Skip to main content

March 3, 2020

I'm in the process of unlearning most of what I'd formerly known from being steeped in Western Christianity, and certainly all I'd internalized about "American" Christianity. I grew up knowing of "the Jesus of suburbia" and then when I was sixteen I was introduced to him. But it turned out that Jesus never lived in the suburbs.

The way of Jesus is so counter-cultural because what we think is the way of Jesus is really just some of his watered-down sayings slapped over top our American priorities. Some sugar-coated, "well that's not really what that means" Bible verses on our bumper stickers and even tattooed on our skin. Crosses and crucifixes everywhere you look, "God bless you" ringing out in public spaces after sneezes, and scores of children growing up knowing that some invisible person named Jesus loves them but having no clue that, without surrender and obedience, they're actually opposing him. And finally, surprise surprise, believing that you're a good person doesn't mean you're going to heaven.

Forgive the sarcasm, but the deeper I get in the reality of who Jesus is, the more I find myself scoffing at the impostor we've settled for. (And the scoffing is just a symptom of being deeply grieved. A defense mechanism. I'm working on it.) In just 25 years of life, I know I've barely scratched the surface of God's truth, and yet for so long I was seemingly content because I was ignorant. I was encased in an American, pseudo-Christian bubble, and it had next to no bearing on how I lived my life. 

Was I taught the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule? Yes. Did I have some frame of reference for the standard of behavior a Christian person was supposed to exhibit? Yes. Did that shape my interior life in any dramatic way? Sadly, no. It just force-fed me more guilt than I could swallow, and petrified my outsides, making me more concerned with looking acceptable than knowing Jesus and being known by him. I didn't know how. I was only shown how to do "Christian" things, rather than how to become a true disciple following the very real example of Jesus of Nazareth with my whole life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Journal: Cuenca, Day 2

     Apparently my body needed more rest than I thought it did, because I didn't get up until after 9 today. And even though we did less throughout the day, I seem more tired than yesterday. Probably not caught up yet, but I'll be on my way if this post doesn't take too long! (The morning view.) This morning I reached for My Utmost for His Highest to do my devotional and accidentally read the wrong page. It must have been a Holy Spirit thing, because the November 11 message hit home real quick: "The sacrifice is gone through in will before it is performed actually. When God spoke, He did not confer with flesh and blood, i.e., your own sympathies, your own insight, anything that is not based on your personal relationship to God. These are the things that compete with and hinder obedience to God. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. ...in the crucible you learn to know God...
Post a Comment
Read more

Travel Journal: Cuenca, Day 7

Okay here we go! More catching up to do! I have lots of pictures, so hopefully it'll keep things interesting. WEDNESDAY (Day 7)      Tiffany made pancakes for breakfast with cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla... SO good. Jeremy told us about the sermon series he's been working on. I think it's called "Waiting Room." While I was rinsing dishes, he asked if I'd ever been through a period of waiting on God, and what that was like. I laughed and said I've been in that kind of period since last summer began. It's a long story, but while I was on my mission trip to Ecuador in June, Jeremy prayed over me after I shared with him how direction-less I felt. I had finally decided on a major but had no idea what I was going to do with it. I felt like everything I was going through was a kind of preparation, but I had no idea for what. I told God I wanted to do what he wanted, and I didn't feel like I was receiving any guidance. Each of those things has int...
Post a Comment
Read more

Travel Journal: Cuenca, Day 12

Post a Comment
Read more