My entire ministry career I have struggled with some of the same questions – how can I help people have an accurate picture of who God is, and how he wants to walk with them? Jesus walked along the sea of Galilee and said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men and women.” He didn’t say “do these rules” or “this is a test” – but so often, that is how we define our faith…if I go to church, don’t do many bad things, and try to be nice – then I must be close to God, right?
Recently I have been reading the book “With”, by Skye Jethani, who is the editor of Leadership Journal, which is aimed at ministry leaders. Skye interacts a ton with Christian leaders at all levels, and asks some hard questions. Do our Christian leaders understand life WITH God, or does the size of their church or ministry determine their identity in Christ? It seems even in our leaders there are misunderstandings with the call of Christ. Jethani identifies 4 ways of relating to God that, while seemingly biblical, fall short of God’s vision and desire for relationship with us as His children. Life Under God means if I do the rules, I will be safe. Life Over God means if I understand God’s principles and apply them, I will be successful. Life From God means if I accept God’s blessings, then I will be secure. Life For God means if I live for God, I will be significant. The problem with these 4 ways, is that they are all trying to USE God for something we need. God is not a thing we use – God HIMSELF is the Treasure of our lives, of our very existence.
These ways of relating to God are so common among Christians, and it turns the relationality of Jesus Christ into simple, formula Christianity. And when the storms come, we get hurt because the formula does not work. So then we ignore our faith, or blame ourselves and work harder at our faith.
Can we live life with God? Life in love with the Author of Love? This Sunday I am going to be teaching on this. And I know I will be struggling to share this in ministry for the rest of my life. My prayer for you is that you will truly have that walk WITH God, in love, freedom, and joy.
What do you think? Why is this so hard for us to get as humans? Why do we go back to the formula and the rules?
In my experience, human behavior is like water. When you spill water on the floor, where does it go? It takes the path of least resistance. If your floor is not level, water will flow along the path of least resistance. 15 years of 911 emergency medicine and 6 years of union work have taught me people are much the same. Without effort, sometimes great effort, we tend to behave along the path of least resistance. It takes great effort and strength to go against the flow, take the road less traveled, work against our instincts and basic behaviors.
The formula and the rules have been a problem since before the time of Moses. Christ even addressed these issues by showing that the interpretations and man created rules and formula are less important than the intent and meaning behind them. C.S. Lewis postulated that we interact with basic laws of nature and spiritual laws as well. Jesus seemed to show that while the rules and laws of man are important, there is a greater law that we must adhere to, a law He himself wrote and demonstrated. And Christ struggled as well, to clearly define for people an accurate picture of the Father. It was not Christ, but the audience that struggled to understand because like water, people flow down the path of least resistance.
So we as humans set up, for lack of a better metaphor, places for the water to flow where we are comforted by the limits, the borders, the edges… where everything is clearly defined… we don’t like it when the water doesn’t flow where we want it to… and we want God to fit within those lines as well…
Just my thoughts…
Jason
Jason, great thoughts. especially about the laws. I wonder about the least resistance because when I live out of fear or insecurity it often brings more resistance. But it is so hard to surrender to God sometimes.
I agree, the path of least resistance is popular. Our society loves rules and formulas, they will follow fad diets, get rich schemes, and get righteous themes. If I am following a formula, I don’t have to think (reflect or evaluate) I just have to follow the directions. However, when Jesus said “Follow me,” he didn’t just mean follow me where I go and do what I do. At some point in following Jesus I come to a cross point where following Jesus conflicts with my belief system–or really my trust in Him. I must surrender my old beliefs and trust in Him only–for me that begins again each day. For the rich young ruler, he could not make that leap of faith; he had followed all the rules since he was a boy, but Jesus said he lacked one thing. Jesus asked him to give up the very thing he was holding onto. There are no shortcuts to knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus comes from spending time in His presence surrendering my will to His.