Formula Christianity

"They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, 'Do you see anything?'
He looked up and said, 'I see people; they look like trees walking around.'
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, 'Don’t even go into the village.' "
Mark 8:22-26

I work on the 19th floor of a high-rise office building in downtown Phoenix. Needless to say, I spend a considerable amount of time riding the elevators. Many of these ear-popping trips are accompanied by an interesting and diverse assortment of people. Being a people watcher, I learn a lot by watching (and listening) as I pretend to be engrossed in the digital numbers changing as we pass each floor on our way to our destination.

On one such trip this past week, I overheard two women having a conversation about their struggles with weight. One of them remarked that she had participated in a clinical trial for a certain drug that was intended to help people lose weight. Unfortunately, our elevator arrived at the lobby and the women went their way, so I never heard the end of that story. But it made me think about diet pills and their spiritual implications.

As a person who has struggled with body image and weight issues my entire life, I feel entitled to say this (please don't jump all over me if you're struggling to lose weight): if you didn't take a pill to gain all that weight, what makes you think you can take a pill to lose it? I'm no weight loss expert, but the simple logic of weight gain and loss seems pretty obvious. You get fat from overeating and not exercising, and you lose weight by eating less and exercising more. Yes, I realize there are subtle nuances to consider, but the overall concept holds true.

So what does this have to do with spirituality? I have noticed over the course of my years as a pastor and Bible teacher that many people want to find some magic formula that will automatically turn them into "super" Christians. You know the type: they have their act together, they're victorious in every situation, they follow all of the spiritual disciplines, blah blah blah..... Every time they hit a road bump in life, they're off to another conference or seminar or to the local Christian bookstore to find the newest "secret" to successful Christian living.

Have you been to a Christian bookstore lately? The shelves are filled with books that promise to clue you in to something new that only the author has been privy to receive from God. If you just read their book (which you have to buy, of course), and follow their "secret" formula, your Christian walk will take on new meaning, your life will be fulfilling, the road you travel will be straight and smooth, and your kids will all turn out to be famous missionaries in Africa.

Without trying to totally disparage these authors (some whom I highly respect), I really have to question what exactly it is that they are trying to sell. I mean, if there was some formula to successful Christian living, don't you think that God would have revealed it to someone once, and the matter would be settled? It seems like every time a Christian author burps, they come up with a new revelation that no one has ever thought of before, and they write another book. Some don't even bother to write books. They boil down their revelations to twitter feeds and facebook memes (which I get to see daily from some of my well-meaning friends who repost everything they get from these "prophets").

In case you missed the newsflash, life is messy, and does not lend itself to nice tidy little formulas. The reason why I posted the passage from Mark above is to show how even Jesus had a messy ministry and didn't follow formulas. When the blind man was brought to Jesus for his healing, the people asked Jesus to touch him so he could see. Jesus then proceeded to do something completely unexpected. He took the man outside of the village (away from the gawkers, perhaps?), and then he spit on the man's eyes. I'm sure some of you germaphobes are grossed out just thinking about that last part. What's interesting is that the immediate result was a partial healing. So Jesus sealed the deal by putting his hands on the man's eyes and completely restoring his sight. Now, did the spit thing not work like Jesus expected? Or was he trying to show that things don't always happen in a nice neat little sequence? We will probably never know. What I do know is that, every time Jesus healed a person as recorded in the Gospels, he did things slightly differently. It's almost as if he wanted us to accept the fact that there is no one "right" way for things to happen. If God keeps changing the script to keep us guessing, what makes us think that we can figure it all out and boil our messy lives down into a simplistic formula?

There is no room for formulas in Christianity. Our lives are messy and will continue to be so until the day we leave this temporal world. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is a charlatan. People who go around acting like their lives are perfect are con artists and liars, or else in serious denial. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. People get sick and die. People lose jobs and homes and relationships. And there isn't a formula in the world that will change any of that. Just because an author or popular speaker has found something that works for them doesn't mean that same thing will work for you. Take everything you read and hear with a grain of salt. The really cool thing abut being a believer is that God customizes our spiritual walk for each one of us. Don't try to be Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer or T.D. Jakes or Rick Warren or Max Lucado. Learn what you can from them (or whoever seems to speak to your spirit), but remember that you are not them, and they are not you. Each of us has our own mess to deal with (just as they have theirs). Find the scriptural principles that seem to work for you, and leave the formulas alone.

Have a blessed (and not too messy) week!

Pastor David