Do you ever meet really weird people who claim to be "Christians"? That's a bit of a rhetorical question. But do you also cringe a little bit inside when you find out how outspoken they are about their faith because it makes you nervous to think of someone that crazy going around telling other non-believers about God? Telling them about the same Jesus you believe in? I may be a bit cynical in this aspect of my faith but I very much want my religion, and my relationship with God to be taken seriously. I too want to be taken seriously and not grouped into a category with the rest of the "crazy, whack-job, religious fanatics" in society. Those people ruin Christianity for me a bit, and they shouldn't. I know Jesus would have loved them just the same. Weirdness never disqualified anyone from the love of Christ. I however, do not love like Christ does, yet. I want to be able to value those who continually push the limits of socially acceptable behavior (in a strange way, not as Jesus crossed cultural barriers in society to prove a point).
As I was mulling over my uneasiness with weird people, I came to the realization that we all have to be a little "off" in order to be Christ-followers in the first place. Think about it, we talk to someone who we can't see, we follow mystical feelings that we describe as "callings", we have no clear answer for dinosaurs, we believe in being able to tell the future aka prophecy, miraculous healings, floods, and to top it off that a mystical spirit lives within us that cleanses us from all sin and has the power to move mountains. Try telling that to any logical person who has never darkened the doors of a church before and see if they come running to God with arms open wide. We are all weird, but profoundly beautiful. We are, in every sense of the word, blessed to have found such a wonderful truth in this life. The catch is that it comes with a lifetime of mainstream society looking down on us, mocking our faith, doctrines, scripture, traditions, experiences, and Christ Himself.
It's hard to block those condescending voices out. I've found that if we listen to them for too long that we begin to question our own sanity, which makes it difficult to accept God's voice in our own lives. I was on the treadmill last night listening to some Gospel music (something I should do more often) and I inexplicably felt God's love and acceptance of me for exactly who I am. It was a moment that almost brought me to tears before the doubtful voice arrived in my head telling me: "It's just endorphins caused by exercise" and "You just want to feel something so bad that this is all in your head, don't attribute this to God." You see, I have always caricatured those people who tell me about those mystical experiences they've had with God that they couldn't explain. I envy their experiences and I so badly want to hear the voice of God, see an angel, or feel the physical touch of Christ for myself that I have made experiencing God's presence into something so majestic that I've blocked out the possibility of simply feeling His presence in an empty gym on a long run on the treadmill.
I don't want to be labeled as "one of those crazy Christians" but even more so I don't want that fear to prevent me from growing my faith to its fullest potential or from experiencing God for even one second. I guess we all have to accept that we are crazy people before we can experience God's crazy love.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
"Religious": A Useless Word
Are you religious? Why, or why not? These are simple questions that every Christian needs to ask them self before some one else does, especially a non-christian. Religion has always been a taboo subject in polite conversation within mainstream society and even now the word "religious" has begun to carry with it deeply negative connotations within Christian communities. I've heard both Timothy Keller and Mark Driscoll say to their respective mega-churches that Jesus was extremely "anti-religious". Without a doubt, Jesus had most of His disputes with "religious leaders" for they "load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." (Luke 11:46) However, Scripture is quick to correct our view of what religion is supposed to be as it says in James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Just before this verse James makes another profound comment on religion that I love, and that is "Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless." It is this very dichotomy of religiosity that brings me to the point of this blog post.
In the preface to Mere Christianity, C.S Lewis writes that "When a word ceases to be a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object; it only tells you about the speaker's attitude to that object." The context of Lewis' preface is a description of the common folly of people to destroy the meaning of a word by twisting the way in which it is used. He uses the word "Christian" as his main example. The word Christian means someone who "accepts the common doctrines of Christianity", yet there are many people who protest this by saying "Who are you to lay down who is and who is not a Christian?" or "Aren't there plenty of people who don't believe these doctrines yet are far more truly a Christian, for closer to the spirit of Christ, than someone who does?" I guarantee you we have all heard this before, or maybe even thought it ourselves. However, Lewis says this objection is very "spiritual, sensitive, and charitable" yet it is anything but "useful". The term "Christian" is not supposed to be used by means of giving praise but rather for describing who someone truly is based on a set definition. There are no shortage of people who claim to be Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist who do not follow any of the practices of their religion, nor do they even know what the specific doctrines are that set their religion apart from any other. This leads to my current struggle with language in so far as I use it to define myself to others.
When I talk to people on set about my faith one of the main questions I always get is, "Are you really religious?" The fact that people often qualify the word "religious" with "really" or "very" is a problem as well because it implies that you could be "moderately" or "sort of religious". As much as I hate to get legalistic or black and white when it comes to any issue, this is one of those topics that has frustrated me enough to the point where I need, or rather strongly desire, an answer. Am I religious? Well, I do religious things. Do I help out widows and orphans very often? Not really. Do I weigh people down with heavy burdens then refuse to lift a finger to help them? Not at all. Do I pray? YES. Do I attend Church regularly? YES. Do I take part in the sacraments? YES. Do I tithe? YES. Do I love God and His people? I sure try.
