Christianity: Make it Difficult
One of the lessons that is hardest for me to learn is to remain close to God, give thanks, and fight lethargy … in the times that I have little stress, no worries, and few problems. You see, when life is hard, or the future frighteningly uncertain, it’s EASY to draw close to God. You pray more, and achieve a deeper connection. Your love deepens, and God responds. Your behavior changes, and you like it! No doubt, God uses bad times to draw me close.
But eventually, the hard time passes. For me, I really haven’t had anything all that bad happen lately. The most recent thing I can think of would be when my apartment was robbed a few months ago. And realistically, it put me out a couple thousand dollars, but God has since blessed me financially, and nearly everything has been replaced.
And for me, the challenge of remaining close to Him becomes more and more difficult with each new blessing. It takes more effort. More money means more stuff. Less worry means less prayer. And it is my battle to fight to stay close to Him through the blessings.
But that’s really not the point of this article. If you read certain bloggers in the shadows of the Christian blogosphere, Christianity is supposed to be hard! It’s not fun, God isn’t your friend, Christianity is hard, the world will hate you, your church won’t grow (because the world hates you and God), and financial and sexual bondage will always afflict you because of that old devil.
But what if Christianity isn’t like that for you? What if saying no to drugs comes easy to you? What if your relationship with God is intimate? What if your unsaved friends respect you? What if your church grows, by conversion no less!? And what if you have no problem remaining faithful to your wife, and you enjoy a good salary and you never, EVER go wanting? Sure it can be difficult to not sin, but that is literally the extent of your burden.
What then?
The brutal fact is, the majority of western Christians live in a time and a country in which their beliefs are respected (for the most part, there are many exceptions), they worship in peace, no persecution, financial freedom, they never go hungry, they’ll never be fed to lions. The Christian life is easy. The most “persecution” they may ever receive is rolled eyes or some ridicule from co-workers. And in reality, I’ve seen more respect for my beliefs than ridicule from non-Christians.
What happens when your faith is attractive, and not offensive? I’m happy with my faith, and if that is attractive to a man, and he comes to Christ because of it, then what am I to do? Tell him how hard it will be? What if he’s homeless? It doesn’t get much harder than that. Tell him that “narrow is the gate”? If God is drawing him, he need only accept! Tell him he will be persecuted? We live in a country of religious freedom. He’s been spit on, beaten, and hungry for the last 10 years. Christianity is an upgrade for him.
Guys, and I’m talking about you shadow bloggers, Christianity doesn’t have to be hard. You don’t have to be tortured, ridiculed, eaten, or otherwise persecuted to be a Christian. In fact, life’s pretty good. I’m happy, joyful, and I wouldn’t trade my faith for anything. Sure there’s a chance of hard times, but if we look at it in pure statistics, 90% of people who call themselves Christians in America live under relatively few burdens, and the burdens many times are self inflicted and can be remedied many times by following God’s principles.
And there are people out there that keep telling me that my Christianity isn’t real … because it isn’t hard. It can’t be genuine because my circumstances don’t mirror those in Fox’s Book of Martyrs. A faith is Jesus is the BEST thing that could happen to you, not the WORST! And I’m not just talking about the afterlife. I’m talking about right NOW! My life, I’m convinced, is good … not despite Christianity, but because of Jesus!
How’s that for a testimony? And I suspect that is the testimony of most of my Christian brothers.
So what about all the ministries that denigrate successful churches as pandering to the culture? Could it be that we can actually do something that is attractive to non-Christians, and it not be a sin??? Could it be that we have nothing but benefits to offer a potential believer in this period of time?
I guess I’m just frustrated that I keep hearing that God is tough to follow, when He’s not hard to follow at all. What’s a guy to do? Did I miss something?
But the most frustrating thing of all is that people who may not have it as good as I do as a Christian, think that it’s their responsibility to tell the rest of us that if it isn’t hard, we should MAKE it hard. Church shouldn’t be fun! In fact, the harder it is to enjoy church, the better you are for attending it. Baptisms shouldn’t be a party where new life is celebrated! It should be solemn and somber, as un-fun as you can make it. Worship music can’t be enjoyable. If it is, then God doesn’t like it as much.
I can honestly say that being a follower of Jesus is a BLAST! He is my friend! God is my father, and he takes care of me every day, without exception. Church is enjoyable, it’s fun, and I don’t feel guilty for that.
I’m not denying that hard times come, but putting things in perspective, we’re not living in the 1500’s. There is no religious persecution. We have it pretty good, right? I mean, in comparison to what the apostles had to deal with, we are blessed, right?
What am I missing?
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Fair point and, if you believe passages like I Corinthians 1:3-9, the Bible is clear that the grace of God and life in Christ should be a good thing and make you a more joyful person. Jesus said, after all, that His yoke is easy!
