the cure

My statement: We know the One who can cure the only disease in the world and we squander our time trying to treat the symptoms. If only we asked to be cured…

In short this is what I think…the church and Christianity of today is more concerned with treating the symptoms than the illness. In Christian circles the talk is about how to be more disciplined in reading the Bible, not swearing, drinking etc. We feel bad and wonder how we can love people more and care for them better. We talk of learning to change our behavior and controlling ourselves. And when we can’t, we try harder. That is tragic to me. We as Christians and churches spend tons of time and tons of money on figuring out how to maintain low sin and high righteousness…we are trying to cure the disease by treating the symptoms. It just doesn’t work. I don’t know about you but it sure isn’t working for me. It makes a lot more sense to look at our lives, say, “ I don’t do X like I know I should” and then ask WHY? I don’t read my Bible as much as I want…WHY? In only looking to train ourselves to read the Bible more we miss the important part. Our lives betray what is in our hearts. So why spend all the effort trying to fix our lives without looking at our hearts? Why not ask God about why you don’t read the Bible enough, why not ask Him why I don’t love people or why I am jealous, or afraid, or feel guilty or why I hold onto things besides Him or why I run from Him. Why not deal with the source of our actions.

If there is one thing I’ve learned in my life it is that things really only change from the inside out. Our hearts are the key to our lives. We’ve got to deal with what is going on inside of us if any true outward change is going to take place. So how does inward change occur? you might ask. Simple, only from God. The only person that can change our hearts is God. When God touches your heart it changes and your life follows suit. At its absolute best, doing things from the outside in will only produce good people, and screw being a good person if you’re not changed by God. I’m serious, who cares if I’m a good person. If I don’t know God my life is a tragedy. Period.

So, I’ve said that we as Christians focus on our life’s symptoms when we should be primarily focused on the source of those symptoms and that the only way that source change happens is through God. Now let me get back to the church.

I can probably count on my hands and fingers how many times I’ve been at church where people realized and accepted the fact that nothing very worthwhile was going to happen without God’s presence. At those places the only point of the whole time was to do all we could to clear the path between us and God (that mostly had to do with us giving up our show and just being who we were) and then let Him work. Sometimes the best way to do that was through 2 hours of music. Sometimes it was through a message about things that keep many people from knowing God more, things like guilt, shame and fear. Sometimes it was through prayer…. I don’t pretend to know best how to be completely open to God’s work, but I do know that it’s important and that churches seem to be a good place to gather and try. I also know that most churches I’ve been to spend a whole lot more time talking about sin management and doing things that make us good people than being open to God’s work.

I’ll finish with this. I believe that the Christians I know have the best intentions, they are doing what they know how to do and mean the very best and I don’t think they would ever say to anyone that they think they can change themselves better than God can, but in their (my) lives they act differently. I do everything but ask God why I do what I do, what is keeping me from Him. I read every book (including the Bible) but I don’t go and be with the Author of Life.

Our Father and Forgiver, be with us. Teach us to come to you. Remind us that you are with us and that we only need to ask and you come. Talk to us about why we are the way we are. Fill us with your Spirit. Amen

Closing thought….what if God didn’t want you to do anything but be present.