You shouldn't be so comfortable in church that you nod off.
You shouldn't be so comfortable that you have your own designated pew that's been in the family for the past three generations.
You shouldn't be so comfortable that you rely on feelings alone and don't know anything about what God has to say.
You shouldn't be so comfortable that you've switched your brain off and are just happy to drift wherever you're pushed by the current of your church.
You should be uncomfortable.
No, not uncomfortable in the way that's because people there have made you feel unwelcome or because of long-running problems in the church or because there's something embarrassing that's happened with it.
You should be uncomfortable for other reasons.
Uncomfortable because you're being challenged, made to think, question, reason, not allowed to get comfortable and settle into a routine where you stand, sit, pray and sing in one fluid, unconscious motion, never really thinking or engaging.
Uncomfortable because you know that anti-intellectualism is truly not Christian, even though it's become a force in Christianity (read Mimicking the Mainstream by Tim Willard). "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind" - Mark Noll.
Uncomfortable because there are things that are difficult, that remind you that being a Christian is about doing the straight and narrow path in life thing, uncomfortable because you're really thinking about what it takes to engage in costly grace rather than the usual garden variety of cheap grace (see The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
Uncomfortable because you know that God doesn't want you to be a cookie-cutter "Christian."
Uncomfortable because you know that being a Christian doesn't just stop at a couple of hours in church on the weekend. Because you know that you need to live it and make it part of your daily life. You have to speak out against the wrong things happening. You have to help those less fortunate than yourself. You have to forgive people who hurt you.
But there's one thing you can be comfortable with. God. Although He's going to make you as uncomfortable as He can at times to shake you up, He's always going to love you (check out Psalm 23 for a start... there's loads more verses about it in the Bible, but that's a whole other blog...).
3 comments:
yay Della
this post rocks!
please tell me it's being published on paper!?!
Let me preface my comments by saying I'm not criticizing or rejecting what you've said though it may seem that I am. I believe that I have a relationship with God that is as intensely personal as anything can be. I think I have a limited capacity to conceive of God. My senses and mind think of God mainly as the Creator and Maintainer and at some times more than others I have been blessed to feel a powerful love and balance. Words fail. I do like Buber's I AND THOU (get the good translation...my German's not good enough for the original) in describing the relationship as something that has a life. And so it is not comfortable (yes I know you're talking about feeling God's love). I guess I don't have a traditional conception of Christianity and so I've pretty much always thought that other church members (I'm not currently a member of any church and infrequently attend a meeting of the Society of Friends) don't have beliefs such as mine. That's OK of course but what exactly am I sharing with them? And as far as listening to what God has to say (I think you're talking about the Scriptures which I think have value and purpose) they were written and translated and interpreted and reinterpreted by man... I read today that the Catholic Church will likely soon redefine or do away with their notion of Limbo....Another example: The common conception of God being of three natures stems from the Council of Chalcedon in 1006 (if my memory serves me) when the Church decided that homeousis(sp?) was what Christians believed and otherwise you were a heretic. And inspired by the hand of God does not describe much of Church history. So what's my point? Not really sure. Got no problem with going to church but if you don't get a little comfortable and settle down a bit what are you sharing except maybe a pew? Maybe I'm a heretic. Large Louie
Hey Kel, thanks! It was just a rant at the time, so I didn't really think about publishing it. Who knows, perhaps I could polish it up a bit more for a future editorial.
Large Louie, maybe we're all heretics? But from what I'm sort of gathering with what you wrote, religion, church and belief all change and evolve and grow with us as people. Things change as we get to know more about God and ourselves. As for getting comfortable, I didn't mean that we shouldn't get involved or settle into a church, just that we shouldn't settle into stagnation :)
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