Christians are nuts

mohsen-dayz.blogspot.com

More and more I am convinced that Christians have become exhausted of the superficial and trite blogs and devotionals that address an issue common to mainstream theology and philosophy.  We are searching for the meaning of our lives, for truth.  A majority of the readers of this blog have found that meaning and truth in Jesus Christ.  We are now an adventure of learning more about Christ and consequently, ourselves.  We find our personality and wholeness in Christ, gazing in Him as a mirror of our new nature and softened heart.  Christianity is not a new phenomenon; there are scholars and writers throughout the history of man who have purposed themselves in encouraging the believers of their generation to live Christ like lives.  As Christians in the 21st century, we have a wealth of knowledge available to us but none of this knowledge has transformed the world like the simplicity of the Gospel.  Despite the advancement of technology and social media, the Gospel has remained entirely the same and its power has not diminished.

Rather than obsess over the newest Christian book (I am being hypocritical because I long to write one) or the most popular ministry tactic, we must remember a fundamental truth of Christianity.  An understanding of this truth will change the way in which we view our lives.  It will penetrate that depths of the darkness that hovers around our world.  To allow this truth to transform our hearts will change the world nearly instantly.  This truth is that Christians are nuts.

I can hear the sigh of relief from my secular readers and a gasp of concern from my devout ones.  Christians, seriously ponder the mysteries of our faith.  By surrendering to Jesus Christ as our Lord, we left the matrix of fleshly living and our moral compass has transformed from self pleasure to pleasing a God we have yet to see in the physical.  We are clinically insane and possibly schizophrenic, we are delusional and we  hallucinate, we believe that we are called by a Higher Power to a mission to save the world with His love, we hear the voice of God and we obey Him if it cost us our lives.  We project the atrocities of humanity onto an enemy we also cannot see and cast invisible spirits into the pit where they have originated.  How can any rational  and logical human being not say that Christians are insane?  We are severely mentally ill at worst and at best we all have some type of Messiah complex that compels us to participate in certain behaviors (such as church attendance and missions trips).

Before you dismiss me as the next Rob Bell, please see the beauty of the insanity of a Christian.  Once a Christian realizes that he or she is nuts, I believe they will begin to live more Christ like lives.  Peter writes to the believers, calling them "aliens and strangers in the world" (1 Peter 2:11).  Aliens and strangers.  Our entire thought process is starkly different than those who call the earth home.  Our entire philosophy opposes and contradicts the philosophy of modern man.  The teachings of Christ by nature confront the urges and instincts of natural man.  Forgive your enemy, submit to your husbands, love your wife as Christ loves the church, men consider maidens (virgins) as your sisters, sell all you have, give to the poor, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and so on.  It is no wonder why the world does not willingly accept the the gospel of our Lord.  They think He is crazy.  And because we follow Him, we are crazy too.

Acceptance of our insanity will release us from the compulsion to "fit in" with those around us.  Christians are not supposed to fit in.  Jesus was the archetype of Christian (though by definition I suppose Christ could not follow Himself unless He could dissociate).  Christians have been trying so hard to fit into the world, to be just like the ones to whom they minister.  Because of the nature of our new hearts, we desire to be at peace with our fellow man yet at what cost?  We are not seen as aliens and strangers, we are seen as hypocrites and liars.  We are seen as strange not because our faith and love changes the world, but because we say one thing and do the opposite.

I encourage us to reject the notion that we will be accepted by this world.   Should the world accept us with open arms, I dare say that the Lord may not do the same when we stand before His throne.  Where we may have compromised and sought out the acceptance of the world, we must surrender before the King and ask Him for mercy and repent.  We can no longer be known as "good people" who occasionally do the "right thing," but lunatics who have an obsession with integrity and truth, who cannot help but to love others with the entirety of their beings.  The first step is to positively identify the areas in our lives where we most long to be accepted by the world.  We can do this by examining the areas where we compromise the most.  Compromise is a symptom of a disagreement with the principles of Gospel, of cognitive and spiritual dissonance that requires immediate treatment.  For instance, a young man could use foul language in the presence of his atheistic friends to earn their acceptance despite his knowledge that his behavior is evil.  A young woman may dress provocatively to attain the attention of men and to receive social acceptance, despite her awareness that the Lord has called her to a lifestyle of virtue.  Identify where we compromise, where we are most afraid to be strangers and aliens, and present this matter to the Lord with an attitude of humility and repentance.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you."  John 15:19  Jesus spoke those words to His disciples 2,000 years ago.  It is the prayer of my heart that they become our true story.