"Life just got better." Oh, Pah-lease! That is what the website claims. Is it a new miracle vitamin? No. Then a space age piece of work-out equipment? Try again. It must be some "work 4 hours per week from home in your undies and make a fortune" business opportunity, right? I wish. But you've guessed it by now - it was a church.
Holy smoke, who believes this stuff? I want to meet this guy! Life doesn't "just" get anything fast - except worse. Life is complicated and complex, difficult and painful. When the church makes claims like this it doesn't do anyone any good. Life just got better - give me a break. The gospel just got dumber is all that happens when churches make claims like this.
Jesus understood the heart of man so well. The more I read the gospels the more I am captured by this man who seemed so plain yet knows me so well. The genius of Jesus is that he gets what it is we are missing even when we are convinced it is something else. I think I need more more money, he seems to believe I need him. I believe I'd be better off if I had less pain, he invites me to do as he did and volunteer to suffer for the sake of others. I want to be comfortable and he suggests carrying a cross. I think I need rest, instead he gives me a mission.
I believe that by and large the North American church is missing a mission. And the Mission is the missing. We usually refer to them as the "lost." But that makes it sound like their situation is on them. I'm not saying they don't bear the responsibility for being separated from God, but I am suggesting that the Church has been given the mission of inviting them to God's banquet. And when someone who is invited to a party doesn't show, we don't refer to them as "lost" they are "missing" - It is in the invitation that is lost! And if the Church is to be the invitation...when there is missing among us - it is we who are lost.
And what if we are lost precisely because we have allowed the gospel to become just another way of making life "better" - just another infomercial. "Hmm, let's see, do I trust Jesus and try to do as he did or get the Ab Lounger Deluxe? Which will make my life better?" We don't even think about being an invitation bc our life isn't "better" yet - "I'm not good enough to be an invitation." But what if our life isn't better yet bc we aren't being the invitation yet!
Jesus seemed to get his followers involved in inviting WAY before we would. The best example is of course the "Demoniac" of Mark 5. Newly delivered from a "legion" of demons, this man begs to go with Jesus. You'd think this is the obvious thing to do. But Jesus, says, "Nope. Go and tell..." What? This man was from Decapolis a pagan area. He knew VERY little about God and even less about Jesus. What could he do? What did he know? He was untrained. A young believer. Immature. Why would Jesus send him out as an invitation? But - what if being an invitation, loving and self-sacrificially serving others, doing whatever is necessary to disciple someone, is a basic part of life getting better, of knowing and loving Jesus more?
Disciples make disciples. That is what disciples do, all disiciples - not just the old ones, the good ones, even doubting doesn't disqualify us from being the invitation (read Mt. 28:17 very carefully). There is no amount of bible study or worship that is going to make our life just get better if we are not engaged in some way in being the invitation - making disciples.
Life just got harder - and better.
Be His,
Didymus
Didymus,
Thanks for your post.
If I understand you correctly, your complaint with the claim that "Life just got better" isn't with the idea that life with Jesus is better, but with the idea that it happens easily and quickly? I completely agree. It's no coincidence that this sounds like an advertising slogan. And we know that advertising specifically targets our short attention spans. We're already bored with what we bought yesterday so we need something to make life better today. In fact, advertisers rarely care if the product they sell satisfies. Once they've made the sale they can move on to the next client.
It's terrible to watch the church function in this way i.e. "just get people in the building with claims of a quick fix and our job is done, even if they are totally misled. As long as we have a large congregation, who and what we are doesn't matter". That just leaves people in their sin instead of lifting them up.
Posted by: Philomena | September 15, 2007 at 04:49 PM
Yes Philomena that is what I mean. It is the "just" as in easy/quick that really bugs me. Thanks for clarifying for me.
Didymus
Posted by: Didymus | September 21, 2007 at 11:14 AM