That being said, a lot of the blessings you mention are precisely why we don’t see a lot of the intimacy with Christ that we could be seeing or a lot of the faithfulness to God that’s possible.
Without trials and tribulations, we get fat and lazy.
No, it’s not 1500 — neither in terms of the persecution being experienced nor in terms of the fevor for God among the true church.
I know I (wrongly!) let my blessing from God get in the way of my worship and service to God.
Matthew,
I was actually talking about this topic with someone yesterday (after I had written the article) and he mentioned that the modern Christian’s greatest challenge is to avoid lethargy. Like I said in the beginning of the article, with blessings comes an new battle, laziness.
It’s funny, the song “Blessed Be” (modeled after Job’s statement, “you give and take away”) is normally thought of as an “even if I have to go through what Job went through” type song. I’m finding that it’s almost harder to follow the “even if I had everything Job had” principle. Ya know?
I kind of have a parallel feeling at times. I see various atheists on the net and on TV talking about how atheists are ‘the new gays’, or even ‘the new blacks’, and I think… I have never once experienced anything even remotely approaching persecution for my disbelief. Perhaps, even probably, that has something to do with the leftism of my area. Most likely there is a fair degree of animosity, even persecution towards atheists in other parts of the country. But certainly nothing like what has been experienced by gays, much less black people.
But if I am unable to relate to other atheists’ claims of persecution, I find similar claims on the part of Christians utterly laughable. Christians are persecuted in China and Korea, in the Middle East, and a hundred other places across the globe. But in the United States? Where over nine tenths of the population is Christian? Please. That’s strictly nonsense. Who is there to persecute them? The Jews? The atheists? Yeah, right. Christians (present company excluded, of course) are redefining the word. Any criticism of their faith is ‘persecution’.
Let me make clear that words can indeed be persecution. Words can degrade a group of people in ways no actions can. But it is not persecution to attempt to engage you in discussion. It is not persecution to tell you that something you believe is not true. No Christian alive in this country has ever experienced persecution, unless he happens to also be black, or gay, or foreign. It’s a canard. If you are a white, male, heterosexual, American Protestant, then do not ever tell me you have been persecuted. Doing so does a grave injustice to all those who have experienced for themselves the real meaning of the word.
This has been a topic of conversation with my sons. My brother has attended and led many PSI seminars and believes that he is capable of making his life exactly what he wants it to be. It is within him and he does not need God. This “fits” for him because he always has had everything go right in his life, no struggles, no tragedies, is very successful, etc. I learned to trust in Jesus when everything in my world continued to fall apart. He will continue to struggle with lethargy and indifference as long as things go well–he just isn’t interested. My faith is strong and I am willing to work to obey and be disciplined, even in easy times, because I know the other side. But it takes effort at times.
I pray that he will see he cannot rely on himself forever. But until then, I will continue to fight against my own complacency…
Well said, George. I dare say very very few Christian Americans really know persecution in a true sense. I certainly don’t, and I’ve been disagreed with on many an occasion! Rejection doesn’t = Persecution!
While I don’t think persecution is necessary for passionate faith, it certainly is true that history demonstrates that the two do usually go together. In some ways it may take more discipline to shake of lethargy in “peace time” than it is in times of persecution.
I too find myself constantly fighting the propensity to settle into lethargic passivity concerning my faith and my community. I suppose it’s one of the reasons we need each other.
George,
Great points! I think you’re absolutely right. Christians seem to have a victim complex these days. And if you aren’t complaining about being vicitimized, then you must not be the real kind of Christian that Jesus said “the world will hate”, ie – if the world doesn’t hate you, you need to do something to make them do so.
disgusting, if you asked me.
Rindy,
Like I said, I know the feeling all too well. There are times in my life where things are good and I feel myself drifting away from God. I almost feel like I’m just looking over my shoulder waiting for God to bring the bad times just to bring me back closer to Him. It’s so weird how we work sometimes.
I guess this post has 2 points:
1) Blessing sometimes reaps lethargy. It’s our job to make sure that we don’t let that happen.
2) If you happen to have a good life, and the world doesn’t hate you, you don’t need to start getting obnoxious and blunt to start turning off people in order to “get persecuted”. We don’t necessarily HAVE to be offensive on purpose. If you can figure out a way to say the same thing without offending, go for it! There’s nothing wrong with that!
This post has really got me thinking! You commented “I can honestly say that being a follower of Jesus is a BLAST! He is my friend! God is my father, and he takes care of me every day, without exception. Church is enjoyable, it’s fun, and I don’t feel guilty for that.”
I agree 100%. Following Jesus is incredible. It is life changing. It makes getting through difficult situations so much easier. But do I convey how amazing and unbelievable it is all the time? I’m thinking I could do better!