What I have come to accept about religion is that it can actually replace the God to whom it was meant to lead us. Marc Driscoll likens the relationship between God and religious folks to a yard in which we are allowed to play in as God's children. God put up a fence at the end of the yard so that we don't run out into the street and get hit by a car. Religious people look at the fence and say "Well, that's a pretty good start but lets put up another bigger fence just before God's fence so that no one even thinks about jumping over God's fence." Then they question whether their first fence was good enough so they build another, and another, until what started out as a yard for us to play in has turned into a prison. That's what religious people do, apparently.
To mainstream, American society, the religious people are the ones who hate the gays, advocate for censorship, are uptight, rude, prudish people who judge everything and everyone as less enlightened than themselves and who want everyone to conform to their exact moral system and way of life. When someone asks me on set, "Are you religious?" they are asking me if I'm like that. How do I answer that? I believe my religion is the true religion, but so does every other religious person. I want to be able to proudly declare that I am of the Christian Religion, but I am not proud of what the christian religion has done to so many people in the world. I do religious things out of a desire to grow closer to God, but I do not want to be identified with "religious people". It's such a difficult place for me to be. I'm not sure that once the utility of a word has been destroyed that it can ever become useful again, or at least useful in the way it was originally meant to be. Instead, now when people ask me "Are you religious?" I have to ask them what they mean by that. Maybe that's actually better in a way...Maybe that's how we get to describe our faith even more than if it was clear to all people everywhere what it meant to be religious. I still think we need to answer for ourselves what religion looks like in our lives and truly define what it is we believe. If we can't explain it to ourselves than how will we ever explain it to someone else? We have to make "religious" a useful word again, if only for our personal sanity/clarity.
In the preface to Mere Christianity, C.S Lewis writes that "When a word ceases to be a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object; it only tells you about the speaker's attitude to that object." The context of Lewis' preface is a description of the common folly of people to destroy the meaning of a word by twisting the way in which it is used. He uses the word "Christian" as his main example. The word Christian means someone who "accepts the common doctrines of Christianity", yet there are many people who protest this by saying "Who are you to lay down who is and who is not a Christian?" or "Aren't there plenty of people who don't believe these doctrines yet are far more truly a Christian, for closer to the spirit of Christ, than someone who does?" I guarantee you we have all heard this before, or maybe even thought it ourselves. However, Lewis says this objection is very "spiritual, sensitive, and charitable" yet it is anything but "useful". The term "Christian" is not supposed to be used by means of giving praise but rather for describing who someone truly is based on a set definition. There are no shortage of people who claim to be Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist who do not follow any of the practices of their religion, nor do they even know what the specific doctrines are that set their religion apart from any other. This leads to my current struggle with language in so far as I use it to define myself to others.
When I talk to people on set about my faith one of the main questions I always get is, "Are you really religious?" The fact that people often qualify the word "religious" with "really" or "very" is a problem as well because it implies that you could be "moderately" or "sort of religious". As much as I hate to get legalistic or black and white when it comes to any issue, this is one of those topics that has frustrated me enough to the point where I need, or rather strongly desire, an answer. Am I religious? Well, I do religious things. Do I help out widows and orphans very often? Not really. Do I weigh people down with heavy burdens then refuse to lift a finger to help them? Not at all. Do I pray? YES. Do I attend Church regularly? YES. Do I take part in the sacraments? YES. Do I tithe? YES. Do I love God and His people? I sure try.
What I have come to accept about religion is that it can actually replace the God to whom it was meant to lead us. Marc Driscoll likens the relationship between God and religious folks to a yard in which we are allowed to play in as God's children. God put up a fence at the end of the yard so that we don't run out into the street and get hit by a car. Religious people look at the fence and say "Well, that's a pretty good start but lets put up another bigger fence just before God's fence so that no one even thinks about jumping over God's fence." Then they question whether their first fence was good enough so they build another, and another, until what started out as a yard for us to play in has turned into a prison. That's what religious people do, apparently.
To mainstream, American society, the religious people are the ones who hate the gays, advocate for censorship, are uptight, rude, prudish people who judge everything and everyone as less enlightened than themselves and who want everyone to conform to their exact moral system and way of life. When someone asks me on set, "Are you religious?" they are asking me if I'm like that. How do I answer that? I believe my religion is the true religion, but so does every other religious person. I want to be able to proudly declare that I am of the Christian Religion, but I am not proud of what the christian religion has done to so many people in the world. I do religious things out of a desire to grow closer to God, but I do not want to be identified with "religious people". It's such a difficult place for me to be. I'm not sure that once the utility of a word has been destroyed that it can ever become useful again, or at least useful in the way it was originally meant to be. Instead, now when people ask me "Are you religious?" I have to ask them what they mean by that. Maybe that's actually better in a way...Maybe that's how we get to describe our faith even more than if it was clear to all people everywhere what it meant to be religious. I still think we need to answer for ourselves what religion looks like in our lives and truly define what it is we believe. If we can't explain it to ourselves than how will we ever explain it to someone else? We have to make "religious" a useful word again, if only for our personal sanity/clarity.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
I Want Them All...
