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I was reading recently where Gandhi was once asked why he was not a Christian even though he spoke highly of Christ. Gandhi’s reply: “I would become a Christian, if I could just find one.”
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Ouch! Immediately we might want to respond to such a subtle accusation by reminding Gandhi of all the churches that are filled (or partly filled) each Sunday. “Go into any one,” we might say, “and meet a Christian.” The truth is, Gandhi’s reply is haunting me.
Confession: I have come to the end of my rope in living a segmented life
My life mantra is “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi.” This Latin phrase is translated: ‘the rule of prayer is the rule of belief.” My cute paraphrase for this orthodox idea is “The way you worship is the way you live.”
What I attest in words must be lived out. Am I living and worshipping simultaneously at all times? Or am I segmenting my time and my life into being a husband, a father, a pastor and many other things? Am I living my life in a segmented way? Do I change hats countless times a day, shifting my roles from husband, to father, to pastor, to friend, to any number of things, over and over again? This is a subversive form of multi-tasking, which I’ve always struggled with.
If I am to be a Christian what that literally means is a “little Christ.” Jesus lived his life holistically; there was no segmenting. He wasn’t Jesus the friend at one point, then Jesus the teacher at another, then later in the night Jesus the spiritual mystic, then waking up to be Jesus the healer, and so on ad infinitum. Jesus was just Jesus . . . at all times in all places with all people.
Jesus instructed us to always be about two things: loving God and loving others.
To live like Jesus calls for radical responsibility and unsegmented openness in living. Tweet this
I must so live that everyone I come in contact with is my neighbor. Ouch! Even the server at the restaurant who can’t get the order right and is taking her occupational frustration out on me is my neighbor? Yep. Even the guy who makes a bee-line to the express check-out lane and cuts in front of me as I am struggling to balance grocery items in one arm and my daughter in the other is my neighbor? Yep. Even the person who lives on my street that never returns a smile to a smile or says a word in response to my friendly “How’s it goin’?” is my neighbor? Yep.
Confession: I have come to the end of myself, trying to do the Christian life in my own power
It’s time for me to start living like I truly believe the message of the cross: that Jesus himself will empower me to live like a “little Christ” if I only trust his life in me. It’s time for be to be like Christ to all people, regardless of their relationship to me and regardless of their circumstance in life.
And it’s past time for the church to get on about living like Christians. I can’t do much to change the one holy universal Church, nor even my own international tribe. But I can do something in the local congregation.
Confession: I have grown tired and weary of congregations with great programs, great fellowship, great fill-in-the-blank while all the while living a segmented approach to life
I want families to enjoy their time in the church building, of course. I want their to be sacrament, Word, worship and life lived within the walls, of course. But I want more than anything for the local church to spend more time outside the church campus than in the building living like Christ.
I want to see believers and not-yet believers joined in showing God’s kindness and love to everyone . . . yes . . . EVERYONE. I don’t care for church growth; I simply care that the Gandhi’s of the world meet some Christians. If I could just be one all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not segmenting my time into family time, personal time, church time, and so on . . . then, and only then, Christ’s love and God’s kindness and the Spirit’s goodness might be seen in my neck of the woods.
Confession: I’m convinced that the only way to be a disciple is to love and serve all people
When will all we’ve learned — the great theology, the scripture, the endless ministries to every group under the sun — transform the way we live all the time? Gloryfying God means loving people. And loving people means serving them. If a congregation is not about showing God’s kindness and love all the time to those outside the believing community, then that congregation does not love God.
Confession: I want to be a Christian . . . not just sound like one. Tweet this
What about you?