A continual theme that I've easily noticed this week while attended a "men's breakfast" and the service today at church. The theme: members, or "disciples" as these congregants call them have fallen or are falling away. Even after years "small groups", corporate bible teachings, and modern theology these once powerful, focused, and awesome disciples are no where to be found. They've gone with pains, sorrows, anger, bitterness, and scars. No where to be found because they've seemed to run as far away from church as they can. Or on the other hand, they've hidden behind their shadows and secrets so much they are finally living them out even after years of "reforming" in the safety of the church.
You may argue that it's the devil and his tricks causing people to fall away. Just blame the devil, he made me do it. But I highly doubt it. The devil doesn't have that kind of power unless you believe he is more powerful than God. We tend to blame a little too much on the enemy. That's just an old false blame game. Hasn't Jesus given us power to conquer and aren't we already victorious over death and hades? I fear what it truly is, is the model we've come to know as the modern church. We are hiding behind our clean lives, we come to church to feel better about ourselves. We find people like ourselves to make sure we're good and going in the right direction. We are deceived. We are doing it wrong. We are making a room full of sin soaked, doubtful, and broken people that are only covering up the problem. We claim the blood of Christ yet we continually sacrifice him over an over again in the lives we live and in the way respond weekly with the same shame and guilt which holds us down with heaviness and failure.
That isn't the gospel. The gospel is good news. We shouldn't be guilty but rather guiltless. We shouldn't feel shame but pride, not in ourselves but in the victory of Christ and suffering. We shouldn't fear death and pain but embrace it knowing that it's part of our existence and purposeful.
I fear that we run away from those things that frighten us. We are fearful of what we do not know. Well, we do not know a lot. We only see through a mirror dimly. If we should be fearful it should be of the chaos we are causing within the faith, making people follow us in a direction that's impossible and doesn't have true victory in the life. While we know that there is a life to come let us embrace the life we have now. Unknowingly, without a perfect knowledge of what the future actually holds, let us embrace our shadows and our secrets. Lets not hid behind them and cause them to define us. Christ showed us the way and was more than a conquerer. There is no fear when we cast our lives in the arms of our creator. Let our egos die. Let our masks fall down. Let us call it what it is and not be fearful of what we truly look like. There is so much life to be lived, exciting, fun, difficult, scary, yet fascinating all at the same time. Life is hard, it's weird, it's overwhelming yet there is a point.
Enjoy your life, don't be afraid of it.
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