God is not a magic bullet

Podcasts are great. Particularly for a lunch time workout. I had downloaded some mp3 sermons, many from Mars Hill church (both Rob Bell's church in Michigan and Mark Driscoll's church in Seattle--this may be completely irrelevant but oh well). I noticed the other day I had a sermon on there from Donald Miller--one of my favorite authors (Blue Like Jazz, To Own A Dragon, Painted Deserts). I had a longer lunch today so thought I'd listen to a talk he did in Michigan at some point titled "God is Fathering Us".

Miller starts by discussing how our consumer society drives not only our emotions about the products in our lives but also our faith. Particularly through an example of infomercials that promise us fulfillment from some product--and our disappointment with said product once we actually try it. In this case it was the Magic Bullet--I think i missed this one! But I can relate--even on my recent flight home I was paging through the SkyMall magazine to see all of the things I never knew I was "missing" in terms of gadgets to help improve my life. Do I really need a color pattern alarm clock or a remote golf ball to be happy? This consumerism in faith as well, shaping our view of God and religion. But Christianity is not supposed to be about consumerism. It's not supposed to be about false promises of how great and perfect our lives will be if we just have God (or the projected image of God). The bible certainly doesn't portray faith as a product that we will fill our lives with happiness and bliss all of the time (Jesus wanted us to have an abundant life not a "perfect" life--particularly not in the way the western culture would define "perfect"). In fact as the podcast points out, if you look at what Jesus says about faith, often times it leads us through pain, suffering and sorrow. I guess that's the fine print we often ignore. Faith is not about a product but a relationship. With God the relationship is like that of a father who wants the best for us (and it sometimes means discipline, hardship, and things we don't always want but more often than not need.)

In the last few months I have been hearing more about how Christianity as most see it today is more like a pagan religion than what God had intended. Rob Bell did a great speaking tour discussing how cultures developed religious systems throughout history in "The gods aren't angry". God often used what people understood about the gods they served to point out that he was DIFFERENT. While pagan religions seek ways to please the gods to gain favor (such as scarifies for rain, war, protection, harvests and so on), the God of the Hebrews was saying "that is not how I work". God was desiring us to LOVE him for who he was. It didn't matter what we did, he loved us from the start. But throughout history, Christianity has adopted so many "pagan" ways of trying to please and manipulate God into doing things for them. If we just said the right things, did certain actions, prayed a certain way, then we would expect God to give us what we were asking for.Wow--am I also guilty of this at times, particularly in my faith growing up. And in the course of creating all of our formulas for living, we forgot God. We forgot that the Bible is not a formula of how-to's to get God to do things for us. We forgot the Bible is a love story to his people of how he "first loved us" and that He is trying to find ways of showing that to his people. To paraphrase Donald Miller, God did not give us formulas because he didn't want us to trust in the formulas--he wanted for us to trust in him. Again, wow--this opens my eyes--and ouch that can hit the core. If I think of how I want others to show their love for me I would say I didn't want them to do actions or say things to please me or manipulate me but to be genuine in their love. "I desire MERCY not SACRIFICE" is something often repeated throughout the Bible. How much more then should I also show God that I love him in my honesty, service and prayers not my manipulations and "good" deeds. **I am not saying of course that God doesn't direct us to lead lives that are pleasing to him, but often we get our motives out of place and ignore our hearts in attempt to "live right".

Another point that was discussed was the exclusivity of Christianity not as arrogance (as it is so often!) but that love itself is exclusive. The example referenced Jesus and his bride--the church. You wouldn't fault a bride or groom for expecting that their spouse only love them in their marriage. That is expected (although in our broken world that's not always portrayed). So Christianity should not be about being the only religion so much as a Christian saying that because they love God, that is what they will uphold. That as a follower of Christ our LOVE for him will compel us to serve him above all else. It's not to say that other religions don't have truth in them. Gandhi and Buddha and so many religions and philosophies have great things to say, some very powerful truths. But because of my love for God, I'm choosing to follow the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob--follow the God that showed his love in his son's life and son's death. I can't deny that western, particularly American views don't deeply affect my views. But I seek to KNOW God--not for a genie granting my wishes but--for the one who loves me enough to love me despite what I don't say or do (or for that matter what I do say or do). That I love him because he IS love and through him I can learn HOW to LOVE.