*firmly plants tongue in cheek*
Now just what am I supposed to do with the hairshirt, legalism and churchianity trends that preoccupy my time and keep me from intimacy and joy?
Seriously though………. I enjoyed this entry. Isn’t our God supposed to refresh our spirit? Didn’t He give us the joy of salvation?
Don’t we want to draw others to Him?
Then we should stop giving His grace, love and mercy bad press. Amen?
I agree people seem morbidly addicted to arbitrary guilt.
On the flip side: Next time you draw close to God, make sure to suggest he should spend more time worrying about TB and malaria than robberies.
What’s the big deal about Jesus? If he’s God, then we should pay as much attention to Jesus (as Jesus, rather than God’s Avatar) as the burning bush. If he wasn’t divine (or real), then we should share our make-a-big-deal time with Socrates and Buddha. How do you know the presence you feel isn’t Krishna, or Mohammad, or Nature, or some aspect of your consciousness? An imaginary or artificial God has the same effect on a believer as a real one.
Take this ironic quote from Zaghoul El-Naggar (a leading Muslim scientist from Cairo) about the West’s “legalization” of homosexuality: “You are bringing man far below the level of animals.” (see: seedmagazine.com/news/2006/06/the_gay_animal_kingdom.php) Because many people have the attitude in your country, being gay and Christian is tough, tough, tough. It leads to self-hatred and self-mutilation. Could the same phenomenon apply to everything else? Because of Jesus, I’ve had some wonderful (and liberal-minded) friends insist that, although having a relationship with another guy is fine, marital rights are off-limits. Is God sending mixed messages? Where’s his Divine Megaphone? Christianity is difficult when you actually accept its real rules and decide you have to set out to destroy the lives of countless countrymen. See this hilarious CBC project for an illustration: http://www.cbc.ca/wish/2007/07/the_top_30_wishes.html
Using another Islamic quote from Discover, I’ll hopefully make a bit clearer why most religions need to be excruciating in a modern world. Todd Pitock, interviewing a NOMA-affirming scientist at Cairo University, had this exchange:
Waheed Badawy: “Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true.”
Todd Pitock: “What proof?”
Badawy looks at Pitock in disbelief: “It’s written in the Koran.”
I, too, am having the time of my life. Sure I’ve had difficult times, but as my understanding of God (and myself – through the light of His Word) has grown so has my peace and ease. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. I’m finding God in every nook and cranny of life, and I’m loving it.
PSI seminars is a cult. http://www.rickross.com
As the husband of one PSI Graduate I would like to say to PSI seminars, “Thanks for destroying my marriage!!!!!!!!!” My wife was recruited to PSI by one of her girlfriends. My wife came back from the basic class and asked me to take this class, that it would be good for me. I asked her what the class was about and she wouldn’t tell me. Her exact words were “you have to experience it for yourself.” When she “graduated” she asked me to attend her “graduation” on the following Wednesday. She said that she wanted me to show her that I support her in her life. I felt somewhat put out by that statement as I was very supportive of her and our life together.
I went to the ‘graduation” and found it to be nothing more than a sales pitch to sign up new recruits. I was approached by no less than four men, PSI grads with name tags no less, and asked if I would be signing up. When I said no, I was told the class would change my life. I said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” When asked why I wouldn’t take the basic I explained (very nicely I might add) that they had not shown me anything I felt I could use in my life. I was happy with my life as it was. I had a good marriage and life was good. Or it was good until PSI entered into it.
Unbeknownst to me, my wife paid these PSI idiots $3000.00 dollars at the end of the basic for PSI7. I didn’t find out about the money until a couple of months later when she told me she was leaving for a week to California. Now this was a complete surprise to me as she never told me about this trip. She also told me that I would be unable to contact her as the ranch had a strict policy on accepting telephone calls unless it was an emergency. She took off and no word from her all week. She returned and she was a different person. She was arrogant, rude and very self-centered. When I asked her what was wrong with her she said the one thing she had learned from PSI7 was not to do what people expected her to do. She was living her life the way she wanted, according to her reality. She told me she did not care what people think of her, she was going to live her life the way she wants. It was “I want to live my life, NOW.”
All the telephone calls with her PSI Buddies were filled with statements like “awesome” and “I am so excited.” I thought she was going out of her mind.
On the 30th day after her return she left and immediately filed for divorce. No explanation whatsoever. She has been gone a year now and I recently heard she attended their Leadership program for the sum of $4000.00 and that she had charged it to her credit card, which was maxed out already.
To add insult to injury I heard she started dating men on Eharmony.com and after several losing relationships has decided to put out feelers to see if I would be interested in taking her back. So much for 29 levels of compatibility, huh? Not that I see it working, but is this normal? I just started getting my life back to normal after all the bs with her involvement with PSI. Believe me when I say it has been a nightmare.