push to rewrite morality
via their films. To combat all this, modern-day Christianity is
doing
… very little.
The newsroom mantra is, “if it bleeds, it leads.” The captains of industry more and more remind me of Gordon Gecko and his “greed is good” philosophy. Movie moguls continually push to rewrite morality via their films. To combat all this, modern-day Christianity is doing … very little.
Oh, there’s plenty of posturing and saber-rattling when a big story breaks, but much of it, unfortunately, is done to further the agenda of the person making the pronouncements.
The recent disaster on the Gulf Coast is a heartbreaking example of that. My question is, what happens to all these desperate souls once the cameras are turned off and the news mob is off to the next big thing? It is then that Christians have an opportunity to do what God calls us to do in the first place: be Christlike. But here we hit another snag, because most Christians only identify with the “primetime” Jesus. We want to do the miracles, perform the healings and walk on the water.
Our trouble comes in the fact that while we want to say and do spectacular things for God, few of us are willing to do what it takes to get there.
When I was a kid I wanted to be just like my sports heroes. I carefully watched everything they did during the game and tried to copy it when I was on the field. My problem was that I didn’t extend that to what they were doing off the field. The hours of training they went through to get into shape to do those primetime heroics didn’t interest me.
Many Christians approach life the same way. They don’t realize that the ability to be a mighty light for Christ will not supernaturally appear when they call for it; it will be largely dependent upon prior spiritual conditioning and preparation.
Perhaps Jesus spent 90 percent of his life in obscurity to teach us a lesson about how we should approach life. How did Jesus spend most of his time?
The Bible says he followed some very simple disciplines: he read and meditated on Scripture, he prayed, he fasted, he spent time in solitude and time building quality relationships with the people around him. Out of such preparation, Jesus was able to lead a life of enormous productivity.
Our mistake is in thinking that living as Jesus lived has only to do with our primetime moments; the rest of our life can be lived like everyone around us. This is as foolish as the young athlete expecting to be a hero by simply copying the gametime behavior of a superstar. Our basic problem is that we genuinely want what is right and good, but at the same time we are unwilling to align our lifestyle with these values.
This is the feature of human nature that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We intend what is right, but we avoid the life that would make it reality.
Examples are legion.
Consider the couple who wants to get their finances in order, but who continue to run up debts that outstrip their income. Or the Christian who laments the problem of violence in our society while at the same time harboring hostile attitudes toward others. Or those who rail against pornography while watching a soft form of it every day on TV.
In other words, we want to take a stand against financial irresponsibility, violence, pornography and all the rest … so long as our own chosen style of life is not affected.
Instead, we opt to define Christianity as choosing whatever action we think Jesus would choose during the crisis points and primetime moments of our life. But may I suggest that if we wait until then to ask ourselves what Jesus would do, we are toast.
Just asking that question will not adequately prepare us to do as Jesus did. Our deeply ingrained, ungodly tendencies will not allow us to morph into sudden Christ-likeness. And our attempts will fail so spectacularly that we may come to the conclusion that Christianity is little more than an exercise in frustration.
At some point we need to acknowledge the fact that Christianity isn’t a religion to agree with or a club to join – it’s a lifelong process of transformation. Which is why Jesus tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” and not worry about all the mundane daily crises, realizing that God will take care of our needs when we focus on doing things his way rather than our own.
Stop thinking of Christianity as a religion one subscribes to and start thinking of it as a lifestyle we are to live out 24/7.
It really all comes down to following Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 11, where he tells us, “Walk with me and work with me … watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Henry Harris is lead pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church, 330 Tres Pinos Rd. in Hollister. If you have questions or comments, please visit the church Web site at www.rollinghillsfamily.com, e-mail
pa*********@ro****************.com
or phone (831) 636-5353.
