I'm not one given to exaggeration, just simply making observations, be they large or small.
I mention this to preface the use of the word "everywhere" in the following few sentences. I'm more given to use words such as rampant, epidemic, widespread. In this case, from what I can see, everywhere is more appropriate...and not an exaggeration.
Everywhere (yes, everywhere) the only thing being seen is the Body of Christ rabidly fanatical in the pursuit to obtain, acquire and hold onto things.
What is it that people and just as much Christians are in such a tizzy to acquire and hold onto? Relationships, possessions, status, position, image, lifestyle, esteem, money, achievement, knowledge, health, progress, recognition, control.
Pulpits and people are all about
increase, and blessing, and victory, and blessing, and overcoming, and blessing, and SUVs, and blessing, and a good paying job, and blessing, and family, and blessing, and bliss and happiness, and promotion and upward mobility and advancement. And, of course, the illusion of having and exercising power and influence (boy, is that ever its own post).Seriously. Take a look around. Note if
the topics, discussions and branding within the Body do not revolve around acquirement. See if the messages and discussions in the Church aren't centrally about obtaining and having. Even the "new" Movements of the past few years, which claim to be so different, center around garnering and attaining. What's amazing to me is that Jesus'
message is the opposite of what people who allegedly represent him are into, whether it's old guard or these newer Movements.Jesus' message is about letting go, not acquiring.
He talks about losing, not getting and holding onto.
He talks about serving, not entitlement.
His invitation is to die, not accumulate.
The last two years for me have been circumstantially the worst of my life. By such a vast margin you can't even imagine.
Guess what preceded this
circumstantial wasteland? It was telling Father, "I want to be part of what You are doing. I want to be on Your page, not on my page--pretending and projecting to others it's Yours, when it's really mine." In other words, I told God I wanted to be part of Christianity penned by Him, rather than what is being preached and marketed by Christianity. When I talked with Father about getting on His page, He responded by asking me to give up the most cherished thing in my life.
This is nowhere to be seen in the
message being spoken in the Body today. My life since that point could not be more opposite from what both pulpit and alleged Christians are saying life as a Follower is to look like. It is excruciating, difficult and demoralizing. And that's putting it mildly. So, what then? Is God deaf? Is He disinterested when someone says they want to be part of His way? Or could it be that He heard me loud and clear, and my life is His ongoing reply?
It's heading toward three years since that conversation. A year after telling Father this a second fork in the road came, and I was presented the option to return to my former life. As I walked out of another office that year later, I walked through the building and noticed the marble floor beneath my feet (clean enough to eat off of) and the brilliantly shining brass handrails of the 4-story atrium. I was absorbing that environment, pondering the executive job I had just been offered.
There was no enthusiasm, no appeal, no nothing in my heart. Had there been I would have taken the position and gotten back into that life. As I got into the elevator with its polished cherrywood walls and immaculate marble, I simply told Father aloud, "I just want You." The position, the prestige, the expense account, the company car, going back to wining and dining high-ranking people, didn't weigh anything down inside me. The men I had just met with had extended an offer. I in turn extended God one, because that was what was in my core.
That second fork in the road was a year and a half ago. Guess what? Things circumstantially haven't become "better", as every Christian I know has asked and prayed. Things have nosedived even further, and no this is not exaggeration. I have been further shredded, further torn, made much much poorer in a lot of ways.
Again, is God deaf? not listening?
By the looks on people's faces,
Christians particularly, I would be inclined to think so. But I know better. I wish others knew better too, but the gaping jaws and looks of horror indicate otherwise. I see in these folks a huge disconnect going on due to the BlessFest Kool Aid coursing through their veins--the belief to entitlement that is thought to be the Way. A God who is a cordial old man whose sole desire is to do nothing but pass out balloons and dollar bills at this quaint little parade called life.I look at the New Testament portion of
the bible and it is clear: God has heard me. He has heard me. All this whirlwind of loss going on? It's the birthmark of God. When I look at Jesus' words and the new testament, there is no message of entitlement. The Body is saturated with all this talk of blessing, but Jesus isn't. The New Testament isn't. Got a question for you. Amidst all this rampant blessing jabber, have you ever stopped to look at how many times Jesus talks about blessing? In the very rare occasions when Jesus DOES talk about blessing, have you taken note of the context in which he talks about it?
I see Jesus talking about blessing in the following: "you're blessed when your spirit is broken", "you're blessed when you're hungry" (this is not just our tummy), "you're blessed when you are wrongfully accused", "you're blessed when you are reviled", "you're blessed when you are poor" (this is not just our bank accounts).
When Jesus talks about blessing, He
says blessing takes place in the middle of being circumstantially ripped. Blessing is in the midst of a circumstantial ground zero. Blessing is in the midst of poverty, brokenness. How can this be? Seriously, stop for a minute here. How can this that Jesus says be?