Just before I left the set today I had a "passionate conversation" with two girls about the difference between Judaism and Christianity. It was rather interesting to converse about such a topic with two women who were dressed in all black clothing, all black make-up, and big black boots as they were both playing characters who were into the "goth" scene. Anyway, we were wrapped before we could come to any sort of satisfying conclusion and with one of the girls protesting that Judaism is way better because it isn't "forced on people" like Christianity is, and that is the only reason why there are so many believers. Neither of the two woman really knew anything about their faith yet they defended it vigorously.
They left no room for the Message of Christ in their hardened hearts and I was left to drive away with quite a bit of anger towards their intolerant, ignorant belief system. However, after 5 minutes or so of dwelling on my misguided anger I found myself deeply saddened, as is the case every time this sort of incident occurs. I realized that if the world ended tonight these two very damaged women (from what I could deduce about their past and current problems) would not be with their Father in Paradise. This is the reason I was so angry. I felt like I knew what was best for them and they wanted nothing to do with it. I felt like an angry parent who gets upset with their child who wont eat their vegetables and thus gain the valuable nutrients needed for their young bodies to grow properly.
I am completely aware of the pride and ego that plays into the mindset of someone who believes they have the ultimate truth. I do not believe in any way that just believing in Christ makes me a better person than anyone else who does not. It makes me blessed, but not better. That said, at the end of the day my heart sinks into sadness when I find people looking for answers in all the wrong places because I just want them to feel the sense of completeness that comes from finding Jesus. I know that's cliché, but o well (I'm starting to get over my fear of clichés slowly but surely). Even more than that, I want no one to suffer the torment of Hell for even one second. It was this thought that lead to me to reflect on how much greater the pain must be for God to look down at His creation and hear them deny His existence day after day and walk into a lifetime of despair. I have no doubt that our God is the God of the lost sheep. He is the Shepard that leaves the flock to go searching for the one that got away. Even if that sheep was stubborn and walked purposefully in the wrong direction, He'd still go after it. I wonder how it feels for Him, the Shepard, to come home empty handed after a draining night of searching tirelessly for His lost love.
They left no room for the Message of Christ in their hardened hearts and I was left to drive away with quite a bit of anger towards their intolerant, ignorant belief system. However, after 5 minutes or so of dwelling on my misguided anger I found myself deeply saddened, as is the case every time this sort of incident occurs. I realized that if the world ended tonight these two very damaged women (from what I could deduce about their past and current problems) would not be with their Father in Paradise. This is the reason I was so angry. I felt like I knew what was best for them and they wanted nothing to do with it. I felt like an angry parent who gets upset with their child who wont eat their vegetables and thus gain the valuable nutrients needed for their young bodies to grow properly.
I am completely aware of the pride and ego that plays into the mindset of someone who believes they have the ultimate truth. I do not believe in any way that just believing in Christ makes me a better person than anyone else who does not. It makes me blessed, but not better. That said, at the end of the day my heart sinks into sadness when I find people looking for answers in all the wrong places because I just want them to feel the sense of completeness that comes from finding Jesus. I know that's cliché, but o well (I'm starting to get over my fear of clichés slowly but surely). Even more than that, I want no one to suffer the torment of Hell for even one second. It was this thought that lead to me to reflect on how much greater the pain must be for God to look down at His creation and hear them deny His existence day after day and walk into a lifetime of despair. I have no doubt that our God is the God of the lost sheep. He is the Shepard that leaves the flock to go searching for the one that got away. Even if that sheep was stubborn and walked purposefully in the wrong direction, He'd still go after it. I wonder how it feels for Him, the Shepard, to come home empty handed after a draining night of searching tirelessly for His lost love.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Improv
There's something about improvisation that has always tickled my fancy. I absolutely love comedic improv because it proves how truly funny a person can be on the fly. It demonstrates that when we have the least amount of time to think that we are often the most thoughtful, humorous or passionate as our most pure and genuine responses are allowed to have free reign. In life, we often get the opportunity to hone in our improvisational skills but rarely take advantage of them. When life changes suddenly we get to rely on the skills God has given us to make quick decisions that influence the outcome of the rest of our lives. We don't get to be in this stage of life very long and every second matters as we attempt to make a good impression on the rest of the audience and bring any sort of glory to the Kingdom of God. I believe, as Christians, we have a tendency to over think God's will for our lives. We believe that we are only able to make good decisions with hours upon hours of study, deliberation, and meditation when frequently there are situations that just don't allow for that kind of a decision making process. Obviously there are exceptions, but at some point we have to utilize the improv skills of our soul so we can quickly take in our situation and act naturally before our minds get in the way of our faith. That's really all I can say about this topic for now although I feel it's much deeper than what I've said. Just check out this link and tell me that God hasn't created us to utilize the wonderful capacity for improving moments in life.
Greatest Improved Moments in Film
(some of the language is intense from R-rated movies so sensitive ears should shy away from this one.)
Greatest Improved Moments in Film
(some of the language is intense from R-rated movies so sensitive ears should shy away from this one.)
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