This is the radical polar opposite of what the Body says blessing is. The Body's interpretation of blessing has to do with how positive and saturated things are in our lives.
Um, why is there not more questioning of this? Why is the Body trumpeting a message so diametrically contrary to the core message of the Way?
The message in the Body is also that it
is of God that we forever have, possess and keep anything which has crossed our path in life. Anytime anything is torn (or begins to be torn) out of our lives, this is automatically and mindlessly stamped as of God's enemy, the evil one. I look around and see so many Christians zealously delusioned that followers of Jesus have some birthright to entitlement. This nonsense is so Old Testament and so contrary to Jesus' message it's not even funny.
Some of this belief is quite overt (24/7 "victory" in anything you touch because you "call upon God", etc). Some of it is very subtle, very slick--yet the current Movements have the same BlessFest message at the core.
The core premise is "if you'll do abc
then God will smile on you--and the mark of Him smiling on you is you will have an abundance of earthly possessions and things going oustandingly well: relationships, family, job, income, etc". In this line of thought, the mark of belonging to God is how closely your life mirrors the American Dream. Yep, ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL God thinks about is how He can inundate us and give us a slice, er, the BEST slice of the American Dream.
One question that comes to my mind
about all this is: since when is it that the tail wags the dog? How is it that the message is "God serves us", instead of the other way around? What is this I'm/we're-on-the-throne-and-God-is-at-my/our-beckon-call stuff?
How is it that Jesus talks about greatness in God's eyes coming through losing what means the most to us, and yet as a Christian I am to measure myself (and am measured by Christians) by how much I have and am not losing?
How is it that many Christians will
themselves denounce the media preachers and say "that's not the Way, all that Prosperity stuff", and yet the majority of Christian lives and messages (including the current Movements) reflect this acquirement mantra? I don't see us in the Body, either collectively or individually, saying about Jesus "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). I only see people, Christians, putting things in motion to bring about as much increase as possible for themselves and for others.
Look around. There's a lotttttttttttttttttt
of cherry-picking of verses (just like the media preachers) to justify the pursuit and possession of things. And yes, this is happening not only in brick & mortars but also in small groups, men's groups, women's groups, house churches, everywhere. I see Jesus talking, in general and specifically to me, about losing life. I see Christians discussing and promising, in general and specifically to me, about how much I can have. How much I should have. How much I am entitled to have, because...I am a Follower.
I hope you lose your life, you who are reading this. I hope God sets in motion for you to lose whatever it is you hold closest to your heart. I hope this because agonizing loss puts us on the path to knowing God. Not on a superficial level (which is where the Body resides), but on a deeper level.
Acquiring and attainment does not put us on this path.
Yes, the loss will be circumstantially rotten. Yes, your soul will be ripped bare. Yes, you will taste searing pain like you never imagined could exist.
In today's Christianity this kind of talk might seem coarse and "insensitive". So be it. Do you ambition to be a Follower who does nothing but suck God's nipples until the day you die?
If you want Him to baby you, guess what? He will. If you want Him to just change diapers and be sweet-old-man-God who does nothing but smiles at you and gives you lollipops, He'll be that to you for the rest of your life. He's got a very long wick of patience toward arrested development.
However, if you have ever desired or prayed to grow, to become more than a baby (or even great) in God's eyes, if you have ever (to borrow popular terms today) wanted to "have an impact" or "be effective" or "have purpose" or "advance the Kingdom" or "be a light" as a follower of Jesus, and if you have the guts to tell Father you want it His way instead of desiring what the Church is telling and selling you, Father's doing in reply to your desire/prayer will be to hand you a cup of gall to drink.
This is interwoven all throughout Jesus' message, in black and white, clear as day. It sounds foreign because most don't dare to do more than read and meditate on the cherry-picked wonderfulness verses.
You'll never hear this in churches because they have sizable mortgages and can't afford to say this. It would be too detrimental to attendance. The "gospel" message in churches is that following Jesus is nodding our head to His philosophy and as a result Father will open up the floodgates of heaven and make our life incredible beyond our wildest dreams in every regard.
Jesus' invitation, rather, is for us to experience His experience and taste what He tastes. If we would respond to His invitation, which is not the one the Church extends us, got news for ya--it ain't chocolate cake. (If you're looking for that type of invitation and life, go to a church.)
If we would in fact respond to Jesus' invitation, it will be simultaneously the most painful, most difficult and yet best thing that could ever happen to us.
Let us not run from pain and gall. There is no possibility of compassion being birthed within us, nor can we mature, without these taking their course.
And let us not be delusioned by the Church's message--that the Way is about bankrolling assets instead of tangibly tasting Jesus.
